#long distance flights

[hzdtrees]

Cloudpart

[nature-hiking]

Birds in flight - Tour de Monte Rosa, July 2021

photo by: nature-hiking

[adastra-sf]

Bar-tailed godwit flies 13,500km, breaking nonstop flight record

The five-month-old bar-tailed godwit smashed the record for long-distance migration following a nonstop, 11-day flight from Alaska to Tasmania.

The 13,560km (8,426 miles) journey beat the previous record (also held by a godwit) by around 500km and was documented by researchers across the world.

Birdlife Tasmania convenor Eric Woehler said the bird probably lost "half or more of its body weight" during "continuous day and night flight."

"Short-tailed shearwaters and mutton birds can land on the water and feed," he said. But "if a godwit lands on water, it's dead. It doesn't have the webbing in its feet, it has no way of getting off the water. So if it falls into the water from exhaustion, if bad weather forces it onto the ocean surface, that's it."

Go you, brave little Godwit!

[fisheito]

slithering out from under a rock or something to inform you that you DO have followers who are yaku lovers <3 he's been my fave since day one and i would love to accompany him to the farmers market

ah.. i sit corrected... valuable confirmation of intel. *enters it manually into the nucadex* where to find yakufans: farmer's market (they will be farming and/or marketing)

[loverssuggestions]

Someday, soon I'll be able to hold you and kiss you goodnight.

[roscoe-conkling]

In October 1908, French aviator Henri Farman (right) proved to the world the practicality of heavier-than-air flight by flying a biplane designed by Gabriel Voisin (left) on a cross-country flight of 17 miles, achieving altitudes of 150 feet, the first successful attempt of its kind.

[lumpofcohle]

i get to see my gf tomorrow 🥹

[idontliketomatoesleavemealone]

Might go get sweets again

[hagrag]

Saw a video of someone on the tarmac at melbourne airport at night and got the overwhelming memory of the smell of that. Why does it make me feel sad

[endeavvor]

[ 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 ] ― sender and receiver lay under the stars to stargaze

🌙  *  ―     𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐄𝐒  

BONUS TRACK

It's a quiet night in Iowa as Jim tosses and turns, plagued by nightmares. Flashes of pain that are so vivid the sheets are damp with his perspiration as his hands grip the soft flannel. His hands clench and unclench, feet kick and press as the bed groans beneath him. Teeth clench and grind.

He hates it here.

In this house that holds dark memories for him, the distance spreading between him and his mother is unfathomable. Sam holding a sharpened blade to the thread that connects them. Disappearing as easily as a father he never knew. He counts every single person he's ever lost, a morbid list on repeat until his eyes crack open to the darkness of the room around them.

Them, because he's not alone.

The pillow crinkles as he inclines his head towards Spock, silent and still beside him. The Vulcan's face is serene a stark contrast to the storm raging inside him and Jim fights the urge to reach out and trace the slope of his nose with a tip of his finger. To drag against the full bottom lip. It is rare the other truly sleeps, requiring it less than his human counter part. It would be cruel to disturb him simply because he cannot sleep.

So he sits up instead, the late October air clinging to his damp skin, chilling it instantly as he rubs his face, one hand trailing backwards into the golden locks that are already standing on end from his tossing.

Sleep won't come again, and Jim doesn't want it to.

The house feels as if it is breathing around him. It is alive with the echoes and monsters that used to haunt him both in waking and dreams. But Frank is long gone, and the house still smells slightly musty from where it had been sealed too long. Uninhabited. It had taken hours to clean and refresh, but they'd done it. Jim with a grim set to his lips, and Spock's gaze settling somewhere between his shoulders.

Why did you bring me here? The question had been unasked, but he'd felt it anyway. In truth, he wasn't entirely sure. Maybe because he could? Maybe he'd been tired of spending his shore leave confined to the ship that was currently docked and being repaired? Maybe because neither really had anywhere else to go? Maybe because he felt it was time to show the other where he'd come from? Maybe because he'd been feeling oddly sentimental as of late in the growing attachment that told him to stop running?

The captain sneaks out with a practiced grace. Skipping the creaky board just outside the door to the room they share. Avoiding the third and seventh step in his descent. Snags an old quilt off the back of the couch as he passes, slips his feet into an old pair of boots by the back door, and grabs a worn jacket from the hook that still smells of old cigarettes and cracked leather before slipping out into the night.

Frozen ground crunches beneath his feet as he makes his way into the fields behind the farmhouse, crops having been harvested, it's just tall stalks of grass that he spreads the blanket out over and settles down. His exhale is nothing but condensation as he blinks at the clear night sky.

How many times had he done this as a boy?

How long is he out there before he hears the creak of each step he'd avoided? The protest of the screen door and the slap of it against the frame? The crunch of frozen ground?

Long enough that the tip of his nose is red from cold and his fingers slightly numb, but still his expression is a lopsided flash of teeth as he takes Spock in, upside down, from his current position splayed out on the ground. Jim pats the space beside him and waits until the other settles beside him, shoulders, hips, and knees pressing together.

I didn't want to wake you, feels thin.

I wanted to be alone, feels like a rejection when this is the first time he has breathed in the day and a half they'd been here.

I need you, is dangerously close to the truth that had been fighting to break free.

Instead, he points to a row of stars and begins to teach Spock of the constellations that can be seen from Earth. "Cassiopeia. The Queen of Aethiopia. She was said to be vain and arrogant. She boasted that her daughter Andromeda - " His hand moves towards another grouping of stars, " - was more beautiful than the daughters of a sea goddess. It incited the wrath of Poseidon, who sent the sea to their kingdom. He flooded it and sent the sea monster Cetus to destroy it.

In an attempt to save the kingdom, Cassiopeia and Cepheus consulted an oracle who told them the only way to appease the monster and save their kingdom was to sacrifice the very daughter they'd boasted about. So they chained Andromeda to a rock at the edge of the sea. Perseus arrived and slayed Cetus and married Andromeda instead, but Poseidon still felt Cassiopeia should be punished for her slight, so he placed her in the heavens chained to a throne.

Andromeda's own placement is to commemorate her husband's bravery. It is said Athena placed her in the sky with her arms outstretched similar to that of when she was chained to the rock." Greek mythology is full of all sorts of dark tales. Yet, he'd been fascinated once he had discovered them. Devoured each and every one with a voracious hunger that never truly left him.

Jim is silent for a moment as he searches and finds another constellation - Cygnus - the swan. It had several different origins, but one particular one was his favorite.

"Are you familiar with Phaethon?" He asks, but moves forward explaining anyways. "He was said to be the son of an ocean nymph, Clymene, and Helios - the sun god. His is a tale of arrogance as well." A common theme, he finds, perhaps to serve as a lesson to those who believe they are as good, if not better, than the gods themselves. "He sought Helios in his palace, to confirm his parentage, and became enamored with the idea of driving his chariot. Helios warned him against it, saying it would be too difficult for anyone else to control the horses that pulled it.

But Phaethon was headstrong, and not dissuaded." Traits he finds similar in himself, partially why he enjoys the story so much. "He is allowed to take the chariot, but the ride goes about how you'd expect. Flying too close to the Earth burns it. Too far, and it freezes.

Receiving too many complaints, Zeus takes matters into his own hands and strikes Phaethon and the chariot from the sky with a bolt of lightning. It kills him instantly and his body falls into the river Eridanus, which is where Cygnus comes in to play."

Jim pauses, lowering his hand back to the blanket and grazes his pinky against Spock's, eventually hooking them together.

"There are two interpretations of how Cygnus was turned into a swan. The first is that he mourned Phaethon's death by sitting by the river. The gods then turned him into a swan to relieve him of his sorrow, but he still had memories of the loss."

Swans are known to mourn the loss of their mates. The selection of this animal itself is what sparked the myth that Phaethon and Cygnus were close friends or lovers.

"The second is that Cygnus grieved bitterly and spent a long time diving into the depths of the Eridanus to collect the remains of Phaethon after his death to give him a proper burial. The gods were then so touched by his devotion, they transformed him into a swan and gave him a place among the stars."

The story's end is punctuated by a bitter laugh and silence as the pair stares at the stars above them. Until Jim turns his head to the side again to study Spock instead. Whose face reflects the light much like the moon reflects the sun.

Jim understand the arrogance of the mother to proclaim her daughter's beauty. The infatuation that drove Perseus to fight a monster. The devotion that caused Cygnus to grieve and mourn, to continuously dive down into the river to collect the remaining pieces of his lost love.

You haunt me, he thinks, releasing his grasp on Spock's pinky to slide their palms together and lace their fingers, you have haunted my thoughts and dreams since the moment I laid eyes on you. I have memorized the slant in your brow and the sweep of your lashes as they press against your cheeks. I have studied and mapped the freckles that dot your flesh as lovingly as the constellations in the night sky.

God, do you know?

Do you have any idea?

Do you know that - "I love you." The confession was meant to remain inside his mind, a thought, and it takes a moment for him to realize he's said the words out loud. Spoke it into existence in the space between them. The realization heats his cheeks as he captures his bottom lip between his teeth. It is a feeling that has been there all along, never named, while equally not being enough to describe the all consuming storm of feelings that swell and rage every time he looks Spock's way.

There's no taking it back now as he tilts his head back towards the night sky and projects with all of the arrogance that angered the gods in the stories. "Yeah, you knew."

@fasciinating

[buscemifan]

[gun-chucks]

i will ALWAYS be picking teleportation as a superpower i need my partner here NOW

[camellia-thea]

i'm still thinking about the conversation i witnessed last night :/

[fuckwhoeverpickedallthefunnyurls]

I think Airplanes should have Merlin available on the little tvs

[netscapenavigator-official]

I have to take a 4+ hour, international flight this week. It's the first time I've been on a plane in a few years, and I'm so nervous. Not because of plane fear, but because I'm so nervous I'll forget to pack something important, or my seat won't have an outlet for my laptop, or the cabin pressure might make one of my personal hygiene products leak everywhere. What if I take something expensive that I'm not supposed to, and it get confiscated, and I never see it again. What if one of my glass items breaks and spills everywhere. Unlike prior flights, this time I get a checked bag, so what if my luggage gets lost. I'm so 😵‍💫

[mongeese]

Lesbians should get free plane tickets to visit their long distance partners. For feminism