It's off-season but still...

[Blackdog_kt]

I recently stumbled upon a wikipedia article the way one does, clicking on links from other articles

The article is about Fredercik Forsyth's "The Shepherd", a short Xmas story.

The article is here if you want to take a look but be advised it contains spoilers that reveal the main plot device of the story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shepherd

If you are not familiar with the story i'd suggest not to open the above link right away and keep reading this post.

In the wiki article it's mentioned that the story is ran each year on the Canadian Broadcasting Company's show "As it happens", followed by a link to the CBC website.

I ran a search on the CBC website and they have a podcast of the whole thing, being read by one of their former radio hosts. I just listened to it and it's a pretty well done affair (i assume the narrator was a famous host in Canada).

The "teaser" for the story is as follows:

A 20 year old RAF pilot is flying from Celle, West Germany to the UK to spend the holidays with his family, on Xmas eve 1957. He takes off in his DeHavilland Vampire at night and sets course for home, but realizes while flying over the North Sea that his aircraft has suffered an electrical failure.

He has no radio, no compass or other electrically powered instruments and he has to navigate and land at night and in fog with only an airspeed indicator, altimeter and vertical speed indicator operational. His only chance is to be picked up by friendly radar and another aircraft, a "shepherd", sent to find and guide him in.

So, if you're in the mood for a bit of aviation storytelling just click here and open the audio player:

http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/featur...-the-shepherd/