Goats 'n Monkies man, you are supposed to be some kind of expert in the machinations and physics of the stratosphere claiming, as you do, to spend most of your time cavorting in it in your blasted flying contraptions. The only thing you've ever 'flown' are those little balsa wood models with a lazzy band propeller*
*I loved those little planes as a kid - whatever happened to them?
Of course!
I remember a friends dad built a farkin great big one with a balsa wood frame covered in paper with two propellers. We were like the children of Hamelyn to his piper and he nonced every single one of us but the sore arse was worth watching that thing take off. Yes, it started on the ground and actually took off!
I was always allowed to buy one at the toy shop near some relatives we used to visit up near Mildenhall. Now the interesting thing is that the daughter was married to an American who worked on the base at Mildenhall and she ended up with a massive heroin habit and was last heard of selling blow jobs for a fiver around Kings Croiss somewhere. She may have worked the same street corners as your mum, come to think of it.