Bob Hunter

@ strictly personal ®

I SEE the Transcendental Meditation folks are still at it,

trying to levitate.

Their latest trick nov is bounc-
ing. They squat on come kind of
trampoline, I guess, and bounce.
One guy got 22 inches into the
air. It’s called ‘vogie flying.”

As more ancl more people
meditate, more and more will
levitate, the TM) people believe.
They'll be able to 99 from boun-
cing to hovering and = then
“movement through the air.”

Hey, I’m allin favor! Not uly
that, but | secretly believe it can
be done. It feels so logical.

I've been levitating — in my
dreams, at any rate — since | asa
child. Don’t tell me dreams don't
count!

In fact, the very first dreams |
can recall were of hanging in
some kind of baby swing with my
toes just a few inches above the
ground, [t wasn’t a Jolly Jumper,
because we didn't have them in
those days, but something very
close.

slowly. Closer and closer came
the beasties. Then, just as they'd
pounce, Pd wake up squawking.

It was, as they say. a recurring
nightmare.

Atter a few years the grey
creatures went away. to be
replaced fater in my dreamscapes
by visions of devastated post-
nuclear cities. That phase has
passed, too, strungely. Now | just
go anywhere and everywhere.

The levitating hasn't stopped,
however. Never did. | suppose |
levitate in) my = dreams maybe
three times a year.

Each flight is different. Some-
times J have soared effortlessly,
as though swimming underwater
in a depressurized ocean, right up
to the edge of space, with the
lights of great cities no larger
than glittering thumbnails
beneath me.

Once, up there, I got to watch
sunrise along the vast flaming arc

“Another memorable levitated journey was the time 1
was hired by the Queen to do some spy work at

Buckingham Palace.’’

Except that it didn’t hook on
to anything. I was in the swing,
attached to nothing but the sky
above. f was just floating there.

It would have been terrific ex-
cept that I was out in an open
field. And across from the far
side of the field were these grey
shapes, sort of like wolves but
also like monsters. And they were
coming for me.

Well, have you ever tried to
move a floating baby swing that’s
not attached to anything across
an open field with monsters com-
ing after you? Grunt. Whimper.

It moved, but agonizingly

of the globe. There I was, drif-
ting like a leaf at about half the
heigh: of a space shuttle ii orbit.
Say, 60 miles. I think I was
probably wearing a bathing suit.

This sounds weird, I know.
But it’s only dreams.

Another memorable levitated
journey was the time I was hired
by the Queen to do some spy
work at Buckingham Palace.
They needed somebody who
could move about without feav-
ing any footprints. iasy for me.
I'd just glide alone a foot or so
off the ground.

! don’t remember how the

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dream ended, but | do recill teel-
ing quite proud te hase been
chosen by Her Majesty. She was
really turned on when f gave her
a demo. Imagine one of HER
subjects being able fo do that!

I've never done a Superman -
that is, take a virb ua thers inimys
arms, | oalways doit alone. Too
bad.

Once, | owas trapped in it
barbwitre and hur. ane fence
compound, facing a small army
of tough guys who'd been
ordered to get me. (At least f
THINK tt was a dream...) They
were so sure they fad me cor-
nered!

[ decided to lay a littke power-
levitwing number on them, so I
lept into the air and did high-
speed barrel rolls and three-
dimensional figure-cights just
over their aeads. By the Gme I
was finished they were all stan-
ding at attention, awaiting my
orders.

Now isn’t that a nice dream? I
didn’t use violence. Yet 1 won.
All I had to be able to do was
skate around in the air. Luckily
no one decided to take a shot.
But then, that wouldn't be fair.
It was MY dream.

Let us say levitating is tike sex.
It’s fun, virtually, no matter
what.

There are far too many
dreams, nowever, when | actually
have to work at getting off the
ground. That is, I'll be sitting
there, straining as though going
to the loo, except in reverse, if
you follow. It still seems to in-
volve stomach muscles.

But then I’m up, and it’s worth
it. Usually there’s a limit. The
limit might turn out to be, say,
12 feet, or it might be a mile.
Varies.

| like levitating. it’s a lot of
fun. But I do it best when I’m
laying down.

New rudder
steers course
to success

A DERP COVE naval architect's new rudder could revolu-
tionize the tow boat industry and steer barge transport into
competition with the international shipping industry.

ity ROSS MEER
News Reporter

Mackenzie, owner of
North Vancouver's Total Naval
Technological Associates ine.
CENT). tecentl invented an active
flap cudder that allows seagoing
barges to be steered from the boat
that is towiny them,

While the concept seems simple,
the result could reduce towing fuel
costs as much as 30 per cent and
even atlaw barge transport ta take
over some transport presently
testricted to shipping.

Barges lack steering and must be
towed. Tow boats require enor-
mous amounts of fuel to campen-
sate for the effect that wind and
tides have on the direction of the
barge.

Mackenzie's solution was to
design a functional and economical
steering system for seagoing
barges. The design is a two-fapped
rudder that could be controlled
with a half-horsepower engine.
The rudder was to be radio-con-
trolled and computer-programm-
ed.

Joho

FINANCING

With a $120,000 financing from
Energy, Mines and Resources
Canada’s conservation and alter-
nate energy program, Mackenzie
built a prototype and sea trials
proved highly successful.

The rudder prototype was at-
tached to Seaspan’s barge #821 and
tested behind the tow boat Seaspan
Pacer.

Even though the barge was
equipped with skegs, attachments
at the barge’s stern which improve
directional capability but increase
drag by 10 to 40 per cent, the
barge travelled 1.25 knots faster
while applying the same
horsepower. Fuel consumption was
reduced 30 per cent.

While the new rudder can be in-
stalled on existing seagoing barges

to save fuel cost, the real applica-
tion for the rudder could be with
hew barges, explains Mackenzie.

Barges equipped with steering
capabiliaes could be designed with
Ship-style hulls, which have bows
that cut through the water, rather
than spoon or bluff shaped bows,
which just plough over the waves,

“Tt is amore efficient to use
barges and tow boats,’” Mackenzie
said,

And the efficiencies are realized
two ways he says.

First, tow boats can be as much

TOTAL Naval Technological
Assoc. Inc. owner John Macken-
zie...rudder makes barges and tow
hoats more efficient.

as 50 per cent more fuel efficient.
Second -—- fike truck trailers —
barges can be left at a port while
the tow boat and crew are sent off
for another job.

The rudder consists of two ver-
tical sections, the panel on the
trailing edge being the active or
powercd part.

A small power-pack controls the
flay-, and as it moves, the effect of
the water flowing past it turns the
large, unpowered panel of the
rudder.

Mackenzie’s first meodel was
made from the flight of a dart
stuck in a block of wood. It was
tested in his bath tub.

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