* * * * * We also desperately needed a first officer (co-pilot), so I rang up Toa in Bangkok, the Thai kid that flew as my first officer in Vietnam. He happily joined us and easily filled in that slot. After a couple of months Capt. Fred McNulty would also join us. Evidently Thai Orient Express wasn’t maintaining their aircraft. One dark night between cloud layers, Capt. Fred had a total electrical failure; losing all lights in the cockpit and his flight instruments. Sticking a mini-mag light in his mouth, he illuminated a half-filled, clear plastic cup of Pepsi set on the instrument panel’s eyebrow in front of him, using it as an artificial horizon to keep his B-727 upright. Oh, yes, dear reader, some Southeast Asian airl...