* * * * * Flag of the U.S.A. State of California Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. After passing the International Date Line, dear reader, droning on in the night until the sun rose, blinding our sandpaper eyes, I found it difficult to accept that I was reliving yesterday, the 12 th of December 1987. In other words I was reliving the same day I had left Japan. Tracking on G 215 at our final cruising altitude of 37,000 feet, we made landfall at the Mendocino VOR on the West Coast of California. The problem with the INS (Inertial Navigation System) is that after a long transpacific flight such as this, it tends to drift between three to five nautical miles to the left or right of track. Prompting us, as soon as we receive a stro...