As you may know, GATE 1 enjoys their weekends, and we've gotten into our fair share of pickles, if you know what I mean. However, NOTHING even comes close to topping the all-out chaos that ensued Saturday night! Earlier in the day our bass player Mike Murphy decided that the GATE 1 members (Nik Blonder – drums, Barry Seiver – guitar and me TC – vocals) should fly down to Nashville and enter their annual square dancing championship, which is held at a club called "Toofy's." We were all quite excited to go, after all, who doesn't love square dancing?? At about 2:53 pm, Nik, Mike, Barry and I all boarded Barry\'s new single engine Cessna, which Barry had learned to fly days earlier. We were all confident that Barry would get us there safely……..I think. As a small man with tight shorts spun our propeller and the engine sputtered to a start, Mike took his seat next to a window, Nik took his next to, what we were using as a lavatory, and I took my seat next to the black box. Barry then prepared for take-off and pretty soon we were making our ascend. Believe it or not, everything was fine for nearly 15 minutes. After we reached 40,000 feet I became concerned. I was unaware that planes that small could fly so high, but Barry assured us that it was completely normal, and that we needn't worry. Barry had spent the better part of a fortnight reading the popular "Aviation Is For Everyone" magazine. I must add that he said this while wearing a chicken costume, which no one seemed to question when Barry first boarded the plane with his big red feet and beak. Anyhow, to pass the time, Mike decided that we should practice our square dancing steps so that we will be ready when the competition starts. After all, we were told there would be a very prestigious award given out to the winners, and although we didn't know exactly what it would be, it sounded mighty good to us. As the plane rocked and swayed at 42,000 feet and climbing, Mike and Nik were in the middle of their doe-see-doe when all hell broke loose! Something terrible had gone wrong with the plane, so I shouted out "something terrible has gone wrong with the plane!" Just then Barry came on the over-head and said "this is your captain speaking, it appears that we have lost engine one. Please stay in your seat and enjoy our complimentary peanuts." At that moment we realized that the plane only HAD one engine, and that we seemed to be tumbling wildly into a rapid descend. I\'ll tell you this; after we finished our peanuts we realized things were not looking good for us. AND, we had some gigs coming up at Jaxx in West Springfield, VA opening for Belladonna (former Anthrax), Funny Money, King’s X and Kix. But more importantly, our lives seemed to be at risk. At around 239 feet Mike and Nik stopped doing their square dance routines and took their seat. Barry was aiming to put the plane down gently in a nice suburb just north of Nashville. Well folks, I can tell you that we made it! Barry is freakin' amazing! We ended up hurting a lot less people than what you'd consider a tragedy, and the more important thing is that we'll be able to make it to our gigs at Jaxx in West Springfield, VA opening for Belladonna (former Anthrax), Funny Money, King’s X and Kix. I'm also happy to say that Mike and Nik won "best square dancing duo" at the competition that evening. I'm very proud of them *sniff* I am forever, TC