in front of his bulging eyes needles were whirling , lights flashed from green to red like pygmy traffic signals , and the altitude warning beeper , which was supposed to tell a bemused pilot wake up , dummy , you are about to run into a large immovable object called mother earth , began to sound , even though it was n't supposed to go off until the plane passed through five hundred and bailey 's own eyes told him the hawk was still at four thousand feet , perhaps a bit more .