Hi,
After the “Is it a guy thing?” thread where we’re verging on below the belt topics I thought of something a bit more uplifting so to speak đ , maybe to reach more inspired heights.
It’s this paradox I came across several times through my short flying history where it’s usually people who are dreaming of flying that are the more descriptive about their feelings and pleasure they would get from it whereas accomplished pilots, in my experience tend to be quite dry about it.
What makes us fly ? Why do we enjoy flying ?
What lies beneath
As far as I can remember, since I started taking flying lessons and have been in touch with pilots, never have I had a real conversation about what you feel when you fly, about what makes it so enjoyable. As a matter of fact, when you ask a pilot how was his or her flight, youâre most likely to hear :
âit was ok or goodâ and if youâre lucky, he or she might go as far as âIt was niceâ. Well, common, a cup of tea is nice!
I did meet a few who ventured in saying that they had a “great time”.
But come on, we put so many efforts in striving to become good pilots, we devote our time, week-ends⌠If it all comes down to being âniceâ or just âokâ, maybe itâs time to see whether weâre heading in the right direction !
Because flying is f***ing WONDERFUL !
One day, I was talking to my instructor about my first solo, remembering that I was grinning like a fool when I got out of the plane and he replied âYou always are when you flyâŚâ
Well, I sincerely hope that we all are !
I guess it is not easy to talk about something so personal, to admit how moved we are while flying. I leave this debate to a shrink but think about this : when flying, letâs say in a not so good weather, poor visibility, some wind, maybe some rain or simply doing circuits, I do hope that not so deep in your mind, there is a little voice who reminds you that you are flying, reminds you how extraordinary it is and how privileged you are.
I am the first one to admit that it is easy sometimes to forget about it, especially while learning : you canât get an exercise right, you canât get those steep turns level, youâve missed a landing in crosswind for a fourth time⌠Then you come back, secure the plane and leave the club angry, frustrated, not satisfied. But while in your car, leaving the runway behind, remember what you were looking for, why you came to the club in the first place and how âniceâ it is to fly, even after a bad session.
What lies above
First, it doesnât start in the plane, no, it starts way before even stepping into the cockpit. For some, it starts while leaving home on a Sunday afternoon, knowing that for the next two hours at least, SWMBO won’t be obeyed. For some others it starts the night before while thinking of the long nav theyâll fly the day after and sometimes, it even starts on a Monday morning, at work, thinking how great it will be to fly on Saturday⌠This thought gives courage to work then, trust me !
Then you drive to the club. Your eyes automatically check the wind, the visibility, the clouds, you try to guess which runway will be in use and look out for planes in the circuit. To me, this already feels good. Then you drive past the runway, your stairway to heaven. A glance at the windsock, you start getting excited. You park your car, greet some other pilots⌠Nice to talk a bit, to hear about their âok flightsâ. You walk into the club to book out or meet your instructor. There, it is getting really exciting as you wait for the verdict of the mighty pilot : âWill he let me go solo today ? What is the lesson going to be about ?â.
You can go solo !
And then there is a test : you know that the âpress-onitisâ comes soon after excitement and so you must resist the urge of grabbing the keys and running straight to the aircraft for take off. Conscientiously you fill in the flight authorisation book and then youâre heading proudly to your aircraft, with your bag on your shoulders.
Preflight. Excitement backs out for airmanship. You inspect with a loving eye the aeroplane that is going to take you to the seventh heaven. You get in. Checks.
Start. Thatâs it : âsheâ is awake and sounds ready for your unconfessed aero-fantasies⌠Again the urge : âjust taxi to the runway and take offâ. No, no, airmanship. So you do the radio calls and start taxiing, feeling in full control, feeling so good.
Holding point. Run-ups (foreplay?), checks.
Lining up, thatâs one of the magic moment as you turn to face the runway. A warmth in your tummy, a bit of sweat on your finger tips. The runway is clear, heels down. Youâd even want to wait some more before applying full power. And suddenly your hand starts pushing the throttle and the world starts moving.
Faster, faster! RPM, temperature, pressure, airspeed well alive⌠You gently pull the control back, the wheels leave the surface and you no longer belong to the ground. The purring sound of âherâ tells you âsheâ is happy to take you where only few have been before.
As you get higher, the world slows down for you to admire it and its beauty is yours : the dam-shaped sparkling diamonds, yours, the immensity of the blue sky, yours, the infinite fields, yours, the still and unshakable mountains, yours, the sunshine, yours. Youâre surrounded by pure beauty, unbound, free. Airmanship in the brain but the heart is elsewhere, yearning for an aero-divine salvation. You wish you could fly further, higher, foreverâŚ
Eventually, it is time to go back, to the leave the untarnished aero-world above. Youâre heading back to the airfield, feeling blessed and as you touch the ground, youâre reconciled with yourself in the quest for beauty. You know that you will soon be back up there and you know that next time, it might even be better. For the sky doesnât know avarice and will always be only too happy to reveal its secrets to the attentive eyes.
Flying is wonderfully âniceâ, so enjoy every second of it.
Cheers,
Steph
The French man with the slight accent in the grammar
So what is flying for you?
By: Steph - 24th June 2004 at 14:11
Did I feel privileged? Oh NO! What the h/$# am I doing here? was my feeling. And I felt very privileged when I was on the ground, even if I had to do some paperwork for the CAA.
I agree with you Galdri đ I wrote most of this when I was still training with a sort a naive approach maybe. Since then, I did too have some flights where I wish I was somewhere else, at least safe on the ground and not 6 feet under!
One in particular where I was the only one in the circuit no having realised that the wind had picked up like mad. It took me 3 attempts to land and I was getting angry at myself as I thought it was my fault. When I did land the tower said I had won a whisky one the house because they didn’t think I would land but didn’t want to tell me while I was trying….
By: galdri - 24th June 2004 at 13:43
when flying, letâs say in a not so good weather, poor visibility, some wind, maybe some rain or simply doing circuits, I do hope that not so deep in your mind, there is a little voice who reminds you that you are flying, reminds you how extraordinary it is and how privileged you are.
I had to laugh at this comment đŽ Flying a scheduled domestic service in a Dornier 228 roughly one year ago, I felt anything but privileged. Slowly drifting down to MSA in severe icing at the best rate of climb speed running the engines on the redline (both temperature and torque), unable to turn back because it would take me longer to reach a lower MSA in that direction, unable to turn left or right because higher MSA was there also. Deciding to use the EGPWS to dodge the terrain if we were forced down among the mountain peaks. I was thanking God, that we only had one terrified passenger in the back, but not 19. Ended up 500 feet BELOW MSA before the altitude stabilized, and shortly after the MSA went down as well and a further decent was possible.
Did I feel privileged? Oh NO! What the h/$# am I doing here? was my feeling. And I felt very privileged when I was on the ground, even if I had to do some paperwork for the CAA.
But your writing is very good, and sums up most of the flights I’ve had. But there are always some flights that arouse that What the h#&% am I doing here? feeling.
By: Arabella-Cox - 24th June 2004 at 13:35
So what is flying for you?
I was going to say that for me, flying is about sticking two fingers up to Mother Nature and blowing a really big raspberry in her face, just to relish in the fact that I’ve broken the rule saying that us mere human beings really aren’t meant to be up there.
But after such a wonderfully eloquent posting by Steph, my views seem kinda insignificant.
You might be a Frenchman with an accent, but you’ve got a far better grasp of the English language than some of us Brits (me included). Keep this sort of stuff coming Steph, I’ll never tire of reading it! đ
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June 24, 2004 at 1:17 pm