Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings, sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sunsplit clouds and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of -wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air, up, up the long delirious burning blue I've topped the wind-swept heights with ease grace, where never lark nor even eagle flew, and, with silent, lifting mind I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand and touched the face of God.
-John G. Magee, Jr.(poem)
-Dru Blair(image)
10 comments:
I have flown in an airplane with Mike and almost crashed and burned. I have vowed never again. (no offense to Mike)
is it about sharks?
i want my pilot's licence!
For one of our first dates, I flew Lydia over to Greensboro at night. But she didn't handle it too well and I had to break out the barf bag (luckily I had some!) on the way there. So my plans for a romantic dinner in a faraway place were largely wasted. For some reason she didn't look forward to the trip home and was largely quiet since she was sick and didn't want to fill the small cabin with the smell of barf breath (thank you). It took her a long while to get over that episode but we later flew up to Buffalo and she was much better (with a good dose of dramamine though ;-) and it helped that she slept most of the way.
I will admit that one of the most beautiful scenes and proclamations of God's glory I'v ever seen was flying down the western coast of Florida as I was coming into Tampa as the sun was setting. The sun, the clouds, all the water everywhere reflecting and the city lights were...well...words are just not enough!
One of my scariest incidents occured while on the ground at RDU when I was taxiing out and had a Delta 757 in front of me and a Southwest 737 behind me. You have no idea how big and noisy those planes are until you're just a few feet away from them and cowering in their shadows in a Cessna 172. What I wouldn't give for a picture or video of those moments.
But, thankfully, I've never had anything close to crashing and burning. There was one time when I was leaning out the mixture at 6500 feet and I went too far and the engine stopped. It was a nice, quiet glider flight until I got the engine restarted. My passenger, a friend from work, didn't think it was too fun at the time though. Odd...
I've had a lot of fun experiences in airplanes, but somehow they ceased to be fun some years ago. Now I view any flight as basically the same as a long drive - ugh! However, there is something to be said for a landing in a remote jungle airstrip where you have to land on a 200 metre airstrip that runs up a hill and curves to the left. That can be fun.
Mike took me up in a Cessna once. I got a little air sick but I've never had so much fun. The "landing at night" thing was a little scarry...for me...Mike had done it a thousand times. I would love to go again.
He didn't make the mistake of letting you fly the plane, did he? ;-)
It seems to be a pretty universal thing that anyone offered the yoke is scared stiff and won't touch it for fear that the exact instant that they do the plane will begin a death spiral straight into the ground!
I didn't seem to have this fear, though. I flew with a friend for the first time while I was working in New York and just out of college. We flew east into Connecticut for one of the famous $100 cheeseburgers at an airstrip that had a nice pilot's diner just off the runway. I couldn't wait to take the controls and from that moment I was hooked on flying, joined the Civil Air Patrol and got my own wings.
Can't wait to get back into it and take my kids up when they get to be around 8-10 years old. Anyone care to donate to the Wells Aviation Fund to buy a plane (and I think I might have enough acreage to put in an airstrip on our front lawn)?
YES!! I flew the plane. I was, however, petrified when I felt how easy it was to plummet to the ground. So, I gave Mike back full control and tightened my seatbelt. I would do it again. One of those "no. I wasn't afraid. what are you talking about?" moments.
My last day of flying was when Mike tried to teach me to land the plane. He said it was for my own safety in case he dropped dead or something. After that I decided that I only wanted to be a passenger, not a pilot.
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