MuseChaser
Pattern Altitude
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2019
- Messages
- 2,038
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MuseChaser
I've been trying to figure out what I want to say, and just how to say it, but can't really come up with the words so I'm just going to type and hope something worthwhile leaks out of my fingers...
To say that my life as a pilot and as an airplane co- and now sole-owner has has been a long, slow, and occasionally frustrating (more the partnership/ownership part than the training/flying part) triptus interruptus would be an understatement. I won't bore anyone with the details.
For the second time in one week, my wife and I flew a short XC together, this time to an airport I'd never been to before. It was an absolutely PERFECT CAVU day, flying over hills, small lakes and ponds, negotiating updrafts and down drafts but nothing even remotely resembling turbulence. This airport was a strip running along the top of a hill/ridge.. absolutely stunning. I'll attach a pic a bit later, but for now, let me try to put into words what I'm trying to say...
Driving home from the airport, grinning from ear to ear, the whole experience just feels so surreal. I'm in a place that, for 15 years, IS finally what I thought flying really was... and so much more. Up until the past few weeks, flying has been a hassle, a fight, an endeavor, work, frustration, perserverance. Today, and for the past few weeks, it has been.. well...transcendent. When I want to leave earth, I can. When I'd like a friendly voice, or some information, I can press a button on my yoke and some great ATC dude/dudette is more than happy to help out. I can look over at the copilot's seat and see my wife, grinning stupidly and excitedly pointing out windmills, lakes, airports, highways, towers. I have two A&Ps that are absolutely the best people on earth, and a great CFI. I'm sure there may be people on earth even more blessed than I, but I can't imagine it.
I always thought I understood this poem...
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 sun-split 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 easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
I understand it a LOT more now. To all you folks who do this every day for a living, I probably sound like a blithering sentimental idiot. Could be. Today was so joyful I'm having trouble seeing sometimes.
To say that my life as a pilot and as an airplane co- and now sole-owner has has been a long, slow, and occasionally frustrating (more the partnership/ownership part than the training/flying part) triptus interruptus would be an understatement. I won't bore anyone with the details.
For the second time in one week, my wife and I flew a short XC together, this time to an airport I'd never been to before. It was an absolutely PERFECT CAVU day, flying over hills, small lakes and ponds, negotiating updrafts and down drafts but nothing even remotely resembling turbulence. This airport was a strip running along the top of a hill/ridge.. absolutely stunning. I'll attach a pic a bit later, but for now, let me try to put into words what I'm trying to say...
Driving home from the airport, grinning from ear to ear, the whole experience just feels so surreal. I'm in a place that, for 15 years, IS finally what I thought flying really was... and so much more. Up until the past few weeks, flying has been a hassle, a fight, an endeavor, work, frustration, perserverance. Today, and for the past few weeks, it has been.. well...transcendent. When I want to leave earth, I can. When I'd like a friendly voice, or some information, I can press a button on my yoke and some great ATC dude/dudette is more than happy to help out. I can look over at the copilot's seat and see my wife, grinning stupidly and excitedly pointing out windmills, lakes, airports, highways, towers. I have two A&Ps that are absolutely the best people on earth, and a great CFI. I'm sure there may be people on earth even more blessed than I, but I can't imagine it.
I always thought I understood this poem...
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 sun-split 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 easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
I understand it a LOT more now. To all you folks who do this every day for a living, I probably sound like a blithering sentimental idiot. Could be. Today was so joyful I'm having trouble seeing sometimes.