Learning to Enjoy the View

Every pilot in the world shares a common bond. We may make up melting pot of ages, races, cultures, languages, and values, but we've all done the same things and seen the world from the same perspective. These truths are hard to recognize in training. Learning to fly is a highly rewarding activity, but the intesnity of the training requires a singular focus that sometimes blocks out the pure enjoyment being up there can bring. The same thing also happens to experienced pilots who, after a lifetime spent in the air, may forget the special nature of what it is we do.

Thankfully, there are kids, and through their eyes we're able to remember what it means to do something humans haved dreamed about for centuries. A few months ago I was on a short early morning airline flight from San Antonio to Dallas. IT was drizzling and overcast. I don't fly the airlines enough to be grumpy about kids getting on board, so when a group of three sat in the row in front of me I didn't pay them much attention. Soon they started to argue,, so I listened. They were negotiating for the window seat, and it soon came out that it was the first time in an airplane for all three. A persistent boy of maybee5 won the round and took his seat against the side of the airplane.

As we taxied out and the other passengers settled in for their short naps to Dallas, the boy's face was glued to the window. We taxied onto the runway, the pilots ran up the massive engines, and we were off. “We're off the ground!” the boy announced. And just as fast we were in the clouds.

When you learn to fly on instruments you'll learn to accurately predict the conditions hiding above the overcast. This day I could tell it was going to be more than just a thin, solid overcast layer. Sure enough, we broke out to towering cumulus clouds that filtered the morning sun long and low over the top of the ground bound city to the brilliant light of morning was quick, and more than a little metaphorical. The boy was silent for a minute. And then, to no one in particular, he said, “I can see heaven.”

What we do is special. Yes, training can be difficult, and flying expensive. But there's always time to simply look outside and enjoy the view.