We pilots are not particularly special, even though we often think we are. We put on our flight suits one leg at a time, and when we go to the doctor, we all have to wear those same insipid paper suits when they squeeze us into an MRI or onto an operating table.
Another great article, Kevin… and ditto on why we fly. I fly because I like to fly. I have no particular mission other than to leave the ground as gracefully as possible, arrive as safely as I can, and work to improve all aspects of the art I claim to practice. I do enjoy teaching others the ‘magic’ of the world aloft, but that’s not why I fly.
Keep up the good work!
A terrific insight article Keven. And Bruce S summed it up for me. It’s exactly how I felt flying.
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”
~ Lao Tzu
Gunga La-Dunga. Bill Murray, Caddyshack
You got that going for you, which is nice.
Yes. I will achieve total consciousness at death, which is nice.
Three rights make a left!
Another delightful essay Kevin!
But I see it from a slightly different angle. I think it is the experience of dimensionality. Most of us Cro-Magnon descendants spend our lives trapped in two dimensions, requiring the assistance of others to experience the third. An elevator, a Ferris wheel, or an aluminum canister of humans hurtling from point A to point B like cash in a bank’s drive-thru pneumatic tube, are the closest most humans get to the true experience of flying, as we pilots know it.
It is also why I SCUBA dive: I have control over my position and orientation in three-space. On my first open-water dive after certification, I attempted to perform my Sportsman aerobatic routine. Main takeaway: very similar sensations (minus G-loads) and inside loops were a lot harder than outside ones.
Not only are the 3-D visual aspects of flight enjoyable, having control of my position in three-space is the visceral reward.
I requested weather advisories from the Dalai Lama.
He gave me calm winds and total consciousness.
Which is nice.
I love this group… 
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”
~ Lao Tzu
Wise indeed…
unless of course one travels beyond his youth and forgetfully left his favorite passenger ‘Little John’ back at the hangar. 
[/quote]
This topic was automatically closed after 7 days. New replies are no longer allowed.