A Flying Experience and Life Lesson
GETTING BACK UP ON THE HORSE
Lookout Mountain Flight Park - Rising Fawn Georgia -
For as long as I can remember I’ve been mesmerized by soaring birds…and airplanes.
I had a few short and long term goals growing up in a small -nothing like Mayberry- town in New Jersey. Becoming an Eagle Scout, a private pilot and then an Air Force pilot were at the top of my list. I spent the lion’s share of my time and earned -money working toward these goals. As it turned out, my two irregularly-shaped eyeballs (myopia) were good enough for the first two goals but a deal-killer for the third. Still, flying has been a life-long passion.
Flying in its most basic form, is a Zen-like experience. Many consider it a sure-fire way to get above and beyond all that ails we earthlings. Pragmatically speaking, it is also pretty safe. Think about it —
Pilots rarely die while they’re flying - it’s when they stop flying!
Fifteen years ago, I almost did just that!
I had a Dacron and aluminum Skycycle - basically a hang-glider with a motorcycle engine spinning a wooden prop a thousand times a minute. I had just taken off and was about fifty feet up when a wire connection broke and that screaming engine went silent in a microsecond. Any airplane with its nose up in the air will drop like an anvil if its forward momentum is not sufficient to provide enough lift through the wings. I immediately yanked the control bar in, pointing the nose toward the ground to pick up speed. And then, maybe a second later threw the bar out to flare into a landing. The total “flight time” was probably 10 to 15 seconds.
Most of us are familiar with some rendition of the “fight or flight” reaction. Well, the above is what that neurological response-to-danger looks like on a good day. It’s when training, conditioning, and divine intervention join forces to save someone's butt. Any time we have a close call in life, there’s the temptation to let it leave a disproportionately large dent in our spirit.
Whether that bad experience has to do with flying, sports, artistic ventures, or relationships, we have the option to first chill and then reflect. Defaulting to “I’m never going to do that again” might make sense on some level, but it’s dangerously close to “all done.”
Sometimes we get so stuck in the emotional response to a situation that we end up residing there, indefinitely immersed in its paralysis.
When we lose our objectivity, or our ability to step outside our emotions to problem solve, we run the risk of fearing life itself and that could mean -
NEVER FLYING AGAIN!