I love flying. I love when the plane begins to taxi, moving faster and faster. I love the instant of takeoff, when you are suddenly thrown back and you realize that you are actually off the ground. My spirits rise as the airplane does. I love watching the ground pull away. Everything becomes smaller at the same time everything becomes larger: people, houses, and cars shrink to invisibility-- but so much more of the earth is visible. With nothing to block your vision, so you can see for incredible distances. If there are no clouds, the view of the ground below is spectacular-- the hills, valleys, rivers. If there are clouds, the view is still spectacular. It always amazes me to see the tops of the clouds, and to think that I am airborne in such a heavy machine. I love landing, too. I love watching everything happen in reverse-- dark shapes distinguishing themselves as houses or schools, so gradually and yet so quickly. The experience turns me into an adolescent, stripping my vocabulary. I keep looking out the window and repeating, "This is so cool!"
I can't choose between which of these quotes to end with, so I will use both:
Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle.
— Igor Sikorsky
Can the magic of flight ever be carried by words? I think not.
— Michael Parfit, 'Smithsonian' magazine, May 2000
7 comments:
Rian shall forgive ye.
...and Icarus had a very bad end.
As did the story of Pandora, O Curious One. By the way, I ate no bananas on the plane.
Oh that wallpaper is just not necessary... You already had my undivided with the riveting knitting saga (rivits and knitting?).
Was it a light aircraft? I did love my short flying lesson... flying below the clouds is wonderful. You can really see the arteries of cities... they become a living thing.
"Yip!" gasps Rian, "Spidy scared me."
And, surely, stay away from any yellow fruit offered on flaming death traps, Mater.
Do ye have this whole week off? Rian is envious.
Icarus trumped by Pandora.
Hah!
Hehe.
And for a quote:
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings
- John Gillespie Magee Jr, High Flight
Hmm... wasn't that 'An Airman's Ecstasy', Skit? That poem is permanently displayed on one of our kitchen cupboards. It's beautiful, even though I do not feel the sentiment in the same way my fellow Moon occupant does.
I'd be surprised if he posted it with the wrong title, but perhaps he did... can't be arsed to look it up right now.
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