Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The joy of flying

Well I have been flying since my trip to Scandinavia – honest! I have done three flights since, two of them on a Friday late afternoon / evening after work.

And what a great time to fly, as long as you are not stressed out or tired.

The joy of turning up in the relative still of the late afternoon on a weekday when the airfield is quieter than at weekends. Taking your time doing the walkaround and an unhurried trundle to the fuel pumps. A quiet circuit if you fancy a few touch and go’s. Even the chance of coming across a hot air balloon serenely drifting in the evening still, and of course captive to your evil intentions to do an orbit around the balloon, just for fun. Oh look, they are waving at us! Oh, perhaps they aren’t! Those gestures seem to be saying something else! A high level orbit of a grass airstrip just watching for traffic. Climb to 5000’ just for the fun of being above the scattered cumulus. A low level run along the Cotswold ridge near the racecourse. Taking someone up for a flight who has never flown in a light aircraft before. Doing a few circuits not because you have to but because you want to. The joy of nailing the subsequent landings (after your first landing showed you what need improvement of course). The sound of silence as you taxi back to the hangar and switch the engine off and just sit there for a few minutes drinking it in (with the students looking out from next door wondering if you are nuts). Sitting in the clubhouse sipping a fresh brewed coffee and a Mars bar to wind down before setting off home.

My wife and family are laughing at me at the moment as I am finally learning for my motorbike licence. So this is your latest fad? What will it be after that? Yes, my previous ‘fad’ of flying has been going for over ten years, so I am going to give it up when I get my motorbike? No chance!

And I do all this, because………

……well, because I can!

If you have to explain it to non-pilots, they just won’t understand! It is special isn’t it?