Secrets of the Skies

I overheard someone a couple weeks ago starting a conversation with a friend in a coffee shop with "I had one of those dreams last night where i was flying..."

Sometimes it overwhelms me, but the things some people can only dream about, i am blessed to be able to do. Have you ever noticed how many sayings hail flight as the ultimate expression of ecstasy? "Reach the sky", "flying high"...i'm sure there are many more. I had a moment like that today, as i flew with my new instructor, and the club's CFI *Grant for the second lesson in my Multi Engine Rating today.

From the ground the day was grey, overcast, dull, and drizzly. When Grant and i roared the powerful little Piper Seminole to life and taxied down the runway, i could have never imagined the beauty awaiting us up above. We took off and climbed, feeling the addictive and powerful thrust of the two engines purring beside me for only the second time ever. I worked, admittedly behind the airplane, to set the throttles to 2500 RPM and the Manifold Pressure to 25 inches to the climb, simultaniously worrying about putting the gear up, then retracting the flaps. It all happened so fast, in this new airplane, that i was stunned and pleasantly surprised to look up from my instruments as i began my level-off checklist to see that we had broken through patchy layers of cloud into glorious spring sunshine. I have been flight training for 15 months, with almost 150 hours, and many views like this under my belt, but it never ceases to fill me with joy when i see the city and the ocean below, looking like toys, as i level off and take in the sights around me. From up here, everything seems so simple. Everything on the ground, all the worries, the to-do lists, the conflicts, the errands, the obligations, the challenges, the regrets, the dramas, the indecision, the pain that the bonds of the earth's surface hold, all melt away into the whisps of feathery cloud, and the healing enveloping blue around me. Between 2500 - 4000 feet today, held promises of challenge, learning, improvement, and a certain release from everything below.

These are the secrets of the skies. It is a place to come, for most, as a necessity . To travel somewhere. To get to that important business meeting, to that family reunion, or if we are lucky, on that much needed vacation. For those privileged individuals who make the skies their office, it is a place to come to keep people safe, and make a living doing so. However, those pilots were all once in my position, a student with an open heart, an open mind, and perhaps knack for losing about 100 feet every time they attempt a right-hand steep turn (grr!) The sky even has the magic to make even the most seasoned and trucker-mouthed pilots a little soft at heart. Today, my gruff, crass yet gentle instructor referred to synching the props as "making two hearts beat as one". Hahaha!!! He quickly went on to laugh abruptly, clear his throat, and tell me never to repeat that to anyone!!!

My multi engine rating so far has been full of mind boggling multitasking and memory jarring checklists, but it continues to awake the passion for flight in me to a new level. Today, even though we practiced slow flight and stalls, dirty and clean, i found that i was not as nervous as i used to be. Every day and every tiny success opens up a new door in my heart and in the slow progression to my dream career. I found, with great excitement, that my instructor noticed the improvements i felt that i had made since my float rating. "You can tell you're a real float pilot! I can see it's all in your feet!" Wow, what an unbelievable thing to hear him say.

My second really cool moment today came when i decided to mention to Grant, as we climbed that I "had a secret."
From the corner of my eye i could see his intrigue, as he urged me to go on."
"After i made the forced landing this summer, lots of things kind of scare me now." I squeaked in a little mouselike voice. I cleared my throat, attempting to sound more pilot-ey.
"So, uh....sorry if sometimes i'm a bit of a pussy."
I could almost hear Grant thinking into his mouthpiece. There was a pause.
"That's no worry at all." He finally replied.

"I had a near death experience in the airplane once too. It changed me forever. I'll tell you more about it someday."

It was cryptic, but i instantly felt a deeper affinity with the man. Few pilots have, or would hope to have, an experience in which their fate would be determined, based upon their actions. We, sitting side by side, climbing into the pure spring sunlight, were two.

However, in this moment, filled with the joy of seeing the city from above, with the adrenaline of flying this new, powerful aircraft, another more prominent feeling had already overtaken me. And i had chosen to let this feeling be the one that would change my fate. This was the feeling that i was on the right path. That i had found my place in the world, by being up above the surface of it. It was a feeling of true passion.

So, as we climbed and descended, turned and painted our nose across the horizon, i let this feeling instead be the one that would forever rule my fate.