SpaceCoastVol
Jacked up on moonshine and testosterone
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2009
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First, a bit of nostalgia then a question.
It was 40 years ago next month that I started my flying career. Well actually I had just started 'boot camp' to begin my time in the Navy. It's in quotes because I actually went thru the program on which the movie 'An Officer and a Gentleman' was based. And no, Debra Winger wasn't anywhere to be seen. In another 12 months from now, my career will end as far as being an airline pilot so another chapter will either open, or I will become a full time do-nothing.
Even after 40 years of being around airplanes, the act of something that weighs as much as 9 tractor trailer rigs having the ability to repeatedly and reliably accelerate and generate enough lift to fly 7-8 miles above the earth for up to 18 hours at speeds approaching the speed of sound still instills a sense of awe within me. We have gone from Orvill and Wilbur's 120 foot flight to have the ability to make any place on the earth reachable from anywhere else within a day's time. As one comedian was saying, when the early settlers were going across the plains in covered wagons, when they arrived at the destination there would be an entirely different group of people. I do quite a bit of 'deadheading' which is when we are riding as a passenger to pre position for another flight because I am an instructor pilot. It still amazes me to look out that window (which hardly anyone does anymore) to watch that process happen.
So OK. Why am I writing this missive? If you are still with me to this point I wonder what gives YOU that sense of awe. This is more aimed at Dink's generation and those younger than him, but I would still love to see other answers.
I guess it's because pilots grow old but we never grow up.
It was 40 years ago next month that I started my flying career. Well actually I had just started 'boot camp' to begin my time in the Navy. It's in quotes because I actually went thru the program on which the movie 'An Officer and a Gentleman' was based. And no, Debra Winger wasn't anywhere to be seen. In another 12 months from now, my career will end as far as being an airline pilot so another chapter will either open, or I will become a full time do-nothing.
Even after 40 years of being around airplanes, the act of something that weighs as much as 9 tractor trailer rigs having the ability to repeatedly and reliably accelerate and generate enough lift to fly 7-8 miles above the earth for up to 18 hours at speeds approaching the speed of sound still instills a sense of awe within me. We have gone from Orvill and Wilbur's 120 foot flight to have the ability to make any place on the earth reachable from anywhere else within a day's time. As one comedian was saying, when the early settlers were going across the plains in covered wagons, when they arrived at the destination there would be an entirely different group of people. I do quite a bit of 'deadheading' which is when we are riding as a passenger to pre position for another flight because I am an instructor pilot. It still amazes me to look out that window (which hardly anyone does anymore) to watch that process happen.
So OK. Why am I writing this missive? If you are still with me to this point I wonder what gives YOU that sense of awe. This is more aimed at Dink's generation and those younger than him, but I would still love to see other answers.
I guess it's because pilots grow old but we never grow up.