Transcendence

CjN/20 Nov.'07

Morning, again. Medicine is down. So now we wait...and ponder things past.

How can I describe flight?

The day is early. Dew still glistens on the grass. I clear the operations center and head out onto the tarmac. The air is cool. Crisp with morning moisture. The sun is peaking through the east, just enough to tint the few puffy white clouds over head. Later it will be much warmer, but not now, not yet. As I make my way among the aircraft I see them all tied down. It occurs to me that they all seem restrained. They know the ground is not where they belong. I pass a few more aircraft noticing how quiet it is. Yes, there is the hustle and bustle of fuel trucks and baggage carts. But for the most part there are no other sounds intruding on the morning. Passing the last aircraft on the line my eyes seek out my destination. There. There she is. What a creature of beauty. A quick glance tells me that the ground crew has readied her. Wiped down she shimmers in the morning light. No tie down ropes hold her now, and she knows that soon she will be in her element. As I approach her an anxious thrill courses through me. I run my hand gently over her cowling, slide it along the edges of her outstretched wings, and feel the play in her control surfaces. The cable stays between her wings sing out with a tension that longs for the sky. Soon, I say, and she knows.

I pull the chocks that block her wheels and make my way to the cockpit. It is there I pause. With my left hand resting on her just forward of the windscreen we commune. She knows it's me. For the umpteenth time I gaze admiringly at her lines the simple elegant beauty. She knows she is appreciated, loved, and consents willingly to my merging with her. Up onto the wing root I climb and then down into the cockpit. I am enveloped by her, and become a part of the whole. Neither of us is complete without the other. Final checklists, control checks, gages. She is ready, anxious to be released. One more affectionate caress from me along the cockpit edge and we are sure. Mixture. Throttles. Contact. The prop turns over and her engine comes to life. Straining at the brakes she wants the sky. Soon, I tell her with my mind. Engine temp. Magnetos. Radio check. All is as it should be. We are cleared. A nudge of the throttle and we roll onto the taxiway. As we head towards the runway I scan her one more time, and feel her telling me that all is well. She wants the sky as much as I. We reach the runway and I stop. She knows this is normal, but her anticipation is there. I can feel it coursing through her. Cleared by the tower and a final scan of the instruments we turn onto the runway.

An ear to her sounds, and a feel for her body and controls. Now. Her engine leaps to life and we begin our role out. More power, faster. Her controls answering my moves as if in anticipation of each act. There! The tail lifts, and we keep building speed. Just a few moments more, and then -----------Off! We lift from the ground and become a creature of flight. Climbing higher we are free from the earth. There is a sigh in release. We head east over the world below. No real destination in mind. Just the sky, and the time to be together. She knows there is no other more a part of her than I. We complete each other as we course through the air, passing clouds and gaining sky. The controls are extensions of my being. I feel the air over her wings, ailerons, and rudder. Hear the song of the wires between her wings. The vibration of her engine becomes as one with me. I nudge the stick left, and give a touch of rudder. We bank slowly. Below us is the coast and to our right the vast expanse of ocean. But it does not compare to what we share. The sky, it's eternal blue, and the freedom. In celebration I move the stick right then left. In response she answers me with a gentle sway through the air. Yes, Flight. To reach the sky. To merge with an aircraft that is more than just aluminum, wire, and rivets. To become a creature of flight, of the sky. I bank right, her compass says east. Intuitively I know this,

feeling her response to my control. But this I knew. I always have. Breaking through the clouds are beams of light. We continue to gain sky, until, There! The morning sun. I feel it's warmth on my face, and scan the sky around me. No longer earthbound, but here in the vast expanse of blue she and I are home.