You’ve seen the pictures and heard me raving about my new airplane that can go faster, longer distances and travel at higher altitudes than any of the airplanes I’ve flown before. It’s an engineering marvel and it absolutely blows my mind. It’s at the top of the food chain in general aviation, bar a pressurized cabin plane, that comes with its own set of problems.
But I want to share with you another observation and a thought that I had many times when I am traveling on the airlines. How come, if you travel on the airlines, that it doesn’t feel like flying any more? It’s so sterile. It’s such a non-involving experience. So counter to the experience of gliding through the air with a sailplane bouncing around in thermals or hanging off a parachute with the wind in your face.
This airplane, a Bonanza A-36 TN (turbo-normalized) is the first step in a process that I call “abstraction of flight”. Once you’re getting above the weather, the engine is happily humming and the plane is droning along. When the radio’s are tuned in and the autopilot is programmed, you’re just along for the ride. Which I guess is the whole purpose of “transportation”. But the excitement that comes from playing with the elements also starts to fade.
On my 900NM (1600km) non-stop flight from FL to TX above the weather did I not once look out of the window to study the scenery. Yes, I studied the weather and clouds, but I didn’t look for every runway down there, or every city I was passing over. I totally missed the crossing of the Mississippi! Instead I was happily oblivious of all that was going on down there. The lives of people below me with all the drama, all the amazing development that has taken plane only over the last 200 years down there. Instead I was crunching numbers: how many gallons of gas would I land with? What altitude would be optimal in terms of wind? Was the weather forecast accurate? Was there another airplane in the vicinity, that was a couple of knots faster or slower than me? Were the engine temperatures right?
The one thing absence from all this: the awe of man flying.
I think it has to do with the calm and peaceful humm at altitude that mulls you in and removes you from the world. It’s good in its own way. But it’s not the Wright’s brothers way of getting involved with flying. It’s less engaging and much more technical. Engineers like it. And most commercial pilots do.
Having said that, the new plane absolutely blows my mind! – 195kts all the way. It’s my new way of celebrating America’s freedoms in general aviation. Those are still unmatched anywhere else in the world. What a pity.
