New Year's Day is for many a day of family or friends gathering
to watch football. Such was the case in this house, for kids and
all wanted to head out to the in-laws and watch the Rose Bowl game.
By nature, I am not one who stands and watches. True, I watch my
children play soccer and hockey and such, but I am also known for
pacing up and down the sidelines the entire length of the playing
field.
And if the circumstances are such that I have no family investment
in a game, chances are I won't ever give it the time of day.
All during that afternoon the weather channel had been warning
us, BLIZZARD ON THE WAY.
You've seen it happen. It's one of those times when the weather
folks get the lead on the evening news and there is a gleam in their
eye as they point at charts and maps and proclaim that we are in
the path of a truly BIG ONE.
When asked if I wanted to go, I said, "No thanks, I will stay
home. You all have a great time." The day was clear and sunny,
rare for our part of the world in January and I decided to head
out and stock up on some food. I told them I would putter and get
the snow blower ready as well.
Yea right.
Blue sky, sunny, clear cold January air. Remember that?
The real reason I wanted to stay home is that I wanted to fly.
I had wanted to fly in the afternoon sun, and that was unusual for
me. I prefer to fly at night. But it had been so cold in December;
I wanted to feel the warmth of being bathed in sunshine.
The day dragged along and twilight approached.
So I waited until it was early evening, New Year's Day.
As I headed out for the airport I noticed the empty roads.
Out the right window of my car I smiled at the brilliant full moon.
There are moments in life that are emotional triggers for me, and
this was one. With a surge of adrenalin my heart started to race.
For some it might seem strange, the kind of things that turns on
the switches for all my senses. I knew in an instant that it would
be a great night, that this was MY moment.
I climbed out of my car at the hangar and rolled the sliding doors
open. I said it was clear and cold, but this was more than cold,
for the temperature had dropped to a frigid 2 degrees (-16C). Quickly
I put the space heater inside of the airplane to start warming up
the interior. Using the air compressor I brought from home, I filled
all three of the tires with air.
Without the engine oil heater that is plugged into the airplane
attempting to start this engine would have been futile at best.
After turning the prop 10 times to loosen up the oil, I climbed
back into the airplane and turned the key. In the darkness I watched
the instrument lights glow and quiver as the battery slowly cranked
over the engine. Thankfully it fired up, but the steam from my breath
frosted up all of the windows almost instantly.
Eddie Bauer makes sub-zero parkas for moments like this and it
kept me warm as I waited for the defroster to give me at least an
inch of view at the bottom of the windshield.
An inch?
Look, the roads were deserted, and so was the airport. So it was
only an inch, whom do you think I was going to run into? Everyone
else was inside hidden away from the twenty below wind chill.
Three blades on the propeller and 300 horses of warming engine
taxied out to the edge of the runway. After the preflight checks
and running the engine up to operating temperature it was time to
call the tower.
I love this moment.
"Saratoga XX ready on runway 27 right. The tower answers,
"Saratoga xx.. Cleared for departure, runway 27 right, fly
right traffic." Gently I ease the throttle forward with my
right hand. I am lined up on the centerline of the runway. It's
Christmas time, but at night, the airport always looks like Christmas.
The runway lights were dimmed to a golden white, with the ends of
the runway accented in red and green. Blue lights rim the taxiways
I love the feel of 300 horses spinning the propeller in front of
me.
Imagine... 300 horses pulling me on a kite... with a long rope...
I wonder if they could make me fly?
The airplane starts to roll forward and the runway lights begin
to flash by. The bright lights of the wingtip strobes reflect off
of the snow as I watch the airspeed indicator climb to 80 knots
and then this is the moment of... flight
as the nose wheel
leaves the ground, then the main wheels follow. Within seconds the
trees on the right side of the runway disappear from view and the
nose of the airplane points skyward.
This moment of transition is burned into my mind, as it has been
since my first flight at eight to my first lesson at 15.
I learned to fly before I could drive.
Why?
I don't know.
Some things you just have to do in life, and for me it was to fly.
And now I know that I love the night sky. And this night, that self
same frigid air was crystal clear. From the side windows every speck
of light sparkled like a diamond against a field of blackness. It
was truly awesome. As I turned to the right the moon that had been
behind me, now reflected on the right wing. With another turn the
moon's light splashed across an unfrozen lake. In less than a minute
I had already gained over a thousand feet and I continued to climb
into the moonlight.
The night landscape has changed in the last 20 years. It used to
be you would see a field of white punctuated by the occasional red
glow of a Kmart sign. Now, more than half of the streetlights have
an orange cast, and are mixed with all kinds of hues of green and
white lights. Truly, the night landscape is a cacophony of individual
colors.
This was a night for flight. I put the airplane into steep banks
to the right and then to the left. I rolled into circles of 360
degrees until the air became turbulent with the air thrown from
my own propeller.
When I ran into my own prop wash I leveled out for a moment and
then rolled into turn of the opposite direction.
I practiced turns so steep that if you were a passenger you would
swear that the airplane was on its side. Forty-five degrees of bank
does look steep, and requires a lot of backpressure to keep the
nose on the horizon. The steeper you turn, the more you increase
the g-forces on the airplane.
Its a game about balance, as the brain takes in the data and you
compensate, adding a bit more power, a touch of back pressure, or
perhaps a little less bank. Roll in at due north, spin around to
the right and see just how close you can roll out again to true
north.
Oh, and don't lose any altitude, cuz that's sloppy flying.
After an hour or so of practice maneuvers I returned to the airport,
mentally tired, but satisfied.
It's not my airplane, but I get to use it.
And on this night of watching, this night... I know life.
This was my evening of moments when it all came together.
Sated, I locked the hanger door, climbed into a very cold car and
drove gratefully off into the night.