Page 24 - May22T

From the Flight Deck
by Kevin R. Dingman
Paper Airplanes – Reloaded
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the
tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and
soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with
easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
– John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
In recognition of Armed Forces Day (May 16) and Memorial Day (May 25), I thought it appropriate to revisit a story from my USAF days. While much less life-
altering and traumatic than recent global military actions, it’s more like the majestic flying described in High Flight.
Once in high school my English teacher had me “write sentences” as a punishment. You know, write 100 times: “I will not talk out of turn in class?” I’d been caught throw- ing (who’d-a-guessed) a paper airplane in class. If I hadn’t constructed it so well, it may not have been airborne long, and my transgression would have gone undetected. It was, however, and remained aloft long enough to be seen by all. I was already learning to fly real airplanes by this point in High School, and all of my classmates knew it. So my response to the teacher’s query drew quite a cheer, despite his angst.
I’m a Test Pilot
Being the wise guy that I sometimes still am today, my response to his question of “Why’d you throw that?” was proudly, “I’m a Test Pilot.” Yep, I had to write 500 times by tomorrow “I-am-a-Test-Pilot.” No contraction and use capi- tals in the title. One hundred sentences was the norm, but he was upset with me to the 500-sentence level. Now that I think about it, I had to write sentences a lot in school. I enjoyed writing them. Some kind of psychological thing is still with me today: fill in lines in the logbook, track stocks, make lists and check things off, write stories. Motivational speakers tell you if you say something positive about your- self over and over, it will help keep you motivated until you get to that goal. I didn’t need the 500 sentences to motivate me, but they didn’t hurt. Glad he didn’t have me write: “Flying Costs Too Much.”
Fast forward: Visibility today is at least 100 miles. Look- ing out the side of the tinted canopy, I watch as the airport below me drops away at over 50,000 feet per minute. The distant horizon is in view beyond the mountains of Vegas within two seconds of the 6G pull I had initiated a moment ago and 90 degrees from its previous position. Glancing at the artificial horizon, the airplane symbol is fixed in the little round section that shows straight up – the exact center
22 • TWIN & TURBINE / May 2022