Just flying around

[billvon 3,120]

I've been flying a lot lately. After six days in the airplane it's easy to barrel along the sky barely looking out the windscreen, and spend my time immersed in the mundane details of our testing.
This morning was different. We were flying along at 37,000 feet, and it was one of those rare days where the sky above the low overcast was perfectly clear, but the contrails from other planes were hanging in the sky forever, gradually turning into ruler-straight clouds. We were flying through a grid of perfectly straight lines, each one at or very near our altitude. Every 30 seconds or so we'd punch through another one. On either side we watched the thin puffy lines of cloud rocket by, and ahead we could see another wall of cloud approaching, getting larger, until our 600mph groundspeed speed became very apparent. Then we'd slam through the cloud, and in no perceptible time were were out the other side with just a little bump and a flicker of white out the side windows. Below us, the grid of contrails threw shadows on the clouds, and I had the odd feeling that we were cruising high above a big chessboard, a board whose white squares were moving along with us, following the winds at our altitude. The old Yes song was running through my head -
Make the white queen run so fast
she hasn't got time to make you cry
Cause it's time, it's time in time
and your time and the news is captured
For the queen to use
Move me on to any black square,
Use me any time you want
Just remember that the goal
is for us to capture all we want . . .
It can be sort of surreal, sometimes, flying around the way we do. The smoothness of the flight, the rock-steady symbols on the EFIS screens, the needles on the backup instruments not moving a bit, can make you feel as if you've simply found the secret to stopping yourself and letting the world stream by you. Sometimes it takes being able to see something like those contrails to make you appreciate how remarkable that feeling is, that we've taken flying from a dangerous endeavor to one that risks becoming boring.
-bill von

[diverdriver 7]

Ok Billvon, put down the frog and step away from the crack pipe.
Oh, and I know exactly what you're talking about.
Chris Schindler
D-19012
ATP/CFII
www.DiverDriver.com

[MarkM 0]

LOL.

[freeflir29 0]

Yes...licking frogs can be bad for your health......"I only have 131 jumps, so I don't know shit..right?"-Clay

[Jumperpaula 0]

Quote

We were flying through a grid of perfectly straight lines, each one at or very near our altitude. Every 30 seconds or so we'd punch through another one.

Langoleers...like someone else's time had been there and gone.
Be careful flying and posting...
Fly Your Slot !