The Joy of Flying

[BigTex]

I've always been fascinated with what about flying that keeps me coming back for more. I've never been able to put my finger on it. Some say it's the freedom one feels but I think it's much more than that.

Virtually every time I taxi in from a flight, I get a sense of calm that comes over me. Almost like a junkie that just got their fix. This feeling generally lasts until the plane is in the hangar then I start thinking about when I can get my next fix.

Something draws us to this very expensive passion... What is it that keeps you coming back for more? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Lionudakis]

You have nailed it.

I will add the feeling of accomplishment when realigning the machine on the runway at a good speed with finesse (hopefully) always adds to the feeling of freedom.

[aerobat95]

When I was young I always thought it would be neat to fly like a bird. Then when I was 12 I got my first plane ride in a piper Cherokee 6 and from that moment on I was hooked. Started flying at 15 and have been doing it ever since. I like looking at the world and seeing how small we really are. I love the feeling of rolling down the runway....hearing the power of the engine and that initial rush as the wheels break ground. Just writing this post make me want to go take a flight.....I am hoping maybe sometime mid next week :-)

[carusoam]

Enjoy it while it lasts, share it if you can, reserve your spot at the airport when flying is out of reach...

Just my observations...

Best regards,

-a-

[Hank]

It's the freedom -- go where you want, when you want, no traffic jams, no speed limits, no unmarked cars running radar, and it forces you to pay attention to what you're doing. While driving, I can still think/worry about other things, but not in the air (except on the airlines when worrying is a distraction from the process). Plus the view is so nice. It just feels great!

[rbridges]

it's therapeutic to me. I can fly 3 hours in a plane and feel great. I can drive for 3 hours and be worn out. I love the wide open view and the "alone time."

[Riq]

Spending countless hrs/$ obtaining differing levels of aptitude in differing fields......LOTS OF CABBAGE and semi-fulfilling.

Spending time on/in my planes.......priceless and addicting

Having to let someone else work on it....painful

[aviatoreb]

I've always been fascinated with what about flying that keeps me coming back for more. I've never been able to put my finger on it. Some say it's the freedom one feels but I think it's much more than that.

Virtually every time I taxi in from a flight, I get a sense of calm that comes over me. Almost like a junkie that just got their fix. This feeling generally lasts until the plane is in the hangar then I start thinking about when I can get my next fix.

Something draws us to this very expensive passion... What is it that keeps you coming back for more? Inquiring minds want to know.

Its magic.

[jezzie]

FLYING IS ONLY FUN WHEN YOU ARE ALONE OR WITH SOMEBODY, OR AS MY BROTHER ONCE SAID "IT MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD ALL OVER MORE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE"

[carusoam]

Fahrvergflügen....

This will be the new marketing slogan when the factory begins building planes again...

My thoughts anyway.

-a-

[Jeff_S]

As I read on someone here on MooneySpace's signature line, "I fly because it frees me from the tyranny of petty thoughts". I have been saying the same thing all of my adult life, but not nearly so eloquently.

Jim

That was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, well known French pilot and author of Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince). Tragically, of course, he died in an airplane crash. Oh, the actual quote is "...tyranny of petty things." but the principle is the same.

[DaV8or]

I started flying because I had huge pile of cash I needed to get rid of and I figured it would be faster than burning it. Turns out I was right.

Seriously, I'm much like others. I like the view and perspective and the fact that once the wheels leave the runway, my survival depends on focusing on the task at hand. This really helps to clear my head of all the other crap in life while I'm up in the air. For me, it's the process of getting there more than the destinations. That's why with raising fuel prices, I find myself just flying around and not really going anywhere in particular for shorter durations and I'm OK with it. Much of the time these days, My Mooney is just a bigger, faster Piper Cub flying around the patch. Only my patch is bigger, I can't leave the doors open and I've got the wings and wheels in the right place.

[garytex]

Scuba diving, hunting dangerous game, competitive shooting, and flying all require the exclusion of extraneous thought to do well. There is a "Zen" in all of them that bring folks back for more. Like the prospect of being hung in a fortnight it clears the mind of St Exupery's "petty things", and has the added benefit of occasionally being exceptionally useful.

Gary

[TonyPynes]

Flying answers the voice in me that says, take the other road. Let go of safety and security and you might find a life that is truer than usually lived. Take a risk, for life without risk means not learning new things and usually not loving well. Life without risk and challenge looks a lot like death.

When I was a boy I dreamed that I could run fast enough in my PF flyers with the holes in the top and bottom that I might be able to leap into the air. Some summer days I felt like I came close to actually finding that step in the air that would launch me upwards.

I rode motorcycles all my life and came close once again to that feeling of being able to launch and suspend the law that says man cannot fly but much trudge across the dirt.

My first flight in a small trainer was a mix of fear and exhilaration. I knew I would fly as long as I was able.

We belong to a club of men and women who fly, who choose risk, who would rather risk falling out of the sky like Icarus than not reach for something more than the normal, the commonplace, the mundane. That is a pretty interesting club to belong to.

[fantom]

I fly because I am....

[Cabanaboy]

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 falls of air...

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, nor eer 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.

[1964-M20E]

Able to leap tall building in a single bound. :-))Makes you feel like Superman.

I was digging through some old photos and I found some phtographs of my very first flight in a C177 back in 1978 at KNEW. I also found a pic of my first Mooney flight in a 201 later in 1978 from Barksdale AFB to KNEW and it was an IFR flight my first flight in the clouds of course I was just a passenger. Back in August I went to Shreveport and flew right past Barksdale in my Mooney it's kind of neat.

Flight makes the world smaller.

[Mcstealth]

I live vicariously through you plane owner guys, for now.

[Stefanovm]

I've always been fascinated with what about flying that keeps me coming back for more. I've never been able to put my finger on it. Some say it's the freedom one feels but I think it's much more than that.

Virtually every time I taxi in from a flight, I get a sense of calm that comes over me. Almost like a junkie that just got their fix. This feeling generally lasts until the plane is in the hangar then I start thinking about when I can get my next fix.

Something draws us to this very expensive passion... What is it that keeps you coming back for more? Inquiring minds want to know.

Same fix for me. In fact my borderline hypertension goes away after a flight. It is good medicine. I started loving flying at 9, got my first C210 ride at 17, PP at 21. I was not in an airliner until 28, as a passenger, a six seat GA being the biggest until then.

A twist of motorcycles, which I used to do is appropriate for me. "I live to fly and fly to live." Of the five airplanes I have owned and 20+ models I have flown, Mooney cannot be beat.

[201er]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntARTRQOpd0

There's no sensation to compare with this

Suspended animation, a state of bliss

Can't keep my mind from the circling skies

Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

[M016576]

Scuba diving, hunting dangerous game, competitive shooting, and flying all require the exclusion of extraneous thought to do well. There is a "Zen" in all of them that bring folks back for more. Like the prospect of being hung in a fortnight it clears the mind of St Exupery's "petty things", and has the added benefit of occasionally being exceptionally useful.

Gary

Hunting dangerous game..... Like other airplanes??

[TWinter]

After reading this thread I need my fix..I'll be back. Some great comments.

[320KPH]

I feel real satisfied when the engine cuts and the panel gives it's final shake and we're done.