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In light of the negativity on this board lately and without passing judgment, I thought it might be nice to bring some positive energy. I invite you to share your story, photo or video. Enough complaining.
Question: "What do you love about flying?"
Ok, I'll go first.
"Flying is freedom (from everything!)" - Daniel
Attachment 5405There is so much I enjoy about flying;
It is the perfect escape after a day at work. I can go out to the airport, go flying for a while and just get away from everything.
I like being able to travel to see family in less than half the time it takes to drive. One of my brothers lives 5 hours away by car, but I can fly it in 2 hours. With my schedule as tight as it is, it would be hard for me to go visit in the car since I would have to stay over night. My wife and I can fly up in the morning, eat lunch and spend the afternoon with them. We can leave around six o'clock in the afternoon and still get back home by eight.
For me flying is peaceful and relaxing. I really enjoy the view from the airplane and avoiding the driving traffic. I spent three years (2012-2014) at a consulting job that was 130 miles from home. It was so nice being able to fly up on Tuesday morning and fly home Friday afternoon. Every flight back and forth when I would pass over the interstate I would say a prayer of thanks that I was up there instead of down in all of the traffic.
I usually have a lot in common with other pilots and enjoy hanging out with them, like EAA meetings and also at the maintenence shop.
I even love just fiddling with my plane and cleaning it up. This afternoon the weather was severe clear here so I went to the airport on my way home from work. After flying around for a half hour, I got a bucket of water and a microfiber towel and wiped the pollen off the plane. It was just nice being out of the office enjoying the spring weather.
This was the best day I have ever had in my 45+ years of flying. http://www.planeandpilotmag.com/arti.../#.VvH8UIScu_U
Flying is for me a special therapy. I am a caretaker for my wife of 62-years. She cannot walk or stand, and if out of bed, must be in a wheel chair. To add to her problems its clear that dementia has increased a LOT in the past year. I am talking care of her myself but its not easy.
I can 'get away' for a 20 or 30 minute flight now and then. During that time in the air my mind is totally on flying and nothing at home comes to mind. The short flights erase much of the pain of seeing my elderly wife slip away. Its only for a few minutes, but it means a lot to my mental well being.
Best expressed in my video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mlon4C1-LQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mlon4C1-LQ
For me it is many things, from the science, the challenge, the peace of leaving everything behind and to this day after thousands of hours, in the car on the way home I look up into the sky and think 'I was just there' in total amazement. :-)
Rick
Here's a piece I wrote for a blog before coming to EAA:
http://www.whyfly.aero/real-reason-i-fly/
On topic, I like St. Antoine de Saint-Exupery's quote best: "I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things."
Personally, I find that building, even more so than flying, requires a full engagement of the mind for extended periods of time and shuts out all the pettiness of the world and the worries of work within the confines of my hangar/shop. Flying is the prize for the years of building. Probably explains why when I, and many others, engaged in building another aircraft immediately after completing the first. I have found myself building, rebuilding, repairing, upgrading, or overseeing others projects continuously for 21 years now since I started building my first plane.
-Cub Builder
It's got to be the friends that gather at our little grass strip, early evenings when the air is smooth, flying over the old farm where I was raised and the satisfaction of restoring and flying something that once was a pile of parts gathered in the corner of someone's garage or hangar.