By ANN Editor-In-Chief Jim Campbell
One of my greatest joys
lies in the telling and retelling of some of my experiences and
adventures in aviation. Some are pretty adventurous, and have a
high "coolness" factor, though most are simple little ditties about
sweet moments in time that could only have been arrived at through
some form of aerial intervention...
They range from a slightly-pre-dawn, dewy/foggy, takeoff (over
twenty years ago) in a Pterodactyl ultralight that displayed the
most amazing swirls in the misty vapor off the high swept wingtips
of this amazing levitation machine, as the sun barely peaked over
the waiting horizon... to walking Bob Hoover out to his Twin
Commander for the first time in several years after the FAA finally
admitted that he was safe to fly, whispering excited little
platitudes as Bob regained his rightful place in flying world... to
flying back to back inverted formation over Daniel Heligoin's
CAP-10B so close that I was sure we could open our canopies and
shake hands, if physics had allowed this bit of vanity, while
Daniel smiling that rare grin he had that only occurred when
something REALLY cool was going on... or even battling lousy
weather on a LONG ferry flight from Hawaii to the mainland,
watching ceiling and visibility go straight to hell, only to arrive
with the most textbook ILS to minimums I have ever shot in my life,
catching sight of the 'rabbit' lights after a full day in the air
and greasing the landing despite all the strain, tension, and sleep
deprivation -- and earning that feeling of accomplishment that all
pilots earn ONLY after a well flown flight that taxes one to the
max.... among so many others.
I love to tell these tales, again and again... and I love to
listen to those told by others. But... somehow, they don't quite
sound as amazing as they used to... seeming as if some of the
luster has been ground off the bright shiny outlook of an
extraordinary activity.
There is (usually) no
lack of legends or folk tales among those topics that inspire
people to live their lives "larger" than they might otherwise have
pursued. Among the devotees of various sports, hobbies, adventurous
pursuits and the like, there are no small number of fables, stories
and legends that bestow the nearly mystical prominence such
avocations breed among those who build their lives around them.
Aviation should be no different... whether it be a good series
of hangar yarns or favorite passages from Jonathan Livingston
Seagull or Fate is The Hunter. There was, once, a burgeoning mythos
surrounding all things aviation... but in the last few years, these
delightful tales of lofty adventure, aerial daring, and
aeronautical wanderlust have been all but hidden behind the
horrific guise of airplanes posing as killers and purveyors of fear
and terror. It's hard to remember the bright and flighty tenets of
"Illusions" and Donald Shimoda's quest over Mother Earth when the
mere mention of aviation, these post-9/11 days, conjures
horrific visions of silver missiles filled to the rafters
with (mostly) innocent samples of our humanity ramming buildings at
full-speed, killing thousands and clouding a world in fear, doubt
and mistrust.
We may never get over those images... but it's time that we try.
We needed to substitute the myopic hysteria of fear with the
realities of what aviation really means.
It wasn't so long ago that the mention of an airplane brought
thoughts of freedom, adventure and all manner of notable
aero-stories... whether it be Sky-King or Jay-Jay The JetPlane.
Even during the darkest hours of our wartime past, airplanes
presented the means by which we protected our freedoms and
prevented the world from being enveloped by an evil darkness.
Despite the incredible visions of the cowardly attacks at Pearl
Harbor, aviation lore was soon filled with feats of bravery,
courage and skill as countless flyers took to the air to defend all
that they held dear. It was their sacrifices and outstanding
patriotism that helped to keep the world free. But, now, after the
events of 9/11, we can't seem to shake the image and memory of
airplanes as dealers of death and misery... and I think it is up to
we flyers to replace these destructive apparitions with a more
peaceful and powerful set of tales and images. Everytime we hear a
tale of an airplane as a death-weapon, we need to insert our own
knowledgeable tales of aerial travel, adventure and
accomplishment.
We also need to seek
out the new 21st century aero-tales that will provide inspiration
and solace to the flyers and would-be flyers of tomorrow. We need
to tell and retell these stories, again and again, to all who may
listen, augmenting the greatest of these tales with some of the
simplest (like those I related, above) to provide balance and a
human touch to the world of aviation... as an invitation to all who
might someday share our skies. We need to tell them to those who do
not (yet) truly understand what drives us to fly. We need to show
aviation and airplanes for what they are... one of the most truly
pivotal expressions of freedom known to humanity. We need to
collect them and make sure that the best and most poignant of these
gets passed from flyer to flyer, and from flyer to the rest of the
world, as often as we can manage... so that someday the images of
9/11 will be replaced by something kinder, gentler and far more
representative of the true nature of flight.
I'd also like to suggest one other idea... there needs to be a
place (Oshkosh comes to mind -- maybe on a cool night around a
bonfire), revisited on a regular basis, where flyers can gather and
share these stories for a few hours, so as to launch their
adventures among new ears, minds and spirits. We used to do such
things many years ago... and it may be high-time that we started up
again... to drive away the demons of 9/11 and welcome back the true
spirit of flight.
Blue Skies!
Jim