Political liberalism is nationally ascendant, with a crisis to exploit. Unthinkable sums are being thrown at “the problem” – with amateurs driving the bus. Serious thinkers wonder whether the underlying premises of such social activism are fatally flawed (while leaving themselves open to broad critique as to the rigor of their methods). And everywhere, I believe, normal folks like you and me wonder where the bottom is, or even if there is one. Does our economic system find the floor and bounce back up? Or does it crash right through our accepted orthodoxies, leaving us in previously unimagined, undiscovered territory? Which probably isn’t as cool as it sounds.
Beats the hell out of me. It’s too big to wrap my noodle around. I was driving the Kat to the barn yesterday and listening to NPR when even one of their announcers spoke of the burden we were laying atop her generation’s shoulders. I felt an actual twinge of guilt at what we’ve done to the world our parents gave us, and what we will leave behind.
Sometimes things are just too big to contemplate. So yesterday I went flying.
Nothing special, a little Cessna 172N from the local flying club. The Skyhawk may be one of the most popular light utility aircraft ever produced in mass quantities, but a heart stirrer she is not. Still, if your short term goal is to gain a handle on the moment, to feel transitory control over your environment (and do it legally), the 172 will fit the purpose at $94 to the hour.
Parenthetically, it’s funny how spoiled a military aviator can get: When I first started training in the T-34, it seemed like an awful lot of airplane. As a retractable landing gear, turboprop aircraft with a constant speed prop, fully capable of aerobatic flight and equipped with a (then) bewildering array of communications and navigation gear it just seemed like an awful lot for a novice to handle. A few years later, I ended up getting a ferry flight from Fallon in the T-34 as a two-thousand-hours-in-fighters lieutenant commander back in the late 90s. It seemed like a wee, fragile toy. After a self-imposed addiction recovery process of several years out of the air, I got back into the flying game last year in the Varga. A few months back I saw a T-34 from Miramar on the Montgomery flight line, and was suddenly impressed with the machine again. There’s some “cycle of life” stuff for you.
I was 18 years old when N214AF came off the production line at Wichita. I’d like to think that of the two of us, I have aged better, but it’s a near run thing, and the lines are converging. What cannot be denied is that I have changed more – sitting in the cockpit takes you back thirty years in time. Imagine getting behind the wheel of a 1978 Dodge station wagon at base trim, and you’ll get the picture.
Still, fully functional and well-maintained. Which is more than we can say for the machine’s operator, yesterday.
General aviation enthusiasts speak of flying across the country without ever speaking to a controller, or indeed turning the radios on. In the Navy however, there’s a decided preference for filing an IFR flight plan “whenever practicable,” which is mostly. I still feel a little guilty about flying VFR truth be told, especially when in close proximity to Class B airspace like we have here in San Diego. Filing IFR is a bit of a hassle for a local flight, and it comes with certain restrictions – not least of which is angry mail from the FAA for deviations from the flight profile. “Flight Following” under VFR conditions is a neat way to split the baby, though. SoCal approach are a nice group of folks to talk with, and they help you remain clear of participating traffic.
Airways navigation up to Oceanside, then an ILS approach to Carlsbad via the HOMLY transition. Navigating with a pair of “to/from” course deviation instruments rather than a GPS-aided INS and moving map tend to keep you focused on the task at hand, and clears your head of financial meltdowns and generational guilt, at least for an hour or so.
You’re never going very fast in a Skyhawk, and the thing weighs about the same as an old VW bug. Which means that the winds can push you around a bit, and you have to factor them in when tracking a radial, or flying an approach. Staying “on the rails” during an ILS approach in gusty conditions is a chore, and the alternative is a certain philosophical acceptance that there will be deviations above and below glideslope. Just as long as you don’t accept deviations, but are always correcting back to the ideal you should be in good shape. It’s best to center about the mean, which is probably good advice elsewhere in life.
SoCal approach was waiting for me on the transit back to Montgomery, helfpul as always. When you’re only making 80 knots or so good over the ground, you have the leisure to look around rather than watch it all unfold below you in a blur. Still using the instruments to navigate, you are nevertheless reassured by familiar landmarks. Ramona passing down the left, Black Mountain ahead, then Gillespie field – partially hidden by “Rattlesnake” mountain, less for the prevalence of genus Crotalus than for its history of reaching up and biting the unwary aviator in night or IFR conditions.
Vectors to ILS final at Montgomery, two laps around the pattern and it was time to put her away and get back to life as it is commonly lived in these uncommon times.
Another 1.4 for the logbook. Meaningless in the larger context of several thousand flying hours, but time well spent.
Lex, you’re definitely a half glass full kinda guy. Now quit goofing off on a perfectly good day, and get to work on The Book
Glad you got out to have some fun, Cap’n!
Lex, you have a pretty big megaphone, and your “noodle” is quite capable of wrapping itself around the issues of the day. Oh, and people would actually listen to you.
Ditto’s on listening to Lex. And by the way: When Lex says “We” I think that is in the royal, being polite sense only – I mean, I’m conservative, vote conservative, support conservative people and causes, and I am VERY angry at the Republican Party for (1) their drunken spend-a-thon while in power in Congress, (2) at our recent past President for his failure to lead on issues other than the war – and even there he needed to get out and call traitors just that, (3) at all the people around our recent past President for failing him and us in not forcing him to lead on economic issues and/or to speak better about just about everything, (4) at the Repubs inability to put up a decent candidate the last go-round, and (5) just really blisteringly at Congress as a whole for being the money / populist whores that they pretty much all are. I don’t really want to blame myself for what we currently have running the show, nor for the dummies who voted them in.
I think it is going to take a genuine third party movement to replace the Republican Party.
The Republican’s need to acknowledge that their oppostion to regulation at all forms and unrestricted trade policies have led to the stagnant wages for the working class for two decades. You can’t be a majority party if you leave the majority of the company falling further behind in the economic sweepstakes.
Now this would sound like a siren call for the Democrats but their solutions to these problems always make things worse.
We are going to have increased immigration in this country and if we don’t figure out how to educate them to make them valuable taxpayers we are going to be buried in social costs. This is going to take pragmatic approaches that sadly are not part of the ideological (red campaign contribution driven) politics of both major parties today.
How exactly this gets pulled off is the hard part to figure out. It also am life long Republican and it starts now by me hanging up on their fundraisers when they call me every week.
Nothing improves a foul mood like a few hours in an airplane, any airplane. My wife noticed early on in our relationship that my disposition after flying is completely different than my usual grumpy accountant’s demeanor, and thus has never complained too much about the cost or my absences. Especially now that I can take the kids along for the ride.
Churchill once said that “the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man”, but I suspect he really meant to substitute “airplane” for “horse”, and made a rare verbal misstep .
Amen, Pitts. Got 0.7 in the T-Cart yesterday moving it from the hangar to the home strip 2 miles from the house and got my fix for the week. Three inches of snow on it this AM.
Well, it is still March around here.
I’ve always felt it is truly better “up there”. I expect feeling of sailing to be a close as well – expecially if one ventures over the horizon.
While the rejunvenation in spirit is real the realization of the fuel tanks finite capacity tinges the emotions bittersweet.
My bird is down for maintenance and I long for the sense of freedom it inspires.
Lex — you have just described why all it took was one flight in a piston twin, based at Montgomery, to make me see the error of my ways. I hied my own-self north to pursue my ATP in the friendly front office of the Cessna Citation.
And why, anything less than a Cirrus, is simply not an acceptable substitute. That “cycle of life” thing takes me even further back than you — to much simpler T34B. Not interested in that trip down memory lane, when what I am really interested in is getting from pt. A to B, at 150 KIAS.
Enjoyable and thoughtful post, Lex. That’s why I stop by.
Thanks for a nice Sunday afternoon read.
Brian
TC6pilot … I have never flown a plane, but your comparison with sailing [in a sailboat] hits a nerve with me. My husband and I had sailboats until we began damaging our aging bones too much and gave them up. But the beauty and serenity of taking the boat out and just lazing happily around on weekends is something I still dream of.
Sometimes, one just needs to get away from the regular round to get a long enough view of current problems to get a fix on solutions. And rediscover once more the haunting beauty of our beautiful world. Some do it in aircraft. Some do it in boats. However you do it, it’s necessary for the sanity to come back.
Marianne
Mrs. Mathews (may I call you Marianne?)
Yes getting away is vital – something I have to remind myself from time to time. In my youth I enjoyed hiking and backpacking along the Appalachian Trail in Virginia were I grew up (not so far from where xairboss lives now ) and I have a hankering to rediscover the connection with nature and tranquility of a night under the stars far from the pollution in all forms that is part and parcel of city life. Probably not up for backpacking but semi-primative tent camping would serve the need. Thinking of a trip to the Big bend area to take in some of waht my adopted Texas has to offer in the ways of scenic beauty.
I admit to being seriously depressed at the state of our country and the direction we are heading. The consequenses are readily discernable for those with the motivation to read even the slightest bit of history yet somehow we (at least our so-called leaders) are so arrogant we think the rules don’t apply to us. Its as if Congress decided that gravity being a nuisance decided to repeal Newton’s Laws. So I’m seeking simplicity of life – something a number of posters here seemed to have figured out by design or necessity long ago. As Virgil pointed out to me recently – I’m a slow learner.
Marianne..
I know what you mean..we just sold our ’72 Columbia 36′…at 70..just can’t handle by myself anymore…such is life…
TC6Pilot … [I'd be pleased as punch if you did call me Marianne.]
Texas has some beautiful places to get back to nature. Big Bend is lovely, but extremely primitive. Downs did a Big Bend trip back when he was in his 60s, and it was a bit of a strain, since once you get into that section of Rio Grande country it’s quite difficult to get out again. But I’ll get him to post here about some other of the gorgeous Texas wild places. He’s an expert. Texans drive such far distances because it’s such a big-sky big state, with many differing mini-climates and beautiful secret places to visit. It’s easy to get away from even the largest cities into the country-side.
Downs adds: Big Bend leads in the state as a place to get away from it all, provided you go in the cooler months. Summer heat not only wilts tourists, but the vegetation as well. Easiest way to do is to go the “Basin” and rent one of their cottages or rooms and eat at their restaurant. Many trails start there or pass close by. The National Park Service’s Handbook No. 119 covers everything. An alternative might be The Palo Duro Canyon State Park. This Grand Canyon of Texas is well worth seeing as well. It was home to the Comanche Indian tribe for a century, before the army found them and rousted them out.
If you want further info, Downs is the resident expert and has all sorts of ideas. Ready to share them, too. After all, he’s 84, and has lived here all his life.
We’re somewhat depressed, too, but Downs says that some these most awful ideas are today’s version of “let’s run this up the flagpole and see who salutes.”
I wonder if a Bronx cheer counts.
Marianne, and her most constant critic and cheerleader, Downs.
But the 172 Skyhawk is one easy ship to slip. N8402U. Soloed in it in April of 1973.
Flying is like hitting the reset button. (Note: I said “reset”, not “overloaded“). There’s lots of ways to do it but flying never fails. Just got the class 2 renewed and will be getting air time next week. It’s been too long for those of us with ice and snow.
Lex: I’m a Jepp chart fan too. More betta than the NACO plates. Let’s see: Practicing ILS approaches in the plane and new sim yoke/pedals /throttle. Could it be that you’re getting ready for an instrument check?
Wilko/
In New Orleans that’s “mo’ bettah,” Get with the program, guy!
Lex,
Most of my 172 time was with Norva Navy FC out of NAS Norfolk. Lots of IFR back and forth to DCA for meetings, back before 9-11.
I always enjoyed the PAR approach at NAS, just have to float long to miss the arresting gear. It was just about centerline on a Cessna nose wheel, so 50/50 chance of turning it into a “nosehook” (Doh!)
GOOD HEAVENS! Lex is YOUNGER than me! EEK!
Lex: I’ll have to check the logbook, but I think 4AF was the one that took me and a young lady to Catalina for a Jazz fest camp out weekend, in the long ago…good times!
Dang Lex, and all the rest of you, I was depressed enough but now it’s even worse. The T28 sits in the hangar collecting dust and bleeding hydraulic fluid from the hand pump I’ve rebuilt 3 times, while the 46 Navion sits on the ramp….both unflown since 2002. I’ve all but given up on getting the medical back, but can’t make myself get rid of it all.
Damn, I miss it! (except for the FAA stuff)