The Wonder of Flying: The Sights, Sounds, and Smells

I am currently in training as a Combat Systems Officer for the Air Force which is an 11 month program involving massive amounts of academics, seemingly innumerable simulator missions, and some fun flying in the T-6 and T-1.

Right now I am in the midst of a long stretch of time spent in a building with no windows studying, which can be incredibly draining when you go days without seeing the sun.  As you can imagine it is easy to forget about the wonder of flying when you are in a classroom watching presentations and listening to lectures.

That being said, all it takes is a step outside and seeing a jet fly overhead to remind me why flying is so wonderful.

Pretty much anyone can appreciate the wonder of flight in all of its many facets.  There is just something magical about a giant piece of metal soaring through the air at extremely high speeds.  I have spent countless hours just watching planes take off and land.

While many people enjoy flying or even watching planes, there are not many people who would say they like the sound.  I, on the other hand, absolutely love the sound of jet engines in the morning.

Hearing the igniters firing, the engine light-off, and the slowly growing whir of the turbine, really gets my blood pumping in the morning.  Even more incredible than that is hearing a military jet push the engines up and seeing the whole airframe shake just aching to be let go and lift off into the sky.

It is the type of sound that works its way into your whole body and is not just something that you hear, but something that you feel in every part of your body.  The kind of feeling that cannot be described with words, but that can only be understood by those who feel it and love it.

I am paraphrasing here, but I love the saying that, “Once a man has flown in the air he will never be content to be on the ground because his heart will always long to be back in the sky,” and that is more true than I could ever have imagined.

I am incredibly tired of being in classes, and spending week after week in a closed off building, but it is a small price to pay for a career which gives me the opportunity to spend hundreds of hours a year in the sky, in essence living where only the birds do.