Morning Flight
Early mornings in the high desert are almost always
cold. This was one of those exceptions in the middle
of summer where at 4:00 AM it was almost balmy.
Opening the hanger door in the silence of predawn
darkness, reveals the airplane out of it's element,
on the ground instead of in the air. Preflighting with
the aid of a flashlight reveals nothing unusual.
Anxious now to be in the air, I hurry and climb up on wing
open canopy and slide into the seat. There is just a tinge
of light on the eastern horizon. Quickly taking off I begin
climbing in the silky smooth air needing to get altitude
quickly before sunrise. Climbing through 12000 feet the
plane is getting sluggish as it is reaching it's maximum
altitude. Just then the sun appears over the horizon. It's
almost magical seeing sunrise at this altitude with the
earth still in darkness. Seems like I'm the only one in the
world watching the day begin. The world is asleep except
for me. It's almost spiritual and a rush of emotions occur.
Solitude and a sense of well being accompanied by a feeling
of oneness. The soft early morning light becomes brighter, and
wanting and needing to re-experience this remarkable feeling,
I throttle back and quickly drop down below the sunrise horizon
back into the inky darkness where I orbit waiting for another sunrise.
Once again the sun appears bathing the airplane in sun****ne,
Again the magical feeling and it is not diminished the second time.
It is still mesmerizing. A feeling of being one with the universe.
Repeating it again and again until am only a couple thousand
feet above the ground provides the final epiphany when the sun
strikes the ground and the rest of the world is awakened. The
low angle of sunlight provides a base relief that makes the detail of
every feature of the terrain of the high desert stand out starkly
almost in a surreal painting of a soft reddish glow of
the early dawns sunlight. Turning for home, I am overcome
with emotion that the privileges of being an aviator has given me.
Gene Taylor
<genetaylorn586gt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
