flying with both feet on the ground

Picture: blue skies dotted with low puffy clouds, smoke from a charcoal grill, sunshine and grass, tents, the murmur of excited conversation, and the glorious sound of a chorus of single-prop airplane engines.

That's where I write from this morning - the Redstone Arsenal Flying Activity Open House. I won't actually be flying, but it's enough to see others being excited about flying. Some people are flying for the first time, or flying in a small airplane for the first time. 

The airplanes are all lined up, one after the next. It was a quiet morning, until the first - it was blue (Cessna something. Don't ask me.) - turned it's engine over. What a beautiful sound! The sound of fuel, ignited, flipping an engine. A propeller slicing through air. The plane just rocks a little. Pilot briefing passengers, doing some checks. Eventually a couple other planes start up. The symphony begins. 

The blue one creeps forward, and turns toward the runway. It's a slow process, getting a plane in the air, but it's entirely worth it. After final checks, the engine is put on full and the plane eases down the runway. It doesn't even look like it's going that fast - but physics happens, and up, up, up it glides, out into the blue.

And it's been like that for the hour since. A plane takes off; another lands. They dance on the taxiway. A plane takes off; another eager flyer is introduced to an aircraft; an excited and satisfied rider hops out of another; people chatter, people watch, people learn and listen and there's lots of smiling.

To think that there was a day when flight was just a dream in someone's mind. When it was just the myth of Icarus, the fancy of the imagination. But here we are! Three wheels, a prop, two wings and a tail. Fly on, dream up, go and catch the sky.