Flight...what does this word mean? It does not so much describe a thing, as it describes a dream, a dream to slip the bounds of this Earth and slip into the magic wonderland of the sky, where whispy clouds and whispy dreams play amognst one another, dancing to a tune we can not understand. To fly is freedom, to reach is challenge, to dream is adventure.
When humans first flew, in their crude gliders, it was the realization of this adventure, of this challenge, and of this freedom. From those humble beginnings, we now can fly faster than anything alive, faster than the speed of sound. We can do anything we choose, and to fly is this truth. Beauty incarnate, is the airplane in flight. To hear a true pilot describe this wonderland, is to hear a lover talk about their partner. And that's what flying truly is, to those who choose to fly for the flight, not for a job, or for bragging rights, or even for pleasure. It's something that one must have, in order to survive, just as sure as someone needs oxygen to breathe, they need the feeling of flying, to be one with the sky, and be one with the heavens.
When someone talks about flying, he or she invariably ends up talking about combat. What makes this singular form of fighting so appealing? Is it because of the danger? The intense excitement? The feeling of controlling two tons of firepower, having it at your whim and every bid and call? No, it’s because of the man that controls the beast. Those chosen few, perhaps picked by God himself, to do battle in his own realm.
Air combat is not about trying to maneuver yourself into position, or simply about shooting the other pilot down. It’s about two people alone in the sky, pushing themselves to the limit, and beyond. Every nerve, every blood vessel, pushed as far as it can go, and then demanded that it do more, that it give everything it has, and then some, to defeat a singular opponent. Forces thousands of times more powerful than what one can normally experience on Earth are thrown at a pilot, as he struggles against his own body, to finally attain victory.
And indeed, when a pilot achieves total mastery over his or her aircraft, they do seem to become something more, something greater than human. Like the old ship crews of old, they become a part of their environment, and truly, they become one with the heavens, because no one else can truly know them as well as they do, and for all eternity, they carve out a place in the sky, to be remembered forever in the halls of time.
To become a pilot, a true pilot, it is not training, or skill, it is heart. This heart, kept and shared throughout every true pilot in the human race, still beats, and always longs for the sky, and the want for the adventure that it offers. Once you realize that you have that heart, then, and only then, may you truly become one with those who scorch the heavens, and burn their names into history forever.
------
What you think?
