Elegance of Flight

[Calvin Waterbury]

Romanticism and flight have always flown in formation. Many times when you see a romantic story there is an aviator and his aircraft involved. Many flight stories involve romanticism. I have always held a feeling in myself which is not to dissimilar from what I felt as an OTR truck driver. This was especially true when I drove the wide-expanses across the Dakotas or under Montana's "Big Sky Country."

I cannot think of flying without a rush of genuine emotion separate, but similar to other intimacies of life. Watching your two year-old child discover a hummingbird for the first time or watching him/her look up in wonder at the night skies strewn with countless trillions of points of light. I could enumerate numerous other close moments, but I am trying to be brief.

Is it "normal" to see participation in the choreography of pilot, GPS, NAVs, COMs, ATC, etc. interaction as more than just a mere and mundane exercise of a "ToDo" list? The reason I ask is because I have not yet achieved that level of "elegance" in the operation of my flights, but I feel like I should. I feel like there is an epiphany of understanding just beyond my present cognizance. Don't worry I am not losing my noodle, but for a half-century I have held this framework in my mind when I have an interface with aviation. There must be a reason.


I am asking this as an open question to pilots and non-pilots alike. Am I daft if I expect the responsibilities of a pilot in the operation of his aircraft and flight to resemble a symphony and ballet or am ? Does anyone else ever feel like this or am I need of looking for a lost noodle?

[Keith Smith]

I don't think you're alone, there. I've done a small amount (relatively speaking) of VFR and IFR flying and have thought about your post. For IFR flying, it's definitely a balancing act (for a single pilot with limited nav equipment, especially) to take care of business. Just last night I flew SBA to LGB in the sim here at home, (KWANG5.KWANG CMA VNY V186 ADAMM V394 SLI) in a Baron with dual VOR and DME. Even with alt hold, heading hold and NAV mode, it was still a handful and I was almost constantly busy making sure the aircraft was tracking on the current leg, that I was equipped to identify the next turning point, and that I knew where I was going after that. Each time I'd completely one leg and got setup on the next leg, it was time to look a ahead and work out what was coming after that. The workload was almost non-stop.

For VFR flying, it's a completely different picture, but there is absolutely a concert of activities that can all happen to lead to a successful outcome. There is nothing like visualizing a pattern entry, executing it, managing the energy state of the airplane, blowing through all the flows, nailing each leg of a nice, tight pattern, and getting it down in one smooth, continuous descent to touchdown. Very little is driven by a serial checklist, much of it happens instinctively, and all towards the execution of a well-known plan. Once you have visualized what you want to do, it's so much fun to do it.

The pilot's view of a perfect flight can be very different to what a passenger would consider to be a perfect flight. If you look at the execution of a student pilot's solo cross country flight and compare it to a more seasoned pilot executing a similar flight, I suspect there would be a number of differences, and high on the list might be the word 'elegance'.

A good comparison would be when I was learning to drive stick with a professional instructor. I was getting it done, but it was far from elegant. Transition 20 years later to a Sunday drive in the 6-speed convertible, and it's a very different picture.

You will get there, if that's what you're wondering.