The Sky is the limit...

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” Leonardo da Vinci 

I was sat watching BBC 2's "Skies above Britain" last night and it got me thinking about how people have different relationships with flying. The Episode last night contrasted the incredible Paul Bonhomme attempting to win an unprecedented 3rd Red Bull Racing World Champion, and a lady called Lynne with an overwhelming fear of flying whose wish was to overcome it, so she could revisit Australia to scatter her mother's ashes. (A number of airlines offer a fear of flying course, should you suffer similarly)

For me, flying is something that has always been close to me. My Grandfather was a mechanic in the 2nd World War, tasked with repairing and maintaining the greatest of British Icons, the Spitfire. Every time I hear the roar of the Merlin engines, it takes me back to a time when my Grandfather was still alive listening to his stories. The sound of the Rolls Royce engine brings out goose-bumps time after time to this day.

As a schoolboy I gave serious consideration to applying to the Royal Air Force as a fast jet pilot. Lack of proficiency in Maths and Physics was enough to ensure it wasn't meant to be, additionally the fact at the time that out of every 3000 applicants only 1 would make it through to pilot the Tornado Aircraft, I decided perhaps I wasn't cut out to be a "Top Gun" - some might argue that was defeatist, that dreams are to be pursued. Perhaps, but I had to be realistic too.

As a teenager, I joined the Air Training Corps (The ATC Cadets) and as a result was lucky enough to go flying in Gliders and de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunks. There was something magical about turning up at an airfield, dressed in an ill-fitting pilots suit (you had a choice of 2 sizes generally, skin tight half mast, or baggy - the aim was always to get the baggy one - being the jean trend of the time) and being tasked with attaching the rope to the base of the glider. Being on the smaller side as a teen, it was several years before I was able to take the front seat (weight distribution is fairly critical!) and still remember the take-off (winch operated, 0-60 time is about 2 seconds!) and the serene silence of the flight broken only by the high pitched squeal when the pilot put us into a near vertical dive and found myself staring down at the ground from several thousand feet with only plexi-glass between us.

The Chipmunk was incredible, a simple single-engine plane but to a 13 year old I may as well have been climbing into the cockpit of an F-14 Tomcat. Following the safety briefing (the dreaded worse case scenario to be pre-empted with "Jump Jump" from the pilot, which was to be acknowledged with "Jump, Jump, sir") Pilots helmet and oxygen mask on, seated in the rear (compulsory sick bag close to hand) and being given control ("You have control" - "I have control sir") was what I imagine it to be like to be God. I still remember the thrill of actually being in control whilst doing loop the loops, barrel rolls and stall turns. The thrills, the g-forces, the momentary weightlessness.

Fast forward many years, several jobs, 2 kids and a mortgage, that love of flying has never left me. I still get butterflies to this day, turning onto the tarmac and hearing and feeling the engines rumble into life before the pilot releases the brake and off you shoot down the runway. It's a sensation that still makes me grin like my 13 year old self climbing into that Chipmunk.

Flying doesn't come naturally to us, perhaps that's why it feels so incredible. To soar amidst the birds, thousands of feet in the air and gaze out of the window watching the world turn below, for me will never grow old.

But perhaps the significance of flying is to allow us to be. To commute, for business, to holiday, to visit family and friends scattered across the corners of the globe. I confess to having a tear in my eye when Lynne taxied down the runway face contorted in fear and anxiety, but as her Easyjet flight became airborne that changed to an emotional display of happiness and relief. What some of us take for granted, was for Lynne overcoming the biggest obstacle in the way of fulfilling her wishes, and an incredible moment to be part of.

I leave on the words of the American Aviator, Charles Lindbergh: "Sometimes, flying feels too godlike to be attained by man. Sometimes, the world from above seems too beautiful, too wonderful, too distant for human eyes to see."

So how do you feel about flying - does it hold a special place in your heart, or just another way of getting from A to B?