Flying Back

I've flown a lot in my life. Starting with small(ish) prop planes which my step-dad flew the family around in, way back in the 70's, to 747-300's which have taken me to different continents.

There have been adventures:

Loosing all electrical power over Kalamazoo in a Beechcraft Baron turboprop.

Having to pull up at the last second in a DC-9 and do a fly-around in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, because a small herd of deer had wandered out onto the runway.

Losing one engine in a Piper Navajo over Lake Erie because of our pilots miscalculation on a fuel tank switch. Getting airsick for the one and only time in my life on that same airplane in a summer storm over Bad Axe Michigan. (You think I'm making this up?)

Missed being bombed out of the sky in a 747 over Lockerbie Scotland by literally one flight.

But there have also been utterly beautiful flights in which the weather or the scenery, or both, have made it an absolute pleasure to be in the air. Or those with special memories, like the two flights I've made to return home with new babies after completing adoptions in foreign lands.

Tonight, I'm inspired to write about my latest flight. Not that it was anything like the adventures above. No, this was just an evening flight to Providence, Rhode Island. But there was something special about it.

On the ground, there's nothing particularly beautiful about the town of Providence. But on this early summer evening it appeared to be just about perfect.

We had finally overtaken the cloud-bank by the time we got close to the coast. But they were just close enough behind us to mingle with the setting sun and create a beautiful orangey-pink western sky and a glow over the whole city. We flew in low, and the city was already lit up with it's own orange sodium lights on streets, buildings and parking lots. We flew over bright green diamonds with little-league games underway. Boats made their way up the river with the foam of their wakes glistening in the late sun, and some just bobbed at their moorings out in the bay. The Atlantic was a deep, dark blue by this time. And the long shadows off of the old, historic buildings downtown gave it a postcard look.

But at some point, I finally realized what it was about this flight. It was more than just the sights of this lovely old town on a perfect, warm summer evening. There was a wonderful normalcy conveyed by the scene, but there was also a normalcy that I felt on this flight. This was my first flight since returning to a career that has included all types of flights (reference the above!), and it felt good to be back "on board". Flying to some place I'd never been, to meet someone I hadn't known before. This is what I do, and I've missed it.

After I picked up my rental car, I headed north on I-95, quickly passed through little Rhode Island and drove into the surprising woodlands of central Massachusetts. I rolled down the windows and enjoyed the warm night air.....breathing in the normalcy!