The Sights We See

A blurry shot, but those are thousands of birds

Flying is an intensely visual experience. From day one, our instructors drill the idea into our heads that we need to look out the window. You have to look outside to see what the plane's attitude - orientation - relative to the horizon is, you need to look outside to spot other planes and airports, you need to scrutinize visual cues as to what the wind is doing and whether you're on glidepath to the runway. In this dynamic three-dimensional world, there is lots to look for, perceive, process, and respond to. And in all this searching for optical information, sometimes the most significant part of the picture is lost in plain sight: the view.

If I were to be honest, I think the view is one of the most basic, visceral reasons I became a pilot. It sounds trite, I know, but it's the reason I take the window seat every opportunity I get, the reason I hike the highest mountains I can find. There's just something about seeing everything from above that is hard to describe, but oh, so fascinating to experience.

Just today I was remembering that aspect of why I'm a pilot as I sat in the right seat, coaching my student through traffic pattern practice. He's in Stage 2 of private pilot training, meaning he already has the fundamentals down and has finished a few solo flights already. So it's a bit less work for me now and I can sit back more while he flies a fairly good-looking pattern. As he does the flying, I can steal lingering glances at the world beneath our wings, and there's always something interesting to see when I take a moment to look: a long string of UPS trucks winding their way out from the distribution center like a procession of little brown caterpillars; Canada geese scattered along the side of the riverbank; a family in the park that appears to be having a barbecue - oh, wait, that smoke isn't from a grill. Looks like they just fired off a model rocket. Lovely. Some things are better not to see, ha!

The views never get old, but sometimes I forget that reality as I get hyperfocused on whatever training objective we're trying to accomplish. But every now and then I catch sight of something really neat - perhaps a giant cloud of birds rising up from the wetlands and undulating across the landscape like a shimmering flying carpet, or splashes of bright blue lupine fields shouting the arrival of spring from the borders of Folsom Lake - and I just have to remind myself that I'm so lucky to have such an amazing office view.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm still pursuing the elusive end-goal dream pilot career. But I also have to admit that the journey is at least half the fun. I believe it's important to do what you love. And while you're doing what you love, remember to also love what you're doing.