My Pilot Hat - Part Three

Although my official lessons were over, once I moved to Florida I still was able to fly. I felt more confident being in planes with friends since I knew I could take the controls and even land if they became unconscious for some unknown reason. (That's what always happened in movies)

Dyan and I would take her airplane out on afternoons and fly to Key West. We would taxi onto the runway at Ft. Lauderdale Airport, very close to the commercial jets and wait our turn to take off. I had a set of headphones to listen with Dyan to the tower but I still couldn't figure out what they were saying. After we ascended and had flown over Miami, Dyan would let me fly the plane most of the way. It was so exciting to just follow the thin stretch of land down to Key West. However, on one such flight, Dyan grabbed the stick and pulled up very sharply. Another plane had come out of a cloud and was much too close to us. We didn't have the control tower telling us "traffic at 11 o'clock", just Dyan's sharp eyes.

On one of our trips home from Bimini we discovered the radio was not working just as we climbed away from the airport. It was pins and needles as we neared Ft. Lauderdale but the guardian angels were with us and the radio started working about five minutes before we had to report to the tower.

I have never lost my dislike of planes. I did, however, learn it wasn't as much the fear of flying as the claustrophobia of being confined in an airliner. I originally thought small planes were more comfortable and as Bill had once told me, if the engine stops in a small plane, you can glide them back to earth. If a jetliner stops, it just plain falls down. Sadly, he wasn't exactly correct about the gliding. Three pilots I have known have perished in their planes. One "glided" into a mountain, another "glided" into the end of the runway at Bimini and my dear friend, Dyan, went down near Grand Turk Island and was never found. She evidently glided pretty well because her plane and life raft were spotted. There will always be a mystery to the story. Somehow Dyan was lost to the sea and never found.

Nowadays I only fly if there's no other way to get there. Give me a good road trip any day. I know its more dangerous than flying but I still feel more comfortable being closer to terra firma.