|
FS: What kind of flying have you done outside of the USA?.
JOHN: We've flown in places like Australia, England, South America, and the Caribbean, and so on. I think the biggest thing you learn from all of that is the universality of people who fly and how special they are. One of the things that flying does for you is strike a common chord with other pilots. Once you strike that chord, it opens their soul up to you and you can talk with them and share things, and get further along in a friendship than you ever could if you didn't have the very special thing of flying in common.
I think the second observation I have about flying all over the world is that we all have to be very, very vigilant to make sure that we continue to have the right to fly. Wherever you go, we're at risk for losing the ability to fly in various places because of increased regulations, and I think it's just very important for all of us to realize how precious and wonderful it is, a right to be able to fly in aircraft, and that we all be alert to it and make sure that we maintain that right to fly.
When we flew in England I had very great difficulty understanding the people on the radio. They say that America and England are two great countries divided by a common language. I think that can be true: I would have to make the people repeat two or three times what they were saying. I finally got the best cooperation from a controller when I apologized to him and explained to him that I was just learning to speak English! There are just a few nuances in how they say things differently in England and Australia and places like that. So, you're a little bit surprised and it doesn't come as easily and automatically to you no matter how many hours of flying you have.
MARTHA: When we went to Australia, we had the wonderful privilege of flying with some friends of ours from the southeastern corner around Canberra all the way across through the middle of Australia to the northwest and then back around the coast. And, we did that quite low. The middle of Australia is just an incredibly beautiful area, but it's also incredibly remote. And, one of the things that that really focused us on (in a way that you tend to lose if you do most of your flying in a metropolitan area like Southern California or maybe the New York area or something like that) is that a general aviation airplane is just an incredible way to get a wonderful sense of what the country is like. We would drop in on remote outposts and farms that had just a dirt or clay strip and spend an afternoon with people there. We just got to know some wonderful people and to see some wonderful things that-- there's no way you could have possibly done that in any other mode of transportation other than general aviation. As we said earlier, it opens up such a magic carpet to you. But also, because you're flying above the ground but fairly low as opposed to driving or on a train even, you get a real sense of perspective of how far this kind of remote country extends in places like the Outback in Australia and how mile after mile for hundreds of miles or almost thousands, it goes on and on. And you get the sense of the ebb and flow of the rivers, of the people, of the focus of the land, that is very hard to get unless you have that kind of overhead perspective.
Click image for a larger picture
JOHN: And flying in England, we saw castles, we saw the river Thames, we saw the White Cliffs of Dover. We went out and looked at them as if we were coming to England for the first time and saw that very formidable barrier that really kept England from being attacked for so many years and was so terribly important to the security of England. From a little airplane, you sit there and you can see it all. And you can see castles and how they're located and why they're located there, and how the terrain affects where people built cities, and why the White Cliffs of Dover were strategically important to England. So you can learn so much and so quickly in a little airplane.
MARTHA: It seems funny to say it but a little airplane can really give you a great sense of history.
FS: What kind of aircraft did you use to cross Australia?
MARTHA: It was a [Cessna] Caravan.
Next: Scary Stuff
|
;)
;)
