Airshow

I’m a big fan of planes and have wanted to be a pilot for as long as I can remember. Being blessed with colour blindness (or poor differentiation) meant that those dreams would be dashed at the onset, but I’ve had the occasion to occupy a co-pilot’s seat every now and again. It scratches that wilding itch I’ve had since birth to throw off the shackles of gravity, if only for the moment, and head skyward.

I shot the eclipse from the Northeastern Kingdom International Airport in Coventry, Vermont. It’s a big mouthful of a name and, with two decently sized runways, can handle everything from Pipers to Gulfstreams. It won’t technically handle the big jets, but who needs them? It’s much more bourgeois to have Gunther and Sven fire up the jet in Teterboro and “rough it” with the proletariat in Vermont for a day.

However, aviation brings all sorts to the table, and not everything is pristine or as high-powered as a Gulfstream or Pilatus PC-12. There’s enough variability and eccentricity amongst the fifty or so aircraft that flew in to start to appreciate, just like I noted yesterday, the various expressions of humanity. From the experimental planes like the Ela10 Eclipse seen above to the Beechcraft Bonanza seen just below this sentence, every variation you could think of was on the stand.

Each plane disgorged its passengers along the highly organized tarmac. From couples to families, young folk to wizened older pilots, and every shade and expression in between, all could participate in the airport’s grandeur. Heads were craning around the corner of a hangar to spot the grey and maroon Pilatus with its deafening Lycoming (or Pratt & Whitney) engine in a similar fashion to the Bombardier Challenger, whose APU kicked in with a banshee-like shriek before engine startup. Everyone was looking at these planes with the same unmitigated joy as the eclipse, as if this was a private air show just for them.

Today is a shorter post, as it’s time for Spring Break to begin. My youngest is currently cleaning her room in what amounts to “spring cleaning” as, as she’s delightfully discovered, mixing chemicals in the toilet is liable to cause problems with breathing. I guess I’ll have to rectify that situation sooner or later. Brunch is in the offing tomorrow with a local restaurant providing decent celiac-friendly service, and from there, I’ve only had the challenge of managing her homework. We’ll see what the next few days will result in, but it’ll be fun regardless of the circumstances.

I hope you, too, find the unrivalled joy of awesomeness in whatever form this weekend. I hope you can dig deep into the marrow of your communities and connect with the earth and those around you. I hope the joy from the simplest pleasures winds from your head to your heart and livens your steps for the weeks ahead.

May it ever be so.