The Magic of Flight
_Casual The Magic of Flight My father, who had only, and numerous, daughters, could be wistful. Once, staring off into the sky, he said, "/ wish someone would ask me what kind of a plane that...
...He recently finished courses in aerodynamics, engines, meteorology, and navigation, and now he has a few weeks off before starting the next phase...
...We saw impressive antebellum brickwork and the place where Geronimo and scores of braves once were imprisoned...
...He took us to the base where he trains...
...They are regular Navy jet pilots, assigned to the Blues for two-year tours...
...I took advantage of the chance to get Tom's advice about replacing my own profoundly undistinguished car...
...round-edged World War II planes evocative of Bogart...
...But it took the IMAX movie The Magic of Flight to stun us with the drama of aviation...
...Tom, his sister Hilary, and I spent three days touring and talking...
...We listened to Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally" speeding back toward Pensacola in the dark...
...Once, staring off into the sky, he said, "/ wish someone would ask me what kind of a plane that is...
...As for me, nothing I brought home from Florida pleases me more than the knowledge that the plane Tom will begin training in is a T34C Mentor...
...Their rigorous training is not so different from that required of everyday naval aviators who routinely perform the impossible feat of carrier takeoffs and landings...
...After dinner, we climbed onto the roof for a view of the Hale-Bopp comet...
...Then Tom said, "Mom, have you ever heard of a book called Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus...
...It also captures the pilots' professional pride...
...He took us to the National Museum of Naval Aviation, and at last here were planes up close—gorgeous, mighty contraptions in all shapes and sizes...
...On the second day, we went west, across Alabama and into Mississippi...
...In the Confederate cemetery there, a stone marker affirms: "No nation rose so white and fair,/None fell so pure of crime...
...Our first day, we drove to Fort Pickens, which guarded the entrance to Pensacola Bay for a century, until its fixed-artillery defenses became obsolete...
...For me, the trip uncovered a whole new world: secondarily, a southern world of palm trees and live oaks, of white-sand coastal islands alive with pelicans and black-headed gulls...
...The movie is a paean to flight in general and the Blue Angels, the Navy's famous stunt team, in particular...
...After our sandy beach outings, he meticulously hosed it down...
...I wish he had lived to know his grandson Tom...
...and the arrowlike F-14 Tomcat that Tom is teaching me to respect for its long reign as the finest jet fighter in the world...
...I'm glad Tom is going there...
...He takes care of it, too...
...He bought it last summer when he got out of college with a loan from the Navy...
...The boys pointed out stars and constellations, as if rehearsing their beginner's knowledge of the heavens they will soon inhabit...
...My father was from Texas, and I want his grandson to know the distinctive culture of that great state...
...For the first two days, the machine at center stage was Tom's Mustang...
...Shortly, the four of them are moving to Corpus Christi, where they will start to fly...
...It's a small, neat plane painted orange and white, with one propeller, and if I get to spend any time with the guys down in Corpus, I'm confident I can learn to recognize one in the sky...
...I'm just back from visiting Tom in Florida, where the Navy is training him to be an aviator...
...The huge, fat-bellied, seagoing biplane that was the first to fly the Atlantic, in 1919, was there, and fierce green Huey helicopters from Vietnam...
...Every time one did, Tom would say as if by reflex, "Sound o' freedom...
...It's a fully restored 1970 medium-blue-metallic convertible, and I could tell from the reactions of passers-by that it's a real prize...
...Our destination was the museum in Ocean Springs dedicated to Walter Anderson, who brilliantly painted the creatures of this shore...
...He asked me how much I wanted to spend...
...Later, on the far side of Biloxi, we took in Beauvoir, final home of Jefferson Davis...
...The Blue Angels are based at Pensacola, and the film juxtaposes heart-stopping footage of their exploits with shots of Gulf birds flying...
...But on the third day, the climax of the trip, Tom's lovely car was upstaged...
...Then we drove east along miles of unobstructed seashore, followed by miles of serried beach houses and condos...
...I made a little speech about all the competing demands on my limited funds, all the household repairs and improvements I have in mind, and there followed a silence...
...That night, back in Gulf Breeze, Hilary and I made flank steak and strawberry shortcake for Tom and his housemates, three handsome fellow pilots-to-be...
...Uniforms suddenly were everywhere, and in the background, planes taking off...
...Tom handles it with liquid smoothness, so that after the first unaccustomed moment you don't notice the lack of a seatbelt...
...Claudia Winkler...
...primarily, a world of strong, sober, skilled young men and their marvelous machines...
Vol. 2 • May 1997 • No. 33
