No Yoops, Papa

“No yoops (loops), papa.” This was the deal I made with my grandpa, a pilot, before I would board any flight  from birth until age eleven. I loved flying and sitting in the cockpit but the fear of going upside down was overwhelming.

Thirteen years later, flying and yoops, have become the center of my life. People often ask, “what is your favorite thing about flying?” I began realizing my answer was different each time, a decent indicator this is something I really care about. They include:

The view from the cockpit is amazing. Seeing the earth’s shadow at 45,000 feet, sunsets, cities glistening at night, cloud formations and lightening storms (from a distance) are all incredible experiences, every time.

The feeling of climbing on top of the clouds on a dreary overcast day to a bright world of marshmallows and cotton balls blanketed with bright sunlight.

Flying alone is the only place you are truly isolated. Pull the power to idle, turn the radios off, and it is just you and the sound of air streaming past the wings. No one can watch or say anything to you.

I love flying formation. The challenge of mentally overcoming the instinct to pull away from an airplane that close and the requirements to work as one unit to fly just a few feet from another airplane is exhilarating.

Similar to how looking at stars puts things in perspective. Looking down on cities and the earth has the same effect.

The country seems smaller.

Finally, the most common answer is aerobatics. I love turning airplanes upside down. It is a freedom of expression unmatched with anything else I have found in this world. Adding an additional axis of control and an empty sky is the perfect recipe for fun.

This diversity of “things to love” makes it great and long term passion. Below is a video I shot yesterday of my flight complete with aerobatics in a 1943 Boeing Stearman.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

   -John Gillespie