Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Autumn arrives on the soft ruffle of shuffling leaves...

Sept. 22, 5:18 p.m. EDT; 2118 Zulu...Fall officially arrives...The Almanac

Unofficial prediction from this weekend's fortune cookie: "Your world will be soon filled with flights of fancy and sights of joy..."

How's that for a knowledgeable cookie fortune?

Few times of the year hold more appeal for flying than Fall -- for all types of flying...personal, business, recreational, commercial...well, maybe not that last one...

The days' temperatures become ever-more temperate trending toward actually cool and ultimately arriving at actually cold. Our landscape seems like a wild changeling creature, departing the verdant greens of Summer and shifting softly through the color wheel of Autumn before arriving at the stark contrasty conclusion of trees laid bare against the Earth.

The on-and-off-again appearance of snow and ice at northern latitudes and the dull desert flatscape of western longitudes makes the passing of the Autumnal Equinox a barely detectable transition save for the words of astronomers and the shedding leaves of the deciduous trees.

While the shortening days become evermore detectable and the bands of colors wave across the continent week by week until we arrive at the Winter Solstice, the quality of flying across the landscape becomes an evermore appealing act.

To watch the leaves change from aloft, to relish in the smoother skies of cooler days, to anticipate that first white blanket of soft chilled fluff makes the shorter daylight opportunities more valuable with each passing day.

And thinking ahead to the aura of a moonlight flight across a snow-cloaked landscape draws me back to passages past, when the soft yellow glow of our only natural satellite gave the landscape below a texture and glow singular in its beauty.

So here's to the Fall flying ahead, to the challenges, yes, and to the wonders, most definitely.

With a nod to music that Fall always sends me back to, a few lines from the Moody Blues album "Threshold of a Dream," a piece of spoken-word performance called simply, "The Dream."

"When the White Eagle of the north is flying overhead,
And the browns, reds and golds of autumn lie in gutter dead,
Remember then, the summer birds with wings of fire flaying,
Come to witness spring's new hope, born of leaves decaying."

And as new life will come from death,
Love will come at leisure.
Love of love, love of life and giving without measure,
Gives in return a wondrous yearn for promise almost seen.
Live hand in hand and together we'll stand,
On the threshold of a dream."

Welcome to Fall flying, my flying friends...enjoy it while you can...and then, do it again.

-- Dave

2 Comments:

Blogger AP said...

I will on Sunday and the next weekend twice then 1 weekend off and once more this month.

Cheers Dave.

6:21 PM  
Blogger Dave Higdon said...

Waytogo!

1:54 PM  

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