Aside from the obvious, one of the coolest things about hang gliding is the way it can completely change your outlook on so many things, for no really good reason at all. It can turn a great day into an awful one with a bad landing or a bomb out or, like a few days ago, it can completely turn around a day that starts as one of the worst in your life. I realize that sounds pretty extreme, but maybe it's a bit like a going through a traumatic event with another person - a bond is created that can be strangely powerful - a good relationship can be saved....a bad one healed.
Although I can't stop thinking about every detail of my amazing flight the day before yesterday, what really strikes me most is how a flight like that can change your outlook in a way that perhaps makes it possible to rethink whether all is not lost. I spent easily 6 of the 8 hour flight yesterday with someone that I haven't always liked. But the time spent with that pilot 8000 feet above the ground, without the ability to speak to one another, seems to have sort of reset things. It feels like all the ill feelings that have lingered between us for over a year are just gone. We landed, we hugged and laughed and said all the things we couldn't say in the air, re-lived the flight for a while and the past just melted away. How cool is that! I don't know of anything else that could have had that effect on me and I am truly grateful for it.
The bond that we share as pilots really is an incredible one and the time we spend together in the air is more special than most people know.
1 comment:
very well put !!
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