Fear and trust
I learnt to fly in my 30's. It had been a lifelong dream of mine and finally whilst living in America, I learnt to fly. Taking control of my first solo still stays with me today. Those 10 minutes of pure exhilaration I can't possibly explain. I had trained and trained with an instructor and the day came when she jumped out the plane and said "it's all yours".
I have hundreds of stories from my time flying. Some scary, some funny, some that will put you off flying forever. But one sticks out more than any other.
My wife was a serious photographer, but hated flying. But she wanted to get some great autumn shots of Upstate Minnesota during the great changing of colour of the trees. Because I had not fully passed all my exams I could only fly solo. To take a passenger, I needed an instructor. The day was good. Weather was pleasant but we had a low cloud base. So we had to stay below 2,500 feet. I was not allowed to fly in anything other than Visual Flight Rules.
The plane I usually flew was already out so I booked a newer model of the plane. This was a brand new plane.
My wife got in the back, plugged her headphones in and off we went. Her headphones allowed her to hear everything that was going on, but she could not communicate with me as they didn't have a microphone on them. We taxied out to the runway, cleared for takeoff and set off at full power.
Because the newer plane had more power it climbed at a rate that I was not used to and within minutes the plane climbed into the cloud.
As I said, I couldn't fly in anything less than clear sky. I uttered a polite vocalization of the situation, my training kicked in and I brought the plane safely and quickly below the cloud base. To make a small plane descend quickly the safest way to do so is to throttle back on the engine and point the nose to at about 45% pitch towards the ground. It's a safe and practiced procedure. I'd learnt to do it 20 or 30 times. I was in complete control of the situation.
Both my instructor and I turned around to see my wife, pale in colour and gripping onto anything she could with all her life. She had heard me shout "Damn", then the engine noise reducing to zero and the plane diving towards the ground! No wonder she was white as a sheet. She didn't have the information to understand what was going on in the situation. It was out of her control.
How often does that sound like our lives when we experience fear? Life is not in our control and something out of the ordinary happens to upset the status quo. Fear will swarm into this situation if you let it. Except you have the power to overcome it. You have the best and biggest friend to help.
God never puts you in a situation he knows you cannot handle. You will be safe in his hands.
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10 [NIV]
And our response should be:
"When I am afraid, I put my trust in you." Psalm 56:3 [NIV]
Unless there is a spider in the room…
Steve Fogo
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment