The Wonder of Flight

A family of five traveling in an airplane with four seats presents certain obvious problems. As a result, we've not been flying with the whole family since before the twins were born. While She Who Puts Up With Me and I have been on a couple trips (such as our Gunflint weekend a few weeks ago), we haven't taken any of the kids up with us for something like two and a half years. The last time Scooter (now five) was flying was when he was two, and he had completely forgotten the experience. The twins have never been flying in our plane.

This gave me the opportunity to reintroduce Scooter to the wonder of flight. This evening, we were talking about airplanes, and I suggested, out of the blue, "Why don't we go flying tonight?"

That got his attention.

The weather couldn't have been nicer this evening, so after clearing our plates from dinner, we drove to the airport. I gave Scooter a quick lesson in ramp safety (which, for a five-year-old, boils down to "A propeller will chop you to bits if you get too close, so don't go anywhere without a grown-up"), and while I preflighted, he watched in awe at the variety of airplanes taxiing past the hangar.

In addition to the usual collection of Cessnas and Pipers, we saw a pair of flying boats ("Wow, daddy, they can land on the water?"), a twin turboprop, and a couple of experimental hotrods.

Finally it was time to strap in. Another quick cockpit safety lesson ("Show me how to unbuckle your seatbelt. Good. Now don't touch anything unless I say you can, and if I tell you to be quiet, you need to be quiet") and we were off.

Every moment of the flight brought a new question:

"Why are there so many lakes?" "Because this is Minnesota, and this is the land of lakes."

"Why are there lights on the ground?" "Because the sun is setting, and people are turning on their lights so they can see."

"Who are you talking to?" "The man in the control tower. His job is to keep airplanes from hitting each other."

"Why do you do a runup?" "To make sure the engine is working before we take off."

"Why are there so many rides at Valleyfair?" "That's how they make money."

Valleyfair is the local amusement park, which just happens to lie right beneath the approach to runway 36 at Flying Cloud Airport. I promised we'd fly over it, and since we were on final approach, Scooter got an eyeful of the roller coasters from only about 500 feet up.

The drive home gave him an opportunity to exercise his creative genius as only a five-year-old can.

"Daddy, you and mommy are going to build a jet."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. And I can invite Max to fly with us. And Nathan, too. And Lindsey. And Jack, and Matthew. We can all fly to Texas!"

"Texas, eh?"

"No, not Texas, Florida. And Kate can come. And Mindy, too."

"That's a lot of people in our airplane."

"Yeah, lots of kids. But no parents, except you and mommy. The parents can fly themselves."

"You've been thinking a lot about this, haven't you."