Living at an airpark, it’s easy to enjoy the sunset after a long day’s work. The remains of the day’s cumulous were giving themselves up to the darkening skies, boiling of into thin wisps of beauty as I climbed out to the practice area. A Mozart piano concerto shared my ear buds with the occasional radio call as the evening sun sank towards the horizon, the longest day of the year drawing to a close.
It’s only a few minutes from brake release to upside-down time from where we live, and the RV covers the ground and climbs to altitude eagerly, as if it anticipates the time as much as does the pilot. A few clearing turns give way to clearing rolls, the clouds pass below, and up into the waning sunlight we go at the top of a loop…no, let’s make it an Immelman….well, OK, drop the nose and let’s s go down again and call it a Cuban eight! Rolls in the climbs, Split-S’s when we run low on airspeed – the wisps now cutting the sun, then allowing it’s full red glare through the canopy as we slice through the sky.
Mozart compliments the sky so well, with slow and fast passages leading me through quick maneuvers and then gentle reflection. All too soon, my time is up, a few stolen minutes from a still-long list of things that need to be done. A few neighbors are stirring outside their hangars as I slide into the pattern – Ill let them catch the final rays before sunset as I touch down on one wheel, then the other and coast to our ramp.
Sunsets, cumulous, Mozart, and the longest day…..just try and tell me that aviation isn’t good for the soul….
Paul
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