The Foreign Service Journal, May 2016

52 may 2016 | the foreign Service journal The Joy of Flight By Br i an Carlson I n the 1970s’ Embassy Caracas, a generous ambassador allowed embassy families to ride on the mission’s airplane when it went to nearby countries. The fare was free, but the desti- nation and timing were unpredictable. Our first trip in the DC-3 to Bogota and Quito included a weather diversion to Guayaquil. It was the beginning of a Foreign Service career enlivened with aviation. In addition to the Pan Am flights to and from posts in South America and Europe, there were small airliners to places like Canaima’s dirt landing strip. (The pilot turned circles over Angel Falls so everyone could see it!) During the Cold War days, I felt liberated every time a sparkling, modern Austrian Airlines DC-9 lifted off from a dingy Warsaw Pact airport. In the early 1990s, I felt a little shiver of trepidation when boarding doubtful-looking Aeroflot TU-134s in the Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union. But the best were flights in small aircraft, close to the ground. For a Cold War parliamentarians’ tour, a U.S. Army helicopter flew 500 feet above the ground, doors open, up the fortified border between West and East Germany. In Norway I experi- enced float plane flying—taking off and landing on breathtak- ingly beautiful lakes and fjords—which cost less than using an airport. In Latvia, in a Soviet-design MI-8 helicopter, the Minister of Defense marveled that a few years before it would have been unthinkable to take the American ambassador across a country- side then dotted with Soviet military installations. When I retired, I learned to fly. Piloting challenged me to use long-neglected skills. Acronyms, numbers and rules must be memorized to pass Federal Aviation Administration tests. The Foreign Service never required much math, but even simple cal- culations of wind and compass deviation certainly do. I learned to use hand-eye coordination in new ways, not to mention steer- ing with my feet. Navigation by “dead reckoning” is as treacher- ous as it sounds. It was a thrill not only to pass intermediate checkrides, but to fly solo and, eventually, to receive a private pilot, single engine, land certificate (PP-SEL) from an exacting examiner. An eight- man partnership in a 1967 Beechcraft plane made flying afford- able. Then I got my instrument rating, which means I can fly not just in daylight visibility, but also in clouds and darkness with air traffic control’s help—just like the big jets. (Well, not as fast, not as high, etc.) A few years ago I partnered in a Cirrus SR-22—a newer, faster and more comfortable airplane. Then I got my FAA commer- Pilot Brian Carlson volunteers with Pilots ‘N Paws, a national organization through which pilots volunteer their time and airplanes to fly dogs and other animals from euthanasia shelters (mostly in the southern states) to new homes with adopting families (mainly in the northeast). COURTESYOFBRIANCARLSON