It was a disparate group of musicians, artists, pilots and friends attending Craig Peyton's art exhibit called "Environmental Forms." As diverse as the members of the group were, they had one thing in common-their enthusiasm. It was contagious. The multimedia exhibit combined three of Craig's loves-music, photography and aviation-and was composed of six video segments of air-to-ground movies that Craig had originally photographed from his Mooney 201. There were also framed stills from the videos mounted on the walls. The video clips depicted stunning views of the world taken from above and gave the non-pilots in the audience an idea of the incredible sights that we pilots get to experience on every flight. For the pilots, it was a reminder of how lucky-and how privileged-we are to have a front row seat as the earth unrolls beneath us.
Gordon, a pilot who had met Craig at the Sky Acres airport, was at the exhibit with his non-pilot friend Dana. At 46, Gordon said, he had decided it was time to live his dream, so he bought a Grumman Traveler in which to learn to fly. Dana was one of the first people he took for a ride after he got his license. She was hooked. "I remember one time we watched the sun set twice. It was magic!" she enthused. After they had watched the "first" sunset from the ground, they took off in the Traveler and watched from their airborne perch as the sun dipped below the horizon for a second time. Though she's not yet a pilot, I think Dana has caught the aviation bug. And after watching Craig's footage, Gordon's enthusiasm has flared up again and he's decided it's time to do some long cross-country flights to see the country for himself.
Watching the way the non-pilots at the exhibit responded to the secondhand experience of viewing the earth's tapestry from a small airplane, I wondered how many people I've exposed to and infected with the aviation bug. If I don't count those who came into the FBO for introductory flights and went on to take lessons with me or other instructors at the flight school but only consider those I met and infected from casual contact, there aren't as many as I would have thought.
Let's see, there was Tami, a summer intern at Bell Labs when I worked there, who caught me sneaking out at lunchtime to go to Morristown Municipal Airport, where I was working on my commercial certificate. Once she learned what I was doing she was infected and began taking lessons. I don't know if she ever finished. I do know her aviation enthusiasm was dampened by an overzealous instructor and an unfortunate first solo to the practice area during which she got lost and was still trying to find her way home after dark. Had her instructor given her some basic instruction in navigation and radio work before signing her off for solo, that flight wouldn't have been quite as traumatic.
