Why We Fly, Indeed: There’s Always Something New Out of Africa

Fundamentals of flight elude naming, but not feeling.

Peter Garrison

Tuesday, January 20, 2026 at 10:17 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Denys Finch Hatton with the de Havilland DH.60G Gipsy Moth in Africa. [Credit: Karen Blixen Museum]

Key Takeaways:

The author explores the profound, yet often ineffable, reasons why flying holds deep significance for pilots, describing it as an "elusive quintessence."
He finds a compelling articulation of this sentiment in the writings of Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), particularly her experiences flying in colonial Africa.
Blixen described flying as "the greatest, most transporting pleasure" and a "great new discovery," emphasizing the bliss of three-dimensional movement and its redemptive quality from gravity's "original sin."
Her significant flying experiences were with Denys Finch Hatton, whose life tragically ended in a plane crash, yet her insights remain a powerful account of the allure of flight.

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Deputy editor Jessica Ambats’ recent invitation to readers to write about why flying is important to them reminded me that, decades ago, then-editor Robert Parke invited me to write an essay on that same subject.

Elevated by certain intoxicants, I proceeded to produce a piece of passionate prose so uncharacteristic of these pages that Parke—or perhaps it was our often similarly elevated art director, Bud Loader—decided to present it as white text on black pages. A reader nominated it for the “Excedrin Headache of the Year Award.”