Living Under The Flight Path...

 We ran an errand this morning which required us to drive a little farther than usual...about sixty miles out of our way. You could not have picked a better day to do it--it was an incredible morning.

Even saw some planes.

When we lived in Davis County, we were not quite under the flight path. Then again, we probably were. We were too east to have planes fly on a landing pattern--the north/south corridor, but if planes were taking off to the north and needed to turn east, they'd sometimes fly directly overhead our house.

This morning, looking up at an inbound Delta flight, it reminded me of watching the planes.

I paid more attention to the plane because where we now live, seeing any plane is an unusual event. It's not like the sky is totally devoid of planes up here...just few and far between. 

Years--decades--ago, you could drive just north of the Salt Lake airport, at the end of the runway, and watch the big jets take off. I can't remember if we were able to actually park on the road or not. They eventually closed the road. It would be amazing to be able to watch them take off and land from the end of the runway now.

I guess the next best thing is to be on the ground looking up as the fly overhead.

It's funny. I'll bet not many people down below even acknowledged the plane above. It's such an ordinary occurrence, happening dozens of times every day.

Still, it's still a modern miracle, and it was fun to see.

Cliff Poncier Said It Best..."I Miss Those Planes"

 There's a scene in the classic film, Singles, where Cliff Poncier waxes nostalgic about the time he used to live near the airport and no one wanted to visit him because the planes were so loud. He was sad and lonely because none of his friends would come to his cookouts, but he said he missed those planes.

When asked what he was talking about, Poncier said, "I don't know."

We have wide open skies here in Northern Utah, fewer people, too. And with fewer people there are fewer planes in the air over our heads. We used to live between the Salt Lake International Airport and Hill Air Force Base...lots of planes.

I don't remember a lot about my father, but I do remember he used to fly a lot. Back then you could drive right up to the runways and watch the planes take off and land, and sometimes we used to take him to catch his flights and we'd see the planes. For obvious reasons, we're no longer able to get so close to planes, but if I could, I would love to sit and watch planes take off and land all day long.

I also liked watching the passenger jets fly over our house where we used to live, but I really loved seeing the air force jets scream across the sky, especially on the Fourth of July.

Tonight, as we sat under an incredibly beautiful sky, I watched a jet fly overhead. It's such an anomaly now. I sat and watched it cross the sky, the vapor trail disappearing slowly as it passed. It was beautiful.

Cliff Poncier said it best, "I miss those planes."