Checklist

Preflight- Wheel, fuel, fuselage, empennage, elevator, tail, elevator, empennage, emergency beacon, fuel, wheel, flap, aileron, lights, leading edge, strut, check the tank, nose wheel, oil, fuel strainer, radiator cowling, prop cowling, prop blades, wiring, static air inlet, check the tank, pitot tube clear, stall warning clear, strut, leading edge, lights, aileron, flap, door.

Does she love- does someone love me, does she?

Door, seat, lock, window, belt. Brief the passengers. Inspect stowage.

This is your captain speaking, and the sky is very near-

fuel selector is on both, avionics off, electrics off, circuit breakers-check in, prime as required, primer in and locked, mixture is rich, carb heat is cold, throttle is in 1/8 inch, master switch on, CLEAR! turn the key, sput-sput-sputpow and going, a double blade a spinning disc, throttle to 1000 rpm, check oil pressure-in the green, avionics on, transponder to standby, radios on, radio check? radio check. release brakes, taxi-

forward or not, it doesn't really seem to matter.

centerline-

the runup

brakes-test and set, flight controls free and correct?(waggle) transponder is on standby? (punch test, watch the telltale glow, its tale spinning chuckling in the electrons behind the plastic) cabin doors closed and locked, elevator trim and rudder trim to takeoff, check on elevators, mixture rich, throttle to 1700ALIVE! -and check right magneto, left magneto, carb heat three four, watch the revs drop, dipping in time to the coaxing of the engine, switch hands for the carb heat(airplanes don't feel the touch of lover's hands, do they? Should they?)

check engine instruments (oil pressure in the green, suction in the green, fuel gauges at top, ammeter at positive, flip alternator switch and watch the low voltage light yell indignantly,) throttle to 1000 Down and set flight instruments, artificial horizon, altimeter to 145 (field altitude) and check the gyro against the magnetic, set it with the damn knob that's recessed too far to really use normally. transponder to ALT and 1200, the aircraft thrumming now, tasting the air it's throwing back over its body in long luxurious Bernoulli creations of silver and exhaust, the elevators quivering slightly as the slipstream slaps the left side of the tail in a constant acrimonious rebuff and the time is coming!

The part of the checklist that doesn't apply! Air conditioner, autopilot off, cabin heat, and scan the skies, pick up the mike

HELLO WORLD, I'M TRYING, I'M REALLY TRYING I SWEAR TO GOD, AND I WISH I COULD JUST GET OUT FROM UNDER HERE(three niner november traffic, cessna november six four zero niner zero departing two eight three niner november)

parking brake off, the nose begins to move, to point itself out into the tarmac, the inevitable painted lines helping you along with a smile as the airplane turns nose down its own private altar and the throttle is pressed back into its recessed housing and the engine begins to scream in uncontrolled delight (feet on the floor, off the brakes, give her right rudder, hold centerline) and the bumping increases until the spine might go and then there is magic and the nose is trying to press itself against the horizon and the ground is falling like a lost thing

down there's my life, and down there's my normal way of life, and I can't seem to keep it in my pocket when I come up here, and I wonder if that's bad? Can it be bad? Why? Why do I need it? Because the airplane will in a short while, to come down and be loved and fed, and babied like everything else in the world and like I have been more than my share, but for now it's MINE and it's carrying me everlasting higher through the regions of the air

love?no, an airplane

and as I look down from the tears above my eyes and the aching in my chest I see the ground is very near