Deep Blue Sky

Sundays are always full of adventure for a trainee pilot, double it up if you are flying your first solo on a Cessna Skyhawk. Capt. Diwakar was a trainer par excellence. His trainees could boast of taking on the skies solo within a month, and I was one of the fortunate few. But my Solo was unexpectedly pre-mature. I reached the airport expecting to have one final lesson from Don(the name by which Capt Diwakar was known to everybody). The wait for Don was not long and minutes later my phone ringed. "Hello Don, I am already at the hangar, waiting for you", I replied, Don was at the other end. "Hey! I am sorry but I am held up at the hospital, my son's not keeping well. I thought to inform you that I won't be able to make it today." Dissapointment writ large on my face, "I was thinking I would get a chance to fly Solo today after your final lessons. But it looks like I have to wait for another week." There was a moment of silence, then Don spoke from the other end, "Do one thing, meet the supervisor and take out the plane. Yes! you can go Solo today!". Was that some noise ? or did I hear Don clearly ? "Are you sure Don ?" "Yes my boy, I know you can do it! I would have been happy to be present while you were up there, but thats fine. Just sign up the register for a Solo flight and take out the Cessna. And do remember to inform ATC that this is your first solo. They will be alert in case you need help."

Moments later, the Lycoming engine roared and I pulled the throttle, making it a fairly smooth take off. My heart was throbbing faster than the engine in excitement! After the bird reached the required altitude, I climbed to a cruise altitude of 4,500 feet while heading East and pushed back the yoke to steady the plane. Though Don had recommended me to remain at 2,000ft, I still took the liberty of his absence to go up till 4,500ft. Little did I know that this would prove fatal minutes later.


I pushed back the throttle and was enjoying the landscape below when suddenly my eyes stopped on the oil pressure needle. It was fluctuating. I could feel the engine knocking. I couldn't believe what was happening. The only way to avoid any fatality was to make an emergency landing, but that being impossible, the only thing I could do now was pray. I started pushing down the ailerons hoping that losing some height would be helpful, the next best thing to do was turn off the engines, but that was out of question. I needed some power to stay on course. The strong tail winds were increasing my yaw motion whenever I moved the rudder. My decision to go down in altitude was disastrous. My left aileron got stuck. I tried hard to make it move, but it just got stuck. Any mistake at this time and I would be sent spiralling down. My prayers became more verbose.....

Suddenly a familiar object swooped down from above. It came by on my left, positioned and matched up to my falling speed. It was NOT an unidentified flying object. It was the only La-Z-Boy recliner in the world that could fly, all by itself. The occupant seemed to be too engrossed in his big bowl of green salad. But nonethless, He took a break to say Hello.

"Hello ?? Do I look like I am in a position to say Hello back to you ??"I replied while still struggling with the rudder. "Never mind...try some salad, its really fresh and good", God replied, not bothering to stop munching his bit. Either He was temporarily blinded by delicious bowl of salads, or He thoroughly enjoyed my pitiable conditions everytime."If You can see, I am stuck and my life is hanging on tenterhooks". "Tenterhooks ? No dude! its in my pocket" and He dipped into his pockets, really deep pockets to fetch something which looked like a contract paper."Hmm....I see, you have decades to live. So I would rather say you are enjoying a jolly good sky-dive on a beautiful Sunday afternoon." I was simply flabbergasted by His sarcastic remarks. Out of panic, I started pushing all the buttons and operating the levers, but to no avail. And suddenly my worst nightmare materialized. The plane started spiralling down as if trying to get into a vortex.

"Whee!! I didn't know that you could do that!" He looked excited at the prospect of watching a poor guy like me hit the ground like this. "Well, now you know." I retorted back."So are you gonna help me or not ?" I asked, with my expectation of help fast drying up. "Tell me dude, what help do you need ?" "I want to go down, as soon as possible", I replied, suddenly my eyes glimmered with a ray of hope. "Why do you need my help in that ? you are anyway going down, and that too as soon as possible! Ha Ha Ha." His laugh was like a fire extinguisher over whatever little hope I had. "I want to go down the right way, safe and sound, when I get out of the aircraft." He stopped eating and pushed aside the salad bowl. "Let me see what I can do for you" The spin was increasing and I was feeling as if I was being pushed into a vertigo."Ok dude, we had enough of fun. Let me get you down safely now. I have to rush to another place also." And then he moved him 13-inch wand in the air.

I couldn't believe it! I mean I could believe that God had super powers, but I couldn't believe that his sarcasm and torture this time was very short-lived. I was wondering what made Him act so fast when I could sense my engine revving up to life again."Thank God!" Ofcourse this was natural to come out of any mortal's heart when he's being saved from trouble, but I still thanked him. My first priority was to descend for a landing. 8 minutes later I was taxing down the runway towards the emergency hold area. The fire tenders and other emergency staff were already present. Everybody was in awe about my miraculous escape from a crash. The only thing running in my mind was to reach home and catch a much needed nap. I was busy fending off questions from the guys from the emergency services when somebody tapped on my shoulders....

"Dude, my salad bowl's empty. Can you help me fill this ?" "Sure Boss!", I replied. I had no qualms for his in-the-air jokes. After all.....alls well that ends well.....right ?

(The details of piloting a skyhawk are mostly fictional. It has been incorporated to create a dramatized scene for the event.)