AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2014 - 14

WAYPOINTS

BY THOMAS B. HAINES
Editor in Chief

First Flight reflection
Where time seems to stand still
THE SLASH IN THE TREES became
visible from some 15 miles north
as we descended out of 4,500 feet.
A couple of miles beyond and easily spotted was Jockey's Ridge State
Park, the massive sand dune that is
home to kite flying and hang gliding in the shadow of Kill Devil Hills,
North Carolina-where, for pilots,
it all began. As we approached, the
slash widened and it became evident that buried somewhere in the
trees was a runway. A few hundred
yards south, high on a hill, stood
the memorial to the Wright brothers-the same hill from which they
launched their gliders from 1900
through 1902, each year bringing
greater and greater refinement to
three-axis flight control.
As I was established on a left
downwind and feeling nearly
ready to turn base, the trees
finally revealed the approach end
of Runway 2. With the gear and
approach flaps already down, I
cranked my old Bonanza around,
added final flaps, did a final GUMPS
check, and set up for a landing at
the most historic site in aviation.
THE AUTHOR and his daughters at
First Flight Airport in 2001.
For only the second time ever, the
Bonanza touched down on the
3,000-foot strip of pavement first installed in the early
1960s. We back-taxied to the large parking area and
stepped out to admire the view of the monument, anxious to visit the site where the brothers first launched
on their powered flights.
The landing at First Flight in May rekindled the
same emotional response it did the previous time I had
touched down there, nearly 13 years earlier and just a
month after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
That trip was my first flying around the newly fortified Washington, D.C., airspace after general aviation
EDITOR IN CHIEF
returned to the skies during that tumultuous time. My
Tom Haines flies
wife was in the back keeping the girls entertained as we
his Bonanza A36
touched down for a visit to First Flight. I had them take a
for business and
pleasure.
snapshot of me next to the airplane with the monument

14 | AOPA PILOT July 2014

visible in the background-to this day the only photo of
my airplane in my office, although a little faded now. And
while my oldest daughter just graduated from college
and the youngest finished her freshman year in college, it feels like the airplane, First Flight, and I haven't
changed at all. I still think I look like that young man in
the photo, and the airplane still looks the same-on the
outside. Inside, with a new interior and new glass cockpit since the last visit, the old girl looks a lot different.
One significant change to the First Flight landscape
is the addition of the "pilot shack," which AOPA funded
as a gift to pilots in advance of the 2003 centennial of
powered flight. Although we at AOPA call it the pilot
shack, it is not a shack at all, but a modern facility complete with much welcomed restrooms for pilots and the

Time seems to stand still and we can
reflect on how far aviation has come
in such a short time.
public, and a flight planning room with computers and
charts. Access to the room is restricted to pilots by the
use of a keypad, with the code noted as the "VFR transponder code."
In looking through my photos from that 2001 trip, I
found one of me talking to Park Ranger and Historian
Darrell Collins. Collins, a lifelong resident of the Outer
Banks, is known around the world for his mesmerizing telling of the Wright brothers' story on the Outer
Banks. I've heard him tell the tale at banquets and
events numerous times since, and was privileged to
hear it again this year as he kept a group of AOPA visitors spellbound for an hour-including walking us from
the Wright Flyer replica in the museum out to the rail
from which the brothers launched their fragile flying
machine on December 17, 1903.
First Flight is a magical place where time seems to
stand still, and we can reflect on how far aviation has
come in such a short time. A landing at First Flight
should be on every pilot's bucket list. If you're lucky
you'll be there on a day where Collins is your host.AOP
A
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2014