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See, Hear, Smell, Touch, and Taste General Aviation

by Mr. Flight on September 6th, 2006

Someone forwarded me a link recently to this NPR story where listeners were asked to send in clips of their favorite sounds and talk a bit about why the sound had meaning for me. A reader wrote in talking about the sound of gyros spinning down after a flight. Pretty much everyone here knows that sound well. As the reader points out, the slow winding down coincides greatly with what the brain is doing at the same time.

The clip made me think about all of the other senses that appear in General Aviation and how they greatly add to the experience.

Sights: One of the most memorable sights for me was seeing the perfect rainbow for the first time. I had heard of them, but had never seen one until cruising across upstate New York at about 8,000 feet. I looked down across some broken clouds below and there it was… A perfect rainbow in a complete circle… not just an arc.

Sounds: I would agree that the sound of gyros spinning down is a treat, however I’ll say that the sound of a float plane approaching for landing is special. With the power back you can hear the “whistle” of the floats being dragged along and the splash at touch down is quite special too.

Touch: My favorite touch sensation flying is the feeling of the yoke during a soft field take-off just as you’ve left the ground and are still building speed in ground effect.

Taste: Other than $100 hamburgers, there are not too many tastes specifically tied with aviation. But my most memorable aviation taste are those HUGE drumsticks everyone eats at Sun-n-Fun. mmmmmm….

Smells: There are lots of nice, and not so nice, aviation smells. 100LL comes to mind. However I think the smell I most often associate with flying is the smell of new sectional charts. I don’t know if the smell comes from the ink or the paper… and I can’t really even describe the smell, but it is a smell I will always associate with aviation. I’m almost embarrassed to say this but whenever I get a new sectional chart I always open it up and take a whiff… just to make sure it smells right.

Have any favorite aviation senses of your own? Share them in the comments below!

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POSTED IN: General Aviation, aviation