The Taste of Joy

I am a PIC. A Pilot-in-Command of various types of [fake] aircraft.

Yes, fake, as in not the full physical you-can-touch-it kind of aircraft. That, however, does not mean they are not real.

For the most part, it's accepted and understood that we retain five unique senses.

Taste
Smell
Hearing
Sight
Touch

Sight and hearing apply to the aforementioned fake aircraft. You may even stretch it a bit further and include touch. I know...I know. I just said the opposite, but more on that later. For the remaining two, taste and smell, I am loathe to consider, if anyone has ever tasted an aircraft, whether real or fake. As far as the scent of things go, elements, such as oil, avgas or jet fuel, and other odoriferous indicators usually found around real aircraft, can and do assail your olfactory receptors. Those who are, or have been actual pilots revel in those scents. Yes…to a non-pilot that sounds weird. That may very well be true.

Shortly after the Pleistocene Ice Age came into existence, I found myself gifted with the opportunity of sharing the three-dimensional space owned by those feathered denizens who were naturally imbued with the capacity for defying gravity. Somehow I convinced the Government of Canada to give me their stamp of approval at the conclusion of my (at times), very questionable efforts at departing and returning to terra firma - thankfully intact and without inflicting any personal or collateral damage.

They did that twice. First, by granting me my Private Pilot’s license and then *gasp* a second time, when they bestowed upon my person, a certificate weighted with even more responsibility - a Commercial Pilot’s license, replete with a Multi-Engine Instrument Rating!

So, what does this have to do with fake aircraft? My flights of fancy now involve managing the resolution of moving pixels on a screen, trusting the creators and developers of said pixels, have completed a sufficiently credible job of convincing me that what I’m seeing and hearing (and to a lesser degree, feeling), from their efforts, is sufficient to evoke emotion, nostalgia, but more importantly (and ironically), an escape into (not from) reality - one in which I no longer have the opportunity to slip the surly bonds of earth (of my own accord).

There are many who go to great lengths to replicate the reality of flight. To establish the verisimilitude of one of the most unique modes of travel known to mankind, no small amount of money is expended on accessories - such as flight controls, rudder pedals, throttle quadrants, FCU and MCDU panels, along with innumerable software and flight utility add-ons. Those with seemingly unlimited capital, may go so far as to get haptic feedback seat pads or full on “Butt-Kicker” seat components, while some build their own in-house multi-axis, full-motion, enclosed cockpit simulators. One can be forgiven for feeling a tad envious of those who breathe the upper-level atmosphere of obscene economic privilege. Those of us who are trapped below an inversion layer of diminished liquid assets, may never get to experience the simulated “touch” or feeling of a bounced landing, or the effective g-forces from a rapid wing over into a diving bombing run to a ground target.

Other aspects extend the boundaries of reality surrounding flight simulation. Software has morphed into the twilight zone of AI. An area which even to a discerning ear (and eye), it's difficult to distinguish what is real, such as Air Traffic Control (ATC). ATC communication can and does include real, breathing carbon-based life forms. There are manned (yes with actual warm bodies) ATC services which provide identical-to-real-world navigation and separation profiles for the remote voice on the other side of the microphone. Time and technology have traveled to a point where it seems reality has inverted on itself.

When I actually manhandled physical aircraft, geographically I was located on Canada’s west coast in British Columbia; a mostly mountainous region of the country, so being acutely aware of your surroundings, other traffic and the insidiousness of Pacific coastal weather patterns mixed with mountain-induced updrafts and downdrafts, were mandatory requirements.

You may never get the same hyper-aware sense of risk, or undercurrent of consequence while sitting in an unmoving chair (butt kickers notwithstanding) but flying fake aircraft can feel real. With the advancements in graphical fidelity, aural improvements in sound and yes, including components of motion applied to your butt, even for someone who has never physically flown an aircraft, the various parts can come together to provide a more than reasonable facsimile of one of the greatest joys I have ever been blessed to experience.

I am extremely grateful for the honour of having experienced the joy of being a real-world pilot; may you find your joy in the present, as you reminisce on the blessings of your past.

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” – John 15:11