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The engine of the Robin DR300/120 is on and to my relief the propeller starts straight away.
✔️ Visibility and clearance on either side
✔️ Windsock direction
✔️ Clearance to go confirmed on the radio
✔️ Brake release My small and sturdy aircraft is in motion, and I am taxiing towards the runway
✔️ Runway clear
Radio message “Fox-Juliet-Golf ready to line up”
✔️ Controls on the dashboard
✔️ Good to go I glance at the empty seat next to me and then in the distance at the man standing in the carpark near the hangar, my instructor.
This is my first solo flight.
My heart is beating so fast. I experience a mix of excitement, tension, calm & focus.
Calling each step of the checklist out loudly, confidently and methodically.
✔️ Power - more power – movement – speed - pulling on the stick and before I know it, the wheels are off the ground.
I am flying!
What a unique feeling of peace, joy, lightness, freedom, and presence. Exploring the world from a different perspective. Looking at the local landscape from above, I see a colourful and vibrant topography map unfolding below me.
My focus is sharp, all senses engaged, feeling every movement of the aircraft. Listening to the changes in the engine sound with the occasional intrusion of the radio messages from local aircrafts communicating their position.
Eyes scanning the horizon, right, left the instruments on the dashboard, the map on my lap.
Fully in the moment, being one with the machine!
An ‘airplane mode’ embodied experience.
Being one with technology is what most people owning a smartphone experience every day. The device lives in our pocket allowing us to see the world from a different perspective with less altitude and, more often than not, we reach out to it in autopilot mode.
Do you know that you have an ‘airplane mode’ [1] function on your phone?
Also known as flight mode or offline mode, it is a function that you can activate on demand to disable your phone’s ability to connect to wifi, bluetooth or data. As a consequence, you cannot receive or make calls, send messages, or browse the internet or social media. However you can still listen to music, take photographs, write messages offline, save them to send later, and play games.
"I put my phone on airplane mode but it's not flying". [2] - Unknown
If you are part of the less than 20% of the world population [3] who has ever been on a plane above ground you might remember being asked to activate this function before take-off, throughout the flight and until landing. There are vital reasons to do so.
Airplane mode is useful on the ground too:
It saves battery consumption as the device is not constantly scanning for the network or signal
The phone charges faster when it is offline (that’s worth knowing)
Lastly this airplane function is very useful when we want a chunk of time uninterrupted by calls or notifications. For example, when we sleep, study, do bedtime reading with children, practice deep work or engage in a creative or relaxation practice.
Be in the pilot seat:
This month I invite you to be more aware of the automatic behaviours you have with your device, when you are on autopilot.
What are the 3 activities you could enjoy with more presence and focus if your phone was offline? What chunk of time feels right to experiment with? And when will you do it?
Activity | For how long? | When? |
e.g... Write in my journal | 10 mins | With my morning cuppa |
1. | | |
2. | | |
3. | | |
To explore your autopilot habits, or learn how to make good use of airplane mode, get in touch to arrange a free conversation and explore possibilities. I will be fully present and guarantee it will be 15min of your time invested mindfully.
[2] Anonymous quote found on coolfunnyquotes.com
[3] What percentage of the world’s population has flown in a plane? - See fact 20
Image credit: Photo of me... just after my first solo flight.
'Airplane mode' icon by flaticon
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