Taking a spin

I hadn’t seen David for a while. Years, in fact. I was surprised when he asked me if I wanted to go for a spin. Well, maybe not surprised so much as delighted.

Suddenly, I was strapped in and we were there, passing above leafy suburbs where, through the haze, a great city lay before us. Although the cockpit was small, it wasn’t in the least claustrophobic. With the canopy around me, I felt like I was sitting outside. We were skimming buildings and streets that deepened into gullies, quickly crowding with red buses.

In no time, the highlights of the London skyline were filling the view, passing underneath us and gone. Thames, London Eye, Telecom Tower, my favourite – Centrepoint – I didn’t have time to reflect on memories. Tilting suddenly, The Shard, The City, the Thames again with its barges of rubbish, Tower Bridge, Greenwich and Canary Wharf. We were doing 720 knots, only hundreds of feet up. I realised I was holding my breath.

David is a good man. No stranger to this environment. The cream of an elite breed. I have no problem speaking of elites in this context. It is where the term is at home. And in this physical context was David at home. Disaster was a split-second away all around us and moving faster than I was able to think, but the inside of the cockpit was complete calm. David moved gently and with the measured control of a Buddhist monk making delicate preparations for his daily meditation. There was nothing in our universe of which he was unaware and to which he did not have a response. We, and our surroundings, were under complete subliminal control. I was content to trust this man with my life.

And now we tilt quickly again, with vapour streaming off the wings. This time to the left, a deep turn to head north and over suburban red roofs – Wanstead – catching snaking Tube trains out on the surface, then out across the smattering of Essex towns. David speaks to the ground and moments later I sense a gentle thud as the gear locks down. A tiny, precise strip illuminates in the green distance and I know in my heart that we won’t miss it.