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Thinking
About Learning to Fly?
Mankind has always
wanted to fly. Now, you have the opportunity. Give it a go.
Flying
is easy, affordable, FUN and most importantly it is safe. Learning to fly is a
lot easier than people think. You don't have to become a commercial or military
pilot to fly. You can be part of general aviation – arguably the most important
sector of the whole industry.
Today there are thousands of people just
like you learning to fly. They come from all walks of life and have a variety
of reasons for wanting to be a pilot. Some fly to expand business opportunities,
others to explore careers in the aviation industry. Some are looking for an activity
they can share with their family.
Most of us just fly for the sheer fun
of it, Why? Because we can! Once you've made the decision, it's time to begin
training.
Fly like Daedalus and not like Icarus. Part of the ancient
Greek Story is reproduced below.
........... It was only a matter of
time before King Minos learned what had happened. The death of the monster was
in some ways a relief, but the loss of his prisoners and his beloved daughter
was a deadly insult. As Daedalus had feared, he realized at once that there was
only one person who could have helped Thescus - the maze-builder himself. Though
Minos was angry, he still wanted Daedalus to work for him and he imprisoned him
with his son Icarus in the centre of the Labyrinth. All the tools of his workshop
were moved there but the entrance gates were heavily guarded by soldiers, so there
seemed no hope of escape. Nor would there have been for any ordinary man. Daedalus,
however, had a plan.
He made himself a strong bow of an ash wand and
a leather thong, and with it he shot two eagles which circled against the white
clouds overhead. He plucked them and made wings for himself and his son, arranging
the feathers carefully so that they overlapped on a light framework. They were
secured at their bases with strong wax, which quickly hardened to hold them in
place. The framework of each wing could be strapped to the arms.
"Now we can fly as though we, ourselves, were eagles," Daedalus
said. "But we must wait until morning, until just before the guards of the Labyrinth
are changed. They will be weary after their long vigil through the night, and
will not be so alert."
And so, not long after the sun rose from the sea
in the east on the following morning, Daedalus and Icarus strapped on their wings
and soared into the air above the Labyrinth. Drowsing at their posts, King Minos's
soldiers did not see them until too late. Frantically they drew their bows, and
their arrows sang through the cold morning air, but by that time Daedalus and
his son were too high for them to reach and the arrows dropped harmlessly amongst
the rocks of the surrounding hillside.
Daedalus and Icarus flew north
for some while, towards the islands of the Aegean Sea, on one of which they could
rest if they grew weary. 'The sun is climbing fast in the sky,' Daedalus told
his son. "Soon it will have the full heat of the day, so do not fly too high or
it will melt the wax which holds the feathers in your wings." For an hour or so
Icarus obeyed his father, but as his wings swept the air, he thrilled at the power
of them. He felt that he was now an eagle, a true king of the air. What the birds
could do, so could he. So he began to climb and paid no heed to his father's desperate
cries of warning. Up and up he went, into the eye of the sun. The light grew brighter,
the air around became hot and Daedalus was soon far below him.
Presently
one feather from Icarus's wings floated down, but he did not notice it. Then another
and then a third. Too late he realized that his father's warning was coming true.
The wax was melting fast and now whole bunches of feathers were drifting backwards
behind him. Daedalus turned back to try to help, but by then lcarus was falling,
as his wings would no longer support him. Down and down he went, faster and faster,
while Daedalus circled helplessly, quite unable to break his headlong fall. With
one last cry, Icarus perished in the sea which since that day has borne his name,
the Icarian Sea.
Daedalus flew wearily onwards, resting for a while
on the islands as he went. He reached Greece, but was still not welcome there,
and he knew, too, that the vengeful King Minos might come to Athens seeking him.
Eventually he set sail for Sicily and over the years wandered restlessly further
and further west in the Mediterranean Sea. No one really knows where he ended
his days and whether he died in poverty. |
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