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"Faust
sold his soul for very few things;
the ability to fly was one of them."
When
Les Nixon visited his old solo field in December 1997, he
remembered that Laurence Gonzales, an aerobatic pilot said:
"Faust sold his soul for very few things; the ability
to fly was one of them."
Gonzales
also said in Challenge, "Flying is one of the
most primitive dreams of the human imagination, but it's rarely
a reality." Why? The physical act of piloting a plane
is no harder than driving a car while talking on the phone—and
it's less dangerous. The truth is most people don't fly because
they think it's so scary.
Nixon
went back to his lonely old airfields in Toledo, Erie, Findlay,
and Sandusky in the US this year, and thought of his first
flying back in 1960.
His
solo went like this: He had about 4-official hours in his
brand-spanking- new log book. Up till this week in he'd not
at much as sniffed a light plane up close. In fact, he hadn't
given it a thought until a missionary pilot said he always
wanted to fly in Australia, but South America was his field.
Say, on the side, if you thought you'd like to fly, go out
and see Fred and tell him I sent you. That did it. Fred taught
and that missionary paid. It was $8 per-hour.
As
it was he was practicing touch-and-go's in an Aroneca Champ,
like a Piper Cub, on a snowy grass strip and it was bitterly
cold outside. Fred yelled over the noisy motor: "Hey
Les, pull over and leave the motor running." He got out
and shouted above the engine, "Take it around and come
back here. Have fun. But hurry, I'm cold!" He slammed
the flap shut!
Nixon
sat frozen for a whole minute—but not because of the
cold. He remembers thinking, "Do I really want to be
a solo pilot, or am I just foolin' myself?" He pushed
the flimsy throttle forward, kicked the rudders around, headed
up the strip and deftly lifted the tail, eased her off the
ground still terrified it would not work without Fred. There
he was alone, watching the world reduce in a winter fog, mostly
from fear than weather. Less than a minute, he was utterly
lost—lost in euphoria.
No
time to waste ... Fred's frozen.
He
eventually went on to earn his FAA SEAL private license at
Detroit, and after the suitable exams and check ride, his
Australian PPL and Command IFR. Since then, he's flown the
entire Australian continent many times, in the US IFR in 1988
all the way around, and Asia, too. Even in retirement, he
checked out in a C210 at Orlando's Executive Airport in 1997
and can fly anywhere he wishes.
Since
1961, when he began Outback Patrol he has encouraged other
pilots to do the same. And scores of them flew a patrol or
two, have moved up the ladder into commercial and airline
flying.
But
that flight at Sharon, Pennsylvania on a winter's day in1960
because of a mission pilot who cared, was the first time he
knew what it was to take his life in his hands. He could scream
and yell, and pull his hair out and issue commands into the
radio endlessly, but only his own hands and skill would bring
him back to earth again.
Most
people never take that responsibility upon themselves, because
it's scary. There's always a back door. But if we sink in
a boat or get stranded in the desert, usually it's a pilot
who comes for us. Or doctors to remote places, or missionaries
where others do not go. He wanted to be that person.
For
Nixon, it was also the quiet confidence that this is what
God had for him to do. He read, 'underneath are the everlasting
arms' from the Scripture, and in later years, Psalm 121 which
says, He will 'protect your going out and your coming in'.
This
year he's done it again, and will repeat it in the service
of helping people in remote places come to know the Lord Jesus
Christ, too.
Remember:
'Don't back out on the outback!'
 Opportunity down under Go to our opportunity down under page.
 Home Page Back to Outback Patrol's Home Page.
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