Flying A Plane

I might be the only quarterback in the history of college football to pilot a plane load of  players, coaches and administrators halfway across the country. Well, maybe the verb “pilot” is a bit of a stretch but history does record that for one brief moment I was indeed John Wayne incarnate flying the friendly skies between Minneapolis and Seattle.

It was 1958 as we headed to the great Northwest to play the University of Washington. The plane’s manifest, faded now after fifty-seven years in storage, would show a passenger list of over one hundred people flying to the opening game of the season.

Standing in the front of the plane in-flight, a stewardess asked if I’d like to see the cockpit. I smiled yes as she opened the door into the inner sanctum of aviation. The pilot to my left and the co-pilot to my right both said hello. Everything seemed so clear outside in the cloudless azure blue sky but the cockpit was very small and cramped. A few minutes later, the co-pilot excused himself to go check on something with a passenger and the pilot invited me to sit in his vacated seat.

I couldn’t believe how small I felt looking out the side window and under the wing. Viewing the vast farmlands of the upper Northwest from twenty-five thousand feet, I was amazed at the amount of vacant land down below. Then, out of the blue, literally, the pilot asked if I’d like to take control of the plane. Like any twenty-year-old, I said, “I sure would!”

The pilot told me I was in complete control of the plane and to prove it he directed me to put my hands at ten and four o’clock on the wheel and slightly, ever so slightly, turn the wheel in a very gradual clockwise movement.

It is a feeling still with me today. The exhilaration of total control of this multi-ton collection of steel, glass, rubber, instruments, cargo and people is something I’ll never forget. The whole world I was in tilted when that plane did.

Ten seconds after I had turned the plane, I had righted it and all was well with the universe once again, everybody on board, save my cockpit crew, having no idea why we had just experienced the slightest movement right and down.

I thanked the pilot and returned to my seat, smiling proudly as I walked down the aisle.

Unfortunately, my play on the field fell short of my in-flight performance. While the plane landed safely, the following day my Gophers lost, 24-21.

That loss, while tough, did nothing to dampen the experience of having the controls to the plane. I never really had a hankering to be an airline pilot after that but it remains one of the highlights of my youth. The things that happens to you in life unexpectedly sometimes are the most memorable.