The sky specialist
August 19, 2005 | 12:00am
Every pilot aims to make each landing a greaser. This term refers to the smoothest landing possible, and is signaled only by the sound of landing gear wheels spinning on the tarmac underneath. There is no wobble, nor is there an unbalanced feeling in both the airplane’s cabin and cockpit. It is so flawless that the wheels don’t even screech when they touch the ground. Although it can’t be replicated each time for every landing, a greaser is a good indication of how much control the pilot has over the aircraft.
"I’ve never crashed a plane in my life; but as the saying goes, every landing is a controlled crash," chuckles Joseph Christopher L. Roa, not really a stranger to such concepts. Joseph is a pilot, with the sky as his playground and domain.
Perhaps the most common picture we have of pilots is the uniformed old guy with the practiced smile; the man with the funny hat and his pilot "wings" displayed on the top left corner of his pilot’s suit, his pants always neatly pressed, his shoes impeccably shiny. This is the person who allows children to enter the cockpit to view all the sparkly blinking buttons and dials. At the end of the tour, he gives the young visitor a toy airplane, and everyone is happy.
Joseph isn’t this guy. At 18, he has just begun college at the Ateneo de Manila University. He doesn’t have a pilot’s uniform and his smile is unlike that of an international flight captain’s. The bespectacled lad looks like your average first year college boy: with a youthful glint in his eye, eager to be in a new place that is the university. His tall and thin frame say nothing of his being a pilot and no one would really guess that this guy is capable of skillfully maneuvering an aircraft at 10,000 feet. But once Joseph starts talking, you know for sure that he is very well acquainted with the sky.
The first time Joseph went up in an airplane was when he was six, with his dad and a couple of his dad’s friends. "My dad used to take me up with his friends for picnics in Batangas," he says. At an early age, young Joseph already had an interest in flying. All the sons in his dad’s barkada tried it out, but Joseph just took to it naturally. "They saw that I had potential, so they had me learn it all the way," Joseph says. He got his pilot’s license when he was 16 and is now licensed to fly two-seater up to six-seater airplanes. He admits, however, that he could already fly a plane even when he was only 11 years old. Even from the start, he really had a knack for this flying business. To date, he has flown solo all the way to Malaysia.
Joseph likes to indulge in the freedom the sky gives him. To illustrate, a normal commercial flight goes from point A to point B in a continuous straight line to save time and to get passengers to their destinations as quickly as possible. Joseph, however, does the exact opposite. "Every time I fly alone, I fly with the wind – wherever it takes me. I don’t really fly in a straight line like everyone expects me to. I fly up and down, left and right, all at the same time." Joseph has no restrictions when he is up there; and as long as he is sure of his flight destination, he can take any path he chooses to.
Even without roads or landmarks to follow, simple navigation apparently makes flying not too difficult. When asked to compare driving an airplane to driving a car, Joseph surprisingly answers that it’s more of a challenge to drive a car. "Yeah man, especially here in Metro Manila! There’s too much traffic and too many crazy drivers to contend with. Up in the air, you can’t really hit anything and nothing can really hit you," he says with a snicker.
For Joseph, there is no other thrill quite like flying. Going up in the air is always a new challenge because of changes in the weather or the type of aircraft he is handling. It is always both a physical and a mental test for him. Flying also allows him to discover more of himself, and how much it has influenced his life out of the cockpit. "Flying incorporates discipline and being stable under pressure; also being patient, prudent, and accepting responsibilities. These are some of the things I have taken from flying and put to use in my life on the ground."
At 18, Joseph is a really young pilot. His experience with airplanes and the sky, however, help in defining him more as a mature human being. The grace and the control involved in flying have rubbed off on him, thus giving Joseph more power and greater ability to deal with the ever-impending issues of adult life. He is lucky because he has the tools and the ability to control his crashes and land safely with whatever he decides to do.
Some people get into their cars and drive around the metropolis for some alone time to clear their minds and release some steam. Joseph, on the other hand, has his airplane and the entire sky to do exactly that. Talking with him makes me stop and rethink my concept of freedom.
Peace out everyone! Would love to hear from ya’ll, e-mail me at enricomiguelsubido@yahoo.com.
"I’ve never crashed a plane in my life; but as the saying goes, every landing is a controlled crash," chuckles Joseph Christopher L. Roa, not really a stranger to such concepts. Joseph is a pilot, with the sky as his playground and domain.
Perhaps the most common picture we have of pilots is the uniformed old guy with the practiced smile; the man with the funny hat and his pilot "wings" displayed on the top left corner of his pilot’s suit, his pants always neatly pressed, his shoes impeccably shiny. This is the person who allows children to enter the cockpit to view all the sparkly blinking buttons and dials. At the end of the tour, he gives the young visitor a toy airplane, and everyone is happy.
Joseph isn’t this guy. At 18, he has just begun college at the Ateneo de Manila University. He doesn’t have a pilot’s uniform and his smile is unlike that of an international flight captain’s. The bespectacled lad looks like your average first year college boy: with a youthful glint in his eye, eager to be in a new place that is the university. His tall and thin frame say nothing of his being a pilot and no one would really guess that this guy is capable of skillfully maneuvering an aircraft at 10,000 feet. But once Joseph starts talking, you know for sure that he is very well acquainted with the sky.
The first time Joseph went up in an airplane was when he was six, with his dad and a couple of his dad’s friends. "My dad used to take me up with his friends for picnics in Batangas," he says. At an early age, young Joseph already had an interest in flying. All the sons in his dad’s barkada tried it out, but Joseph just took to it naturally. "They saw that I had potential, so they had me learn it all the way," Joseph says. He got his pilot’s license when he was 16 and is now licensed to fly two-seater up to six-seater airplanes. He admits, however, that he could already fly a plane even when he was only 11 years old. Even from the start, he really had a knack for this flying business. To date, he has flown solo all the way to Malaysia.
Joseph likes to indulge in the freedom the sky gives him. To illustrate, a normal commercial flight goes from point A to point B in a continuous straight line to save time and to get passengers to their destinations as quickly as possible. Joseph, however, does the exact opposite. "Every time I fly alone, I fly with the wind – wherever it takes me. I don’t really fly in a straight line like everyone expects me to. I fly up and down, left and right, all at the same time." Joseph has no restrictions when he is up there; and as long as he is sure of his flight destination, he can take any path he chooses to.
Even without roads or landmarks to follow, simple navigation apparently makes flying not too difficult. When asked to compare driving an airplane to driving a car, Joseph surprisingly answers that it’s more of a challenge to drive a car. "Yeah man, especially here in Metro Manila! There’s too much traffic and too many crazy drivers to contend with. Up in the air, you can’t really hit anything and nothing can really hit you," he says with a snicker.
For Joseph, there is no other thrill quite like flying. Going up in the air is always a new challenge because of changes in the weather or the type of aircraft he is handling. It is always both a physical and a mental test for him. Flying also allows him to discover more of himself, and how much it has influenced his life out of the cockpit. "Flying incorporates discipline and being stable under pressure; also being patient, prudent, and accepting responsibilities. These are some of the things I have taken from flying and put to use in my life on the ground."
At 18, Joseph is a really young pilot. His experience with airplanes and the sky, however, help in defining him more as a mature human being. The grace and the control involved in flying have rubbed off on him, thus giving Joseph more power and greater ability to deal with the ever-impending issues of adult life. He is lucky because he has the tools and the ability to control his crashes and land safely with whatever he decides to do.
Some people get into their cars and drive around the metropolis for some alone time to clear their minds and release some steam. Joseph, on the other hand, has his airplane and the entire sky to do exactly that. Talking with him makes me stop and rethink my concept of freedom.
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