8 seconds vs 15 minutes

One nautical mile in 8 seconds. We were hotfooting it east at 37,000 feet after spending a night on the lee side of the Rocky Mountains. I knew that in just a few minutes Denver Center was going to hand us over to Kansas City Center. A little while later we would actually get to Kansas City and be handed over to another Controller. That controller would start us down, give us over to a lower sector controller, and somewhere around 16,000 feet that controller would have us talk to Mizzou Approach. Mizzou Approach would give us a 5000 foot crossing restriction somewhere around 40 miles west of the Spirit of St. Louis Airport. Upon reaching 5000feet he would have us start working with St. Louis Approach who would give us a right turn. Then we would drop to 2400 feet, be given a slight left turn to intercept the localizer to runway 8 right, and be cleared for the approach. We would sniff out the electronic path to the runway, turn inbound, and just outside of a point in space called SNOOP we would get handed over to the tower and given permission to land. At SNOOP the glide slope would center. We would drop the gear, hang the last of the flaps and noodle down hill. Around 1200 feet above the ground we would fuzz out of the bottom of the clouds, spot the runway, flop our little jet onto Mother Earth, hang the buckets, turn Left on Alpha 5, coast straight into the ramp and call it a day.

Mentally I was sitting in my office finishing up the paperwork and sipping on a cup of coffee. In reality we were still 300 miles west of St. Louis. I guess that's what they call being ahead of your airplane.

I have yet to get that way with Nomad, which still seems a bit weird since our little boat rarely goes much faster than 4 or 5 knots. (That would be one nautical mile in 12 to 15 minutes!) Oh we try to plan ahead, particularly when it comes to the weather. But I still find it hard to think much past the current heading I need to hold and (when I am sailing well) the next tack or jibe. (Though as Deb will tell you I still get those two confused once in a while. Remeber "tack" is going nose through the wind while jibe is butt through.)

Someday maybe I'll get a little further "ahead" of the boat. Certainly on Lady Marian, with the auto pilot engaged and an hour's run ahead, I looked alot like I do sitting in the cockpit. (Though in our pocket jet it's a bit impossible to stand up, take a stretch, wander into the galley for a coke, and take a stroll up to the bow.) But in some ways I think sailing will always be a more "moment-by-moment" thing than flying. I think that's one of the reasons I like it so much.