Life below 30,000 inches

I recently read several aviation blogs because I have a passion for flight. It is funny that many of the aviation writers out there focus primarily on the profession of commercial flight. They talk about the serenity of being up above the clouds. There are a thousand little stories about the supernatural feeling these pilots enjoy while up there. A few days ago, I saw the story about the flight into Mpls that was overflown and the pilots missed the field by 150 MILES. Many thought they were sleeping up there, which I was told is very common as opined by a current commercial pilot, but as it turns out they were engrossed in the new scheduling software that their airline was adopting. The more I hear and read about flight scheduling software, vectors, ATC contact systems, autopilots, I less appealing this passion becomes. The blog entry was called "Like at 30,000 feet" and the author talked about the beauty of flight. I want to create a new vision about what flying is all about. Think "Life at 30,000 inches". This is flying. When I go out, I RARELY climb above 2,500 feet and usually keep it below 1,000 ft. When a person flies at this level, you still get to enjoy that feeling that you defeated the laws of gravity, but you still get to follow the happenings of a land-based human existence. I love the waves that I get from down below as I pass over a beach at 500 feet or the looks I get from farmers out in the fields as I give them a quick buzz. This up-close, yet distant perspective of Earth is what fires my passion for flying. There is nothing out there that can give a person the type of feeling that comes with low and slow flying! That, to me, is "living BELOW 30,000 inches!"