Coming in on Final Approach

Thu, 07 Nov 2013 23:17:00 -0800

I’ve never piloted an airplane, but I have this image of the crew on the flight deck of an airliner as they come in on final approach. After several hours of cruising along at near-supersonic speed, they begin preparations for landing as they line up on final approach: communicating with the tower, checking airspeed, rate of descent, hydraulic pressure in the brakes, etc. For weeks we’ve been talking about getting Sunday Assembly-Los Angles off the ground, but in many ways it feels more like we’re bringing this jumbo jet in for a landing.

It has felt, at times, like we were flying at high speed, the calendar slipping silently beneath us like the landscape from 35,000 feet. And now, with three days to go before we touch down, our crew of pilots/co-pilots/navigators/engineers/ (because we’ve all been sharing the duties as a team of equals) is going over our checklists, ticking off the final tasks, making last minute course corrections, getting this behemoth lined up and descending at just the right rate to ensure a smooth landing for the 500 passengers who have signed up for our maiden flight.