Is a pilot ever alone up there?
Hardly ever. Pilots talk by radio to people on the ground whose job is to help them, other pilots listen on the same channels, and some fly beside a friend on purpose.
Open this chapter in the storybookThe short version
A pilot flying on their own is hardly ever really on their own. Almost every aeroplane has a radio, and on the other end of it are people whose whole job is to help: air traffic controllers. Many of them watch the aeroplanes on radar screens. They keep them safely apart, tell pilots about the weather ahead, and help anyone who needs it.
Who do pilots talk to on the radio?
Pilots wear headsets and fly to a steady murmur of voices: controllers giving directions, and other pilots on the same channel saying where they are and what they are doing. At first it sounds like a busy kitchen. Really it is a sky full of people keeping an eye on each other.
There is even an emergency channel that controllers, and many aircraft, listen to all the time, just in case. A pilot who is lost or worried can call on it, and people start helping straight away: finding them, giving them a direction to fly, and choosing the nearest safe runway. Saying you need help is part of being a good pilot.
What does Mayday mean?
Mayday is the word a pilot says on the radio in a real emergency, three times over so that nobody can mistake it: “Mayday, mayday, mayday.” It comes from the French for “help me”. Everyone else on the channel goes quiet to keep it clear, and the people on the ground set to work straight away.
For a problem that needs help soon, but where nobody is in immediate danger, pilots have a calmer call, “Pan-pan”, said three times in the same way.
What is a wingman?
Some pilots fly together on purpose, in formation. The pilot who flies alongside the leader is called the wingman, and their job is to stay close and keep watch, so that neither of them is ever flying without someone looking out for them. And it has happened more than once that another aeroplane has flown up beside a pilot who was lost or in trouble, and led them safely down to a runway.
In the story
Everything above is what real pilots have. This part is Little Blue’s world.
In chapter ten, at the moment Little Blue feels most alone, a whisper comes out of the wind, and then birds: a hummingbird first, then a swallow, then more. What the book says next is what a wingman does: “They do not carry him. They do not rescue him. They simply fly beside him.” Nobody flies the aeroplane for him. They are there, and that turns out to be the whole point: “You don’t have to face every storm alone.”
Little Brave Heart (We Can Do It) is the same thought sung by everybody at once: Side by side, we’ve been strong.
Three words to keep
- Air traffic control: the people on the ground who guide aeroplanes by radio and keep them safely apart.
- Wingman: the pilot who flies beside the leader and keeps watch.
- Mayday: the word a pilot says three times on the radio in a real emergency. It comes from the French for “help me”.
Flying together, the way birds do it: are small wings enough?
