The feeling of flying is amazing. I’m not talking about in an airplane. I’m talking about the feeling that comes when everything happens perfectly – when you slip the surly bonds of earth.* When you move into a higher dimension that can only be described as “flying.”

I’ve experienced this feeling several times in my lifetime. One of those times was “flying” on the Royal Rush Skycoaster at the Royal Gorge Bridge Park in Colorado. The ride’s name is deceptive. This isn’t a sit-in-your-seat roller coaster; you are in a harness and free-fall for 100 feet at 50 miles per hour towards the Arkansas River. The Royal Rush is the scariest ride in the world.

So the high speed and my own fear of falling took some of the joy out of flying!

But on a trip to the Maldives, I had no fear of flying because this time I was in the ocean snorkeling. The Maldives is an exotic tropical locale in the Indian Ocean, with more than 1,100 islands spread across 35,000 square miles.

A simple life jacket and breathing tube turned me into a flying machine, cruising smoothly and effortlessly in the clear blue water. I closely mingled with schools of swimming fish or “flew” above them while they frolicked below me. I was flying!

These photos (using a GoPro Hero underwater camera) help me to recall that feeling of flying in the ocean. Our memories fade sometimes as the day to day business of life takes over again. And, in the same way a camera captures unforgettable moments or reveals invisible scenes we missed at the time, drilling software can serve as a virtual 3D camera.

PVI’s software is more intelligent than a camera that only captures a single moment in time. With our software, you can change the input data to reflect operational parameters and immediately see the results in real time. And to change the picture, simply change the parameters! It’s like a smart camera capturing all the possible scenarios you may have in your downhole situation. It literally takes the fear out of flying!

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* Quote source: John Gillespie Magee, Jr. (1922 – 1941), poet and aviator

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.