The other day, late in the afternoon, I was sitting on the porch looking up at the sky and saw five contrails. It was thrilling…”The airlines are back! People are flying again! The economy is on the uptick!” Last year during the peak of COVID, you would have been lucky to see one contrail if any.

I remember the first time I ever saw contrails. I was five years old and one day saw what looked like 50 streaks of white creeping across the sky high above our farm. I asked my Dad what they were. “Son,” he said, “those are the bombers coming home from the war. They are flying very high and their hot engine exhaust causes those clouds or contrails that are coming out behind them.”

When I saw the recent contrails coming over southern Chautauqua County, it reminded me of that first time I had ever seen them. These airliners, in a way, were a sign that our war with COVID was also coming to a close. We have a way to go, but now we can see the beginning of the end of our isolation and of success in the fight against this deadly disease.

Up there, high above my house at 35,000 feet, were pressurized jet airplanes flying at 500-600 mph coming from the west and likely heading into the New York area.

Back in the days when I was flying a single engine Cessna, I would often go into New York and the general approach to the area brought all planes, big and small, over our airport and the navigational radio station called JHW located off the end of Jamestown’s Runway 25 in the Ellington area. From the look of the contrails, it appears that planes are still coming over Jamestown on their way into New York.

Just think, about 60-80 minutes before I saw them over my house, one of these airplanes full of passengers and piloted by men and women now vaccinated and protected from COVID, was likely sitting on a ramp at Chicago’s O’Hare Field.

I can hear the controller giving instructions–“United Flight 101, you are cleared to Newark. Taxi to Runway 27 Right. Climb and maintain, 12,000 ft., expect higher in 10 [minutes.] Cleared direct to Detroit, thence direct JAMESTOWN, direct Wilkes-Barre. Expect the ILS 4 left approach at Newark.”

“Yes,” I said to myself looking at the contrails, “Jamestown! JHW is still on the charts!” Though GPS navigation today is often direct from one place to another, when going into a high traffic area like New York there are designated routes for arrival and departure–and we are still on them!

“So what?” You might ask. That doesn’t mean anything to me.

But, to a pilot with a lot of old memories who was trained and learned how to fly at the Jamestown Airport (JHW)–they are like hallowed words. JHW is still home to me and I am glad when I see the larger world fly over us. Those pilots know where Jamestown is. It makes me feel good. Especially, when you know they are on a mission of reopening the country for business once again!

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.