Airport Beacons! Where's Yours?

Back in the last century, in the 1920s and 30s, when aviation was just getting started, the government realized that they needed a way to mark the location of airports for pilots, especially for those brave flyers who were traveling at night. There were no fancy GPS systems back then, and the precise aeronautical charts that every pilot has today, were little more than hand-written scribbles on sheets of paper that were copied and passed around from pilot to pilot, suffering from the degradation in accuracy that comes from such activity.

So, the government came up with the idea of a rotating beacon on the top of a tall tower that was near the field. Although many color combinations were possible, and still are today, an alternating green and white beacon is what a person usually sees....when they do see one of these beacons at all. The green and white has a specific meaning -- that the airport is lighted, nearby, and clear for landing. These lights can be seen for many miles by a trained pilot, and were probably a welcome sight to many an aviator who was lost, or running low on fuel back then.

Now, you have to remember that this all took place when America was still quite rural. There were no 100 mile wide strip cities that you very often find in the urban areas of modern day America. And, this was before the state-of-the-art "glass cockpits" of a modern day airliner. Today, a passenger jet coming in for a night landing at Los Angeles, or San Francisco, positioned as they are right next to the Pacific Ocean and the impenetrable fog it produces, can use the unerring accuracy of an instrument landing system. If the pilot is lucky, she might be able to see the ground during the last 100 feet, before the plane touches down. Beacon? There's a beacon? The pilot saw nothing until the last 10 seconds before touchdown.

So, in this modern day world with GPS that is accurate to 15 feet, or so...with extremely accurate ILS runways...with autopilots that can fly a plane from lift-off to touch down, why do we need a technological holdover from 90 or more years ago? And, furthermore, what does this have to do with you and your flight through life, if you'll pardon my pun?

Well, we have beacons, because the government says that we will have beacons...one at every airport. More importantly, even though you might live in a large city, with its clutter of background lights that hide any beacon, there are still plenty of small rural airports out there in America, where a pilot still looks for a comforting green and white flash of light that tells him or her that a safe landing spot is nearby.

You have a personal beacon also.....or had one. You started out in life, headed for a destination, back when things were simple...sort of "rural" when compared to your busy-beyond-belief life today. In the clutter of life...in the demands of college, and job, and family, and projects, and even in the worry about international issues that can touch you in the most rural of locations, you may have lost your beacon. And, just what was your beacon? Well, it was your goals. Simple, complex, large, small, important for the world, or important only to you....it doesn't matter really. They were your goals, and they belonged only to you. You didn't need anyone's permission or approval to pursue them. They just somehow got lost...which may be what led you to this article.

However you got here, maybe it's time to sit back for a few minutes and rediscover your own beacon. It's yours alone, you know? You don't need to ask for anyone's approval to set a homing beacon for yourself. Maybe it's that book you still want to write, or the painting you still want to do of some stunning mountain scene. Perhaps your beacon was to run a marathon. There's still time. As long as there is YOU, then there is still time to use the beacon you've set, to reach your goal, or some version of it that makes your life all that you intended it to be. There's still time to find that landing spot...that safe, well-lighted space, where you can say, "Touchdown! I reached my destination."

Take out a clean sheet of paper in the quiet of tomorrow morning, and write down your goal where you can see it. Don't share it with anyone. Then, describe the beacon that will mark your arrival at your destination. Then, soon, I'd like you to come back here and let me know of your success.

By the way, there's one thing that I already know about your beacon...your goal:

You can make this happen!