Clearance Vector

Morning light hit the edge of the living room rug, and after hours indoors, I needed an open horizon. I taxied across the low-pile carpet and headed straight out to the balcony. Right ahead stood a tall, slanting obstacle: the crisscrossing tubular metal of a clothes drying rack. I paused, assessing angles and clearance. A gentle cross-draft was whistling through the hollow rungs. Tilting my right gull wing forty-five degrees, I surged forward into the gap. My prop spun fast with a sharp whir as I threaded cleanly between two diagonal bars without a scrape, touching down firmly on a flat terracotta plant saucer on the other side.