Hi, B_P, welcome aboard!

For starters, the "ribbon of black" is the runway stretching (visually) into the distance.

I think "stretched to the point of no turning back" is perhaps that point during takeoff where you're going too fast with not enough runway left to abort, and have no choice except to fly.


"can't keep my eyes from the circling skies" to me means the thirst to fly, looking toward the sky with the wish to be there. (circling, of course is what the skies appear to do because of the rotation of the earth.)

Unladened means empty. perhaps out of fuel, in which without power, an aircraft "turns to stone". Unheeded warning is perhaps not reading the empty fuel guages.

"Condition grounded" may be as you suggested, or perhaps grounded because of bad weather, but determined to take off anyway. Who knows.

As far as "grubby halo", I have no idea. I think that is a weak point in the lyrics.

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