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So what is this Flight thing all about anyways? (Read 1174 times)
Feb 18th, 2011 at 2:42pm

Flying Trucker   Offline
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Goodly afternoon all... Smiley

Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee...RCAF...Royal Canadian Air Force wrote this wonderful poem just before his death.

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.
                   PO JG Magee RCAF

That certainly sums up at lot but I got thinking about a few other things and thanks to men just like PO John Gillespie Magee RCAF I was able to savour and write about them.

Flight is also:
-bouncing across a snow covered grass strip in an old rag
and tube bugsmasher, watching the snow fly off the skis
and feeling every bump

-sitting around a table with a warm wood fire going,
listening to the stories and sometimes tall tales of your
fellow aviators...perhaps enjoying a warm toddy with
the comradery

-rubbing your hand over a dew covered dope and fabric
wing or fuselage, perhaps feeling the wet cold rivets of
an all metal aircraft as you pass your hand over the
surface

-laying on top of the wing of your floatplane or seaplane,
just watching the sky, doesn't matter if there are clouds
or not, feeling your trusty steed rocking you gently
(great way to get a suntan also)

-sitting or laying on the wing of your floatplane or
seaplane, watching the beautiful northern lights, just
watching the stars...no one around for miles...many
miles

-sitting on a log, admiring your trusty steed as she is
beached tail first on the shore, the water slapping against
her floats or hull...waiting patiently for that can of pork
and beans you opened and removed the paper label from
to cook over your little water side fire....awww...green
onions, pork and beans, bread and butter....a bush
drivers delight

-sitting on a float with your bare feet splashing in the
water, talking out loud to your trusty steed and hoping
that the moose, deer, bear or wolves that have been
watching you don't think you are completely off your
rocker

-leaning against the side of your trusty wheeled steed,
your arm on her fuselage, your fingers tapping out an
unknown tune and chatting with someone who shares
your passion of flight....hmmm....happens more ofter
when you become an old retired rocking chair flying
geezer

-hearing an aero plane or a helicopter you stop and
observe...always with that silly grin on your face

-sitting at a computer desk, admiring the works of others,
who build simulated cockpits, post wonderful aviation
shots and you have never ever met them....but they
all share the same passion of flight you do
simulating actual flight, being licenced aviators...perhaps,
enjoying a dream, living a passion, it's all part of flight,
simulated or not

I think if PO John Gillespie Magee, Royal Canadian Air Force had been around a little longer he would have added to his famous poem..."High Flight"... Wink

So what is this Flight thing all about, I am not sure, hell I have only been around just under eight decades... Grin

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
 
Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
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Reply #1 - Feb 18th, 2011 at 7:37pm

patchz   Offline
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Doug, if you don't start making copies of all these posts for a book we may have to do it for you. Great post. Smiley
 
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If God intended aircraft engines to have horizontally opposed engines, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.
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Reply #2 - Feb 18th, 2011 at 8:35pm

Flying Trucker   Offline
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Thanks Larry and as always your advice and comments are most appreciated... Wink

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
 
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Reply #3 - Feb 18th, 2011 at 9:50pm

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On October 18, 1942, the Sunday Mirror, which I believe was a New York paper (haven't googled it yet), published Magee's 'High Flight'.

Someone, maybe my father, tore the published poem article out of the paper and somehow kept it.  You can clearly see the date and "Sunday Mirror" at the top.  The article only illustrated the poem, there was no commentary except for the headline, which read, "The War's Great Poet".  Magee's name was not in the article.

This was probably the first publication of the poem.

For my entire life, the article, which was laid out nicely with a photo in the background of some aircraft in formation, resided in the bottom of Mom & Dad's black & white photos box.  About once a year I would read it.

My father once told me that Magee was killed the day after the publication, but I don't think that's accurate, again, googling it would resolve that.  I think it was more like a few months afterward.

Several years ago I finally got around to framing the article.  I did it myself, did not want to risk it out of the house.  It's yellowed with age, but like the very words of that great poem, is now immortalized under glass.

After the Challenger disaster, Time Magazine published the poem in its Letters to the Editor section, I think someone had written the poem in to Time Magazine.  I forget exactly what was said.  I may have saved that article, not sure.

The rhyme scheme is very interesting, brilliant actually, with the rhymes occuring in mid sentence and illusive, such that you don't fully perceive the rhyme if you read it like prose.

It truly is a great work.
 
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Reply #4 - Feb 18th, 2011 at 10:15pm

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Magee was killed in a mid air collision over Lincolnshire on December 11, 1941.  Exactly when he wrote the poem, not sure. 

The Sunday Mirror was (still is?) a UK paper.

I'll have to research this further when I have time. 

Now I'm really wondering just who found and saved that article, and was it the first publication.  Dad is gone, so can't ask.  He was in the Pacific at that time.  I guess it will always be a mystery. 
 
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Reply #5 - Feb 18th, 2011 at 11:05pm

patchz   Offline
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Quote:
Wikipedia:
Magee's posthumous fame rests mainly on his sonnet High Flight, started on 18 August 1941, just a few months before his death, while he was based at No. 53 OTU. He had flown up to 33,000 feet in a Spitfire Mk I, his seventh flight in a Spitfire. As he orbited and climbed upward, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem—"To touch the face of God." He completed the poem later that day after landing.
The first person to read this poem later that day was almost certainly fellow Pilot Officer Michael Le Bas (later Air Vice-Marshal M H Le Bas, Air Officer Commanding No. 1 Group RAF, with whom Magee had trained, in the officers' mess.
Magee enclosed the poem on the back of a letter to his parents. His father, then curate of Saint John's Episcopal Church in Washington, DC, reprinted it in church publications. The poem became more widely known through the efforts of Archibald McLeish, then Librarian of Congress, who included it in an exhibition of poems called 'Faith and Freedom' at the Library of Congress in February 1942. The manuscript copy of the poem remains at the Library of Congress.
 
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If God intended aircraft engines to have horizontally opposed engines, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.
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Reply #6 - Feb 19th, 2011 at 10:52am

Flying Trucker   Offline
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Thanks Larry for that information...the poem has been an inspiration to many an aviator.

Pilot Officer JG Magee Royal Canadian Air Force was only nineteen (19) years old when he died.

Please read the whole article, it is educational and informative...

http://www.macla.co.uk/scopwick/magee.php


I can remember saying that poem outloud when climbing alone in the Tiger Moth, Chipmunk, Harvard and T33 "T Bird" and a few rag and tube bugsmashers that took forever to climb to nine thousand feet... Grin...but a puffy wuffy is a puffy wuffy no matter what altitude it is at or what you are flying and when you get to it the game begins.... Wink
We saw one of our son's doing the same thing, flying and playing in the puffy wuffies with the Cessna 337 we owned.  We gave him the months fuel bill, he soon found something cheaper to fly... Grin

The number of young men not even in their twenties who gave so much and were lost in training accidents runs probably in the hundreds but I do not think we will ever know.

It does make one wonder who likes to play in the puffy wuffies what might be on the other side or coming through the puffy wuffy.

It is a dangerous beautiful game many of us have played.

Again thanks for the comments gentlemen.

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
 
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Reply #7 - Feb 20th, 2011 at 12:22pm

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This is a very touching post Doug and I want thank you very much for stirring up 'a young mans dream' memories. When I was much younger I used to listen to this poem every night on the television. In fact I'd say it was a major factor in my passion for aviation. Long before the Internet and cable we had only three networks and ever since the '50's T.V. was a very big part of some peoples lives, (the movie the Cable Guy w/Jim Carrey comes to mind). When the nights programming was finished, around midnight I believe, they would show an aircraft flying high through the puffy wuffys and a golden voice would recite this homage to flight! Once again I hadn't thought about it in a long time, thank you  Smiley


I appolgize if this has been posted before but here's the original 1960's 'High Flight' sign-off...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTlWC7kfpDE&feature=related
 
FSX, we've come a long way baby! Skunk Works is an official alias for Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. Skunk Works is responsible for a number of famous aircraft designs, including the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, the F-117 Nighthawk, and the F-22 Raptor. Its largest current project is the F-35 Lightning II
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Reply #8 - Feb 20th, 2011 at 1:40pm

Flying Trucker   Offline
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Good afternoon Greg... Smiley

I do not ever remember seeing that on Canadian television at any time....nice video though... Smiley

Thanks for posting that link and I do not recall ever seeing it here before.

I try to tell folks what aviation is all about, fighters and bombers with blazing guns and glowing rockets, huge commercial jets with several hundred paying passengers in the rear is only part of aviation.  A good part which many many folks will never savour or perhaps see from sitting in the cockpit.

Sitting in a wooden lawn chair last summer the sky seemed empty forever and then several of us heard the sound of radial and rotary engines. (there might have been an in-line there as well... Smiley)
Just above us were three Bi-Planes and a Tri-Plane enroute from Ottawa to just the other side of Toronto, several hundred miles I suppose as the crow flies.
What a sight, what a sound... Wink

While sitting at a picnic table last summer at a Flying Farmers Field his young lad never locked the gate right and several cows came over to lick the dope on his bugsmasher...we watched them for several moments before his young lad chased them back through the gate. Smiley

If folks really want to know what flying is all about I think they should go down to a dock which operates float aircraft or go to a small flying field, grab an outdoor table and a beverage, hotdog or hamburger and just watch what goes on for several hours.  Amazing what one can learn... Wink

I was good enough to retire from a great airline which operated bush camps also.  They purchased several small bush outfitters and amalgamated into a company.  When not flying the heavies I got to spend my time flying bush.
I was lucky, a monthly paycheck plus flying time where many a seasonal bush pilot for several other outfits only got flying pay and no base pay... Lips Sealed

I used to laugh at some of our pilots who did the same thing as me but they would show up wearing blue jeans and a pressed dress shirt complete with epaulettes and their little gold bars.... Grin to fly a Cessna 185 or a Beaver on floats.
Each his own I guess but many did not stay long... Grin

I learned many many years ago while serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force that it is the man that makes the uniform, not the uniform that makes the man... Wink

Well folks with Flight being a hundred years plus a decade or so old I have managed to learn several things about flying during my almost eight decades which are:
-never stand on a float and pee toward a running engine
-do not miss that first step getting out of a float plane as
your position in the choir shall change
-know the wind direction if you are going to pee on a
campfire to put it out
-if you see a bear, moose, deer or wolf staring at you from
the bush with a look on their face that says you are nuts,
you probably are and will make a fine aviator... Grin

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
 
Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
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Reply #9 - Feb 20th, 2011 at 4:16pm

patchz   Offline
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Skunkworks wrote on Feb 20th, 2011 at 12:22pm:
This is a very touching post Doug and I want thank you very much for stirring up 'a young mans dream' memories. When I was much younger I used to listen to this poem every night on the television. In fact I'd say it was a major factor in my passion for aviation. Long before the Internet and cable we had only three networks and ever since the '50's T.V. was a very big part of some peoples lives, (the movie the Cable Guy w/Jim Carrey comes to mind). When the nights programming was finished, around midnight I believe, they would show an aircraft flying high through the puffy wuffys and a golden voice would recite this homage to flight! Once again I hadn't thought about it in a long time, thank you  Smiley


I appolgize if this has been posted before but here's the original 1960's 'High Flight' sign-off...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTlWC7kfpDE&feature=related

I remember that voice Greg, but his name escapes me at the moment. Great video. Smiley
 
...
If God intended aircraft engines to have horizontally opposed engines, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.
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Reply #10 - Feb 20th, 2011 at 4:28pm

patchz   Offline
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Flying Trucker wrote on Feb 20th, 2011 at 1:40pm:
Good afternoon Greg... Smiley

I do not ever remember seeing that on Canadian television at any time....nice video though... Smiley

Thanks for posting that link and I do not recall ever seeing it here before.

I try to tell folks what aviation is all about, fighters and bombers with blazing guns and glowing rockets, huge commercial jets with several hundred paying passengers in the rear is only part of aviation.  A good part which many many folks will never savour or perhaps see from sitting in the cockpit.

Sitting in a wooden lawn chair last summer the sky seemed empty forever and then several of us heard the sound of radial and rotary engines. (there might have been an in-line there as well... Smiley)
Just above us were three Bi-Planes and a Tri-Plane enroute from Ottawa to just the other side of Toronto, several hundred miles I suppose as the crow flies.
What a sight, what a sound... Wink

While sitting at a picnic table last summer at a Flying Farmers Field his young lad never locked the gate right and several cows came over to lick the dope on his bugsmasher...we watched them for several moments before his young lad chased them back through the gate. Smiley

If folks really want to know what flying is all about I think they should go down to a dock which operates float aircraft or go to a small flying field, grab an outdoor table and a beverage, hotdog or hamburger and just watch what goes on for several hours.  Amazing what one can learn... Wink

I was good enough to retire from a great airline which operated bush camps also.  They purchased several small bush outfitters and amalgamated into a company.  When not flying the heavies I got to spend my time flying bush.
I was lucky, a monthly paycheck plus flying time where many a seasonal bush pilot for several other outfits only got flying pay and no base pay... Lips Sealed

I used to laugh at some of our pilots who did the same thing as me but they would show up wearing blue jeans and a pressed dress shirt complete with epaulettes and their little gold bars.... Grin to fly a Cessna 185 or a Beaver on floats.
Each his own I guess but many did not stay long... Grin

I learned many many years ago while serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force that it is the man that makes the uniform, not the uniform that makes the man... Wink

Well folks with Flight being a hundred years plus a decade or so old I have managed to learn several things about flying during my almost eight decades which are:
-never stand on a float and pee toward a running engine
-do not miss that first step getting out of a float plane as
your position in the choir shall change
-know the wind direction if you are going to pee on a
campfire to put it out
-if you see a bear, moose, deer or wolf staring at you from
the bush with a look on their face that says you are nuts,
you probably are and will make a fine aviator... Grin

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

Yet another gem of a post Doug. Thanks for the advice. #3 I already knew, but had not really thought of #1 or #2 before. I think #4 is obvious.  Grin

And you caused me to think back of when I was a youngster, prowling the grounds around the airport, playing on the second floor of the old military hangar that would later house a Lear Jet, twin Beech and several smaller

GA when I would work for the local flying service. My memories of pushing that twin Beech into it's spot by hand, up a slight incline make it seem much larger than the Baron in my sim. I remember how much cooler

it was in the hangar than out on the ramp, where the sun tried to melt the asphalt strips in the concrete. I can still remember the sights, smells, and sounds of that old hangar and the machine shop it held.

Slipping the surly bonds is far from being the only joy of being around aviation. As Bob Hope would have said Doug, "thanks for the memories." Smiley
 
...
If God intended aircraft engines to have horizontally opposed engines, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.
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Reply #11 - Feb 20th, 2011 at 8:59pm

Flying Trucker   Offline
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My pleasure Larry...my pleasure... Wink

Oh and Larry...your post just reminded of something one of my older brothers used to say to me when we were growing up and still in grade school.

He would tell me I reminded him of Bob Hopes brother...."No Hope"..... Roll Eyes      Grin

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
 
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Reply #12 - Feb 20th, 2011 at 10:42pm

patchz   Offline
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Flying Trucker wrote on Feb 20th, 2011 at 8:59pm:
My pleasure Larry...my pleasure... Wink

Oh and Larry...your post just reminded of something one of my older brothers used to say to me when we were growing up and still in grade school.

He would tell me I reminded him of Bob Hopes brother...."No Hope"..... Roll Eyes      Grin

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin

Never heard that one before. Have to remember that for my son.  Wink
 
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Reply #13 - Feb 21st, 2011 at 1:50am

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I often wonder what else Magee might have come up with had he lived longer... he had a knack for poetry, for sure.

And yes, I often think of that poem when I am up there flinging "my eager craft through footless halls of air". You don't have to fly as high as he did to understand what moved him to write that.

But never actually in the puffy-wuffys... I always open the canopy and stick my arm up to determine when I am at cloud base.  Wink
 
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Reply #14 - Feb 22nd, 2011 at 4:48pm

Skunkworks   Offline
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patchz wrote on Feb 20th, 2011 at 4:16pm:
Skunkworks wrote on Feb 20th, 2011 at 12:22pm:
This is a very touching post Doug and I want thank you very much for stirring up 'a young mans dream' memories. When I was much younger I used to listen to this poem every night on the television. In fact I'd say it was a major factor in my passion for aviation. Long before the Internet and cable we had only three networks and ever since the '50's T.V. was a very big part of some peoples lives, (the movie the Cable Guy w/Jim Carrey comes to mind). When the nights programming was finished, around midnight I believe, they would show an aircraft flying high through the puffy wuffys and a golden voice would recite this homage to flight! Once again I hadn't thought about it in a long time, thank you  Smiley


I apologize if this has been posted before but here's the original 1960's 'High Flight' sign-off...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTlWC7kfpDE&feature=related

I remember that voice Greg, but his name escapes me at the moment. Great video. Smiley


Hey L.T. I think it was William Conrad. I could be wrong. I was raised about 75 miles south of Sacramento California, although not as beautiful as the North...it has it's moments! Especially when I look at this video from channel three from the early 1980's and recognize many scenes from my backyard! If the latter part is hard to stomach, then mute! Cool ....http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8676560588736866234#
 
FSX, we've come a long way baby! Skunk Works is an official alias for Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. Skunk Works is responsible for a number of famous aircraft designs, including the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, the F-117 Nighthawk, and the F-22 Raptor. Its largest current project is the F-35 Lightning II
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Reply #15 - Feb 22nd, 2011 at 7:16pm

patchz   Offline
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Skunkworks wrote on Feb 22nd, 2011 at 4:48pm:
patchz wrote on Feb 20th, 2011 at 4:16pm:
Skunkworks wrote on Feb 20th, 2011 at 12:22pm:
This is a very touching post Doug and I want thank you very much for stirring up 'a young mans dream' memories. When I was much younger I used to listen to this poem every night on the television. In fact I'd say it was a major factor in my passion for aviation. Long before the Internet and cable we had only three networks and ever since the '50's T.V. was a very big part of some peoples lives, (the movie the Cable Guy w/Jim Carrey comes to mind). When the nights programming was finished, around midnight I believe, they would show an aircraft flying high through the puffy wuffys and a golden voice would recite this homage to flight! Once again I hadn't thought about it in a long time, thank you  Smiley


I apologize if this has been posted before but here's the original 1960's 'High Flight' sign-off...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTlWC7kfpDE&feature=related

I remember that voice Greg, but his name escapes me at the moment. Great video. Smiley


Hey L.T. I think it was William Conrad. I could be wrong. I was raised about 75 miles south of Sacramento California, although not as beautiful as the North...it has it's moments! Especially when I look at this video from channel three from the early 1980's and recognize many scenes from my backyard! If the latter part is hard to stomach, then mute! Cool ....http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8676560588736866234#

Had not thought of Bill Conrad in a while. I loved him in Cannon, as well as Jake and the Fatman. But I don't believe that is him narrating the first vid. But it is definitely him in the second.

And why would I want to mute such a fine Irish (really Russian) tenor singing such a classic song. Jan Peerce KNEW he could sing. Smiley
 
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Reply #16 - Feb 24th, 2011 at 12:02pm

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Good morning all... Smiley

William Conrad was a United State Army Air Corps fighter pilot during the Second World War also... Wink

Hope you all find this Link most interesting...for William Conrad scroll to list at bottom of page.

http://www.palletmastersworkshop.com/flipside.html

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
 
Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
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Reply #17 - Feb 24th, 2011 at 4:14pm

Skunkworks   Offline
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Flying Trucker wrote on Feb 24th, 2011 at 12:02pm:
Good morning all... Smiley

William Conrad was a United State Army Air Corps fighter pilot during the Second World War also... Wink

Hope you all find this Link most interesting...for William Conrad scroll to list at bottom of page.

http://www.palletmastersworkshop.com/flipside.html

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug


Very awesome link Doug, I had no idea  Cry

 
FSX, we've come a long way baby! Skunk Works is an official alias for Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. Skunk Works is responsible for a number of famous aircraft designs, including the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, the F-117 Nighthawk, and the F-22 Raptor. Its largest current project is the F-35 Lightning II
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Reply #18 - Mar 1st, 2011 at 9:17am

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Goodly morning all.... Smiley

My pleasure Greg... Wink

It was amazing how many actors did go overseas and when you see them on television or in a movie you would not even think about their past activities... Wink

We were on a rural road the other day and just out for a drive in an area we had not been through in twenty or so years but only minutes from where we live now.

I noticed a wind sock so I slowed down and finally stopped.

Well the old girl and I looked for about three minutes for a hangar, the old two and a half story farm house had to be a thousand yards away and we could see a small slightly snow covered runway but no hangar.

I guess we both spotted it about the same time, a three sided lean-to protected by the trees and inside an almost all white ultra light.
The lean-to looked more like a chicken coop and probably was at one time.
Wonder how many more little flying surprises are around our general area? 
I can see some summer drives on the horizon... Wink

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
 
Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
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Reply #19 - Mar 1st, 2011 at 10:26am

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Your adventures never cease to amaze me Doug. Adopt me?  Grin
Happy flying, your grasshopper in flight  Cool
 
FSX, we've come a long way baby! Skunk Works is an official alias for Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. Skunk Works is responsible for a number of famous aircraft designs, including the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, the F-117 Nighthawk, and the F-22 Raptor. Its largest current project is the F-35 Lightning II
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Reply #20 - Mar 1st, 2011 at 2:36pm

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Hi Greg... Grin

I do not understand folks who are retired and sit around all day hoping someone, anyone will stop and knock on their door to say high.

Retirement is wonderful and are association with flying has made it fabulous.

My advice to retired folks is get a hobby, get out and do something, go to a Legion, Hotel (you don't have to drink an alcoholic beverage) just get out and meet folks.
Sunday drive...well if you are retired make every day a Sunday drive.
There is so much for seniors to do all one has to do is get up off the couch and do it.

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
 
Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
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