Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth …
Saturday, December 31st, 2011High Flight
John Gillespie Magee, Jr
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
……………………………………………………………….
Today (Friday) was undoubtedly one of the most memorable days I have ever had, or expect to have, in my entire life.
Linton’s neighbour is an aerobatic pilot. He has a collection of vintage planes that would turn any flight enthusiast green with envy, including an L31 Russian Fighter jet. He also has a small, two seater Fokker (WWII fighter pilot training plane) and, you guessed it, offered to take me up for a flight. What an experience !!! Totally different than I expected. Unlike the lumbering and laboured take off of commercial jet liners, the small prop plane scampered down the runway and ever so gently eased into the air. It was as though you floated off of the ground.
Once airborne, the gentle sideways slip sliding and bumpiness were not the least bit unnerving as they are in a big plane, but rather made you feel that you were being cradled by air currents. I am sure I now know what an eagle feels as he soars and glides through the sky.
We headed along the path of the Elephant River for a short distance, then gently banked left to head out over the Cederberg Mountains. The patchwork canvas below was breathtaking but I had to keep reminding myself to take it all in as I was so enveloped in the experience of flying.
As we headed off over the mountains towards Gecko Creek where Lenore was anxiously awaiting our flyover, Johan explained the flight controls to me: throttle, indicator dials and gauges, and two-pedal rudder. He then handed the controls over to me to handle the aircraft, explaining how to gently bank to the left then the right. What a thrill !!!
Handing the controls back to Johan, we did a high circle above Gecko Creek, giving a spectacular view of the buildings and landscape below. Johan asked if I would like to go down lower to wave hello to which I eagerly agreed. He began a tight bank to the left, diving ever lower and lower, skimming above the rooftop barely 10 feet above the house.
We began our journey back toward his private airstrip, enjoying spectacular views of mango and orange groves, Rooibos Tea farms and the meandering river. Johan asked if I was up to a Barrel Roll to which I eagerly agreed. He carefully explained to me through the earphones we were wearing to communicate with each other, that we would begin a slow climb to 3,000 feet when he would begin the corkscrew-like manoever during which we would experience 3G’s. The anticipation was incredible. As we reached the height of our ascent we fell away to the side, turning over and looping in one combined move that found me totally disoriented. I had no idea which way was up or down, where sky or land was, and no sense of which direction we would come out of the manoever. Before I could experience any sensation of fear, Johan had eased us out into level flight and headed us back toward the airstrip. I collected the headset which had been torn from my head (oh, by the way, did I mention that all of this flying was done with the canopy open) and gathered my stomach back to its appropriate position within my anatomy, reached out into the airstream and today … I touched the face of God.
Morag