Every time I write about my aviation experiences I am drawn very emotionally to the poem, High Flight, by a young Canadian RAF Spitfire pilot, John Magee. The lines he wrote fill your heart and soul when you’re in a jet, glider, skydive, hot air balloon and particularly in a Spitfire, roaring through the blue skies above Kent in England.
I’m fortunate to have variations of this story published by Have a Go News newspaper and by Airline Ratings and Australian Aviation. Being published by Just Urbane is always exciting but this story means so much to me and I really hope it drives readers to embark on an action packed adventure of their own that is exciting and emotionally charged as well.
On 6PR on a recent summers weekend on the airwaves, we took to the skies to discover how getting into the air can inspire your travel or be an exciting part of it. It was also an opportunity to reflect on my air moments.
I used to love accompanying dad out to the Narrogin airstrip when his patients needed to fly out with the Royal Flying Doctor. I’d walk around the gliders and light aircraft, imagining I was a fighter pilot waiting to hear the call to “Scramble! Scramble!”.
I love that my kids have enjoyed getting into the air. Tom has ziplined, parasailed and been in seaplanes and even done ifly indoor skydiving. Matilda has ziplined and been in helicopters and even flown up the coast in a Tiger Moth, one of the worlds most beautiful and gentle aircraft.
Astronaut Michael Collins’ wife wrote out the aviators poem High Flight for him to take into space. In his book, Carrying the Fire, Collins remarked that he wondered what Magee would have written if he’d experienced space and not just flying a Spitfire through the blue summer skies of wartime England.
Even the most non religious pilots enjoy putting their hand up to the sky and murmuring…
‘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”.
Magee posted a copy of the poem to his parents and not long after was killed in a flying accident.
Flying a glider and looking for thermals in the air to stay in the airFlying a Spifire above the green fields of KentHot air ballooning on a cold Avon Valley morning Falling with style onto Palm BeachZiplining with Tom off Matagarup BridgeZiplining with Matilda down a mountain in South AfricaTom takes to the sky … indoorsMatilda takes to the skies in a Tiger Moth, used to train Empire Training Scheme pilots in World War IITom and I parasailing off the Fremantle coast … some big fish down there!Even a big plane is an adventure in the air
Chris Parry Writes For Us 