High Flight

[short_round]

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 ever 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.

[Merlin Orr]

As we all should strive for.......

[Hank Ellis]

High Flight with FAA Supplement

--- and ---

Why Helicopter Pilots are Different

The thing is, helicopters are different from planes. An airplane by it's nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or by a deliberately incompetent pilot, it will fly. A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each other, and if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying; immediately and disastrously. There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter.

This is why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why in generality, airplane pilots are open, clear eyed buoyant extroverts and helicopter pilots are brooding introspective anticipators of trouble. They know if something bad has not happened, it is about to.

Harry Reasoner, February 16, 1971

[bierman]

I've heard from some pilots that helicopters don't actually fly, they make so much noise and racket that the earth rejects them...

[dajarrel]

Years ago, when TV stations used to sign off every night, one of our local stations (WE HAD THREE) would play a video adaptation of "High Flight" It was very well done and always led into the National Anthem. A fitting way to close each day.

dj

[Chills1994]

yeah dj, I know what you're talking about. A local station used to do the same thing, various planes in the Air Force inventory flying over scenic parts of the US.

Made the hair stand up on my neck every time I watched it.

IIRC, John Gillespie MacGee, Jr. was an RAF pilot in WWII. He wrote the poem in a letter to his mom. By the time that it arrived, he had already been killed.

Helicopter pilots have their own little spiel called Lo Flight

"...reached out my hand....and grabbed a tree branch"

Edited March 10, 2006 by Chills1994