Footless Halls of Air

Racer Jason was kind enough to take me for a quick flight in his Vans RV-8 after the SARL race at Taylor last Saturday. What had been a very dull, overcast, gusty kind of a day turned into a broken cloud evening, with calmer winds. The sun played golden light over the tops of the clouds, and we wended our way through the holes; up into the hills and valleys of ghostly fabric hidden from the ground.

Jason let me fly for a while, before sending us rolling upside down over the cloud peaks. Such fun :-)



While we flew, I thought of this famous poem. I'm sure you have all come across it before, but just in case...

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 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.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr