Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...

jujube

jujube

SF VIP
Location
I think I'm in Florida, but I'm not sure any more.
...and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings. (credits to John Gilespie Magee, Jr.)

I took my first bi-plane ride this morning in a 1943 Stearman Bi-plane. What an incredible rush! I wasn't sure I wanted to go up in a plane that's four years older than me....but the thing has held up better than I have.

What a welcome to North Carolina and no better way to see the mountains.

OK, one more thing checked off the bucket list.
 

Flying as it is meant to be, there's nothing like it. I've flown in several bi-planes -Tiger moth, Dragon Rapide, Sea Otter (a bi-plane flying boat).

I still have a hankering to wing walk on my 90th birthday (10 years time)!
 
Jujube, I LOVE that poem! I have a copy hanging up in my bedroom.

Why ? Because I have personally "Been there; done that"; being an ex USAF pilot.
 

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
 
Thirty years ago my wife and I went up in a 1927 Ford Tri-motor. The pilot looked like he was old enough that he had flown it when it was new. Lots of fun.
 
Talk of tri-motors brings back another memory.

I once worked on a Ju 52, also a tri-motor, "Tante Ju", the Gooney bird of the Luftwaffe, their standard paratroop transport!
 
I would think that the real thrill is not due to it being a bi-plane, but it being an open cockpit plane. That makes a LOT more difference than the wing configuration.
 
Oh, Falcon, I so love that descriptive poem, & wow, the last line -- "touched the face of God," beautiful!

In one episode of the sci fi series, Star Trek, an old man tells Captain Kirk, "I reached up my hand and touched the sky." that line really got to me and now to read "Put out my hand and touched the face of God," brings to my heart glory in the poem.
 

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