Unforgiving

Posted on March 18, 2014

 

This serves as a very personal reminder for what the skytouched risk in pursuit of their passion, a feeling I understand all to well when the “perfect storm” of dozen different factors combined and resulted in a catastrophic crash of my hanglider.

This phrase and imagery is prevalent aviation clubs, FBOs, and small airports around the US. The plane picture is a replica of a 1917 bi-wing Curtis Jenny, an aircraft that embodied the spirit of early aviation pioneers. The accident is attributed to pilot error, and resulted in a fatality, and the near total destruction of the aircraft after only a few months of service and less than a dozen flights. I find this photo particularly moving because of the passion and joy in flight that the pilot owner had to build this aircraft. It is tragic that the joy was so short lived. The quote of the photo is attributed to Captain Alfred Gilmer Lamplugh of the British Aviation Group sometime in the early 1930s.