Comments on: A Flight In A Tiger Moth

By: Rosa

Rosa — Sun, 14 Jul 2024 12:08:19 +0000

You are Brave!
A misguided Beau very generously once got me a flying lesson. The pilot barely pursuaded me to come out of the foetal position by the end. He had casually instructed me to reach out & bang the flimsy door shut should it come open mid-flight, which hadn’t helped. It was not dissimilar to being inside a Reliant Robin.
A balloon flight, on the other hand, was so miraculous & moving that I burst into tears.
Perhaps a Tiger Moth is somewhere between the two!

By: Jenny Linford

Jenny Linford — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 20:20:06 +0000

A wonderful experience – beautifully evoked.

By: julia harrison

julia harrison — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 19:07:39 +0000

I too thought of Saint-Exupery’s ‘Wind, Sand and Stars’:
‘I, delivered, shall read my course in the stars.’
Wonder, indeed.

By: Christine Swan

Christine Swan — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 18:25:05 +0000

I’m glad that you had a memorable flight. Unfortunately, I suffer from crippling fear of flying so it would hold no pleasure for me.

However, I do recognise these sites as I used to live in Kent. I remember one particular visit to Knole as a child when a deer ate a cucumber that my mother had in a shopping bag, purchased for a salad. Watching her chase the offender was a hilarious moment of pure comedy. We joked about it for years after.

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 18:19:00 +0000

How exciting! I’ve visited Knole, but didn’t get to see in quite the same way as you did Gentle Author.

By: Colin Cohen

Colin Cohen — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 16:12:57 +0000

Just like gliding, but with added engine noise and minus ‘range anxiety’ when hunting for the next thermal!

By: Milo

Milo — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 10:08:55 +0000

Ooh, I bet that was fun.

By: Saba

Saba — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 00:01:20 +0000

Probably the most tactile description of flight that I have ever read. The wind and the vibration of the motor. The sense of being a fragile little bug — I have thought about being a tiny bug finding my way around a small section of the earth but not about the experience of one’s fragility while buffed about by the currents of air. Bravo!

I’m a fan of the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry books about delivering the mail in Europe, North Africa, and even South America. There is also a fabulous French movie on Criterion channel about a woman who made a dangerous solo flight in, I think, the 1930s. All good stuff, but he emphasized the existence of the danger of some flights but, as well as I recall, not the tactile experience.