Warbird Information Exchange

As an airforce brat I remember listening to this story growing up it still personifies Christmas for me. As aircrew my father was away for many of those Christmases and I think of him while listening to this story.
It is the short story of a Royal Air Force fighter pilot flying a de Havilland Vampire jet fighter back home from Germany in the winter of 1957 on Christmas Eve. The pilot is trying to get home for Christmas when everything that could go wrong does. He finds himself over the North Sea at night, in winter, in the clag and with out radio, navigational aid or time.
I was recently reminded of this story by Dave O'Malley's article on the Vintage Wings of Canada site.
It’s about 30 minutes long. But it’s a lovely story - apparently a Christmas gift from Forsyth to his wife. And the way Alan Maitland reads it - more than a mere nod to the sheer magic of radio.
Get yourself some hot cider/mulled wine/other traditional seasonal drink, sit back, and listen to The Shepherd
Merry Christmas to all especially to those men and woman serving for us all around the world.

http://community.livejournal.com/histor ... 16672.html

_________________
“Try to fly in the middle of the air. The edges are filled with mountains and oceans and rocks and it’s much harder to fly there.”

The Shepard is one of my all time favorite books. Thanks for the post

And merry Christmas

I can't believe I have never heard this before! Thank You and Merry Christmas.

That was one of the books that got me into aviation. Johnny Kavanagh if my memory serves me correctly. I remember the last line, spoken by the batman. Stirring stuff.

CBC Radio 1 streams the reading of the story every December 24th on the internet. Links can be found here...

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... php?t=2265

Mike

_________________
Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.

That is a great story, gives you chills in the right way.

_________________
Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK