“I definitely don’t want to die doing what I love. But I want to live doing what I love.” Eric Tucker, in the amazing video short 26,000 Days. Watch it here: https://vimeo.com/925195981
Jack Kornfield on Paragliding
I had no idea about this. Listening to a repeat of a Tim Ferriss podcast with famed Buddhist writer and teacher Jack Kornfield, he expressed his love of … paragliding: “One of my favorite things is to tandem paraglide and go off the top of places like Grindlewold in Switzerland, where you can take the ski lift up 9,000 feet and …
Come Fly with Me — Herb Alpert
“I play it just about every day of my life–not because I have to, but because it’s something that gives me pleasure. That’s what I tell kids when they ask what’s the secret to being successful in the music industry. If you’re not really passionate about what you’re doing or if you’re doing it because there are some benefits like …
Control of Fear
“The control of fear is a necessary part of the inner work of flight.” William Langewiesche Breathe. Relax. Do the ‘what-if’ work ahead of time. All these are part of the Inner Work of Flight. Quote is from Langewiesche’s 2010 book Aloft: Thoughts on the Experience of Flight. And yes, his Dad wrote the book Stick and Rudder.
I’m Just a Bird
“I used to think, I’m just a bird. The glider is the shell, the body of the bird. You become part of it. If you can get to that stage, you can manoeuvre the glider anywhere you want to. Rather than thinking about how to control the machine you’re sitting in, you think, this is all a part of me.” …
Mountains Are
“Mountains are not fair or unfair, they are just dangerous.” Reinhold Messner, All Fourteen 8,000ers, 1999. Wikipedia says this about Messner: He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habeler, the first ascent of Everest without supplemental oxygen. He was the first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, doing so without supplementary oxygen. Messner was …
I Just Like to Be
“I just like to be up in the air, and the feeling of being a part of the plane.” John Coward John started in Tiger Moths, flew for the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, and then British Airways, ending his career going around the world in B707s. On retirement, he flew gliders in Wales. Quoted in the wonderful 2018 book …
Your New Job is to Say …
“Your new job is to say ‘no,’ when everyone else says ‘go’.” Happy New Year! Here’s to resolutions of flying more, flying better. This quote is from new Delta captain Jeremy King, his first trip as pilot-in-command of an airliner: https://wordsaloft.substack.com/p/managing-delays-gaining-time-without
Relax
This was the first book in the Teach Yourself series. It was so good that in World War II the British Air Ministry recommended pilots to buy a copy, and Tangye was asked to train prospective RAF pilots. The funny little book series rapidly expanded, the yellow and blue Teach Yourself books covered all kinds of subjects, selling millions of …
I Just Went Where I was Sent
A wonderful story from Neil Gaiman: Some years ago, I was lucky enough invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things. And I felt that at any moment they would realise that I didn’t qualify to be there, among these people who had really done things. On my second or third …