High Flight

I've decided that I'm going to make one last post about my dad, funerals, etc. While I'm sure that most people reading this blog are interested in developments around this subject, I also concede that this blog could get a bit morbid if I keep posting about my dad's crash, NTSB investigations, plane wreckage, crying old men, widows, etc. So, I'm going to make this the last post on these subjects. With that in mind, I'm going to post t"High Flight", a classic poem that brings tears to the eyes of old pilots. I've seen that firsthand when one of my dad's flying buddies read it aloud at his memorial. This was originally written by a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot during World War Two.

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 nor even 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.

-J.G. Magee, RCAF, 1941

I spent this morning with the NTSB investigators at an airplane salvage yard in maple valley. They're still working out the details, but there is a preliminary report here. I got some photos of the wreckage, it's pretty gnarley. Everything was bent up from the impact and then burned really badly. I'll post pictures of that later. Finally, a fellow pilot snapped this photo of my dad taking off from Arlington airport on what would be his last flight.

Powered by Zoundry

steps forward

The last week has been pretty rough. My two brothers have been busy taking over my father's company, and I have been busy at home arranging the memorial. All last week, I was in charge of calling folks to let them know what has happened, and boy is that a tough job. Many people already knew via the grapevine, but many did not. It is a strange and ugly thing to call someone in the middle of their day and give them such horrible news. I hated it, but felt like I had to be the one to do it... my brothers were so busy, and my mom and sister just don't have the stomach for it. We found a nice, non-religious place to hold the service, which was Saturday. Lots of people who were close to Norm spoke about him with great love and energy. I now know that it's really hard to watch grizzled old men cry, it just breaks me up terribly. Ethan spoke very well, and I also told some really funny stories about my dad and mom when they were younger, the whole room was laughing hard, that felt good. The best part was that the stories were all true. One good thing about the ceremony was that a LOT of my and Reba's friends came to show support, man that really felt good. Having people around you that love and support you is the best thing in the world, and I feel so lucky to have that here and in Oxford as well. It's a really cool feeling, especially in the midst of such a shitty circumstance. Afterwards, we all got totally loaded in the bar, something my dad would have certainly approved of. Today was the "day after" and my brothers and I are back to sorting out my family's business matters, which is absolutely no fun whatsoever. My cousins who had come out for the ceremony went back to their homes in LA and Massachusetts, and Reba and I are staying in Sarah's Capitol Hill apartment while she's out of town. We're upstairs from a bar with a cute little balcony. It's secluded enough and the weather is nice enough that I'm typing out here now (midnight), sitting in my underwear! So, there's a little bit of lightness in an otherwise dark week. Tomorrow, it's lawyers and phone calls. Sigh. Here are some cool photos of my dad doing stuff he really dug.

piloting his sailboat, the warlock

piloting his fan boat down in cedar key, florida

together with the whole family at Aubry's wedding

the warlock at the weekly duck dodge boat race, Norm is always pilot, captain and general overlord of his boat

more duck dodge

giving Aubry away at her wedding

still skiing at 66, bad knees, bad back and all!

national honor society in 1958... he's in the middle. Note that he's surrounded by girls, just the way he liked it!

Powered by Zoundry

crash site

Shelby texted me early today to see if I wanted a ride to the airport. I gladly accepted her offer and off we went. The flight was short and uneventful, though I did have to take a few heavy phone calls when I landed. In case you're just tuning in, my dad was killed yesterday in a plane crash, so I had to leave SF to visit my family in Seattle. As soon as I got to my mom's house, we went up to Mukilteo to see the crash site, where we met a bunch of neighbourhood folks who were very nice to us. The guy whose yard it crashed into wasn't there when it happened, but talked with us a while, and let me use his saw to take a bit of the tree that my father's plane slammed into. I think I need to get something carved from it. The site was heavily burned in a very localised area, with big gashes in the lawn where a wing cut in. The NTSB and FAA hauled away the wreckage for the investigation, so there was just charred bushes and torn up earth where the wreck once had been. I took a few pictures.

approach path

finally came to rest here

all the trees like this nearby are very bushy, this one had all it's leaves burned off

a wing hit here

the tree that stopped the plane

Next door was a retired fireman who actually ran out to try and extinguish the huge fire that burst from the plane. All he had was a garden hose, and he couldn't get within 40 feet of the fire because it was so hot. He said that the plane came down so hard that my father must have been killed or at least knocked unconscious on impact. This makes sense because his plane was a special aerobatic plane with very small wings which facilitate fast turns, etc. Unfortunately, without power, those wings have no ability to glide, thus his Yakilov 55 fell like a stone. Each neighbour noted that he must have been very skilled to have missed the houses by such a narrow space, and they also observed that he seemed to be trying to reach a long, flat field near the house. Across the street we met a family that was home when the plane flew over their house on it's way down. The mother of the family was in tears as she told us how thankful she was for my father taking such care to miss houses in his descent... her two daughters were inside playing that day. I met them: a 10 year old named Kaylie and an 11 year old named Victoria. They were such beautiful little girls, wide eyed and jumpy. I hope I have daughters like that some day. They were clearly nervous to meet the family of the man they knew as "the pilot". Looking at those little girls, I realised how much worse this could have been, and got pretty choked up. So did Ethan and my mom. I don't think I'll ever forget that little girl's face. I'd like to think that my dad had people like Kaylie in mind when he gave that last effort to miss those houses. Kaylie and Victoria's dad said a prayer, which was a little awkward for us... me being an atheist and my mom being an old school "close to the chest" style Catholic. But, his intentions were really sweet and genuine, so we bowed our heads and respectfully took in his improvised prayer. I always feel weird when religious people pray for me because I don't think that it does any good. But, at the same time, it makes me feel good because I know it's something that is special to them. I always appreciate it when people share something personal with me, and so I always take a prayer as a really nice gesture on their part. This week is going to be packed with arrangements, meetings, financial planning, and consoling. The phone calls keep coming in from friends and colleagues of my dad. There are a lot of sad people in Seattle today.

Powered by Zoundry

the worst day of my life

Yesterday I got an awful call from my mom. My dad, who is a competitive aerobatic pilot, wrecked his Yakovlev 55 stunt plane, and was killed when he crashed into an Everett back yard. He was out for a regular morning fly, one of his favourite things to do. Apparently he ran into engine trouble, and was trying to put down in a field when the plane just dropped to the ground at a very steep angle. I guess that we can be a little happy that he died doing something that he loved.

I'm leaving the Jambase consulting project and flying in to Seattle today to help my family, who are obviously in a terrible state. I don't know what is going to happen after today, and just feel horrible. In some ways, this seems like the wrong place to post this information, but then again, since the people who read this are family and friends, it's probably a reasonable way of spreading the news. Reba is flying out asap to help, and Shelby has been a great support here in San Francisco. Having close people that I love seems really important right now.

Still, I feel dead inside, and I'm so worried about my mom and grandma. I know that we'll all pull through and sort out our lives, but right now that sounds like a very very big task.

mom and dad

Powered by Zoundry

in san francisco

Briefly, I am in San Francisco for a couple of weeks to work on a consulting project for school. The company we are working for is www.jambase.com , a web company that aggregates band touring information. We got in last night, and today I'm just getting my phone set up, getting settled, contacting people, etc. Shelby is here, Diego is on his way, and Dan comes on Saturday. I'll go to Seattle in two weeks. YAY!!! Photos and more details later!

Powered by Zoundry

a day off

Today, Reba and I got up late, had brekke with Shelby, and went to the movies. We saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3. What a piece of crap. I can't believe they had all that money, and all that talent, and put together such a shitty movie. The other two were silly action movies, but they had decent enough stories, and were funny enough, at least for what they were. This one was simply way too much reliance on special effects and absolutely zero in terms of engaging plot. I just didn't care what happened to anyone in the movie. AND, it was confusing! The double crossing got so involved that at some point I just gave up following it. I don't think even the writers could tell you exactly what was going on... sort of like the X-files used to be: just pointedly confusing simply so it seem mysterious. Or something. Anyway, it was nice to sit in a theatre and hold hands with Reba and eat popcorn without stressing about some paper that's coming due. Later, we split a pizza at Gino's (an actually good restaurant in Oxford) and came home. I've been downloading reading and course materials from this term... my goal is to get the whole year worth of readings, notes, slides, handouts, etc., all onto one memory stick. That way I have the who thing at my fingertips if I need it. That will be cool. Just getting all the financial history readings took several hours... over 75 articles, some in excess of 70 pages long! I can't believe he expected us to read all of that. Sheesh. So far, I have all the materials from customer insights, entrepreneurial technology ventures, financial history, and media strategies for the networked world. I've got 20 more courses I took, and then about 5 that I didn't, that I need to get. This will take a while! Tomorrow Ethan and Eban get into town, and we're going out for drinks with Sally. That should be interesting.

me, reebs and julia out at the king's arms saturday night

Powered by Zoundry