For the Love of Flying
by ermacnamara
For the Love of Flying
(Gary Ticehurst, 18 August 2011)
The first time I flew with Gary was after joining the Beat Box crew at ABC-TV. We circled round and round the red roofs of Sydney. I started to feel very ill, but it was a new production team and I wanted to appear cool, so I kept swallowing the vomit back. Eventually nothing could stop it exploding out my nose :-0… Far from being pissed off that I stunk up his brand new chopper Gary was a perfect gentleman about it. Privately he even confessed that he used to get airsick when learning to fly planes, but it disappeared when he moved on to choppers.
Later when I was working as a camera operator for the news team, hanging out the door to shoot with a gale force wind blowing in my face, I learnt to love flying.
Gary, thank you for your care and courtesy – you taught me exhilaration in the face of fear.
The News
In the morning a phone call
Have you heard?
his voice tight and raw
brutal with truth
ABC chopper down
three dead
Gary, Paul Lockyer, John Bean
Reels like a broken blade
worlds plummet
Gary, the safest pilot I ever knew
if it could happen to him
it could happen to anyone
We are long past conversation
he hangs up
God bless their souls
God bless their souls
a prayer from nowhere
rises up
Our son, attuned, emerges from his room
Who was that? I listen
it is when I speak tears break
I am surprised to realize
I care as much for anyone
after a thousand stories this is human in the face of death
It could have been me, I think
I was never safe
It could have been dad, I watch
that slow troubling thought
as he hugs me better
a moment wise before school
Online there is little to report
early evening
something odd about the take-off
minutes later
a silent glow in the desert
They had come to shoot the flowers
on an island in an inland sea
The next day an aerial shot
black smudge smeared across the sand
I make out one tiny living figure
three bright-blue tarpaulins small and clean
one fore, two aft
That’s Gary, I feel
the chill of what they mean
