Hi Skydivers
This email is a tribute to Piers Littleford. (one of the skydivers killed in the recent crash in Florida Keys whose next of kin have been notified by now)
He was a man who I first met in 1997 at Citrusdal (South Africa) and dealt with before then as a supplier of equipment to the drop zone. (Cypresses and the like.) Piers was always incredibly helpful and well informed. I found him to be exceptionally intelligent with a well educated mind and often found ourselves discussing a surprising variety of topics ranging from Physics to Shakespeare. I found him to be a man of extraordinary depth and character.
Piers my friend you will be missed by all of us and especially I will miss arriving at the drop-zone on the occasions I would be there and seeing you there and looking forward to the discussions we would have over a cold one or otherwise.
Until we meet again a few well known words by John Gillespie Magee….
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I have 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 windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or 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.
Paul Bailey
