Hundreds turned out. I want to thank everyone involved
and especially his widow, Adie, who showed such grace
and strength and of course the rest of the family.
For those who were not lucky enough to be part of
this unforgettable occasion two moments - many actually,
but two in particular - stood out for me:
the Black Box recording of the exchange between Laurie
and Air Traffic Control, when he skippered a SAA Jumbo at an
impossibly low height in a flypast over
a packed Ellis Park stadium in 1995. On that day, captured in the movie
Invictus with Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman, the Springbok beat
the All Blacks in a momentous Rugby World Cup Final in the presence of
Nelson Mandela. The occasion
was a standout moment in Mandela's strategy to put South Africa's
tortured past behind it by reaching out to the rugby-loving whites.
Played back
In a darkened hangar, coming out of a flickering black screen the exchange,
calm, clipped, between Laurie and ATC made the hairs on my neck stand
on end; and then the final run-up by the World War II Harvards outside,
loud, proud and then throttle-off and silence and contemplation.
Earlier the Harvard squadron, which he led, flawlessly executed the Missing Man
formation when, just as they approach the spectators, one aircraft peels off
and heads for the sky in a tribute to a fallen comrade..
Yes, Laurie did deserve a knighthood. But my guess is
that he may have turned it down graciously
preferring the love and respect of his friends, colleagues
and family.
I recently encouraged my young niece to take up flying at 17. She's just
about to go solo. The great man's favourite birds were Fish Eagles. He
talked of how they had the "wind under their wings" as they soared
and dived. I will tell her Laurie's story and hope that, in some small
measure, he will be the wind under her wings; as he was, and
remains, under mine.
Laurie's friends and admirers in the UK and around the world,
fellow pilots and simple fans,have been pole axed by this news.
I guess the hijacking incident,when Laurie was bundled into the boot of a car
at gunpoint in Johannesburg last year and driven around for four hours,
must have been at least in part responsible for his tragically early passing.
Somehow, as Bob Thornley said in his moving address, Laurie
held it together showing, as he invariably did,
greater concern for his fellow abductee than for himself.
But the ordeal took its toll. He was never quite same again.
And yet it didn't break him and he carried on with the work he loved.
Laurie used to say: " I don't fear death. I fear not having lived"
I owe, as did hundreds of other pilots, a huge debt to Laurie.
With the help of a couple of two young pilots he helped to organise
a rescue when I was stranded, without fuel, in Quelimane,
Mozambique in 2011 a quarter of the way through a flight
from the UK to Johannesburg and back,(organised with less-than-perfect
planning by Prepare2Go) circumnavigating Africa
in my single-engine Piper Archer with a small squadron of equally unhinged
flyers. I had met him before, first at a mutual friend's birthday
party where Laurie gave the wittiest speech and later
when he took me joy-riding in one of his beloved Harvards.
At my wits' end I called Laurie from Quelimane. He was shopping.
"Don't worry we're on our way" said the great man. I ordered another beer
and waited.
I was, am, a relatively novice pilot. I got my PPL when he retired as
top gun at SAA. He would have hated that term.
Laurie was all the things mentioned in Hangar 5:
generous, modest, heroic, courteous, a gentleman,
funny, occasionally (very) mischievous, a man who grabbed life,
embraced it and lived it to the full. In short all the things
you'd expect from a great aviator.
Just before our return leg to the UK up the west coast of Africa
Laurie sat us down and with that simple, knowing charm
gave us a masterclass in how to fly through the ITCZ where storm
systems collide near the Equator.
"Alain you look knackered. Are you sure about this?" he asked "Nope",
I replied. "Well you'd better do your homework" he grinned. A man of
considerable achievements- fighter pilot, 747 skipper, mentor to the
young- Laurie was never boastful and invariably willing to help
without ever making you feel less than his equal. Laurie was the real deal.
I remember him most of all for his humanity
and for the sense of respect he conveyed for the world
he inhabited: people, animals, the environment.
I loved Johnny Woods' Tequila story. Some few years ago
after an aerobatics gig he and a two other pilots
celebrated with a couple of bottles of Tequila.
They all moved on to become SAA captains flying big jets around
the world.Whenever they'd hear each other on the RT up there in
the jet stream chatting to Air Traffic Control one of them would
click on the broadcast button and whisper one word:"Tequiilaaah".
Highly irregular but what fun. When you're flying in a sardine tin at FL80
over the Congo river estuary, Conrad country, as we were on one
occasion on the TransAfrica and you hear " Speedbird 57...." 25,000ft
above you the temptation to ask for the cricket scores is irresistible.
Laurie, in the few, brief years I knew him taught me to stay loose
as well as disciplined.
Yesterday's event was a deeply moving tribute, funny, touching:
a Harvard fly-past, music, bagpipes, the Last Post,
the tear-jerking Ave Maria, friends, family, admirers
all under a brilliant cloudless South African sky.
We mourn him and remember him, each in our own way,
and we salute him. Our deepest sympathies to his family.
South Africa has lost a great son and the world
aviation community a distinguished pilot.
He remains an inspiration, the wind under our wings. I miss him.
For more tributes visit www.avcom.co.za
Slowflyer
