Ridge Flight
Do you have a high-quality/high-resolution airplane, helicopter, or multirotor photo that you are proud of, or a model aviation-related photo with a great story behind it? Email your “Viewfinder” photo and a description about it to jennifer@modelaircraft.org.
David P. Andersen (Minneapolis, Minnesota) submitted the following poem and photos for “Viewfinder,” noting that an earlier version of the poem was published more than 50 years ago in Radio Control Modeler magazine.
North country river bluffs he called his
home
Where he hurled his sailplane aloft and
alone.
His only companion the red-tailed hawk
Taught him to circle, to hover, to stalk
The lift over pines, rustle-whispered birch
and asp,
Untamed wilderness explored by radio’s
grasp.
He escaped the bonds that civilization tries
To hold back his soul but it rides
A thermal sun-borne energy calling him
home.
Allemande ‘round with brother hawk does
he roam
The unseen swirl of power known but to
plane and bird
What few have seen, have felt, or have
heard.
Do you understand, brother hawk, why
he flies
Wings of wood and radio eyes
Immersed in the warmth of summer skies?
Do you know, brother hawk, what does he
seek
As he dives and turns toward ridgecrest’s
peak,
And seizes the earth with talons and beak?
Does he seek freedom, my red-feathered
friend?
And if he should find it, will it be without
end?
By this brief flight together—man, hawk
and sun
Have tried to gain freedom—and almost
won.
