Richard Bach

 I can't start this blog without mention  Richard Bach...

Richard (Oak Park, Illinois, 1936) is a PILOT . An enormous chunk of a PILOT... He was professionally involved with USAF since 1957 to 1962. In this period he flew the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak in Europe, flying missions from his Belgian base to anywhere in Europe. He wrote at that time his beautiful book, "Stranger to the Ground"... In a night flight back to his base in France from a base in England, at 35000 ft, alone with himself in the narrow cockpit of his Thunderstreak fighter, He lets his mind express itself... What a beautiful book, believe me...

I knew about him by 1971 or so. At that time I was mid-career at Madrid's ETSIA (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Aeronaúticos). I was a regular reader of 'FLAPS', a good monthly aviation magazine here. In one magazine's issue, the first part of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull was published (JLS, 1970)... It was a translation from a French aviation magazine publishing, in French, of the original Part 1 of the story in English...


Fortunately, both translators were extremely good (English to French, French to Spanish) They were pilots or, at least, people with sound knowledge of Aviation terms and vocabulary...


From that moment, I was in love with Jonathan Livingstone Seagull...