| Putting Words to a Life in the Sky |
| From the Suffolk Times, March 9, 1995 |
| Cutcnogue aviator 'Dutch'Redfield unveils 2nd memoir By Jeff Miller CUTCHOGUE-The winter air was smooth and stable and the Continental's song was crisp and sweet in the cold winter air. I wouldn't let myself toss her around and play with her a bit because she knew where to nip me and tease for more. So I let her doze and hoped she wouldn't realize where I was taking her. This beautiful thing. With my lap belt tight I was joined to her and I was part of her. With the gentle pressures of her controls she allowed me to feel her and feel her element, the sky. And when I responded to her pressures with guiding pressures for her to feel, we were one and totally dependent on each other." One thing is clear from that passage: Its author didn't just love flying, he ro- manced flying. Another clear thing: His writing can transport passengers about as well as his airplanes used to. You might not suspect that such flights of passion smolder within the no- nonsense, somewhat gruff exterior of 79-year-old Holland "Dutch" Redfield of Cutchogue. But clearly they do. The passage above and many others in his latest book, "The Airman's Sky Is Not the Blue," carry echoes of Heming- way's "Islands in the Stream," another fond look back at the end of a long and lively career. "How could a childhood in the McKean |
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| County oil well country of north- west Pennsylvania possibly nurture an interest in aviation?" Capt. Redfield asks that question at the top of page 8, and then proceeds to answer it in 162 more pages of words and pictures. The answer takes us from a $2 ride aboard an old American Eaglerock biplane, a gift from his mother on his 13th birth- day, through seaplaning in the Central Adirondacks with his Waco F2, to his 33 years as a training captain for Pan American World Airways, flying DC- 3s, B-23s, 747s - you name it Capt. Redfield taught more than 2,000 trainees in his career, many of them at Grumman Field in Calverton. That's how he fell in love with the East End, from above. A Brother's Faith Obviously, pilots will get the most from this book, but passengers can ap- preciate, on almost every page, the sense of wonder and excitement of a young man pursuing a lofty dream. Take, for example, Capt. Redfield's second solo flight, when his older brother, Scotty, suddenly jumped into the open cockpit of the Kinner Bird and insisted on going along. "This remains and shall forever be the greatest shot-in-the-arm of my life," writes Capt. Redfield. "I can to this day see his tousled, unhelmeted, reddish- blond hair whipping behind the wind- shield of his open cockpit before me. "As we banked and nosed into de- scent for landing, he turned with a big See Dutch, page 26 |
| Page 26 |
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| Continued from page 21 wave and a loud laugh. I can hear it yet!! At the end of our landing roll in the middle of the field, he loosened the forward belt and climbed out As he stood with pants flapping alongside the Bird's rear cockpit, he gave me a squeeze on the shoulder. There was a never-surpassed glow of pride as I gunned the Kinner to taxi back." And there are thrills and chills. On a flight from Montreal to Albany, with ice building up on the wings of his DC-3 and airspeed and altitude waning, the reader/passenger feels a strong sense of relief when the wheels finally touch down. This is CapL Redfield's second mem- oir. Like the first, "Thirty-Five Years at the Outer Marker," in 1981, it's self- published. "Disappointing" is the word he uses to describe his first experience trying to interest publishers. "Eventually I said the heck with it, I'll do it myself. And I'm awfully glad I did. I got my money back in one year, but the big re- ward has been the wonderful letters from people who were able to relate. I've got two shoeboxes full of 'em. I get 'em out once a year for a shot in the arm." Last Flight Ahead Capt. Redfield gave up flying a few years ago. Asked on Tuesday if he prefers piloting a word processor to a 747, he said, "I'll take me 747." But he added, "Writing can be satisfying." An example is the book's last chapter, "The Final Touchdown." It won't be printed fully here, because it should be read at the end of "The Airman's Sky." But here's a sample: |
| "During a lifetime in aviation, I have experienced only one forced landing. It was not difficult The dead stick glide began at three thousand feet There were several suitable fields from which to choose. Things worked out nicely. Yet, I know that I have another forced land- ing lurking and waiting for me out there. I believe at this stage of my life that I am prepared for it..." He goes on to ask only for an open cockpit and no helmet, please, as he jockeys to a glad reunion with old cronies. That chapter was printed in Airline Pilot magazine on Nov. 19, 1994. It drew two responses that show why a word processor is a decent substitute vehicle for Dutch Redfield. "The Final Touchdown"... was really beautiful and very touching," wrote re- tired Eastern Airlines captain Jim Halpin. "When I saw who wrote it, I could understand why it was so good." He described Capt. Redfield as a "pioneer aviator." "I would like to comment on "The Fi- nal Touchdown,' by Capt. Holland Red- field," wrote Pres Suit, a Boeing instruc- tor pilot. "In my opinion, it ranks with Pilot Officer John McGee's 'High Right' and Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 'Crossing the Bar' as an expression of what most of us feel about our great profession, but are too embarrassed to admit. To put it another way, as an old professor of mine once said many years ago. "That, by God, is literature.'" Copies of "The Airman's Sky Is Not the Blue" are $15.95, plus $2.50 for postage and handling. Mail to Holland L. Redfield, Box 941, Cutchogue, NY 11935-0941 Return to Order Page |
| Dutch Redfield's Memoir. . . |
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