Thursday, December 31, 2009 V1, Rotate, Positive Climb, Gear Up Robert Macklin, my uncle Bob. He was a big guy, broad shouldered, with an easy smile and blue eyes. Some people have jobs, some people have callings. He started out as a police officer, and anyone familiar with emergency rooms will then understand why my aunt is a nurse. He was a good cop too, but his calling was flight. He learned to fly before I was born, left the force and never looked back. He could fly pretty much anything with two wings and an engine and he did, everything from uprated Twin Otters launching from a rock-strewn strip hacked out of a Andean plateau fifteen thousand feet over the Atacama desert to A320 Airbuses operating out of Toronto International, flying approaches right over this very house. He flew cargo and he flew people, and one of the things he flew was a private Learjet, which meant a lot of people he flew were those who move and shake the world. Peter Munk and EP Taylor were a couple of them, but the only one of his VIPs that impressed him was George Bush (the smart one), because Bush was a pilot himself. He was on his game when Bush was aboard, because the president would know if the landing wasn't perfect. I don't know how far he flew, though it has to be millions of miles. I do know he kept flying until he hit the age limit for commercial pilots. He retired to a beautiful mountainside on Vancouver Island, where he had the requisite models aircraft in his office, and a cartoon of a crusty old captain stubbornly kicking the tires on a vast, modern jet. "The Old Pro", it's captioned, which to me sums up his approach perfectly. His crew thought so too, because he kept his hand in even in retirement, and they would call him in to consult. Only consulting isn't flying, and I know it was hard for him to walk away from the plane that last time. Once a pilot, always a pilot. Still, there's a last time for everything, and the good pilots die in bed. My uncle was a good pilot, and he died in bed just before Christmas. I miss him. A lot of people do. "Always trim to the sky side," he told me once. That's good advice at any time, twice as good in bad weather and so I'll follow it now. We are not poorer for his passing, we are richer, much richer, to have had him as long as we did. Captain Bob Macklin. Clear for takeoff, ceiling unlimited. Have a good one. Paul :: add a comment :: Latest five blogs: Bullwer-Lytton 7/17/2010 The unnofficial army watch 2/20/2010 Finding the water 2/3/2010 All beach, no water 1/16/2010 All beach and no water. 1/4/2010 Archives: 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 ________________________________________________________________ Sorry to hear of your loss. Beautiful and moving memorial. Be well, Sam Sam Ray, California, posted on 12/31/2009 10:11:08 AM ________________________________________________________________