The Shepherd

[Airtids]

Time for my annual reminder to Avcanada:
Al Maitland will read Frederick Forsyth's story "The Shepherd" on CBC tomorrow night 18:30 hrs. For those of you who have never heard the story, The Shepherd is about a pilot in WWII on Christmas eve, trying to get back to his base in the poor Wx. Fantastic story, and a Christmas classic.

Wishing all my aviating brothers and sisters a fantastic Christmas, and Blue Skies and Tailwinds for 2009.

Robin

[angry inch]

Thanks for the reminder! That one's always a great listen.

Happy Holidays to the Pacific Sky Gang!!

[sarg]

Time for my annual reminder to Avcanada:
Al Maitland will read Frederick Forsyth's story "The Shepherd" on CBC tomorrow night 18:30 hrs. For those of you who have never heard the story, The Shepherd is about a pilot in WWII on Christmas eve, trying to get back to his base in the poor Wx. Fantastic story, and a Christmas classic.

Wishing all my aviating brothers and sisters a fantastic Christmas, and Blue Skies and Tailwinds for 2009.

Robin

Great short story have the book in a box somewhere in the basement. But I beleive the story is about a postwar pilot trying to get from Germany?? to England for Christmas, in poor wx and having an electrical failure, recused by the ghost of a WWII pilot.

Merry Christmas All

[The Old Fogducker]

Robin:

Thanks for the reminder about the CBC production of "The Sheperd" read by Alan Maitland. As is my Christmas tradition, I've got a link for you to download the 30 meg audio file from "YouSendIt.com" so you don't have to be tied to the CBC's schedule to hear this wonderful production.

Mr. Maitland was one of the best on-air readers the CBC ever had in their days of "classic-sounding radio announcers."
Frederick Forsyth's short story was wonderfully written for his son, and Forsyth's "previous life" as an RAF pilot uniquely qualified him to mix the fictional and factual perfectly. All too often, we pilots aren't able to watch the aviation oriented drivel that Hollywood cranks out because it is so loaded with technically incorrect BS, you can't stand it. This is well done and stands up well to the "peer review" process.

The CBC's on-line store sells this story on audio CD. Since I don't believe the government should be in the broadcasting business competing against private enterprise ventures, posting this production is my way of doing the "Communist Broadcasting Corporation" out of some revenues ... in their own way, double taxing Canadians.

Regards to all, and to all a good night,
Fog

Here is the link to the YouSendIt site to download the file. I encourage you to save the file, then listen. Also, it is only good for 7 days and/or 100 downloads. If there is still interest after that time, I'll repost it for interested parties.

https://www.yousendit.com/download/TTZt ... eVozZUE9PQ

[Airtids]

Time for my annual reminder to Avcanada:
Al Maitland will read Frederick Forsyth's story "The Shepherd" on CBC tomorrow night 18:30 hrs. For those of you who have never heard the story, The Shepherd is about a pilot in WWII on Christmas eve, trying to get back to his base in the poor Wx. Fantastic story, and a Christmas classic.

Wishing all my aviating brothers and sisters a fantastic Christmas, and Blue Skies and Tailwinds for 2009.

Robin

Great short story have the book in a box somewhere in the basement. But I beleive the story is about a postwar pilot trying to get from Germany?? to England for Christmas, in poor wx and having an electrical failure, recused by the ghost of a WWII pilot.

Merry Christmas All

You're right, of course. My bad, but in my defense, it's been a year, and i'm getting older as each one passes!!

[Forestdump]

Merry Christmas TOF. I had never heard that story before. Thank you.

[raven54]

Forestdump, I may be drunk, but I love that handle...been laughing for a while now...lol!!!!

[Forestdump]

we're drunk too....merry xmas! Forestdump

[Check Pilot]

Thanks you old fogducker you.

Nice to see retirement hasn't changed your ways.
And thanks for the card too.!!

[Forestdump]

[quote="Forestdump"]we're drunk too....merry xmas! Forestdump

I must apologize. Mrs. Forestdump got a hold of my password. Merry Christmas.

[GilletteNorth]

Airtids said enough about the story

The Shepherd is about a pilot in WWII on Christmas eve, trying to get back to his base in the poor Wx.

to get everyone interested. No need to give the ending away... Sarg.

[swordfish]

As it happens, a friend of mine was telling me about this story tonight, and we happened to be listening to CBC on sat TV, and it started to air. Quite a coincidence, and very well told.

[Flight 714]

Thanks for the heads up Tids! I'd never heard 'The Shepherd' until last night's airing of it. Awesome story! I took most of it in on a Christmas Eve medevac run via CBC via the ADF!

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

714

[Flight 714]

I should thank you too Old Fog... I'm downloading "The Shepherd" right now so lastnight's blanks can be filled in!

Merry Christmas!

714

[The Old Fogducker]

714:

Wonderful way to hear that story ... on the ADF.

You describing that listening experience made me recall doing the same thing after having done an approach to minimums perhaps 25 minutes prior, in the dark in northern Saskatchewan. I dropped off my passengers, took on a squirt of fuel from the hard working Mr Campbell, and headed for home empty. The airplane had an elderly, but rock solid, excellent performing ADF and I cranked up the coffee grinder to 540 while in a shallow southbound climb at METO power.

My timing was perfect to catch the introduction of "The Shepherd" as read by "Fireside Al" Alan Maitland. I've enjoyed it every Christmas since then. The English language and vocal inflection were the workshop tools of Mr. Maitland, a true vocal-acting professional.

Glad to be able to pass this along in a form which makes it easy to hear whenever you feel in the mood.

Now, lemme duck that fog for awhile.

[Prairie Chicken]

Hey Airtids, thanks for the reminder, and thanks to The Old Fog for posting the link. I'd heard this years ago when I was just a fledgling, but probably not for 25 years or so. I downloaded it & just listened to it in it's entirety. Still a great story & read beautifully! Saved for next year.

... and to all a good night!

[bbb]

Hey OldFog:

Could you re-do that download? Been away from the computer, and just now tried to download, but "limit had been reached".

I too heard only part of the story a christmas eve several (ok, lots) years ago on the adf. I think that is 1 of only 3 or 4 Christmas eve flights I ever did, and it was much happier than a medivac - taking last minute folks home for the holidays. Only able to hear a bit before out of range, and no-one I asked had heard about it, or knew what it was. This was before lots of stuff available on the internet.

I'd love to hear the whole story!
Thanks!

[The Old Fogducker]

Triple B: (had an excellent "friend" who was a double D)

Just in the process of uploading it now......edit ... and now through the wonder of modern science, here is the link.

https://www.yousendit.com/download/TTZs ... M21Ga1E9PQ

Remember, it is only a valid link for 7 days and/or 100 downloads. Since the original link has expired prior to the 7 day limit, that means 100 of you have downloaded the file ... I'm impressed!

Glad to help out, and I hope that you enjoy it Triple B.

Fog

[Meatservo]

I downloaded it. I was alone for Christmas and listened to it and drank a glass of eggnog before going to bed and it made me feel more Christmas-y. Happy holidays, Airtids, Foggy, and thanks.

[bbb]

Thanks so much Fog! (made me laugh with the triple b, what would that equal I wonder??!!)
gonna be the bedtime story tonight after all the flights are done for the night!
took a sneak minute listen, and that voice, the story starting, brought it all back. this may sound strange to some folks here, but how good it is NOT to be out flying tonight, as beautiful an evening above the cloud layer I'm sure it is.
Have any of you seen the movie "Always" (dumb question, I'm sure most have), the newer version, 1990-ish, with the firebombers instead of the B-25's? the scene where Holly Hunter takes the A26 out herself, and after the drop, that bit of serene night flying? (yes, right before she crashes into the lake) Thats what the start of the story immediately takes me back to - peaceful, beautiful, all is right with the world.
Thanks again for posting that for us all, hope you've had a great Christmas (or whatever you and your's celebrate)

[bbb]

And a belated PS to Tids - thanks for starting this thread, its brought back some great memories, and now I (and many more of us) finally get to hear the whole story!

[Sparrow FOOF]

Thanks for that. Great listen!

[Airtids]

Fog,

I can't seem to find it on the 2011 schedule. CBC couldn't be planning on NOT airing this for my Christmas Eve ritual could they? It's usually part of the As It Happens program (which airs at 18:30hrs), but details are thin. Can you confirm for us all? And Merry Christams, everyone!

Here's a link to the story in case CBC is out of the entertainment business: http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplaye ... 1707874976

Tids

[angry inch]

Heard it advertised on the radio today 'tids.... Fireside Al on As It Happens this Christmas Eve...

Happy Holidays

[Airtids]

Niiiiice! Thanks, Inch, and I hope you have a Merry Christmas and another great year in 2012!