Dance the Skies (In Memory of Nick Davidson)...

In the early 1990s I was able to scrape together enough money to learn to fly.
I went to Surrey and Kent flying school and, to my great fortune, my flying instructor was Nick Davidson, an incredibly inspirational and talented pilot. We flew from Biggin Hill Aerodrome, England, which had been used extensively in the Battle of Britain and throughout the Second World War.

I knew Nick for a few years, but lost touch with him when he moved on from flying instruction to air cargo and then airliners.

Over the years I thought about Nick often. He had a very rare combination of huge talent and ability combined with patience and kindness.

For some reason, a couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me to search for Nick on Google. It was then I found he had achieved his dream and become a British Airways Captain in 2009. But then had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2011 and died in 2012 at just 49 years old.

Despite not having seen Nick for years and him dying so long ago, this news really knocked me for six. I remembered we had filmed one flight with a VHS camcorder where we had done some aerobatics and I was able to find the tape and play it back. I resolved to write a piece of music in memory of Nick. The result is this video.

I apologise for the quality of the video. It's over 25 years old!

I included the poem 'High Flight' by John Gillespie Magee Jr. which seemed very appropriate for Nick, as he lived for flying. The poem is read by Tom O'Bedlam and I got it from this video (with thanks)    • "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee...  

I always felt so safe with Nick, I think the wings could have fallen off and I would still have thought he could get us down safely!

Music composed, performed and produced by Slow Descent to Wild...

Thank you very much for taking the time to watch/like/comment/subscribe. I very much appreciate it.