Chichester is quite famous as a yachtsman, but relatively unknown as
a pilot. His adventures (and misadventures) in aviation put him in the
league of the great pioneers.
Gipsy
Moth Circles the World (The Sailor's Classics #1)
by Francis Chichester
Francis Chichester was an English Charles Lindbergh. In the early decades
of this century he mapped new air routes, flew uncharted skies, pioneered
solo in his lovely plane. Chichester's body aged but not his spirit. In
his sixties he set himself the ultimate sailing challenge...to circle the
world alone. This indomitable man tells how he turned his dream into a
remarkable triumph. For on his completion of the 29,630 mile circumnavigation,
Queen Elizabeth II knighted him with the very sword that her namesake gave
to Sir Francis Drake four centuries ago. Amazon.com
(Hardcover)
The Lonely Sea and the Sky
by Francis Chichester
Hodder & Stoughton 1964
Out of Print - Try Used
Books
Chichester writes (The Lonely Sea and the Sky, page 165) of something
odd he saw whilst on his pioneer solo flight from New Zealand to Australia
in a Gypsy Moth seaplane, June 10th 1931.
"Round the sea we flew into
calm air under a weak hazy sun. I took out the sextant and got two shots.
It took me thirty minutes to work them out, for the engine kept backfiring,
and my attention wandered every time it did so. The sight in the end was
not much use: the sun was too far west, but I got some self-respect from
doing the job.
Suddenly, ahead and thirty
degrees to the left, there were bright flashes in several places, like
the dazzle of a heliograph. I saw a dull grey-white airship coming towards
me. It seemed impossible, but I could have sworn that it was an
airship, nosing towards me like an oblong pearl. Except for a cloud or
two, there was nothing else in the sky. I looked around, sometimes catching
a flash or a glint, and turning again to look at the airship I found that
it had disappeared. I screwed up my eyes, unable to believe them, and twisted
the seaplane this way and that, thinking that the airship must be hidden
by a blind spot. Dazzling flashes continued in four or five different places,
but I still could not pick out any planes. Then, out of some clouds to
my right front, I saw another, or the same, airship advancing. I watched
it intently, determined not to look away for a fraction of a second: I'd
see what happened to this one, if I had to chase it. It drew steadily closer,
until perhaps a mile away, when suddenly it vanished. Then it reappeared,
close to where it had vanished: I watched with angry intentness.
It drew closer, and I could see the dull gleam of light on its nose and
back. It came on, but instead of increasing in size, it diminished as it
approached. When quite near, it suddenly became its own ghost - one second
I could see through it, and the next it had vanished. I decided that it
could only be a diminutive cloud, perfectly shaped like an airship and
then dissolving, but it was uncanny that it should exactly resume the same
shape after it had once vanished. All this was many years before anyone
spoke of flying saucers. Whatever it was I saw, it seems to have been very
much like what people have since claimed to be flying saucers."
Alone
Over The Tasman Sea
by Sir Francis Chichester (Audio Cassette)
Alone
Across The Atlantic
by Sir Francis Chichester (Audio Cassette)
The
Lonely Sea And The Sky
by Sir Francis Chichester (Audio Cassette)
Ride
on the Wind/Ff08
by Francis Chichester
Hardcover: Ayer Co Pub; ISBN: 0405121520; reprint edition
(December 1979)
Along the clipper way
by Sir Francis Chichester (Author)
Out of Print - Try Used
Books
Lone adventurer: the story of Sir Francis Chichester
by John Rowland
Out of Print - Try Used
Books
Solo to Sydney
by Francis Chichester
(Hardcover - August 1982)
Two lives, two worlds: an autobiography
by Sheila Chichester
Out of Print - Try Used
Books
London Man
by Francis Chichester
(Hardcover - May 1988)
Out of Print - Try Used
Books
How to keep fit by one who never is as fit as he would like to be
by Francis Chichester
Out of Print - Try Used
Books
Francis Chichester
by Anita Leslie
Out of Print - Try Used
Books
The Romantic Challenge (The Mariner's Library)
by Francis Chichester
(Paperback - December 1989)
Out of Print - Try Used
Books
>> Click
here for top sellers in Aviation
