Sat Mar 23, 2019 9:44 am
#1683998
At 0851 today, my flying partner departed the strip in our Jodel on the first leg of Flight2Hope,
Bon voyage, Mark.
When I can, I'll post the odd update to this trip here - I shall certainly be watching from afar.
I also know that at least one occasional contributor to the forums is part of Mark's support team, so bon voyage to them also.
Mark Coreth wrote:The flight shall be an integral part of a sculpture that I have created in Jerusalem for the St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital Group. The brief for the sculpture was to symbolise the history of Jerusalem, its people and to give a message of HOPE for the region. The sculpture is placed in the bulls eye of the Old City in their garden in Muristan where the Order has an eye clinic, a site that we shall visit.
I created an olive tree in bronze - The Tree of Hope. When you look out from Muristan over the city, you look towards the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane and the magnificent golden dome of Temple Mount, the third most important Mosque in Islam. Just around the corner is the Western Wall of the Temple, the Wailing Wall, the most sacred site for the Jewish Faith and behind Muristan is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. My sculpture is placed in the epicentre of the Abrahamic Faiths in Jerusalem.
The olive tree was moulded from an ancient tree in Bethlehem and cast into bronze by an Israeli foundry in Netania, just south of Caesarea. The gnarled trunk of an old olive symbolises the City walls while the swifts symbolise the dynamic movement of people. Swifts nest and breed in the walls of the city and have been recorded as doing so from the times of the first Temple, way back in the depths of history.
Inspired by the journey of the swifts and still furthering the theme of my sculpture, I, along with Professor Yossi Leshem, am organising a flight of light aircraft. We will be flying with nature.
The flight will take place on 2nd April 2019; these aircraft will fly alongside the swifts and numerous other migratory species. We will be departing from Eilat, flying up the Jordan Valley, landing at Masada, then fly over the Dead Sea, hopefully landing in Amman before circling Jerusalem. The journey will finish beside my Tree of Hope.
Bon voyage, Mark.
When I can, I'll post the odd update to this trip here - I shall certainly be watching from afar.
I also know that at least one occasional contributor to the forums is part of Mark's support team, so bon voyage to them also.