Flying HIGH
John Stokes had a fascination with flying from a young age.
By the time he met Osceola the bald eagle, he’d been a hang glider pilot for 42 years and an eagle caretaker for 40.
While running a raptor rehabilitation program, he received a call about a young bald eagle found in a field with an injured left wing. Sadly, the wing was so damaged it had to be amputated.
The bird, Osceola, would never fly again and wouldn’t be able to survive in the wild.
Despite Osceola adjusting well to life in captivity, John always felt a sense of sadness at the life above the clouds the bird had been forced to give up.
That’s when an idea to get his disabled mate airborne again began to form.
First, John created a prototype harness to attach to his hang glider. After many harness redesigns, John and Osceola took flight.
‘Osceola was turning his head looking at the top of the mountains, the sky, the ground, and me,’
John recalls.
A week later they went up again, this time climbing to 4000 feet.
‘Osceola got to see the sun setting and a world painted with orange and rosy hues,’ John says.
For John, seeing Osceola experience flight again has been its own reward.
‘It was a very satisfying moment for me,’ John says. ‘After we landed, he had this look in his eye I’ve never seen before. It was like, “I have returned.” ’