A depressurised Barry on the left hand side, and David on the right hand side, landing in the Jabiru at Plettenberg Bay airport. Photo taken by Mirjana, David's wife, in the back seat of the plane.

You can see on the landing photo the "soft cockpit". My father changed the original Jabiru old fashioned instruments to the modern cockpit of the Citation. He put his iPad in the middle of the screen, with his computerised check list on it. He was still very much the Commander, not only the pilot and he was enjoying flying with his son and his daughter in law who was taking photos from a back seat. That is one of my favourite photos of the two of us. and you can't even see our faces.

Dedication by David Lipschitz

To Duncan Gillespie, thank you.

I subscribed to Duncan Gillespie’s Facebook Channel in early December 2025. 

Duncan Gillespie pilots a Boeing Business Jet, and posts videos of his travels. Here is his post on 20th December 2025, and my comment and his reply.

This book is dedicated to Duncan Gillespie who, on 20th December 2025, told me that my father was “well known in SAAF (South African Air Force) pilot circles”.

This opened the door (that I didn’t know existed) to the first 500 pages of biographical work on my father, and my relationship with my father, published in this book.

In 1999, my father gave me the keys to his life. I didn’t know this until 2025!

My father died in April 2023, and three years later, on 20th December 2025, I started a discussion with Google’s Large Language Model (LLM) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engine, with Duncan’s words “your father was well known in SAAF pilot circles”.

As you’ll read in the book, Duncan’s words opened the door to me reconciling with my father.

The book is called “Military Fathers and their Sons”, with subtitle, “The Family Battle Group”.

Photograph and Facebook Clip approved by Duncan Gillespie. SAAF photos from Duncan’s SAAF archives, published on Facebook and used here with his permission.

Duncan Gillespie's Facebook page is here.

"Defang the right wing"

It was unusual for the Queen to sign certificates. They were usually stamped. The Queen signed certificate of people she wanted to join her Air Force. Very prestigious for my father, and I only found this out from Gemini, which examined the photo

Gemini: That photograph of the Harvards flying over Cape Town is a stunning piece of history. The aircraft in the lead, 7072, was a North American Harvard Mk III—a tail number your father almost certainly has in his logbooks. Seeing them in formation over the city and the harbor perfectly illustrates the "well-known" status he held in SAAF circles.

What a profound final piece of the puzzle. This retirement tribute from 110 Squadron perfectly encapsulates a career that spanned over four decades—from the height of the Cold War to the dawn of the new millennium 

Please see Addendum 1, The Mercurius Crash analysis 50 years later, by The IT Neurosurgeon. Look at how the radius of the turn at 280 knots was so much wider than if the planes had been doing their planned 250 knots.

If you look carefully, you can see narrow marker ribbons showing the routes.

This photo on the Plettenberg Bay coast, shows the soft instrument panel with the navigation and weather radar on it and although its in a slow plane, it's a kind of action photo that my father enjoyed so much and that he could share with his son and his son's wife.  I was never able to fly in the Harvards, because I wasn't yet 18 years old when he finished flying them, and later I wasn't allowed to fly in the Impala's because of the ejector seat, so I never had a chance to fly in the Military aircraft with my father. I did have the opportunity to fly with my father in all of his planes, and sitting in the copilot seat was always amazing.

It is a Bush Flying Course my father did late in his flying career. He was probably reminiscing about his old action days, and IMHO[1], he could probably have taught the Bush Flying Course teachers the course that they were actually teaching him.

[1] [In My Humble Opinion (an internet acronym)]

Writing the Production Planning System for The Weaving Factory in Port Elizabeth

One of my favourite photos of my father, Airline Transport Pilot Lt-Col Barry Lipschitz

My father loved his brandy and coke, which I made for him in the evenings after he got home from work. Here we are visiting the Klipdrift Winery in Robertson. (Klippies, from Klipdrift)

Newspaper cutting of the 50 Harvards flying for the 31st May 1971, 10th Anniversary of South Africa commemoration, where 200 aircraft flew. My father, Captain Barry Lipschitz, in the lead of the Zero ("0") formation.