Editors’ Note: We at the Soaring Café were saddened to learn of Kai Gertsen’s passing. Cindy Mildenberger sent us this brief obituary and the announcement of a celebration to honor Kai’s memory.

Kai Gertsen in his ASW-27

Kai Gertsen entered his final glide on May 23, 2011, after a brief fight with cancer. He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1929, immigrated to Canada in 1948, and moved to the United States seven years later. Shortly thereafter, he joined the Rochester Soaring Club, then operating from Batavia, NY, and which later moved to Dansville, NY.

He was also a member of the Harris Hill Soaring Corporation and a flight instructor. His passion was cross country soaring and contest flying. Kai became a strong advocate for cross country and published several booklets: “Off- Airport Landings,”  “Introduction to Cross-Country Soaring,” and “Spinning.”  These booklets are being used today in clubs around the world as part of their training programs.

There will be a celebration of Kai’s life at Harris Hill at the start of the Region 3 Soaring Contest. It will be held at the Youth Camp, adjacent to the airport, on July 30th, beginning at 6:30 PM. The celebration will include appetizers, dinner and a slide show.

Kai’s favorite poem is “High Flight” …

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew –
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941