Back in 1971 I was going through RAF Basic Flying Training at RAF Linton on Ouse. Wandering around the bookshops of York one Saturday I chanced upon "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"; having read "Stranger to the Ground" some years before, the author's work was known to me...so I bought the seagull book. I read it in one go.....and passed it around the crewroom. It's probably still there, as I never got it back! It struck a chord with all of us in the flying training system at the time. I have since read the rest of Richard Bach's works, and have found the later stuff to be rather more existential...but always entertaining. I like the idea of "every man his own Messiah"...
My thoughts go out to him and his family, and I wish him a speedy and complete recovery.