Group Captain Bill Sykes RIP
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Group Captain Bill Sykes RIP
Sad news from Zim this morning - Group Captain (Rtd) Bill Sykes died yesterday morning after a long illness. Bill clocked up 1500 hours on Vampires with the Rhodesian Air Force; moved on to Hunters as a weapons instructor, then another 1500 hours on Alouette III between '74 and '79 - the hottest time in the Rhodesian bush war, when Alouettes were right in the thick of it.
Bill was a fine artist; and made the documentary 'Pursuit of a dream' about his friend Jack Malloch's (of Afretair fame) mission to restore a Rhodesian Air Force Spitfire -
- link to the film here. Jack was filming the last sequence of the film from a Vampire chase plane when Jack took his Spit into a Charlie Bravo and never came back.
Bill's Pa was a pre-war Hurricane pilot and Chief Flying Instructor at Mt Hampden during the war, and a settler-farmer thereafter. Bill's son, William, is also a very accomplished wildlife and aviation artist.
RIP, Bill. A fine life, well lived. Blue skies.
Below, a painting by Bill Sykes, commissioned by Jack Malloch, described thus in an email to me by Bill last year:
"The painting is four in one – same aircraft at
1. Start of attack;
2 Turning in;
3 down the dive, and
4. Pulling out with glycol tank hit (far left).
Jack wanted the Mk 22 in the painting as opposed to the Mk IX. (5 in 1)"
Bill was a fine artist; and made the documentary 'Pursuit of a dream' about his friend Jack Malloch's (of Afretair fame) mission to restore a Rhodesian Air Force Spitfire -
Bill's Pa was a pre-war Hurricane pilot and Chief Flying Instructor at Mt Hampden during the war, and a settler-farmer thereafter. Bill's son, William, is also a very accomplished wildlife and aviation artist.
RIP, Bill. A fine life, well lived. Blue skies.
Below, a painting by Bill Sykes, commissioned by Jack Malloch, described thus in an email to me by Bill last year:
"The painting is four in one – same aircraft at
1. Start of attack;
2 Turning in;
3 down the dive, and
4. Pulling out with glycol tank hit (far left).
Jack wanted the Mk 22 in the painting as opposed to the Mk IX. (5 in 1)"
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Condolences to Bill's family and friends. I was great mates with Bill on pupes course in Rhodesian Air Force. Lost contact when I went to join SAA in 1972. Still have great memories of playing rugby and entertaining the bar crowd to songs and Bill's speciality of back somersaults on the bar counter. Not bad for the huge man he was. RIP my old friend but better still fly with the angels.
