'8 May, 1995. My alarm clock goes off at 6am. I get up and walk outside to survey the sky. Will we be going topdressing today?
At 7am I leave with my first load, 900 kg. I land back four or five minutes later when the Fletcher is reloaded. Climbing away from the base of the airstrip in a northerly direction, I see the sun starting to appear on the horizon. I drop the first half of this load .'
A minute later the Fletcher smashes into a paddock and slides 44 metres, then slews to the right before coming to a stop in an upright position. It takes emergency crews an hour-and-a half to cut Barry Cardno from the wreckage.
Let Fly! captures the spirit and heart of a young man on the verge of carrying out his dream, the dream of flying. The author ably conveys a youthful keenness and enthusiasm for flying and for life: the reader is right there with him in the cockpit, feeling his excitement and airborne rapture. But we also witness his fears and the disillusionment he feels about his employers, the loneliness and solitary nature of the work he undertook, and the dangers inherent in topdressing rural New Zealand.
This is also an account of the author's disappointments when his dream is shattered, and of the difficulties and frustrations of making a new life: his rehabilitation, his attempts to find a satisfactory resolution from the Civil Aviation Authority, his bout of disabled skiing, getting the okay to fly again and his unique reunion with men he feels a deep kinship with - members of Sir Archibald McIndoe's Guinea Pig Club.