Flying Free is the story of my raising a female golden eagle from an "orphaned" egg, releasing "Lucy" to the wild, and keeping up with her through 24 years. An eagle's mind and behavior is similar to that of a dog, and our bonding was similar to human-dog bonding. The difference was, the eagle had 7 ½ foot wings, and a cruising speed of 60 mph that allowed her to claim a ten square mile territory. She would fly to me at my whistle, from as much as a mile away, and accept food offerings from my hand, exactly like a puppy, but on the fly, at 60 mph. The Lucy/Dan eagle story is unique, in that both ancient myth, and "expert" opinion, claim that human raised eagles are imprinted, and will never mate. Lucy shattered that myth when she took a mate, and raised 19 families during the 24 years we were "together". Flying Free is the story of Lucy having the best of two worlds: one wing in her wild eagle world, and the other in our human world.
Bill Toddman, of 20th Century Fox, was negotiating with my Santa Fe literary lawyer Saul Cohen, for movie rights to Lucy's story, as told in Flying Free. At that same time, Rupert Murdock was eying to buy 20th, and requested that 20th not commit to new projects he might not want to be "stuck" with if he bought the company. So, 20th put Flying Free on hold, awaiting the out come of Murdock's possible purchase of 20th.
Murdock eventually bought 20th. Since Murdock's movie tastes run toward fireball explosions, blood, guts, and gore, bouncing bikini boobs, etc., the idea of 20th Century making a movie of Flying Free ended. Lucy's story would make a fine movie, similar to "Born Free", and "Fly Away Home", and I often consider making the movie myself. If you like animal stories, you'll like Lucy, a golden eagle's story, as seen by me, the human she bonded with.
After 20th Century abandoned Lucy, her story was told worldwide in 16 languages via Reader's Digest Condensed Books, which set a global record with that organization.
I was born in Nashville, TN, December 8, 1924, and raised by a dad who was a driller on a Standard Oil wildcat oil well. By age 18, I had moved 35 times. I attended 24 schools to complete the twelve grades. My area of growing up was bounded by Indiana on the east. Kansas on the north, Texas on the south, and New Mexico on the west.
In World War II, I was a "child soldier" against Germany in Europe, and then against Japan in the Philippines. I was discharged with the rank of Master Sergeant. After the war, I worked as a flight instructor/charter-pilot/crop duster. College includes Kansas State Teacher's College; John Brown University; University of Illinois; University of Oklahoma; Amarillo College; and University of New Mexico.
I was a pioneer in television weather broadcasting, and in 1954, was probably the first "storm chaser", including chasing tornadoes in my private aircraft. For 30 years I worked as a TV meteorologist and news department pilot in Amarillo, Texas, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. I'm a professional member of the American Meteorological Society, and the British Royal Meteorological Society. I live in Clovis, New Mexico, with my wife Diane.
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