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Must Read Aviation Books

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Missed Approach

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 3, 2007
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47
What are some must read aviation books that every line pilot should read? Don't say the FAR/AIM.

Right now, I am planning on starting with union focused books, then going to autobiographical books:

Flying the Line volume 1 and 2.

The Airline Pilots: A Study in Elite Unionization,

Hard Landing: The Epic Contest for Power and Profits That Plunged the Airlines into Chaos

Fate is the Hunter

Foverer Flyying

I am open to anything, what would you recommend?
 
I have read FTL volume 1 and 2 and Hard Landing. IMO Hard Landing was the most interesting. I do recommend FTL, volume 1 is a more interesting read than volume 2.
 
Ernest Gann books in general are good. Not all are 'must reads', but they are good after you finish your original list and have time.
 
Remarkably good list to start with, I'm impressed.

Handling the Big Jets - D.P. Davies
http://www.amazon.com/Handling-Big-Jets-Explanation-Significant/dp/0903083019/ Like Langewiesche for jets. How not to end up like PCL 4701. Read the whole book to yourself with a British accent.

Flight of Passage - Rinker Buck
http://www.amazon.com/FLIGHT-PASSAGE-STORY-Rinker-Buck/dp/0786883154/ Teenagers in a J-3, makes you remember why you started n the first place.

First Light - Geoffrey Wellum
http://www.amazon.com/First-Light-Geoffrey-Wellum/dp/0141008148/ The definitive "kid in a Spitfire tale."

Terrible reading, but you'll need it anyway:

Checklist for Success - Cheryl Cage
http://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Success-Successful-Interview-Professional/dp/0964283905/ Needs updating, but conveys the basics.

Airline Pilot Technical Interviews - Ron McElroy
http://www.amazon.com/Airline-Pilot-Technical-Interviews-Professional/dp/0964283948/ A book that'll give you warm fuzzies on the flight to your life-altering interviews.
 
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"weather flying" and "north star over my shoulder" both by Bob Buck. Plus all the other ones above mentioned of course.

here's my question: what's all the hype with handling the Big Jets, besides the fact that it's required reading for the Cathay interview?
 
Microclimates said:
"weather flying" and "north star over my shoulder" both by Bob Buck. Plus all the other ones above mentioned of course.

here's my question: what's all the hype with handling the Big Jets, besides the fact that it's required reading for the Cathay interview?
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Alot of the why and how we got to the safe jet transports of today. The hard basics of high speed, high altitude, swept wing jets. Written from an interesting perspective.
 
"Unfriendly Skies" by Captain X

....actually, this was the first aviation related book I had ever read years ago. You won't find too much technical guidance here, just some stories from an anonymous captain for an unknamed airline and what his career was like.

Really sparked my desire to become a pilot. It does speak to an non-pilot perspective, but has some amusing tales tales of glamour and disgrace before and after deregulation.
 
"Basic Economics" by Sowell.
 
Moondog's Academy of the Air and other disasters by Pete Fussco
 
Amish RakeFight said:
"Unfriendly Skies" by Captain X

....actually, this was the first aviation related book I had ever read years ago. You won't find too much technical guidance here, just some stories from an anonymous captain for an unknamed airline and what his career was like.

Really sparked my desire to become a pilot. It does speak to an non-pilot perspective, but has some amusing tales tales of glamour and disgrace before and after deregulation.
Click to expand...

After the almost twenty years that have passed since this book went to print, it remains an excellent source for a peak inside aviation right when enough time had passed for the first definetive review on dereg. X gives an excellent view of the airline industry at that time and much of what is discussed is still visable today. A book that is worth the read and $ to buy, you will not regret it.

For more lighter reading and a few laughs check out "Plane Insanity" by Elliot Hester. A profsional FA for a major airline dicusses his motavation for becoming an FA and the high jinx of pax, crew members, customs agents and planes alike.
 
Bush Pilot with a briefcase.
 
I'll add in Tony Kern's two books, 'Redefining Airmanship' and 'The Rogue Pilot'; Buck's 'The Pilot's Burden'; Barry Schiff's 3 (maybe it is now 4?) Proficient Pilot series compiling his many columns; and the Air Disaster series, Vols. 1-3, by MacArthur Job, the latter series very well written by a pilot and accident investigator.

And to those throwing in books like 'Finance for Dummies' and 'Selecting a career,' we may as well throw in (seriously) Thomas Friedman's 'The World is Flat' and Charles Fishman's 'The Wal-mart Effect' because they both cover what is happening to the airline industry and the economy whether we like it or not.
 
"Frank Lorenzo and the Destruction of Eastern Airlines." - a good read.
 
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St-Exupery and arguably Gann are literature. Read those. Otherwise, concentrate hard, sound out the words, and try to read books about something more interesting or important than airplanes.
 

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