good aviation-related books?

[bobbysamd]

Flightinfo.com Book-Of-The-Month-Club

Must read book, answers all the questions you want about starting a career "Moondog Academy of the Air and other disasters" by Pete Fusco. Anyone who does not like "Fate is the Hunter" does not like the sound of round engines.

I second Yip on both choices.

Both books are remarkably similiar. They tell similar stories. Fate is extremely serious and formal, but I think that's a reflection of people from those times. If you don't know what I mean, consider that in the 1930s airline travel was extremely formal. Men wore suits and women wore gloves and hats for an airplane trip. Moondog is far less formal (actually, it is a scream and a riot!). It, too, is a reflection of its times and setting; I suspect that those who fly freight and clandestine cargo to the Bahamas and South America are far less formal than a starched 1930s AA captain.

Both books are very well written, by the way.

I also second both volumes of Flying the Line, and Hard Landing by Thomas Pettinger.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

here are some of my favorite aviation related.
dont usually read aviation related cause i do fly all the time but here we go


Five Miles and A Thousan Feet by Bob Tatosian - Easy read, very fun 329 pages

Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck 351 page. Excellent

Night Flight by Anotoine De Saint-Exupery quick easy 128 page

Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine De Saint-Exupery 224 page excellent.

Fate is the Hunter by Ernest Gann cant remember...best one of them all

 

[JediNein]

"I Could Never Be So Lucky, Again" - Jimmy Dolittle (How can you crash that many times?)
"Eagle" by R. Sterling (I only found this at the C.R. Smith Museum @ AA HDQ, great story on AA's development)
"The Greatest Generation" by Tom Brokaw (Start on page 163 with Margaret's Story)
"The Right Stuff" and "Yeager" (love it's refutation of "The Right Stuff!")
"North to the Orient" and "Spirit of St. Louis"
"Flight of Passage" was ok
"Daughter of the Air: The Brief Soaring Life of Cornelia Fort" (She was doing traffic patterns with a student when the Japs attacked Pearl Harbor. So much for that flight lesson!)

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein

 

[172driver]

I Must Fly by Johnny Moore, a DPE in northern California. A guy who has truly seen and done it all and lived to tell about it...surprisingly after you read some of the stuff he's done. Terrific book!

 

[redd]

I’ll Take the High Road by Wolfgang Langewiesche, documents his start as a pilot, how he learned to fly and skydive, and his many adventures as a new pilot building skill and hours. This is his most entertaining book.

He also wrote, Flier's World, which is about his experiences flying abroad, as a test pilot, as well as the how to’s, why’s and wherefores of flight. This book was written after Stick and Rudder.

Also, Lightplane Flying by Wolfgang Langewiesche, written in 1939, before S&R, and is a rare book, hard to find, it details the simplicity of flight, and is a how-to for the student pilot. (I am looking for a second copy of this, myself).

Guy Murchie’s, Song of the Sky is a classic circa 1950, about his experiences, thoughts, regarding flight. Also loaded with air facts.

 

[hiflt]

Predilectory pedantics notwithstanding....

"Piece of Cake" by Derek Robinson - WW2 fighter pilots

"Goshawk Squadron" by Derek Robinson - WW1

"Three Cheers for Me" by Donald Jack. This is the first book in the infamous Bandy Papers series. Sex, gin, lizards, ladies, Huns and Dolphins.

"Letter to a Hostage" by Antoine de St-Exupery

"North Star Over My Shoulder" by Robert N. Buck

"Biplane" by Richard Bach, and most of his others. Don't bother with the ferret series.

"Fate is the Hunter" by Ernest K. Gann

"Bush Pilot With a Briefcase" by Grant McConachie - Canadian bush pilot turns maverick airline exec.

"Inside the Sky" by Wolfgang Langeweische

"West with the Night" by Beryl Markham. African flying, 1930s

"Southern Mail" by Antoine De St-Exupery

"Flight of the Gin Fizz"

"Song of the Sky" Guy Murchie. Hard to find as out of print, but worth the effort. Illustrated wonderfully by Murchie.

"Beyond the Blue Horizon" Alex Frater. Retracing the Clipper Route.

"Sagittarius Rising" by Cecil Day Lewis. WW1 pilot autobiography. Wonderful writing.

 

[ArcticFlier]

"30 Seconds Over Tokyo"..........B25's off a carrier...............crazy stuff.

AF

 

[bobbysamd]

Wolfgang and other books

I’ll Take the High Road by Wolfgang Langewiesche, documents his start as a pilot, how he learned to fly and skydive, and his many adventures as a new pilot building skill and hours. This is his most entertaining book.

He also wrote, Flier's World, which is about his experiences flying abroad, as a test pilot, as well as the how to’s, why’s and wherefores of flight. This book was written after Stick and Rudder.

Don't forget Stick and Rudder. A great explanation of aerodynamic forces, in plain English. Wolfgang comes out big on angle of attack.

Another good book is Make Better Landings by Alan Bramson. It's a great book that discusses how to land all airplanes, from piston to jet. Good discussion in the book about turbine controls. You'll enjoy it.