By the Seat of My Pants: Memoir of a Pilot
By the Seat of My Pants: Memoir of a Pilot

Author: Chris John Rosslee

Publisher:

Published: 2020-12-02

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 9781990998287

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With a defective undercarriage, minimum fuel, lousy weather and relying on primitive instrumentation, how do you land a Boeing? 'By the Seat of my Pants: Memoir of a Pilot' is a deeply personal memoir of courageous determination. One man's life of flying adventures; occasionally perilous, often hilarious. An intrepid but humble man refuses to allow his dyslexia and poverty to decide his future. Captain Rosslee tracks aviation history captaining twenty-seven aircraft types from Gipsy Moths to Boeings. During WW2, as a Junkers Ju86 Allied bomber pilot, he contends with makeshift maps, primitive instrumentation and limited fuel over the inhospitable East African bush. He survives three WW2 forced-landings. Landing the first aircraft with passengers at Heathrow, he is later invited to meet Queen Elizabeth. And, with Comet1, doomed to disintegrate mid-air, pure chance keeps him alive. Over the Indian Ocean, two dead engines, the third about to die, where is his closest land?

Cockpit Confidential
Cockpit Confidential

Author: Patrick Smith

Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.

Published: 2018-06-05

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 1492663972

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A fascinating fear of flying book from a commercial airline pilot and author of the popular website askthepilot.com. For millions of people, travel by air is a confounding, uncomfortable, and even frightening experience. When you go behind the scenes, however, you can see that the grand theater of air travel is actually fascinating. From the intricate design of airport architecture to the logistics of inflight service, here is everything you need to know about flying. Commercial airlines like to hide the truth from customers and do nothing to comfort nervous fliers. And what's scarier than the unknown? In this aviation book, pilot Patrick Smith breaks down that barrier and tells you everything you need to know about flying, including: How planes fly, and a revealing look at the men and women who fly them Straight talk on turbulence, pilot training, and safety The real story on delays, congestion, and the dysfunction of the modern airport The myths and misconceptions of cabin air and cockpit automation Terrorism in perspective, and a provocative look at security Airfare, seating woes, and the pitfalls of airline customer service The true colors and cultures of the airlines we love to hate Cockpit Confidential is a thoughtful, funny, and at times deeply personal look into the strange and misunderstood world of commercial flying. If you liked other books about airplanes for adults, including Soar by Tom Bunn or Skyfaring, you'll find reassurance, humor, and guidance in Cockpit Confidential. "Anyone remotely afraid of flying should read this book, as should anyone who appreciates good writing and great information." —The New York Times, on ASK THE PILOT "Patrick Smith is extraordinarily knowledgeable about modern aviation...the ideal seatmate, a companion, writer and explorer." —Boston Globe

Bomber Pilot
Bomber Pilot

Author: Philip Ardery

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2013-07-24

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 081314342X

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" Winner of the Best Aeronautical Book Award from the Reserve Officers Association of the United States "The sky was full of dying airplanes" as American Liberator bombers struggled to return to North Africa after their daring low-level raid on the oil refineries of Ploesti. They lost 446 airmen and 53 planes, but Philip Ardery's plane came home. This pilot was to take part in many more raids on Hitler's Europe, including air cover for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. This vivid firsthand account, available now for the first time in paper, records one man's experience of World War II air warfare. Throughout, Ardery testifies to the horror of world war as he describes his fear, his longing for home, and his grief for fallen comrades. Bomber Pilot is a moving contribution to American history.

The Alaska Bush Pilot Chronicles
The Alaska Bush Pilot Chronicles

Author: Mort Mason

Publisher: Voyageur Press

Published: 2010-11-10

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1616731419

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Readers of Flying the Alaska Wild marveled at Mort Mason’s true tales of braving the elements at the extremes in a Piper Super Cub. But the bush pilot, adventurer, and raconteur was just beginning, and in this book he revisits his most memorable moments of flying by the seat of his pants through blizzards and white-outs, on assignments at times hazardous and sometimes simply whacky, always with a sense of humor and due respect for the limitless wilds of Alaska beneath his wings. The world of a bush pilot really is the final frontier, and for thirty years Mort Mason was there, clocking enough heart-stopping miles to make most life-stories utterly incredible. In The Alaska Bush Pilot Chronicles Mason recounts more of his unlikely adventures in the face of Alaska’s unforgiving weather and terrain. His stories gives readers the rare chance to experience the disappearing thrills and challenges of meeting the American frontier on its own unyielding terms.

From the Pilot's Seat
From the Pilot's Seat

Author: Fletcher McKenzie

Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited

Published: 2023-08-01

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 1776953703

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Aviation safety expert and keen pilot Fletcher McKenzie has interviewed 23 Kiwi pilots who have worked around the world and are record-breakers of different kinds. Put yourself in the pilot seat and experience the intense thrills, the pleasures and the near misses of lifetimes spent in the air! The pilots represent a range of flying eras, aircraft and experiences - from the Second World War to the present day, from one of the original Dambusters to flying Richard Branson's private jet. Stories involve gliders, fighter jets, private aircraft, top-dressing planes, helicopters and many military aircraft, including the famous F-18 from Top Gun.

Flying Freestyle
Flying Freestyle

Author: Jerry Pook

Publisher: Pen and Sword Aviation

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781844158249

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During a twenty-five year flying career in the RAF, Jerry Pook has flown Hunter Fighter/Ground Attack aircraft in the Gulf, Harriers in West Germany, the supersonic Starfighter with the Dutch Air Force, the Harrier in Belize, Central America and the Tornado bomber at the Tri-national Tornado Training Establishment where he trained German and Italian pilots and navigators. Jerry had a long relationship with the Harrier Fighter/Ground Attack vertical take-off aircraft. This he flew in West Germany at the height of the Cold War operating from Wildenrath and off-base operations with Field Wing operations based in the fields and woods of the German countryside. Jerry saw action during the Falklands War when based on HMS Hermes and flying one of the few RAF Harriers in the Ground Attack role in support of the troops fighting ashore. He then enjoyed flying the American-built Starfighter RF 104G during a 3 year exchange tour with the Dutch Air Force - he describes the Starfighter as ' beautiful to fly, smooth and sophisticated, supremely fast and powerful - if you took liberties with it you knew it would kill you in an instant.' After 3 years with No 1(Fighter) Squadron and again flying the Harrier he moved to the then new Tornado, flying in its bomber role. This he continued to fly operationally and in the instructional role for 13 years until grounded from military flying for medical reasons.

Flying Through Midnight
Flying Through Midnight

Author: John T. Halliday

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2007-02-06

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 9780312942038

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In this compelling account, Halliday takes readers inside a top-secret air base and into the cockpit of an antiquated plane that was a lifeline for special forces on the ground in 1970 Laos during the Vietnam War.

Faulkner, Aviation, and Modern War
Faulkner, Aviation, and Modern War

Author: Michael Zeitlin

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2021-12-02

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 1501356763

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Faulkner, Aviation, and Modern War frames William Faulkner's airplane narratives against major scenes of the early 20th century: the Great War, the rise of European fascism in the 1920s and 30s, the Second World War, and the aviation arms race extending from the Wright Flyer in 1903 into the Cold War era. Placing biographical accounts of Faulkner's time in the Royal Air Force Canada against analysis of such works as Soldiers' Pay (1926), "All the Dead Pilots" (1931), Pylon (1935), and A Fable (1954), this book situates Faulkner's aviation writing within transatlantic historical contexts that have not been sufficiently appreciated in Faulkner's work. Michael Zeitlin unpacks a broad selection of Faulkner's novels, stories, film treatments, essays, book reviews, and letters to outline Faulkner's complex and ambivalent relationship to the ideologies of masculine performance and martial heroism in an age dominated by industrialism and military technology.

North Star Over My Shoulder
North Star Over My Shoulder

Author: Bob Buck

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2005-01-03

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 9780743262309

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Buck, the embodiment of commercial aviation in America, recounts his thrilling life in flight in this exhilarating volume, hailed as "absolutely brilliant" by the former director of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

On Assignment
On Assignment

Author: James R. Larison

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Published: 2021-11-02

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1641605235

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An exciting adventure story with personal drama and high stakes, as well as a glimpse behind the scenes of the highly regarded National Geographic brand Jim and Elaine Larison spent years studying, exploring, and living in wild places, making more than thirty environmental films, most for the National Geographic Society. These films won more than forty international awards from leading environmental and broadcast organizations. This memoir tells the story behind the adventure and describes the rather substantial personal costs of this career. While shooting film in Alaska, Jim Larison narrowly survived a devastating airplane crash in the Bering Sea. Later, while filming on the Great Barrier Reef, the Larisons fought off an aggressive twelve-foot tiger shark. Midway through their careers, the Larisons were nearly swept to their deaths by an icefall while filming on Mount Robson. A thrilling adventure story, full of risk and personal conflict, On Assignment is also a touching look at the tender bonds that held the married couple together while they struggled to complete their many film assignments. The Larisons were changed by what they saw and what they captured on film: the destruction of forests, the death of coral reefs, and global warming. In the beginning, the Larisons wanted nothing more than to spend time in the wilderness. By the end, they were fighting for its very survival.