Your favourite aviation books.

[Guest Ps762]

Hi!

 

Apologies for another thread but just thought I'd ask what people's favourite aviation books they've read have been as I'm kinda looking for something new. I haven't really read that many but my two favourites are:

 

1. Flying the Big Jets. Not only a great technical description of how airliners fly and stuff but also a detailed trip report of a BA777 flight from London to Boston describing everything that goes on in the cockpit.

 

2. North Star over my Shoulder. I didn't think I'd really like this book as it deals more with aviation in the 50s and stuff but I loved it. It covers the flying life of a TWA chief 747 pilot in the 1980 and how he grew up and flew DC2's and DC3's and stuff including both modern and past flying life.

 

Would love to hear of any more reccomendations and really am happy to read anything except military flying which I'm not really into.

 

Many thanks,

 

Pierre

[Chock 12,349]

You might want to note that there is more than one edition of Flying the Big Jets; there's also an earlier edition which covers the B747-400 flying from London to New York.

 

Of course if you like books on Commercial aviation, then you should not be without Ernest K Gann's Fate is the Hunter.

 

Al

[FSXHD 5]

I enjoyed Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck. It's about two brothers who fly the family's Piper Cub across the United States. It's full of stories and tales that make the book hard to put down. I highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/Flight-Passage-Memoir-Rinker-Buck/dp/0786883154/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340594918&sr=1-1&keywords=flight+of+passage

[BillCusick 75]

Hi Pierre...

 

I agree with Al - Ernest Gann's 'Fate is the Hunter' is a must. There's only one snag - you will not be able to put it down. (..and you will need a hankie after reading a couple of the chapters). My family know when I'm reading that one again....That is the crown of aviation books. An excellent biography.

 

Another good author - Brian Lecomber. His two books that I have, 'Talk Down' (Where our hero has to talk down a passenger in an Arrow over the UK) and 'Dead Weight' (A Carribean adventure) are brilliant.

 

Down To A Sunless Sea' by David Graham is also one of my favourites - told by a 747 pilot in a 'Last 747 flight' searching for a landing strip after a nuclear war. A brilliant tale.

 

'Jetsteam' by Austin Ferguson, although a little dated by now, is a good read. I think that one was the source for the 'Airport' films. That good, original, now very dated, 'Flight into Danger' by John Castle & Arthur Hailey is also a good read.

 

'90 Minutes At Entebbe' by William Stevenson, is a good read, although the aviation content is minimal, most of the action takes place on the ground. This was the story of Operation 'Thunderbolt', the Israeli rescue of hostages.

Most of these books have been made into films.

 

Regards

[WR269 365]

"Flying through midnight"... Has been called THE aviation book of the vietnam war.

[Cessnaflyer 56]

Another author is John J. Nance. Some good pilots fiction.

[TurboTomato 90]

Only read one, and that was Captain Sully's, but it was very good, even the non-aviation interested girlfriend read it and enjoyed it!

[Cessnaflyer 56]

Also the "The Wild Blue" by Stephen Ambrose

 

I keep forgetting some more. Since you like the technical there is "Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators" still the go to book for a lot of my reading.

[Guest Ps762]

Hi!

 

Many thanks for the reccommendations. I've just taken a look at Flight of Passage on Amazon and ordered it. Hopefully it will be a good read and I might even be able to recreate the long flight in flightsim!

 

Many thanks (will hopefully try quite a few of them!),

 

Pierre

[Airbus Commander 563]

A really good book for those who want to learn all about the A320 is the "A320 Pilot's Handbook - Simulator and Checkride Procedures" by Captain Mike Ray from United Airlines. I'd really recommend anyone interested in a serious Airbus learning curve read this.

 

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12808267-airbus-a320-pilot-handbook

 

Capt. Rónán O Cadhain.

[Chock 12,349]

Yup, completely agree with your there Rónán, in fact pretty much anything by Mike Ray is worth having. In addition to having been a Captain for (I think) United Airlines, and like Stanley Stewart, he's a very talented and engaging writer, so he knows how to pass on his considerable knowledge to the layman, and always does so in an entertaining fashion.

 

Al

[fencer 16]

You might want to note that there is more than one edition of Flying the Big Jets; there's also an earlier edition which covers the B747-400 flying from London to New York.

 

Of course if you like books on Commercial aviation, then you should not be without Ernest K Gann's Fate is the Hunter.

 

Al

 

Hello Al,

 

You had already mentioned "Fate is a Hunter" in a previous post so I purchased it but haven't read it yet.

 

For the present airliners, "Flying the big jets" (777 version) is really a good read and I just got a previous version (747) but haven't read it yet either.

 

Back to WWII, I rembember that, in another thread, you recommended "Wing leader" (by Air Vice-Marshal "Johnnie" Johnson - one of the top scoring allied pilots of World War II), so I ordered it but haven't read it yet either. :Cry:

 

Talking about WWII, in that same thread, someone recommended : "The big show" by free-French ace Pierre Clostermann. I read and re-read this book several times and, what can I say, it is one of those books that leave a lasting impression on you (allright I am French so I may be biased...).

 

Another one (same period) is "Stuka pilot" by H.U. Rudel. Rudel remained loyal to his (then) ###### country and to ###### to the bitter end (and paid the price for it) but his story - and his record - is amazing.

 

For the Korean (and Vietnam) eras, I remember "No guts - no Glory" by Mag. Gen. Frederick Blesse ( "in that moment of time, I saw him, he saw me, and one of us was not going home.")

 

For the Vietnam era, I like "Over the beach" (Zalin Grant) very much. The author is not a pilot and it shows but the VF162 story during successive cruises on board CV34 (USS Oriskany) is a great read.

 

Of course there are dozens (hundreds?) of truly great aviation books in English (Yeager, Doolittle, Brown...) and life is not long enough to read them all but I would recommend the above anytime.

 

Bruno

 

PS (Rónán) : "A320 Pilot's Handbook - Simulator and Checkride Procedures" by Captain Mike Ray from United Airlines is good for simmers too. I made sure I had read it before my first (and only) two jumpseat flights in A 320's and it helped me understand what was going on.

[japascoe 97]

I really liked Wings on My Sleeve by Capt. Eric Brown. He was a test pilot for the Royal Navy during and after WWII and got to fly all the captured German plane types. He also has a bunch of aircraft carrier related firsts (e.g. first to land a jet on a carrier if memory serves). A great bunch of flying stories in that book.

[Airbus Commander 563]

PS (Rónán) : "A320 Pilot's Handbook - Simulator and Checkride Procedures" by Captain Mike Ray from United Airlines is good for simmers too. I made sure I had read it before my first (and only) two jumpseat flights in A 320's and it helped me understand what was going on.

 

Yup, that thing get's dusted off every year before the sim session. I've been thinking about writing my own similar book for the A320 series and a bit about the conversion to the 330 series. I've gotten a very small start on it, but I just really don't have the time for it at the minute. If I do get around to finishing it though, you can all have a free copy on me...

 

Ró.

[JimD737 0]

Stick & Rudder - Langewiesche, Flight of Passage - Buck, Flight of the Intruder - Coonts, Fighter Combat - Shaw, Anything Machado, Anything Boeing - Mike Ray.