Capt Gyro
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Quite a story
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WOW!!! Just WOW!!!
yours, sw
yours, sw
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When I was a kid I haunted the local library, reading everything about flying I could get my hands on. I read "The Man Who Rode the Thunder" shortly after it came out. It is one of those stories you never forget.
To this day, as I fly around a big storm and marvel at the violence it encloses, I sometimes think about what it would be like to fall through it under a 'chute. Horrifying.
To this day, as I fly around a big storm and marvel at the violence it encloses, I sometimes think about what it would be like to fall through it under a 'chute. Horrifying.
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Does the name C.B. Colby ring a bell?
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Sorry, Terry, he doesn't jog any memories. The authors that stand out from my (now distant) youth are the likes of Martin Caidin, Ernest K. Gann, and (later) Richard Bach.
"Jonathan Livingston Seagull" made Bach famous, but his first book, "Stranger to the Ground" is better. There's nothing nail-biting or cliff-hanging about it; it's simply the story of a night ferry flight from Germany to England in an F-84. It's a stream-of-consciousness narrative by a man alone with his thoughts in a beautiful airplane on a quiet night flight. It's one of the books that cemented my desire to be pilot.
"Jonathan Livingston Seagull" made Bach famous, but his first book, "Stranger to the Ground" is better. There's nothing nail-biting or cliff-hanging about it; it's simply the story of a night ferry flight from Germany to England in an F-84. It's a stream-of-consciousness narrative by a man alone with his thoughts in a beautiful airplane on a quiet night flight. It's one of the books that cemented my desire to be pilot.
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His books were for the younger set. Titles like The Book of Fighter Planes or The Book of Bombers, or something along those lines. IIRC, Bach wrote a book in the 80s maybe, about flying a Bi-plane cross country or something similar. It's been a while.
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Bach wrote a lot about flying, two that I really liked were "Stranger To The Ground" and "Nothing By Chance". "Illusions" was sort of a allegorical novel that had flying included.
But the one Mike mentioned is a nail biting... I think I'm gonna die... story about flying in horrible weather with no nav aids
But the one Mike mentioned is a nail biting... I think I'm gonna die... story about flying in horrible weather with no nav aids
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I was very fond of Martin Caidin. I was introduced to him through that old Lee Majors show, THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN. I noticed in the end credits it stated "Based on the novel CYBORG by Martin Caidin." Making my way to my local bookstore I procured a copy and read it ....and over the next couple ++ decades I read a great deal more of his novels.
Caidin was, I'd later say (this is my own opinion) somewhat if a "blood & guts" author. CYBORG featured a nastily crippled test pilot but it was hardly the only novel in which really gnarly things happen to a human being.
I saw him on a late night show back then with Tom Brokaw.....when I first saw him he impressed me --- like one of Hell's Angels might have. But he talked about flying WW2 bombers at night when he encountered a UFO, owning a Junkers that Hitler actually used, and various other topics and he impressed me as a colorful, knowledgeable person.
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That's for us blokes "Born in the first half of the last century."
Geoff
Who bought Colby's books when the library sold them off for 25 Cents.
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Oh I was born in the latter half of the century but my elementary school library had old books. ;-)
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Caidin wrote a book about buying an old JU52 in South America and flying it out. It wasn't a novel it was something he did. I think it was called Iron Annie. I found it.
http://www.amazon.com/saga-Iron-Ann...pebp=1441310210318&perid=130P09464NMSEM7EXBEY
http://www.amazon.com/saga-Iron-Ann...pebp=1441310210318&perid=130P09464NMSEM7EXBEY
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An interesting recent book I just finished was David McCullough's "The Wright Brothers".
It appears they were FAR more than just a couple of back country bicycle makers.
Wilbur especially was almost certainly a genius, and Orville was a mechanical master.
Together with their father and sister they were everything that used to be right about America.
It appears they were FAR more than just a couple of back country bicycle makers.
Wilbur especially was almost certainly a genius, and Orville was a mechanical master.
Together with their father and sister they were everything that used to be right about America.
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I, too read The Man Who Rode The Thunder long ago; greatly impressed me as well. I remember where he stated that he thought he was twirled vertically around his chute at least once.
C.B. Colby was a childhood favorite. I still have Bach's Stranger to the Ground and A Gift of Wings; truly inspirational flying books.
As for Caidin, I read everything I could get my hands on. A great read is Everything but the Flak, his account of refurbishing three B-17s for the movie "The War Lover", then taking part in a WILD formation flight across the Atlantic. I read that when I was in the sixth grade. Sadly, much of his historical work has been discredited, but BOY, could he write about the magic (and majesty) of flight...
C.B. Colby was a childhood favorite. I still have Bach's Stranger to the Ground and A Gift of Wings; truly inspirational flying books.
As for Caidin, I read everything I could get my hands on. A great read is Everything but the Flak, his account of refurbishing three B-17s for the movie "The War Lover", then taking part in a WILD formation flight across the Atlantic. I read that when I was in the sixth grade. Sadly, much of his historical work has been discredited, but BOY, could he write about the magic (and majesty) of flight...
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Ed, I think you're thinking of Stephen Coonts's The Cannibal Queen.
Flight of the Intruder made me wish I could somehow get around the "any corrective optics = Untermensch" attitude of military flight training to become an A-6 jock, then that assclown Blow-Job Bill scrapped 'em all just when they were finally reaching their ultimate refinements. Well, between him and before that Dickless Cheney, preferred contractor of the McDouchebag Crime Family, killing off the Advanced Intruder development programs... may they both burn in Hell together.
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