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Recommendation for a good book?


ncdmtb

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I really enjoyed "Beyond the Checkride" by Howard Fried which I read right after my PPL.  He is a 50,000hr pilot and he just tells all sorts of stories of flying and teaching and working within the system to get what he needs to complete his flight and so forth.  I found it to be a very useful read, almost like flying right seat experience alongside him watching how he handles various situations.

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Yep both Killing Zone and Beyond the Checkride are two of my favorite books that I've read as a student pilot besides the required AIM/FAR and training books, POH. I also recommend the following:

 

  • Flying the Weather Map
  • Aviation Weather
  • Weather Flying
  • Flight Discipline
  • Tips to Fly By

Cheers,

Ben

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  • 4 years later...

Must be the week for resurrecting old threads....

On 11/3/2013 at 9:09 PM, WardHolbrook said:

Jimmy Doolittle's autobiography, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again. He was an amazing man and involved in the introduction of a lot of things that we take for granted nowadays - 100 octane avgas and the first "blind" flight and a bunch of other stuff all in addition to the Tokyo raid.Well worth reading. There are two flying related books that ought to be in every instrument rated pilot's library - Weather Flying by Robert Buck and Instrument Flying by Richard Taylor.  

I can second this recommendation. Also a few others in no particular order. I could make a very long list of books, but here were some of my favorites from recent reading.

  • Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (Probably seen the movie but the book is excellent)
  • Flyboys by James Bradley
    This acclaimed bestseller brilliantly illuminates a hidden piece of World War II history as it tells the harrowing true story of nine American airmen shot down in the Pacific. One of them, George H. W. Bush, was miraculously rescued. What happened to the other eight remained a secret for almost 60 years.
    After the war, the American and Japanese governments conspired to cover up the shocking truth, and not even the families of the airmen were informed of what happened to their sons. Their fate remained a mystery--until now.
    FLYBOYS is a tale of courage and daring, of war and death, of men and hope. It will make you proud and it will break your heart.
  • All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor by Donald Stratton & Ken Gire
    THE FIRST MEMOIR BY A USS ARIZONA SURVIVOR: Donald Stratton, one of the battleship's five living heroes, delivers a "powerful" and "intimate"* eyewitness account of Pearl Harbor and his unforgettable return to the fightAt 8:10 a.m. on December 7, 1941, Seaman First Class Donald Stratton was consumed by an inferno. A million pounds of explosives had detonated beneath his battle station aboard the USS Arizona, barely fifteen minutes into Japan’s surprise attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor. Near death and burned across two thirds of his body, Don, a nineteen-year-old Nebraskan who had been steeled by the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, summoned the will to haul himself hand over hand across a rope tethered to a neighboring vessel. Forty-five feet below, the harbor’s flaming, oil-slick water boiled with enemy bullets; all around him the world tore itself apart. In this extraordinary, never-before-told eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attack—the only memoir ever written by a survivor of the USS Arizona—ninety-four-year-old veteran Donald Stratton finally shares his unforgettable personal tale of bravery and survival on December 7, 1941, his harrowing recovery, and his inspiring determination to return to the fight. Don and four other sailors made it safely across the same line that morning, a small miracle on a day that claimed the lives of 1,177 of their Arizona shipmates—approximately half the American fatalaties at Pearl Harbor. Sent to military hospitals for a year, Don refused doctors’ advice to amputate his limbs and battled to relearn how to walk. The U.S. Navy gave him a medical discharge, believing he would never again be fit for service, but Don had unfinished business. In June 1944, he sailed back into the teeth of the Pacific War on a destroyer, destined for combat in the crucial battles of Leyte Gulf, Luzon, and Okinawa, thus earning the distinction of having been present for the opening shots and the final major battle of America’s Second World War.As the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack approaches, Don, a great-grandfather of five and one of six living survivors of the Arizona, offers an unprecedentedly intimate reflection on the tragedy that drew America into the greatest armed conflict in history. All the Gallant Men is a book for the ages, one of the most remarkable—and remarkably inspiring—memoirs of any kind to appear in recent years.
  • The Wright Brothers by David McCullough (Not particularly light reading but very well written)
  • The Finest Hours by Michael Tougias & Casey Sherman (Again you may have seen the movie but the book goes over so much more)
  • The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

    The #1 New York Times–bestselling story about American Olympic triumph in Nazi Germany and now the inspiration for the PBS documentary “The Boys of ‘36”

    For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.

    It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.

  • The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey From the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw

    The untold story of the bloodiest and most dramatic march to victory of the Second World War.
     
    Written with Alex Kershaw's trademark narrative drive and vivid immediacy, The Liberator traces the remarkable battlefield journey of maverick U.S. Army officer Felix Sparks through the Allied liberation of Europe—from the first landing in Italy to the final death throes of the Third Reich.

    Over five hundred bloody days, Sparks and his infantry unit battled from the beaches of Sicily through the mountains of Italy and France, ultimately enduring bitter and desperate winter combat against the die-hard SS on the Fatherland's borders. Having miraculously survived the long, bloody march across Europe, Sparks was selected to lead a final charge to Bavaria, where he and his men experienced some of the most intense street fighting suffered by Americans in World War II.

    And when he finally arrived at the gates of Dachau, Sparks confronted scenes that robbed the mind of reason—and put his humanity to the ultimate test.

  • Frozen in Time by Mitchell Zuckoff
    Two harrowing crashes . . . A vanished rescue plane . . . A desperate fight for life in a frozen, hostile land . . . The quest to solve a seventy-year-old mysteryThe author of the smash New York Times bestseller Lost in Shangri-La delivers a gripping true story of endurance, bravery, ingenuity, and honor set in the vast Arctic wilderness of World War II and today.On November 5, 1942, a U.S. cargo plane on a routine flight slammed into the Greenland ice cap. Four days later, a B-17 on the search-and-rescue mission became lost in a blinding storm and also crashed. Miraculously, all nine men on the B-17 survived. The U.S. military launched a second daring rescue operation, but the Grumman Duck amphibious plane sent to find the men flew into a severe storm and vanished.In this thrilling adventure, Mitchell Zuckoff offers a spellbinding account of these harrowing disasters and the fate of the survivors and their would-be saviors. Frozen in Time places us at the center of a group of valiant airmen fighting to stay alive through 148 days of a brutal Arctic winter by sheltering from subzero temperatures and vicious blizzards in the tail section of the broken B-17 until an expedition headed by famed Arctic explorer Bernt Balchen attempts to bring them to safety.But that is only part of the story that unfolds in Frozen in Time. In present-day Greenland, Zuckoff joins the U.S. Coast Guard and North South Polar—a company led by the indefatigable dreamer Lou Sapienza, who worked for years to solve the mystery of the Duck’s last flight—on a dangerous expedition to recover the remains of the lost plane’s crew.Drawing on intensive research and Zuckoff ’s firsthand account of the dramatic 2012 expedition, Frozen in Time is a breathtaking blend of mystery, adventure, heroism, and survival. It is also a poignant reminder of the sacrifices of our military personnel and their families—and a tribute to the important, perilous, and often-overlooked work of the U.S. Coast Guard.

  • Aces High: The Heroic Saga of the Two Top-Scoring American Aces of World War II by Bill Yenne (Acutally talks about how Lindbergh taught them to lean the engines in the P-38's to get longer flights and more loiter time)
    Capturing the hearts of a beleaguered nation, the fighter pilots of World War II engaged in a kind of battle that became the stuff of legend. They cut through the sky in their P-38s to go one-on-one against the enemy—and those who survived the deadly showdowns with enough courage and skill earned the right to be called aces. But two men in particular rose to become something more. They became icons of aerial combat, in a heroic rivalry that inspired a weary nation to fight on.
     
    Richard “Dick” Bong was the bashful, pink-faced farm boy from the Midwest. Thomas “Tommy” McGuire was the wise-cracking, fast-talking kid from New Jersey. What they shared was an unparalleled gallantry under fire which won them both the Medal of Honor—and remains the subject of hushed and reverent conversation wherever aerial warfare is admired. 
     
    What they had between them was a closely watched rivalry to see who would emerge as the top-scoring American ace of the war. What they left behind is a legacy of pride we will never forget, and a record of aerial victories that has yet to be surpassed anywhere in the world.

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I'm a WWII buff, and admittedly these have little or nothing to do with aviation specifically, but they are my favorite recent books:

Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors -- James Hornfischer.  It's a narrative of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, centering on the crews of the Johnston and the Samuel B Roberts

Shattered Sword -- James Parshall.  It's a counterfactual debunking of some of the American and Japanese myths of the Battle of Midway.  Not the best written historical examination, but EXTREMELY well researched.

The Ninety Days -- Thomas Carmichael.  A narrative of five separate theaters (Guadalcanal, Stalingrad, El Alamein, Operation Torch, and the North Sea convoys) between September 1942 and January 1943.  It's VERY hard to find, though

Edited by jaylw314
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"A Lonely Kind Of War" by Marshall Harrison 

"Chickenhawk" bt Robert Mason

"flight of the intruder" (terrible movie) great book  Stephen Coonts (canable queen)

All written by actual pilots that flew the airplanes and helo's they write about

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North Star Over My Shoulder by Robert Buck.  DC2 to 747 Captain with Howard Hughes in between.  I see his weather book reccomended which is very good but reading what he did to write that book is even more amazing.  

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A recent one I read is and enjoyed immensely is, "Serenade to the Big Bird", by Bert Stiles.   It recounts his personal and aviation experiences during WWII as a B-17 copilot.   It does give a very interesting view of training and flying then, although that is not the focus of the book.   The book became a bestseller after the war and was published posthumously.   I found it very compelling and may change your view of the war, life at the time, and people who fought.

 

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On 11/2/2013 at 6:51 PM, ncdmtb said:

Any recommendations?

Well, Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langewiesche was mentioned earlier and I will just add that it is required reading for any pilot.

My personal favorite is West with the Night by Beryl Markham. I frankly think she was the greatest female aviator of all time and when you read Lovell's biography of her (Straight on Till Morning) you get to really wishing you had known her--she slept with Denys Finch Hatton (who taught her to fly) as well as  Antoine de Saint Exupéry (Wind, Sand and Stars and Night Flight.), but blew off Hemingway--not literally, who called her a bitch but grudgingly admitted that she was a great writer. She made Amelia look like a student pilot.

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Weekend Wings by Frank Kingston Smith. It’s like an old friend that you like to revisit from time to time.

Gentleman of Adventure by Earnest K. Gann

Night Flight by St. Exupery

The Eagle has Landed by Jack Higgins

The Lady Be Good by Dennis McClendon

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