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***** Bax Seat, the log of a pasture pilot. As a worn-out pilot, I have read a lot of books on flying. None that I enjoyed so much as this one. Gordon Baxter used to write for Flying magazine. I believe that at this point, he has flown on to his reward. But he has left behind some wonderful stuff, and this book is only one example. A wonderful read, even if you are not a pilot. Gordon Baxter |
***** And I Alone Survived, A breathtaking story of a woman's extraordinary courage and resourcefulness after being involved in a small plane crash at the top of the Sierra Nevada mountain Range. Once started, it is a very difficult book to put down. Lauren Elder, with Shirley Streshinsky |
*** Pressure Cooker, a great story of the men and women who control air traffic, about the stress and fear of causing an air crash, or 'deal' as they call it. Don Biggs |
*** Crash, Eastern Airlines Flight 401's crash into the Florida Everglades which eventually turned out, as they usually do, revealing a number of faulty systems in this Lockheed L-1011 aircraft. Rob & Sarah Elder |
*** Hey, I'm Alive!, When college girl Helen Klaben and her badly injured pilot were rescued after 49 days in the frozen wilderness, the story made headlines around the world. How they survived in the most dire of conditions. Helen Klaben, with Beth Day |
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*** Alive!, the story of the Uruguayan rugby team, on a chartered Fairchild F-227 crashes in the Andes and eventually were given up for lost. Rescue comes after two of the passengers, realizing that they were going to have to rescue themselves, hiked up and over the Andes, and down to where they could report the fact that they and others were still alive. A story of death, cannibalism, courage and great deprivation. Peirs Paul Read |
*** Triumph Over Terror, a story of the terrorist takeover of TWA flight 847, and the debacle that followed. John Testrake, with David Wimbish |
**** Destination Disaster, from the Ford Tri-Motor to the DC-10, the risk of flying. A good read, that underscores the incredible lack of engineering expertise that went into the DC-10, and the numbers of lives that were lost because of it. Paul Eddy, Elaine Potter, Bruce Page
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***** The Last 9 Minutes, the story of Flight 981, the first of a number of DC-10 crashes, that killed 346 people just outside of Paris, not long after the DC-10 had gone into commercial service. What emerges from this story is a sordid tale of engineering malfeasance, and lack of concern for the people that would be put in harm's way because of it. The DC-10 lower pressurized cargo door was so badly designed, and so notorious that one pilot worked out on the simulator how to deal with the loss of control of the entire back end of the airplane should it happen to him. That man lived through the only known case of a survivable DC-10 cargo door blowout. Incredible read. Moira Johnston |
Bruce McAllister & Peter Corley-Smith. |
**** Test Pilots, an examilation of the frontiersmen of flight from the earliest ballonists, to the evantual space shuttle. For a pilot, and engaging and fun read. |
***** The Sacrament. A tale of survival in the truest sense. A light aircraft, with 4 aboard, crashes into the White Cloud mountains in Idaho during a snow squall. 1 perishes immediately, the pilot wanders off and dies, and leaves teen-age Donna Johnson & Brett Dyer to face the elements. After 3 weeks or so of waiting for the inevitable rescue, it dawns on them that the waited-for rescue is not going to come, that they are presumed dead. They eventually resign themselves to the fact that they are going to have to walk out if they are to survive. Which they do under the most abominable conditions. They emerge from the mountains at Livingston Mill on the east fork of the Salmon river. That they do survive is a miracle of miracles. Wonderful, wonderful read! Peter Gzowski |
**** Flight of Passage. The most improbable of quests, by the most unlikely of individuals. Two teenagers, one 17 and one 15, rebuild a piper cub airplane, and fly from New Jersey to San Luis Obispo... and back. Taught by their father to fly, and allow by thier parents to take on this trip, these boys have an adventure of a lifetime and a plethora of flying experiences. Rinker Buck. |
**** Gravity's Embrace. Although the subtitle is misleading, as the lost pilot was eventually found, very much not alive, it is a great and interesting read as they employ different means to continue the search against impossible odds. Cynthia Young Fackrell. |
 *** Chasing Lewis & Clark Across America. A big time walter mitty adventure, with obvious tons of money and time. Ron Lowery and Mary Walker take off from St. Louis with the idea to trace the entire routh of Lewis & Clark from their low & slow airplane photo platform. Cloud Chaser, the airplane, gets them them to the west coast and back and produces some awesome photography along the way, great pictures. Ron Lowery |
**** Flying South, a Pilots Inner Journey. A gutsy lady, with relatively low pilot-in-command time, gets talked into flying all the way to Chile and back. The book recounts her misteps, sometimes at the urging of others, and of her eventual return to the US, all in her own Cessna 206. It is a thoroughly engaging and fun read. Sadly, at the end of the book, it is noted that Barbara and her husband, Galen Rowell, a world-famous photographer were killed in a recent plane crash. A disappointing end to a pilot you think you got to know via her book. |
**** Highest Duty. An interesting look at the life of Sully Sullenberger, and the career-changing event of having to place an airplane in the Hudson River after complete engine failure due to a bird strike. More than just aviation, the life and events that formed this ultra competent pilot. |
**** Cheating Death. A collection of vignettes covering a number of aircraft and other survival stories. Written in a very light-hearter vein, and featuring stories from the lift of the Alaska pilot's pilot, Don Sheldon. A fun and easy read. |
*** The Black Box. An examination of in-flight accidents by analyzing the continents of the voice and systems recorders. Intensely interesting to the aviation buff. Malcolm MacPherson |
**** Heros of the Horizon. An interesting look at aviation history in Alaska, the ones who started it, and the ones who carried it on. On the other hand, I have no idea how you can propose to do a historical read of Alaska avaiation, and leave out Don Sheldon. It is, however, still a good read of the exploits, and screw-ups, of the early Alaskan aviatiors. |
