Category Archives: Book Club

The Last Bush Pilots: A Review

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last bush pilots

I have two constants when it comes to my book-reading life. I read anything written by a fellow pilot, but I almost never read non-fiction. In this case I am really glad I broke one of my rules to read Captain Eric Auxier’s novel titled, The Last Bush Pilots.

The funny thing is it’s hard to tell what is real or fiction and isn’t that the best of both worlds? You see Eric has been there and done that; he was an Alaskan Bush Pilot in his youth dreaming of some day making it to the “show.”  Which he ultimately did as he is now gainfully employed at a major airline.

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iFLYblog.com Book Club February 2013: Fire and Air by Patty Wagstaff

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Patty Wagstaff

Each month I will feature an aviation book that I would recommend you add to your collection.

This month I’m featuring Fire and Air A Life on the Edge by Patty Wagstaff. This book is one of my favorites, and not just because it’s about aerobatics. The reason I love this book is that you can really tell that Patty revealed her soul in the text. It provides a great deal of insight into the women, the world-class competitor, and airshow performer that is Patty Wagstaff.

Even if you have seen so many airshows that you could care less about another wiz-bang monoplane pulling 12Gs, you owe it to yourself to read this book. You’ll get to see inside the personality that has amazed crowds for decades and inspired countless new pilots, including many women!

Fire and Air: A Life on the Edge

iFLYblog.com Book Club January 2013: You Can Fly Now

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You can fly nowEach month I will feature an aviation book that I would recommend you add to your collection.

This month I read a really cool book about learning to fly. Titled You Can Fly Now: Your Keys to a Sky Full of Opportunity, by John S. Craparo. This book is a really quick read, but it covers the full spectrum of LSA from a guy that has been-there-done-that. John explores all of the different aspects of LSA from float planes to powered parachutes, to legacy LSAs and he writes it in a way that is fun to read and easy to grasp.fly ercoupe

I was so excited after reading the book I was ready to go out and do an add-on float rating! He really makes it sound fun and provides some real-world details that demystifies many elements of learning to fly. I highly recommend this book to anyone thinking about learning to fly (LSA or not). I also recommend it to folks that are already flying as a great way to see how LSA can work well and how fun it can be.

Buy it through the link below and you are helping support this site.

iFLYblog.com Book Club December 2012: Top Gun Days

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Top Gun

Each month I will feature an aviation book that I would recommend you add to your collection.

I recently finished this book and it was an outstanding read – I couldn’t put it down! If you love books that are written by the person who was there and did the real stuff, you’ll love this book. If you liked the movie Top Gun, you’ll love this book. Why? Because the author, Dave “Bio” Baranek was there. Not only did Bio go to Top Gun as a student, he later taught there as an instructor during the making of the movie and helped with the flying and production! Personally, I watched this movie as a teenager over a half dozen times while it was still in the theatre.

Top Gun InstructorsThere are some really great first person accounts of Naval Aviation and military fighter flying in general. This book also takes you behind the scenes in a movie that was an inspiration to thousands of young pilots that are out there flying today.

If you want to know more about Bio and his work, you can find him at www.topgunbio.com

Buy it through the link below and you are helping support this site.

Aviation Book List: ebooks

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Aviation Books by heipei

photo by heipei

Aviation Book List: ebooks

A friend of the blog asked on our Facebook page about a list of recommended aviation books. He was specifically interested in books that could be downloaded, since he lives overseas.

Although we have the Book of the Month Club where we feature a book each month, I am going to break tradition and provide a simple list with no reviews in this post (I haven’t read all these books listed).

The links below take you to amazon.com who I am affiliated with.
Some of these ebooks are under a $1.00! Continue reading →

iFLYblog.com Book Club November 2012: Stick and Rudder

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Stick and Rudder BookEach month I will feature an aviation book that I would recommend you add to your collection.

An appropriate title for some of my more recent posts, Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying is the oldest flying book I have read and it might be the most practical. Wolfgang Langewiesche was way before his time in dissecting the essence of flying. Some of the terminology is different and there are some aspects that are not applicable, but overall there are some real gems in here if you take the time to read it. It’s relativity short at only 384 pages.

For a book that was first published in 1944 and still available today, you need to have this in your library.

Buy it through the link below and you are helping support this site.

iFLYblog.com Book Club October 2012: Fate is the Hunter by Ernst Gann

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Each month I will feature an aviation book that I would recommend you add to your collection.

Appropriately, the first book is the seminal work by Captain Ernest Gann - Fate is the Hunter. This is my favorite flying book of all time!

The romance and thrill that was present when our transportation system was just being born is captured in his non-fiction work. If you haven’t had to the chance to read this book, you owe it to yourself to buy it immediately and set aside anything else you are reading. You will not regret it! Gann gives you a taste of the glory days of airline flying along with the not-so-glorious parts and he does it with a prose that I have not seen matched in an aviation writing.

Buy it through the link below and you are helping support this site.