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on the bookshelf
What our chapter members are reading and recommend
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Flight
of Passage - A Memoir, by Rinker Buck, (1998), paperback, Hyperion Books, 368
pp. The author, a journalist for "New York Magazine", recounts the 1966
journey he and his brother took from New Jersey to California and back aboard their
reconditioned Piper Cub airplane. More than just an adventure story, this memoir tells of
the coming of age of the brothers, who were 15 and 17 at the time of the flight.
Illustrated with photographs. Annotation from buy.com website. Recommended
by Rod Schack. "Met him at Oshkosh 2001- good guy, great pilot" |
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Cannibal
Queen, by Steven Coonts, (1999), paperback. Stephen Coonts, New York Times best-selling author of Flight
of the Intruder, Under Siege, and Cuba, has been hailed as the best contemporary author
writing about flying. In The Cannibal Queen, he turns his storytelling genius to
nonfiction with an exultant account of the summer of '91 -- of three glorious months spent
exploring America from the cockpit of a 1942 Stearman vintage biplane. Joining the ranks
of John Steinbeck and Charles Kuralt, Coonts takes us on an extraordinary adventure,
touching down in all forty-eight of the continental United States, from sea to shining
sea. Annotation from Amazon.com website. Recommended by Rod Schack |
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Wings of
Yesteryear, The Golden Age of Private Aircraft, by Geza Szurovy, MBI Publishing
Company, Osceola WI, 169 pages, hardcover. "Beautifully illustrated history of
the classics, with a focus on the men who designed them and the companies that built them
- Aeronca, Beech, Cessna, Curtiss, Ercoupe, Fairchild, Luscombe, Pietenpol, Piper, Ryan,
Stinson, Tiger Moth, Waco, and more. Recommended by Rod Schack - "I have not read it yet but it is next on
my list" |
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North
Star Over My Shoulder - A Flying Life,
by Bob Buck, (2002), Simon & Schuster, 446 pgs, hard cover. "A
great autobiography by the well known author of "Weather Flying". Bob Buck
chronicles his aviation career from the biplane days to flying the line for TWA shortly
after it's beginnings. Want to learn about the differences between flying the DC-2
and DC-3? Just one of many things you will find in this fantastic book." Annotation from Amazon.com website. Recommended by Rod
Schack
- "I could not put it down!" |
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Zero Three Bravo, by
former Newsweek reporter Mariana Gosnell. She recounts her trip across the United
States alone in her private plane. She describes experiences at many small airports as she
flies from New York down across the southern United States to California, then north and
back across the Midwest. She encounters plenty of interesting characters, hears many
stories, and weaves these together with touches of aviation history to make a
contemplative personal narrative. Gosnell's journalistic style lets us appreciate the
variety of people and places she visits, from New York City to Plains, Ga.
Annotation from Amazon.com website.
Recommended by Rod Schack
- "If this does not make you want to fly cross-country in a small plane, nothing
will"
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Aviation in Hampton Roads by
Patrick Evans-Hylton, (2005) paperback, Arcadia Publishing, 128
pages. On December 17, 1903, the first flight by Orville and Wilbur Wright took
place in the backyard of Hampton Roads, and the course of history was forever changed.
Indeed, aviation has deep roots in the region. Hot-air balloons provided reconnaissance
flights here during the Civil War, and manned space flights to the moon were developed at
NASA's Langley Research Center in the 1960s. Also, in the early days of civil aviation,
Norfolk was on the route map for several pioneer airlines, linking the area with major
cities along the eastern seaboard. Annotation
from bam.com website. Recommended by Linda Mathias -
"It is an excellent collection of pictures from Hampton Roads aviation
history." |
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Stick and Rudder, by Wolfgang Langewiesche,
McGraw-Hill (1944). Recommended by Rod
Schack
- "If you fly, you need to know
why you fly, here is the book that gives you that why" |
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Franklin Chapter 1377 of the 