Before starting my career in aviation I read Chicken Hawk by Robert Mason.
There was a memorable story in the book about how Mason managed to get some extra lift by doing a slow anti-torque turn in his Huey. A few years later I found myself in a single-engined helicopter hovering in a hollowed area of ground at an altitude of around 5,000' with no spare torque to get me out of the situation that I had put myself and my passengers in to. Remembering Mason's solution I performed the same anti-torque turn and managed to reduce the power being taken up by the tail fenestron which gave me some extra lift...
I recently got a copy of a novel aimed at teenagers with an interest in and a desire to fly. The book is
Stranded by
J.E. Timlin. ISBN
978-1916173538
Thirteen-year old Nate now knew where the middle of nowhere was! It was right here and he was stranded in it.
The plane carrying him and five other kids to a dream holiday in Alaska had crashed in the midst of a horrific snowstorm. They were miles off their scheduled route and the weather was far too extreme for anyone to reach them, even if they could work out where to search.
Their pilot, the only adult in the group was in a coma and his best friend, Luke and a little girl were badly in need of immediate medical attention.
An impossible dilemma faced Nate:
Should the group hunker down and wait it out, hoping rescuers would reach them before the three injured or sick members of their party died?
Or, should he try to patch up their battered plane and attempt to fly them out himself, possibly killing them all?
Struggling for survival in the brutal Canadian winter, the ragged little group face problems on top of set-backs, with complications thrown in for good measure. Fixing the plane requires ingenuity and team work. Do Nate and his new friends have the problem-solving abilities, the determination and the courage to make it out of the wilderness alive?