I'm also surprised that Gumaark is the only one to mention Richard Bach and more importantly Exupery.
Ernst K Gaan is fantastic with "Fate is the Hunter", but for sheer love of flying then Bach in "Biplane" or "Gift of wings" has to do it, Exupery is very philosophically astute at the emotions, although a little remiss on the technical side of things so the story goes......... Exupery has certainly influenced me personally.
is it true that copies of "Sled Driver" are around 400 USD now ?
ps, some of the w.e.johns stuff (biggles this , biggles that) is also fairly accurate in as much as it could have been at the time, early stuff better than later ,as later he made more cracking adventure stories rather than factual flight engagement anecdotes......or so I'm led to believe, fun reading though, I'm looking forward to getting the kids hooked
regards
7gcbc