Chickenhawk
I hadn't previously heard the comments about the various anecdotes in Chickenhawk being a collection of other people's rather than exclusively Mason's own experiences. It does seem possible that incidents which happened to others might have been added to fill out the story, as it were. Still, it was a great read - 17 years ago, both times!! The first was when I was interested in helicopters and felt I understood how they worked. The second, and much more enjoyable read, was as I began and worked through my flight training.
Many years later, in the comfortable confines of a corporate IR twin, the simple hover practice still stands out.
Paraphrasing.......
"You're an ace, son!"
"But I was all over the field, sir!"
"Never mind, son, we'll just practice in smaller fields!"
I had a similar, smilingly cynical ex-military instructor for my PPL training and one day during hover practice, the instruction was to establish a stable hover pointed at a tall chimney standing high over a nearby town. 4 sweaty, white-knuckled, ninety-degree turns later, the chimney appeared again on the nose.
"Well now," he said. "There's a stroke of luck!"
Or the Vietnam vet who did my conversion to the 206 as a 60-hour PPL in California. Barely an hour into the training, he chopped the throttle coming over a ridge and watched as I aimed it into a large open field. And kept on watching while I continued towards the field without seeing the powerlines.
Back at the airfield, he said, "Son, you doing a outstanding job. You can get the bird started up, get it in the pattern and come on back and put it on the ground. But if the engine quits, you gonna be on the six-o'clock news with film at eleven!"
Not forgetting the hardship endured by those who served in Vietnam and, indeed, in all other theatres, Chickenhawk is still a top read.
I must look up the others mentioned in the thread.