Books like "Fate Is The Hunter"
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Books like "Fate Is The Hunter"
I finished "Fate Is The Hunter" a couple of months ago and loved it, mainly for the detail about the old DC-4s and DC-6s and the unrefined state of navigation back in those days. I'd like to read more about what it was like flying the line in the old days. So... what do you all recommend for autobiographies about what it was like to fly in 1940s-1970s commercial aviation? I'm interested in anything -- with the sole exception of books where the author has taken artistic license to their memories... that's always off-putting.
Books like "Fate Is The Hunter"
I managed to obtain a hardback first edition a year or so ago - I don't think the seller realised how valuable it was....
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I second eckhard's recommendation of Song of the Sky, especially if you liked the piston heavies and raw navigation thing.
Another brilliant one for that is Sir Gordon Taylor's autobiography The Sky Beyond. Don't let the fact that it's an autobiography put you off - it's still an excellent and fast-paced read. Quick taster: GT learning astro nav as a young man and practicing it in a biplane on floats, perforce at night, and the method he used to alert himself to reaching flare height when returning to alight on a lake in the dark... Or acting as Kingsford-Smith's nav on an early trans-Tasman flight in a Fokker tri-motor with one engine shut down due to vibration and one of the others losing oil at a distressing rate... Or crossing the Pacific in a Catalina and trying to find a tiny atoll in the middle of thousands of miles of nowhere after flying for what would still be an ultra-long-haul amount of time even today.... One of my all-time faves. Enjoy!
Another brilliant one for that is Sir Gordon Taylor's autobiography The Sky Beyond. Don't let the fact that it's an autobiography put you off - it's still an excellent and fast-paced read. Quick taster: GT learning astro nav as a young man and practicing it in a biplane on floats, perforce at night, and the method he used to alert himself to reaching flare height when returning to alight on a lake in the dark... Or acting as Kingsford-Smith's nav on an early trans-Tasman flight in a Fokker tri-motor with one engine shut down due to vibration and one of the others losing oil at a distressing rate... Or crossing the Pacific in a Catalina and trying to find a tiny atoll in the middle of thousands of miles of nowhere after flying for what would still be an ultra-long-haul amount of time even today.... One of my all-time faves. Enjoy!
and the unrefined state of navigation back in those days.
You mean astro through a bubble sextant? Manual air plot? Three position line fixes on NDBs? Using a drift sight? As opposed to reading a lat and long accurate to the nearest yard off a GPS and then not having a clue where you are when it packs up?
Unrefined? How dare you sir!!!
(Fate is the Hunter brilliant BTW
)
A while back there was a similar request and someone posted a list of some previous threads about recommended aviation books - which I bookmarked for my own shopping! I meant to extract the titles & authors, but never got round to it, sorry. 
They won't all be relevant to line flying 1940-70, but some will fulfill your criteria, I'm sure.
Hope you find them useful - I did!
http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...ood-books.html
http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...abbit-air.html
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...have-read.html
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...ir-novels.html
http://www.pprune.org/spectators-bal...ks-pilots.html
http://www.pprune.org/spectators-bal...good-read.html
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...good-read.html
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...ead-books.html
FBW
They won't all be relevant to line flying 1940-70, but some will fulfill your criteria, I'm sure.
Hope you find them useful - I did!
http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...ood-books.html
http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...abbit-air.html
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...have-read.html
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...ir-novels.html
http://www.pprune.org/spectators-bal...ks-pilots.html
http://www.pprune.org/spectators-bal...good-read.html
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...good-read.html
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...ead-books.html
FBW
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Thanks all... I put in an order for a 1952 edition of Song of the Sky and will order some of the others. I'm not a big fan of piston aircraft but Gann's book made me see the light. I did read Chickenhawk as I have quite a huge pile of Vietnam War books and I absolutely agree it rates among the best of the bunch.
Touche! And I say that as someone who owns quite a collection of 1940s-1970s aeronautical charts.
Unrefined? How dare you sir!!!
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Fate is the Hunter... DC-6 ?
Fate is the Hunter is arguably Gann's best effort for factual detail (an autobiogrphy after all) compared to e.g. The High and the Mighty novel.
However I don't recall a DC-6 being mentioned anywhere - it is manily all about experiences in DC-2s( with stiff legs) , DC-3s (which couldn't carry a tumber's worth of ice), DC-4s (and 'porting' and lucky escapes) and Liberators ( charging bulls for demolishing the Taj Mahal) with a brief mention of the mighty C46 for flying over the 'hump'. Oh and of course must not forget to mention Gann's biggest embarrassment that dejected pelican of an Aeronca C3 that was secretly planning to kill him!
I must read it again.
However I don't recall a DC-6 being mentioned anywhere - it is manily all about experiences in DC-2s( with stiff legs) , DC-3s (which couldn't carry a tumber's worth of ice), DC-4s (and 'porting' and lucky escapes) and Liberators ( charging bulls for demolishing the Taj Mahal) with a brief mention of the mighty C46 for flying over the 'hump'. Oh and of course must not forget to mention Gann's biggest embarrassment that dejected pelican of an Aeronca C3 that was secretly planning to kill him!
I must read it again.
Last edited by b377; 16th Dec 2009 at 08:34.
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Ernest Gann also produced a book of airliner profiles, many illustrated with art-work "Ernest K Gann's Flying Circus" 1974 ISBN 0 340 20693 4 Hodder & Stoughton. The piece on the DC-4, focused on its use for transatlantic casualty repatriation, is particularly good and reflects AKG's own career, as does the final chapter on a trans-Pacific DC-3 ferry flight
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Books like "Fate is the hunter"
I tried "Fate is the hunter" a few years ago and have to confess that I didn't like Gann's writing style.
My recommendations:
"A life aloft, from DC3 to 747" by Walt Gunn (former TWA Captain)
"Can anyone see Bermuda? Memories of an airline pilot, 1941-76," by Archie Jackson (former BA Captain
"Comets and Concordes (and those I flew before)" by Peter Duffy-former BA Captain
"Croydon to Concorde" by R E Gillman (another former BA Captain)
My recommendations:
"A life aloft, from DC3 to 747" by Walt Gunn (former TWA Captain)
"Can anyone see Bermuda? Memories of an airline pilot, 1941-76," by Archie Jackson (former BA Captain
"Comets and Concordes (and those I flew before)" by Peter Duffy-former BA Captain
"Croydon to Concorde" by R E Gillman (another former BA Captain)
I'll second One11's recommendation - Flying Circus by Gann. Have just got a copy and get through a chapter a night - it's that sort of read. His writing style is elegant and the names of his heroes pour forth. Superbly evocative description of flying the 'range' in bad weather and using the tricks of the trade to approach to minimums (and a bit less!!) bracketing the As and Ns. Vivid evocation of the times.
I think In the Company of Eagles is a novel about WWI fighter pilots. I've got several books by Gann - aviation & otherwise - and every one of them is a great read.
If you can find it, Behind the Cockpit Door by Arthur Whitlock (published by Merlin Books), is an excellent book, illustrated by the author, an artist in his own right. Plenty of Dakota stories too.
If you can find it, Behind the Cockpit Door by Arthur Whitlock (published by Merlin Books), is an excellent book, illustrated by the author, an artist in his own right. Plenty of Dakota stories too.
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I can vouch for "Behind the Cockpit Door" an excellent read, probably self published as many excellent aviation books have to be, but Amazon is always worth a try. A book called "In The Shadow of Eagles" is a very good biography of an Alaskan bush pilot who went on to pioneer commercial aviation in Alaska and Canada. Again Amazon might be the best source through their used book finder.