Treadi, thanks - I was obviously using the wrong search terms, but thanks for putting me straight


W

Rich Graham talks about how he got involved in flying the SR-71 and other aircraft. Met him at Duxford and bought his book

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeBu...yt-cl=85027636 ]

This title was re-issued in 2012 so there are plenty of copies around.

Mentioned in the other threads I think but several of Nevil Shute's novels are aviation based with aircraft having a passing mention in several others.

No Highway, The Rainbow and the Rose, Round the Bend, Pastoral and Landfall and In the Wet all focus on flying as the plot or a major part of it. All though are also love stories in one form or another. By the time he wrote these works he'd developed form his early novels about crime and become an accomplished story teller. He has a technique for using one character, not always the main one, to set the scene and tell the story.

Pastoral and Landfall are both set in WW2 while No Highway and Round the Bend are based around commercial machines and their work in the immediate post war years.

The Rainbow and the Rose uses one pilot as narrator for the experiences of another from WW1 to the sixties. Probably the best story but In the Wet, written in the fifties but set in a fictional future c1982 runs a very near equal, but takes a bit of getting into.

His love for his adopted home in Australia is also a running theme.

"North Star Over My Shoulder" by Capt. Robert Buck of TWA. Started out on DC-2s and 3s, ended up as chief pilot on the 747. What a career span!

"Da Nang Diary" by Tom Yarborough. Flew OV-10 Broncos in Vietnam. Lots of hair-raising moments in that book. Very good read.

"Stick and Rudder" by Wolfgang Langewiesche, for obvious reasons.

"Bury Us Upside Down" about the "Misty" F-100 fast FACs in Vietnam.

A post on another thread today --

FROM NIGHT FLAK TO HIJACK - IT'S A SMALL WORLD by Captain Reginald Levy DFC, lobbed in the letterbox this morning. Needless to say, all pressing, extraneous jobs clambering for attention, were ignored for many hours. It would not be right, or fair, to rave too much, let alone refer to the highly quotable parts. The greatest impression of all is undoubtedly that Reg Levy was blessed with a charmed life. The close shaves he survived, more often than not unscathed, give much pause for wonderment. It was the luck of the draw, again and again. Those who adamantly refute the notion of good luck, and its obverse, cannot have read much about those fliers who have, against all the odds, come through time and time again.

His affection for nearly every aeroplane he flew is palpable. Take the Mosquito , for instance. His conversion onto the Mossie consisted of reading the pilot's notes, then blasting off alone for a few circuits. The subsequent extensive damage that he and his nav sustained to their aircraft on low level bombing raids, and their miraculous returns home, rank close to the unbelievable.

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add to the Nevil Shute list of must reads, his autobiography, SLIDE RULE

GIFT OF WINGS by Richard Bach is a collection of essays and magazine articles.
The chapter called The Pleasure of their Company is brilliant. He lists all the writers to whom he
owes a huge debt of gratitude.

The Aerodrome - Rex Warner

A truly ground breaking novel. Research it, then if
intrigued, as many readers will be, get hold of it.

Superior to 1984 and Brave New World. A forgotten masterpiece of 20th century English lit. The cover quote says - "Probably the only novel of its time to understand the dangerous yet glamorous appeal of fascism and the less confident, only half-satisfactory answer of traditional democracy". First published in 1941, Anthony Burgess says in his introduction -" do not read this introduction first, unless you don't mind major plot details given away".

It is about England, only insofar as "the Village" is given distinctively English characteristics, like the pub - no nationalities or city or country names are ever mentioned, and half the characters have titles rather than names: the Rector, the Squire, the Flight Lieutenant, the Air Vice-Marshal. It is, certainly, about the allure of fascism, but, to return to Burgess, it is an "ambiguous" book, and an academic examination of fascism it is not. There is lovely detail given to character and descriptions of the Village. It also is a black comedy so dark that almost the only chuckles it elicits are nervous ones. Bloody unusual, this duck. Burgess mentioned that he read it several times. I can see why. It is a strange and mysterious book.

The Flight-Lieutenant told us that he had accidentally used live instead of blank ammunition in the machine-gun whose performance he had been demonstrating. "The old boy took it right in the face, " he said, "and went over like a ninepin." He smiled as he recalled the scene to his memory, then added in a more serious voice: "It was a really bad show."

Re: 'FROM NIGHT FLACK TO HIJACK...'
The author, Reg Levy, was an engaging contributor to the 'Gaining a Pilot's Brevet...' thread on the Military Aviation forum until his passing last year.

I must get myself a copy of his book.
RIP, Reg.

you'll be so glad you did Stan .. . . It may lack the touch of a tight editor , but it is nevertheless such a remarkable life, with outstanding recall for detail , and as has been remarked , overflowing with his passion for the air.

How effortlessly Reg seems to go from 707 to DC-10 to 747 , rapid progression from one command to the next. SABENA ground schools were detail intensive, (unlike the American's approach), with much counting of the threads on the knurled flange bracket.
As opposed to more practical concentration on 'need-to-know' stuff, with the 'nice-to -know' brushed over.

(One tiny tiny annoyance is incorrect form of type designation throughout the book. . e.g. DC3 and DC10)

Favourite Books
 

Enthused by Aeroplane magazine having writers name their 4 favourite books and the prospect of a possible lockdown, maybe the time is right to list our favourite books.
Being mainly interested in civil aviation I would recommend the following 4
From Essex to Everywhere by David Willmott
Anglo Cargo by Dick Gilbert
Fate is the Hunter by Ernest Gann
cannot remember the title of number 4, but it was authored by a regular ppruner Blind Pew.

Trust Me I’m The Pilot is authored by Blind Pew and it is an excellent read!

Nice to see this thread revived, especially as we might all be scrabbling for some good reads

Mike Brookes series of books charting his career through training squadron and test pilot are all to be recommended. Follow Me Through, A Bucket of Sunshine, Trials and Errors and More Testing Times are written with wonderful humility, great humor and where needed, superb detail, particularly on individual aircraft. Once read, passed mine on very quickly on the bay site.

A recent enjoyable read was Skygods by Robert Gandt, which charts the rise and sad demise of Pan Am

For swashbuckling memoirs of fighter pilot action in WW2 and the Vietnam War look no further than Robin Olds - Fighter Pilot. Quite a character and quite a handful for the authorities that had to manage him. One of his many claims to fame, or maybe notoriety, is that he shot down a 109 dead stick after forgetting to manage his fuel after dropping his tanks.

John Farley's book "A View From The Hover" is beyond superb.

John had the fantastic knack of making everything complicated sound so straightforward and obvious and reading his work is as though he was sitting next to you talking to you.

Agree about the John Farley book, met him once, very nice man.
Another book I like Flight Testing to Win by Tony Blackman.

Anything by Ernest Gann. The chapter where the C54 captain is realising the enormity of his problem in “Island (or is it cabin?) in the sky” is the best aviation writing there is. Sends a shiver down your spine. @The high and the mighty” - superb read but both may need an understanding or knowledge of a bygone age of aviation. His “Twilight for the Gods” too about a sailing ships last passage is wonderful.
Eagles wings by Hajo Herman. No Moon Tonight, by Don Charlwood.
Going Downtown by Jack Broughton.
There’s a few for starters, looks like we’ve got 3 weeks to read them! Enjoy them everyone and stay safe.

Try this.
 

Patrolling the Cold War Skies: Reheat Sunrise by Phillip Keeble. Great descriptions of flying and wonderful, quirky humour

GAXLN
Thanks but even better is Mike Riley’s recent addition.
I tracked him down before I published to seek his take on BA.
We share a few things in common as we both had problems with people believing that we were in macho man careers.
Moi, an Essex boy who even had trouble convincing others that I worked for BA and not as a pilot but as a camp steward.
I was often mistaken for Frank Spencer whilst Mike being limited in the stature department and an accomplished musician suffered the same fate.
His dedication to me is “my VC 10 student -and an author who is not afraid of the truth. Tell it like it is!
Which is precisely what he has done but with far better pros.

https://www.pprune.org/aviation-hist...ldnt-miss.html

I just got an email from the publisher Pen & Sword saying that they've discounted a lot of e-books: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/ebookpromotion
Not many aviation related titles in that list unfortunately (they've got plenty in their collection), but the Mary Ellis biography could be interesting, certainly at that price.