The High and the Mighty

[THE ORACLE]

Hi Krusty ol mate......
The thing I find interesting about the movie 'Fate is the Hunter' is that Ernie Gann was hired as the screen writer for the script (as he was for a number of successful films), however, in this case as he said in his autobiography 'Hostage to Fortune' the film was hijacked by Hollywood and the final product was less than successful.

For those of us that like aeroplanes with round engines, I think 'The Crowded Sky' is a hoot. It was made in 1960 and the acting is as wooden as a forest of trees, but is does have some good footage of DC7 airliner operations immediately before the Jet age. Now that I think of it the same could be said in every respect about the original 'Airport' movie (1970) showing B707 and DC8 airline action.

'Animalclub', if you do a bit of research I think you'll find the Mr. Gann who chronicled the Douglas Aircraft history was not related to Ernie Gann!!

[KRUSTY 34]

Gidday ORACLE,

The scene from the High and Mighty where John Wayne "Comunicates" with Robert Stack has been incorporated into our company CRM course!

Absolute crack up. People skills at it's best.

[THE ORACLE]

Krusty....check your PMs.

[MCKES]

I was walking past Big W on Thursday night and saw Flying high and the Blue Max for sale for $8 each. I had seen the Blue Max before,a great movie except amazingly those germans can all speak fluent english? But as for Flying High it was gold an absolute crack up. The part where the FA is "blowing up" the autopilot and he starts smiling and his head starts moving was hilarious.

[ScottyDoo]

I dug it out again recently and managed to get about half a dozen pages into it before tossing it in the trash can. 20+ years flying jets in various locations around the world changed the perspective enormously.

I totally agree. That book was amazing the first time I read it. Not so good the second time and sugary dross on the third attempt.

BAT21 had some great and realistic flying scenes. Why? No CGI and there was a real pilot flying out of sight in RHS while Danny Glover "flew" from LHS. The SPAD scenes had some of the best aerial cinematography every filmed.

Flight of the Intruder is also pretty good and he book is even better. A true pilot's tale.

[Roost]

Old Air Race Movies

I seen an air race movie years ago, and it had some great footage of the air race purpose built machines. I think on was called a comet, can anyone come up with the movie name, would like to see it again.

[Capt Wally]

.............seeing as some are asking about movies from times gone by.

Does anyone in here remember the name of the movie portraying the Wright Bros first trial flights at Kittyhawk Kill Devils ( I think it was) sand dunes? Gives a good (hollywood version) insight of their trials & tribulations to getting the Wright Flyer airborne.

Capt Wally :-)

[apache]

BOOKS ?
The Dam Busters
Reach for the Sky(bio on Douglas Bader)
fighter general (bio on Adolf Galland)
Night fighters (i think this is the title)
Pierre Clostermanns bio(dunno the title!)

Movies ?
SPITFIRE (starring David Niven) - excellent
Dam Busters (codeword N_ _ _ _ R)
633 Squadron
Austin Powers (gotta LOVE that 747!!!)
Air Force One
Flying Leathernecks - John Wayne at his truly worst
Space Cowboys also gets a laugh from me

[gassed budgie]

Pierre Clostermanns bio(dunno the title!)

The Big Show.....excellent read.

[Pinky the pilot]

Another book; 'Fly for your Life.' Biography of R R Stanford Tuck. (Bob Tuck)

[corowacomet]

Fairly lighthearted book but a great read; Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck. Quite a remarkable story really of two young brothers, circa 16 crossing America east to west in a Cub they rebuilt.
Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine De Saint-Exupery has to be up there as one of the classics as well.
The Comet.

[Stationair8]

I Flew For MMA by Reg Adkins
A very good perspective of doing the hard yards in WA