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(More customer reviews)If the purpose of a good book is to transport readers to new worlds, Flights of Adventure succeeds many times over, leading a journey from Middle America to the Middle East, Africa, South America, and, ultimately, the South Pole.
Anyone with a bit of the flying bug, or even just a traveling jones, should find something to love about this book, which features ten memoirs, all related to flying but told from very different perspectives.
The stories include the reminiscences of a wing-walking acrobat; a pair of essays by a father and his daughter about his love of flying; and a surreal, humorous account penned by the passenger - some might say "unwitting accomplice" - of a novice pilot who faked his way into soloing an ill-conceived flight over the Sierras in search of a weeklong camping trip/rave party in the desert.
Several chapters offer first-hand accounts of historical events. Marion Stegeman Hodgson writes about her days flying with the WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots), a little-known but important corps of female pilots who flew non-combat missions during World War II under the direction of the US Army Air Forces. Other military and commercial pilots contribute tales of flying in various world hot spots - Somalia, Beirut in 1983, Colombia during the search for notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar - while retired Navy pilot Paul Derocher details the thrills and perils of three years in the world's coldest spot: Antarctica.
The pilots in Antarctica could only fly to the South Pole a few months out of the year, when the temperature "warmed up" to 65 degrees below zero - the temperature below which their aircraft couldn't operate. For those of us who don't consider 65 degrees above zero to be especially warm, the idea of flying, or doing anything for that matter, in a place so cold is difficult to imagine.
One amusing image from the chapter involves a group of curious penguins crowding around an aircraft while the crew scurries aboard and quickly closes the door so the penguins couldn't follow. Apparently, if given half a chance, the flightless birds would love to see what they're missing.
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Flights of AdventureWho hasn't daydreamed of soaring above a South American rainforest, landing a float plane on a pristine Alaskan lake, or piloting a commercial airliner? Flights Of Adventure introduces the exciting, often harrowing, lifestyles of fighter pilots, wingwalkers, and men and women who brave the elements in the most barren places on the planet. This is a collection of real-life adventures to stir the blood of anyone who loves aviation-stories that are touching, humorous, exciting, and often dangerous or miraculous. Flights Of Adventure is as close as you can get to experiencing aerial adventure while keeping your feet firmly planted on the ground.
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