Top ten books for Pilots

Simply the Best

One of the first things I recommend doing as soon as you realize that you have an "Everest" and have decided to climb it, is to learn about it and become inspired by reading the best books that you can find on the subject. To climb your Everest, you will need many mentors and a great book can serve you well in that capacity.  For aspiring and student pilots (and even career pilots), I recommend the following books. I have been reading aviation books since I was 19 and so far these are the only books that I have earned a place on my Top Ten. To qualify for my top ten the books must be entertaining, educational and really help you achieve your goal (in this case becoming a pilot) either by helping you talk the talk (which builds confidence), learn the new vocabulary of your new "Everest World" you have entered, show you honestly the struggles and mistakes that they made and most importantly to inspire you to another level spiritually in your quest.  

1. The Spirit of St. Louis -- Charles A. Lindbergh

Quite simply the best book on Aviation, Aviating and Flying ever written. I have read it multiple times. Lindbergh was also a flight instructor here in my home town of St. Louis before he became famous and in many ways he was one of my first "instructors". Unlike many pilots I meet who "never make mistakes" and like to put themselves above other pilots by criticizing them constantly (typical behavior of many pilots I am afraid), Lindbergh has none of that insecurity and will help you by his humble and honest stories and how to learn from some of his mistakes which he readily admits. Lindbergh was the simply the best. Click this link for a longer book review on my History Hangar blog.  

2. Wind, Sand and Stars -- Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

"I walked around my ship, stroking her wings with the back of my hand in a caress that I believe was love."  

Essential reading for anyone who truly loves the air and airplanes. Saint-Exupéry is certainly the best pilot/writer/poet/philosopher of all time. This book is the template from which so many lesser aviation books have stolen and copied ideas, but of course they never approached his greatness. Click this link for my full book review. 

3. The Right Stuff -- Tom Wolfe

No book captures the sense of how pilots view themselves or hope to dare to view themselves and how they often behave than the Right Stuff. I real psychological study of the pilot's psyche and ego. This book is essential reading for anyone about how pilot's talk and think. The book is very well written and very funny throughout. 

4. First Light -- Geoffrey Wellum 

The recently discovered memoir of the RAF's youngest fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain. Wellum is very honest and humble about how difficult it was to learn to fly, details of which he goes into in great detail. Any pilot or student pilot who has ever struggled (as I have) will appreciate this book. I loved how he would be in a dogfight in his Spitfire, then still worry about getting his landing right! This book is essential for all student pilots or anyone thinking of becoming a pilot. 

5. Fate is the Hunter -- Ernest K. Gann

While this book has a few flaws, it is so fundamental and such a template for future books on flying that it earns a place easily on my top ten. In fact, I have heard so many pilots unknowingly tell stories and anecdotes using Gann's style, that he undoubtedly, single handedly shaped the culture of the future pilot community. A very exciting and funny read too. Click here for my full review. 

6. Piece of Cake -- Derek Robinson  

One of the best novels that I have ever read and right up there with War and Peace or Catch-22. Sometimes fiction gets at the truth better than the supposed truths of non-fiction and this book is a good example of that. You will never look at fighter pilots in WWII the same way after reading this book and you will certainly feel like a member of "Hornet Squadron". 

7. Bomber Pilot -- Philip Ardery
Again, this book is foundational. Any historian writing about bombers in the European Theater always use this book as a source. Before being sent overseas to the most challenging and deadly missions of the war, Ardery was a flight instructor for the Air Corp. Even now...several years since I first read this book, I often read his comments about student pilots. He said his life as an instructor was very easy and that the least thing he could do (and this was not normal Army procedure) was to "get all my students through." He "believed there wasn't one boy in a thousand" who had completed the basic flight instruction course that he couldn't help pass the basic flight training course. His "only question" was whether he would "have the patience to concentrate on the slow students to keep them up with the rest". His confidence was justified. No doubt I would have been one of those "slow" students and would have been eliminated had I not had the good fortune of having a superstar instructor like Ardery. As I tell my fellow teachers at school...anyone can teach the gifted kids, but the challenging students are where the good teachers show the "right stuff". Click here for another review I wrote for this book.

So, this is really a top 7 list so far. I have read dozens of books that have been recommended to me, many I would put on my top 20 (such as the Red Baron's Autobiography, Baa Baa Black Sheep or North Star Over My Shouder), but I am still searching for 3 more books to round out my list. I have read and rejected probably 30 books in the last few years, that were highly touted in the Aviation Community, but just weren't that good in the end. So, if your Everest is learning to fly...read these books. If your Everest is something else, find the 10 best books on the subject and read up....remember if your goal is really your Everest, it WILL NOT be easy and you will feel insecure and fail multiple times, so you will need reinforcements and books can provide that foundation. 

New Developments

Through a stroke of good luck I am flying a lot lately and for the next 6 weeks or so. I have borrowed my Dad's Piper Warrior. It was a little overwhelming to get used to Pipers and low wing aircraft again, but I did take my check ride in a Piper Cherokee, so I do have some experience. Yesterday, I went up and practiced 5 landings with Teddy, the first of which is posted above. It was a bumpy day with winds around 8-10 kts, but it was not a problem for me and helped my confidence a lot. I am proof that if you stay focused on your goal of Climbing and staying on top of your Everest, it can happen....right now I have 95 hours total time and I am looking forward to celebrating my 100th hour very soon!

Staying on Top

Once you climb your Everest, in my particular case with my particular Everest anyway, it is hard work to stay on top...that is to maintain my skills and improve my skills. Last October, after watching my skills and confidence erode due to not flying enough the previous two years since passing my checkride, I decided I would rent the Cessna 150 once a week for 0.5 hours and work only on skills, mainly landing and pattern skills. So for $46 dollars a week, the price of a meal out basically, I could maintain and improve. Even as a high school teacher, this is something I could afford-- so long as I was careful in other areas of our budget. Another way, that I was able to get more "bang for my buck" is using my goPro camera that I received for Christmas. I film each flight/landing and then go back and study what I did right and what I did wrong. Sometimes when I think I have made the perfect landing, I go back and then find there was something embarrassing I forgot to do (like apply carb heat) or on the flip side, sometimes when I think I really blew a landing and go back, I see that it really wasn't that bad after all. Then there was the time in April when I looked back after a bounce and go-around and decided it was time to get a tune up lesson with my instructor, which really paid off by the way.  The video above is from last Sunday afternoon. I felt really good about some of the improvements I could see--keeping things more square in the pattern, keeping correct distance from RWY on downwind, turning base at exactly 45 degrees past the numbers and keeping more altitude on final (above the trees) for increased safety. I made and recorded 4 circuits around the pattern and flew for 0.6 hrs. I did notice room for improvement and that would be to hold the nose gear off longer on touchdown. So that is my next goal. An Everest isn't easy to climb and they are not easy to maintain either, but technology when properly and strategically used, can really help and be a nice ally for us on our climbs.

What is an "Everest"?

     To use a cliche about goals or smart goals or whatever people are calling them right now--an Everest, like many types of goals is definable. You know when you have summitted your Everest. Clear examples include my Everest (the Pilot’s certificate), running a marathon, starting your own business, finishing a degree, achieving your goal weight or actually summitting a mountain such as Everest itself. 

     But an Everest is no normal goal. In many ways it is unique. I can say for sure that Climbing Your Everest is something that has not and will not come easy for you. A true Everest involves multiple failures.  If it comes easy for you and you don’t fail and struggle along the way….then guess what? It was not your Everest! It was a nice, maybe even really difficult goal that you achieved, but it wasn't an Everest as I am defining it. 

     Why is your Everest more difficult for you than for other people? Because the path is strewn with psychological baggage usually from your childhood or young adulthood. 

    Another aspect of a true Everest is that you must achieve it or do your best to achieve it or you will regret it on your deathbed. Achieving it is something you want to define and brand who you are, what you are about. The Headliner on your Bucket List. 

    Also, an Everest will be risky. It might be expensive, dangerous or difficult for important people in your life to accept....probably all three and more, but you are compelled to do it anyway.

     Finally, an Everest often has its roots in a childhood dream. Sometimes it is given to you (as in my case) or it finds you, or maybe it is a dream in your head since childhood that is always on your brain and you can't shake it. 

     --Do you have an Everest? Does everyone have one? I didn't know I had one until my late 30's! Are you not sure what your Everest is and you want an Everest? Please comment below! 

My Everest and Your Everest:

On October the 15th, 2011, at the age of 42, I earned my Private Pilot License and finally summitted my personal Everest. It was an intense struggle to climb my Everest and it has been a difficult task to stay on top of my Everest...but if it had been easy, it wouldn't be my Everest. An Everest is never easy and involves multiple failures and setbacks to summit. I have learned so much that I want to share with others who have an Everest so that they can learn what they can from my struggle to help them achieve their dream. It is my goal that this blog will be a source of mentorship and inspiration for you. My Everest was my pilot's license and much of this blog will be directly addressing that specific goal and helping people achieve that goal, but it is also my goal to ensure that this blog is targeted to everyone who has an Everest in ANY field of endeavor and I am confident that many of the lessons I learned the hard way are universal and will help you in your climb.