 |
| 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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment