Download or read book Head in the Clouds The Best Stories From 50 Years of Free Flying written by Hugh Miller and published by Cross Country International. This book was released on 2023-09-11 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Head in The Clouds captures the heart and soul of free flying. It is a unique collection of stories and essays that documents the first 50 years of free flying – the adventure sports of paragliding and hang gliding. Since the pioneer hang glider pilots took their first tentative steps into the air in the 1970s, free-flight pilots have enjoyed a golden age. Face in the breeze, arms outstretched, following the birds and soaring high up to the clouds. For 50 years we’ve chased and achieved humankind’s oldest dream. In this hardback collection of 50 stories, pilots describe the highs and lows in free flying firsthand: from the beauty of sunset soaring in the mountains to tales of epic adventure and the fight for survival. Whether traversing the Himalaya, being swept to 20,000ft inside a storm cloud and surviving, or simply the sheer fun of thermalling like a bird to the clouds, the stories convey the joys and challenges of this unique sport, which is enjoyed by tens of thousands of people worldwide. The book is edited by one of Britain’s best paraglider pilots Hugh Miller and former BBC journalist Andrew Craig who between them have more than 50 years of free-flight experience. As Hugh says: “Free flying is adventure and exploration at its best. These stories represent the very best of our sport, the heart and soul of free flying.” Head in the Clouds has been received with much critical acclaim, including being listed as one of the top 10 outdoor books of 2023 by The Scotsman, Scotland’s national newspaper.
Download or read book Vesper Flights written by Helen Macdonald and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times–bestselling author of H is for Hawk explores the human relationship to the natural world in this “dazzling” essay collection (Wall Street Journal). In Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep. Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk’s poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds’ nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife.
Download or read book With My Head in the Clouds written by Gwyn Mullett and published by . This book was released on 2015-04-09 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It was in the March that I nearly met my maker. I was in the descent and as we passed 10,000ft I brought the speed down to the required two hundred and fifty knots. We had just cleared the cloud cover and into clear skies and I was just changing a radio frequency when I suddenly looked up and saw a light aircraft about half a mile ahead coming straight at me descending at the same rate as I was. At our closing speeds we would have collided within a few seconds so there was no time for the standard recommended avoidance procedure of each aircraft turning to the right. I remember grabbing the control column and shoving it fully forward to go underneath the guy but at that instant he did the same. The force that I used disconnected the autopilot accompanied by the loud wailing sound. So there I was heading steeply down with the opposition doing the same. I instinctively pulled the controls fully backwards to try to go over the top of him. He did the same. So I just kept pulling back harder and harder until the control column was fully wedged in my stomach. This all happened over a timespan of about three seconds and he was looming larger and larger in my windscreen and there was nothing I could do about it." The author, Captain Gwyn Mullett, was born in Montreal, Canada in 1946 and moved to England at an early age. He went to the College of Air Training near Southampton in 1964 direct from school. Graduating in 1966 he joined BOAC in the same year and commenced his airline flying world as a Co-Pilot on the magnificent VC-10. He flew a wide range of airliners until his retirement in 2001 after 34 years of continuous service. He finally retired to Berlin, Germany with Jo his wife and has two children Paul and Jenny. "
Download or read book Postflight written by Byron Edgington and published by Fig Factor Media Publishing & the Skywriter Press. This book was released on 2021-06-23 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you want a long, satisfying career in the sky? Good, because that's what I want for you, and why I wrote this book. Let me give you wisdom that only fifty years in the cockpit can offer. POSTFLIGHT has tips and information I wish I had when I started flying fifty years ago. If your dream is to fly, then POSTFLIGHT: An Old Pilot's Logbook was written for you. I'll ask only this: Be the best pilot you can be, and someday open your own logbook for a young pilot like yourself. -An old pilot
Download or read book The Next Hour The Most Important Hour in Your Logbook written by Richard L. Collins and published by Sporty's Pilot Shop. This book was released on 2009 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tiger in the Sea written by Eric Lindner and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-05-14 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: September 1962: On a moonless night over the raging Atlantic Ocean, a thousand miles from land, the engines of Flying Tiger flight 923 to Germany burst into flames, one by one. Pilot John Murray didn’t have long before the plane crashed headlong into the 20-foot waves at 120 mph. As the four flight attendants donned life vests, collected sharp objects, and explained how to brace for the ferocious impact, 68 passengers clung to their seats: elementary schoolchildren from Hawaii, a teenage newlywed from Germany, a disabled Normandy vet from Cape Cod, an immigrant from Mexico, and 30 recent graduates of the 82nd Airborne’s Jump School. They all expected to die. Murray radioed out “Mayday” as he attempted to fly down through gale-force winds into the rough water, hoping the plane didn’t break apart when it hit the sea. Only a handful of ships could pick up the distress call so far from land. The closest was a Swiss freighter 13 hours away. Dozens of other ships and planes from 9 countries abruptly changed course or scrambled from Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, and Cornwall, all racing to the rescue—but they would take hours, or days, to arrive. From the cockpit, the blackness of the Atlantic grew ever closer. Could Murray do what no pilot had ever done—“land” a commercial airliner at night in a violent sea without everyone dying? And if he did, would rescuers find any survivors before they drowned or died from hypothermia in the icy water? The fate of Flying Tiger 923 riveted the world. Bulletins interrupted radio and TV programs. Headlines shouted off newspapers from London to LA. Frantic family members overwhelmed telephone switchboards. President Kennedy took a break from the brewing crises in Cuba and Mississippi to ask for hourly updates. Tiger in the Sea is a gripping tale of triumph, tragedy, unparalleled airmanship, and incredibly brave people from all walks of life. The author has pieced together the story—long hidden because of murky Cold War politics—through exhaustive research and reconstructed a true and inspiring tribute to the virtues of outside-the-box-thinking, teamwork, and hope.
Download or read book A Voyage in the Clouds written by Matthew Olshan and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hilarious fictionalized retelling of the first international balloon flight.
Download or read book Cleared for Takeoff written by Rowland White and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All of aviation's dangerous, exciting, and most courageous moments are featured within this stunning compendium on flight. Packed with stories of heroic and innovative pioneers, fascinating profiles of remarkable planes from Spitfires to space shuttles, and how-to instructions for making everything from origami helicopters to bottle rockets—all accompanied by sensational photographs, illustrations, and diagrams—Cleared for Takeoff promises to astonish, entertain, and fire the imaginations of everyone with their head in the clouds.
Download or read book Soar written by Tom Bunn and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Captain Bunn founded SOAR to develop effective methods for dealing with flight anxiety. Therapists who have found this phobia difficult to treat will find everything they need to give their clients success. Anxious flyers who have “tried everything” to no avail can look forward to joining the nearly 10,000 graduates of the SOAR program who now have the whole world open to them as they fly anxiety free wherever they want. This approach begins by explaining how anxiety, claustrophobia, and panic are caused when noises, motions—or even the thought of flying—trigger excessive stress hormones. Then, to stop this problem, Captain Bunn takes the reader step-by-step through exercises that permanently and automatically control these feelings. He also explains how flying works, why it is safe, and teaches flyers how to strategically plan their flight, choose the right airlines, meet the captain, and so on. Through this program, Captain Bunn has helped thousands overcome their fear of flying. Now his book arms readers with the information they need to control their anxiety and fly comfortably.
Download or read book Children of the Flying City written by Jason Sheehan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Richly imagined and emotionally resonant, Children of the Flying City is a fantasy for young and old alike. This book gave my heart wings.” –Pierce Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Red Rising “Children of the Flying City feels, at once, timeless and wondrously, gloriously new.” –Katie Williams, author of Tell the Machine Goodnight Brought to the flying city of Highgate when he was only five years old, orphan Milo Quick has never known another home. Now almost thirteen, Milo survives one daredevil grift at a time, relying only on his wit, speed, and best friends Jules and Dagda. A massive armada has surrounded Highgate’s crumbling armaments. Because behind locked doors—in opulent parlors and pneumatic forests and a master toymaker’s workshop—the once-great flying city protects a powerful secret, hidden away for centuries. A secret that’s about to ignite a war. One small airship, the Halcyon, has slipped through the ominous blockade on a mission to collect Milo—and the rich bounty on his head—before the fighting begins. But the members of the Halcyon’s misfit crew aren’t the only ones chasing Milo Quick. True friendship is worth any risk in this clever, heart-racing adventure from award-winning author and journalist Jason Sheehan. Sheehan weaves together wry narration and multiple points of view to craft a richly imagined tale that is dangerous and surprising, wondrous and joyful.
Download or read book Cloud Atlas written by David Mitchell and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2010-07-16 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks | Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize A postmodern visionary and one of the leading voices in twenty-first-century fiction, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian love of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending, philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction as profound as it is playful. In this groundbreaking novel, an influential favorite among a new generation of writers, Mitchell explores with daring artistry fundamental questions of reality and identity. Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . . Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history. But the story doesn’t end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky. As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.
Download or read book Unbroken written by Laura Hillenbrand and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-11-16 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The incredible true story of survival and salvation that is the basis for two major motion pictures: Unbroken and Unbroken: Path to Redemption. “Extraordinarily moving . . . a powerfully drawn survival epic.”—The Wall Street Journal Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War. The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will. Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit. Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.
Download or read book The Birds of Heaven written by Peter Matthiessen and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2001-12-20 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In addition, the enormous spans of cranes' migrations have encouraged international conservation efforts.".
Download or read book Above the Clouds written by Kilian Jornet and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Kilian Jornet is the most dominating endurance athlete of his generation."—NEW YORK TIMES "Inspiring and humbling"— ALEX HONNOLD The most accomplished mountain runner of all time contemplates his record-breaking climbs of Mount Everest in this profound memoir—an intellectual and spiritual journey that moves from the earth’s highest peak to the soul’s deepest reaches. Kilian Jornet has broken nearly every mountaineering record in the world and twice been named National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. In 2018 he summitted Mount Everest twice in one week—without the help of bottled oxygen or ropes. As he recounts a life spent studying and ascending the greatest peaks on earth, Jornet ruminates on what he has found in nature—simplicity, freedom, and spiritual joy—and offers a poetic yet clearheaded assessment of his relationship to the mountain . . . at times his opponent, at others, his greatest inspiration.
Download or read book Popular Mechanics written by and published by . This book was released on 2000-01 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular Mechanics inspires, instructs and influences readers to help them master the modern world. Whether it’s practical DIY home-improvement tips, gadgets and digital technology, information on the newest cars or the latest breakthroughs in science -- PM is the ultimate guide to our high-tech lifestyle.
Download or read book Out of the Dust Scholastic Gold written by Karen Hesse and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed author Karen Hesse's Newbery Medal-winning novel-in-verse explores the life of fourteen-year-old Billie Jo growing up in the dust bowls of Oklahoma. Out of the Dust joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content!"Dust piles up like snow across the prairie. . . ."A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo's life, scarring her inside and out. Her mother is gone. Her father can't talk about it. And the one thing that might make her feel better -- playing the piano -- is impossible with her wounded hands.To make matters worse, dust storms are devastating the family farm and all the farms nearby. While others flee from the dust bowl, Billie Jo is left to find peace in the bleak landscape of Oklahoma -- and in the surprising landscape of her own heart.
Download or read book The Brothers Vonnegut written by Ginger Strand and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2015-11-17 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Worlds collide in this true story of weather control in the Cold War era and the making of Kurt Vonnegut In the mid-1950s, Kurt Vonnegut takes a job in the PR department at General Electric in Schenectady, where his older brother, Bernard, is a leading scientist in its research lab--or "House of Magic." Kurt has ambitions as a novelist, and Bernard is working on a series of cutting-edge weather-control experiments meant to make deserts bloom and farmers flourish. While Kurt writes zippy press releases, Bernard builds silver-iodide generators and attacks clouds with dry ice. His experiments attract the attention of the government; weather proved a decisive factor in World War II, and if the military can control the clouds, fog, and snow, they can fly more bombing missions. Maybe weather will even be the "New Super Weapon." But when the army takes charge of his cloud-seeding project (dubbed Project Cirrus), Bernard begins to have misgivings about the harmful uses of his inventions, not to mention the evidence that they are causing alarming changes in the atmosphere. In a fascinating cultural history, Ginger Strand chronicles the intersection of these brothers' lives at a time when the possibilities of science seemed infinite. As the Cold War looms, Bernard's struggle for integrity plays out in Kurt's evolving writing style. The Brothers Vonnegut reveals how science's ability to influence the natural world also influenced one of our most inventive novelists.
