Download or read book Ask the Pilot written by Patrick Smith and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2004 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though we routinely take to the air, for many of us flying remains a mystery. Few of us understand the how and why of jetting from New York to London in six hours. How does a plane stay in the air? Can turbulence bring it down? What is windshear? How good are the security checks? Patrick Smith, an airline pilot and author of Salon.com's popular column, "Ask the Pilot," unravels the secrets and tells you all there is to know about the strange and fascinating world of commercial flight. He offers: A nuts and bolts explanation of how planes fly Insights into safety and security Straight talk about turbulence, air traffic control, windshear, and crashes The history, color, and controversy of the world's airlines The awe and oddity of being a pilot The poetry and drama of airplanes, airports, and traveling abroad In a series of frank, often funny explanations and essays, Smith speaks eloquently to our fears and curiosities, incorporating anecdotes, memoir, and a life's passion for flight. He tackles our toughest concerns, debunks conspiracy theories and myths, and in a rarely heard voice dares to return a dash of romance and glamour to air travel.

Download or read book Skyfaring written by Mark Vanhoenacker and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A poetic and nuanced exploration of the human experience of flight that reminds us of the full imaginative weight of our most ordinary journeys—and reawakens our capacity to be amazed. The twenty-first century has relegated airplane flight—a once remarkable feat of human ingenuity—to the realm of the mundane. Mark Vanhoenacker, a 747 pilot who left academia and a career in the business world to pursue his childhood dream of flight, asks us to reimagine what we—both as pilots and as passengers—are actually doing when we enter the world between departure and discovery. In a seamless fusion of history, politics, geography, meteorology, ecology, family, and physics, Vanhoenacker vaults across geographical and cultural boundaries; above mountains, oceans, and deserts; through snow, wind, and rain, renewing a simultaneously humbling and almost superhuman activity that affords us unparalleled perspectives on the planet we inhabit and the communities we form.

Download or read book Cockpit Confidential written by Patrick Smith and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller For millions of people, travel by air is a confounding, uncomfortable, and even fearful experience. Patrick Smith, airline pilot and author of the popular website www.askthepilot.com, separates fact from fallacy and tells you everything you need to know: • How planes fly, and a revealing look at the men and women who fly them • Straight talk on turbulence, pilot training, and safety. • The real story on delays, congestion, and the dysfunction of the modern airport • The myths and misconceptions of cabin air and cockpit automation • Terrorism in perspective, and a provocative look at security • Airfares, seating woes, and the pitfalls of airline customer service • The colors and cultures of the airlines we love to hate COCKPIT CONFIDENTIAL covers not only the nuts and bolts of flying, but the grand theater of air travel, from airport architecture to inflight service to the excitement of travel abroad. It's a thoughtful, funny, at times deeply personal look into the strange and misunderstood world of commercial flying. "Patrick Smith is extraordinarily knowledgeable about modern aviation...the ideal seatmate, a companion, writer and explorer." —Boston Globe "Anyone remotely afraid of flying should read this book, as should anyone who appreciates good writing and great information." —The New York Times, on ASK THE PILOT.

Download or read book Flying Blind written by Peter Robison and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2022-10-11 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS BEST SELLER • A suspenseful behind-the-scenes look at the dysfunction that contributed to one of the worst tragedies in modern aviation: the 2018 and 2019 crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX. An "authoritative, gripping and finely detailed narrative that charts the decline of one of the great American companies" (New York Times Book Review), from the award-winning reporter for Bloomberg. Boeing is a century-old titan of industry. It played a major role in the early days of commercial flight, World War II bombing missions, and moon landings. The planemaker remains a cornerstone of the U.S. economy, as well as a linchpin in the awesome routine of modern air travel. But in 2018 and 2019, two crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 killed 346 people. The crashes exposed a shocking pattern of malfeasance, leading to the biggest crisis in the company’s history—and one of the costliest corporate scandals ever. How did things go so horribly wrong at Boeing? Flying Blind is the definitive exposé of the disasters that transfixed the world. Drawing from exclusive interviews with current and former employees of Boeing and the FAA; industry executives and analysts; and family members of the victims, it reveals how a broken corporate culture paved the way for catastrophe. It shows how in the race to beat the competition and reward top executives, Boeing skimped on testing, pressured employees to meet unrealistic deadlines, and convinced regulators to put planes into service without properly equipping them or their pilots for flight. It examines how the company, once a treasured American innovator, became obsessed with the bottom line, putting shareholders over customers, employees, and communities. By Bloomberg investigative journalist Peter Robison, who covered Boeing as a beat reporter during the company’s fateful merger with McDonnell Douglas in the late ‘90s, this is the story of a business gone wildly off course. At once riveting and disturbing, it shows how an iconic company fell prey to a win-at-all-costs mentality, threatening an industry and endangering countless lives.

Download or read book One Adventure After Another written by John and Edna Lewis and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2013-04 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is not about heroes like military pilots who risk their lives protecting our country, or commercial pilots who wing their way across the world transporting us from one place to the other or general pilots who daily perform tasks that can only be done from the air. We owe all of these pilots a great respect and gratitude for the job that they do. Most of the books written are about them. This book is about the private pilot who is the average man or woman who does not intend to risk their lives flying an airplane. This book is about those people who simply want to take to the air for the joy of being airborne and for the intellectual challenge of keeping up with the birds. If I thought for a moment that flying was not safe, I would not step into an airplane. For years I felt that flying was for the foolhardy until by chance I discovered that flying is safer than driving a car if you learn how to fly and follow the rules. This book attempts to describe the transition from becoming a land person to becoming an air person and the pleasures experienced on the way. -John O. Lewis My first adventure with John as an airplane pilot gave me the surprise of my life. After vehemently refusing to go flying with him, I agreed once and for all to join him in the cockpit for a brief tour around Chicago. Once airborne my imagined fears were replaced by sheer joy of seeing the sights and realizing the wonders both above and below. This initial flight was the beginning of adventures of our lifetime. Never again was any coaxing on his part needed for me to join him on flights. -Edna M. Lewis

Download or read book How to Land a Plane written by Mark Vanhoenacker and published by The Experiment. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take a seat—the captain’s seat, that is—and relax. You’re about to land a Boeing 747. “Brilliant.” —The Sunday Times A Daily Mail and Spectator Best Book of the Year A Points Guy Best Book of the Year The mystery of flight is magical; the reality even more so—from the physics that keeps a 450-ton vehicle aloft, to the symphony of technology and teamwork that safely sets it down again. Take it from Mark Vanhoenacker—British Airways pilot, international bestselling author, and your new flight instructor. This is How to Land a Plane. Vanhoenacker covers every step—from approach to touchdown— with precision, wit, and infectious enthusiasm. Aided by dozens of illustrations, you’ll learn all the tools and rules of his craft: altimeters, glidepaths, alignment, and more. Before you know it, you’ll be on the ground, exiting the aircraft with a whole new appreciation for the art and science of flying. “A good choice for anyone who's fantasized about suddenly having to get an aircraft safely down on the ground . . . walks you through some of the basics of flight and landing, from how to recognize a cluster of instruments known as the ‘six pack’ to knowing what purpose the PAPI lights near the runway serve.” —Popular Science “A work of humorous and outright poetic travel geekery.” —National Geographic Traveler

Download or read book Contact Flying written by Jim Dulin and published by Contact Flying. This book was released on 2008-05 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unlike conventional aviation authors and instructors I do not teach primary flying, crop dusting, pipeline patrol flying, bush flying, helicopter medical evacuation flying, and air to ground gunnery using instruments inside the aircraft as the primary situational awareness tool. Rather I teach Dutch rolls, slow flight and stalls over the runway, the energy management turns, use of ground effect on all takeoffs, the brisk walk apparent rate of closure approach, hover taxi in fixed wing aircraft, and low level low power mountain flying using sights, sounds, smells, and kinetics. Sight is used 99.9% of the time looking at the ground. Airspeed, nor any other instrument is used in takeoff or landing. This text teaches the art of flying in the old style at low level using ground references. Its author has over sixteen thousand hours of flying Army helicopters, crop dusters, and pipeline patrol airplanes at three feet to five hundred feet above ground level.

Download or read book Bush Planes and Bush Pilots written by Dan McCaffery and published by James Lorimer & Company. This book was released on 2003-06 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In February 1932 legendary bush pilot Wilfrid May used his Bellanca Pacemaker to hunt down the notorious killer Albert Johnson, the "Mad Trapper of Rat River." Russ Baker used his Junkers W34 to pluck 24 men from a Yukon mountainside after three bombers crashed in apalling weather in 1942. Jack Hunter tracked rumrunners off the New Brunswick coast in his Fairchild. Bush Planes and Bush Pilots is the story of sixteen extraordinary aircraft found in the collections of Canada's aviation museums. It is a celebration of some of the greatest moments in Canadian history, when daring young pilots defied incredible odds to open up some of the nation's remotest regions to the outside world. Author Dan McCaffery highlights a diverse spectrum of planes from the pioneer era to the modern day; each plane is profiled individually, accompanied by historical and contemporary visuals and colour artwork. Bush Planes and Bush Pilots is an attractive book that will appeal to all who are interested in aviation history and the story of Canada's development as a nation.

Download or read book Ferry Pilot written by Kerry McCauley and published by . This book was released on 2022-06-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kerry McCauley has the job most pilots only dream of; delivering small used aircraft to locations around the world. In his 30 years an international ferry pilot, Kerry has delivered almost every kind of airplane you can name to almost every location you can think of. In his long career Kerry battled fuel system malfunctions over the Atlantic, a total electrical failure at night over the Sahara, getting lost over Africa and being struck by lightning off the coast of Portugal. Kerry's almost insatiable, reckless quest for danger and adventure also led to putting international smuggler and bank robber on his resume. Kerry found the answer to the question "what could possibly go wrong?" time and time again. But his skill, ingenuity and luck were what allowed him to survive the countless mishaps, catastrophes and close calls including a nearly fatal plane crash. While "Ferry Pilot" is an account of one man's crazy thirst for thrills and adventure, his coming to grips with the dangerous nature of his career and just how much he wants to test the depth of his luck bag. It's also a portrait of the perseverance and bravery of a devoted family man who lost many close friends and his first wife to the dangerous skies.

Download or read book Autonomy Research for Civil Aviation written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-07-23 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The development and application of increasingly autonomous (IA) systems for civil aviation is proceeding at an accelerating pace, driven by the expectation that such systems will return significant benefits in terms of safety, reliability, efficiency, affordability, and/or previously unattainable mission capabilities. IA systems range from current automatic systems such as autopilots and remotely piloted unmanned aircraft to more highly sophisticated systems that are needed to enable a fully autonomous aircraft that does not require a pilot or human air traffic controllers. These systems, characterized by their ability to perform more complex mission-related tasks with substantially less human intervention for more extended periods of time, sometimes at remote distances, are being envisioned for aircraft and for air traffic management and other ground-based elements of the national airspace system. Civil aviation is on the threshold of potentially revolutionary improvements in aviation capabilities and operations associated with IA systems. These systems, however, face substantial barriers to integration into the national airspace system without degrading its safety or efficiency. Autonomy Research for Civil Aviation identifies key barriers and suggests major elements of a national research agenda to address those barriers and help realize the benefits that IA systems can make to crewed aircraft, unmanned aircraft systems, and ground-based elements of the national airspace system. This report develops a set of integrated and comprehensive technical goals and objectives of importance to the civil aeronautics community and the nation. Autonomy Research for Civil Aviation will be of interest to U.S. research organizations, industry, and academia who have a role in meeting these goals.

Download or read book Instrument Flying Training written by and published by . This book was released on 1942 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book 365 Aircraft You Must Fly written by Robert F. Dorr and published by Zenith Press. This book was released on 2015-05-01 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating, entertaining, and amusing plane-by-plane journey through aviation history. Aviation has come a long way since the Wright Brothers built their glider in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903. From among the thousands of different types of military and commercial aircraft constructed over the past 100 years , aviation expert Robert F. Dorr profiles the most important, fascinating, and famous aircraft ever made. Your opinions might differ, but you wouldn't want to miss out on the planes Dorr identifies as flights of a lifetime. The book covers 365 of the most iconic aircraft in world history that enthusiasts, serious-minded hobbyists, and casual fans would love to fly if given the chance. Clear photography, historical context, and specs get you as close as possible to these planes without setting foot in a hangar. While covering every era of aviation history, many of the planes in 365 Aircraft You Must Fly were flown during World War II, a time unmatched in aviation for its technological advances, romance, and clarity of purpose. During this golden age of flying, propellers gave way to jet engines, and the "Greatest Generation" fought gallantly in them. Explore the history, thrills, and joy of flying the world's most amazing 365 aircraft.

Download or read book The Killing Zone How Why Pilots Die written by Paul Craig and published by McGraw Hill Professional. This book was released on 2001-01-02 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This literal survival guide for new pilots identifies "the killing zone," the 40-250 flight hours during which unseasoned aviators are likely to commit lethal mistakes. Presents the statistics of how many pilots will die in the zone within a year; calls attention to the eight top pilot killers (such as "VFR into IFR," "Takeoff and Climb"); and maps strategies for avoiding, diverting, correcting, and managing the dangers. Includes a Pilot Personality Self-Assessment Exercise that identifies pilot "types" and how each type can best react to survive the killing zone.

Download or read book Flying the Old Planes written by Frank Tallman and published by Doubleday Books. This book was released on 1973 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book 30 Planes for the Paper Pilot written by Peter Vollheim and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Briefly discusses the basics of aerodynamics and provides complete instructions on how to make and fly paper models of airplanes.

Download or read book Future Babble written by Dan Gardner and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2010-10-12 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2008, as the price of oil surged above $140 a barrel, experts said it would soon hit $200; a few months later it plunged to $30. In 1967, they said the USSR would have one of the fastest-growing economies in the year 2000; in 2000, the USSR did not exist. In 1911, it was pronounced that there would be no more wars in Europe; we all know how that turned out. Face it, experts are about as accurate as dart-throwing monkeys. And yet every day we ask them to predict the future — everything from the weather to the likelihood of a catastrophic terrorist attack. Future Babble is the first book to examine this phenomenon, showing why our brains yearn for certainty about the future, why we are attracted to those who predict it confidently, and why it’s so easy for us to ignore the trail of outrageously wrong forecasts. In this fast-paced, example-packed, sometimes darkly hilarious book, journalist Dan Gardner shows how seminal research by UC Berkeley professor Philip Tetlock proved that pundits who are more famous are less accurate — and the average expert is no more accurate than a flipped coin. Gardner also draws on current research in cognitive psychology, political science, and behavioral economics to discover something quite reassuring: The future is always uncertain, but the end is not always near.

Download or read book The Only Plane in the Sky written by Garrett M. Graff and published by Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-09-10 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “This is history at its most immediate and moving…A marvelous and memorable book.” —Jon Meacham “Remarkable…A priceless civic gift…On page after page, a reader will encounter words that startle, or make him angry, or heartbroken.” —The Wall Street Journal “Visceral...I repeatedly cried…This book captures the emotions and unspooling horror of the day.” —NPR “Had me turning each page with my heart in my throat…There’s been a lot written about 9/11, but nothing like this. I urge you to read it.” —Katie Couric The first comprehensive oral history of September 11, 2001—a panoramic narrative woven from the voices of Americans on the front lines of an unprecedented national trauma. Over the past eighteen years, monumental literature has been published about 9/11, from Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower, which traced the rise of al-Qaeda, to The 9/11 Commission Report, the government’s definitive factual retrospective of the attacks. But one perspective has been missing up to this point—a 360-degree account of the day told through the voices of the people who experienced it. Now, in The Only Plane in the Sky, award-winning journalist and bestselling historian Garrett Graff tells the story of the day as it was lived—in the words of those who lived it. Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, recently declassified documents, original interviews, and oral histories from nearly five hundred government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends, and family members, Graff paints the most vivid and human portrait of the September 11 attacks yet. Beginning in the predawn hours of airports in the Northeast, we meet the ticket agents who unknowingly usher terrorists onto their flights, and the flight attendants inside the hijacked planes. In New York City, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable horror at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker underneath the White House, officials watch for incoming planes on radar. Aboard the small number of unarmed fighter jets in the air, pilots make a pact to fly into a hijacked airliner if necessary to bring it down. In the skies above Pennsylvania, civilians aboard United Flight 93 make the ultimate sacrifice in their place. Then, as the day moves forward and flights are grounded nationwide, Air Force One circles the country alone, its passengers isolated and afraid. More than simply a collection of eyewitness testimonies, The Only Plane in the Sky is the historic narrative of how ordinary people grappled with extraordinary events in real time: the father and son working in the North Tower, caught on different ends of the impact zone; the firefighter searching for his wife who works at the World Trade Center; the operator of in-flight telephone calls who promises to share a passenger’s last words with his family; the beloved FDNY chaplain who bravely performs last rites for the dying, losing his own life when the Towers collapse; and the generals at the Pentagon who break down and weep when they are barred from rushing into the burning building to try to rescue their colleagues. At once a powerful tribute to the courage of everyday Americans and an essential addition to the literature of 9/11, The Only Plane in the Sky weaves together the unforgettable personal experiences of the men and women who found themselves caught at the center of an unprecedented human drama. The result is a unique, profound, and searing exploration of humanity on a day that changed the course of history, and all of our lives.