Classic British Flight Sim

DelP wrote:Hi folks,

Just a reminder when posting on this thread....please include an ISBN number whenever possible ;-)

Many thanks

Derek

Good thinking...

Sagittarius Rising; ISBN-13 978-1-85367-718-2

I'll save Paul ( Basys ) the time and effort; Fate is the Hunter by Ernest K Gann... ISBN-13 978-0-671-63603-6

Hi Folks

Cheers Paul
My copy was from the 1950s
and ISBN wasn't introduced till 1966.
Though Amazon link in o/p does give ISBN data.

ATB
Paul

Hi all.
Just to add my penneth. I picked up ' Fall out the Roman Catholics and Jews' by Anthony Haig-Thomas at Old Warden last week. It reflects the ideals of youth and a reviewer states "it is written with an immaturity that is appropriate to his age at the time of the events and with a self deprecating sense of humour" Never the less he flew among others, Vampires, Venoms and Hunters. He is currently the Aviation Trustee of the Shuttleworth Trust. I'm enjoying the 50's again.
John

Fall out the Roman Catholics and Jews by Anthony Haig-Thomas ISBN 978-1-906183-04-2

I can recommend "The Junior Officers Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars" by Patrick Hennessey (ISBN 978-1846141867). A highly literate account of life from Sandhurst, through the mundane then on to Afganistan.

It should be required reading for all those who grumble about the daily grind (and those perpetrating the usual drunken mayhem outside my office window at stupid o'clock this morning).

Regards,
Chris

Also recommended is "The Black Box" by Malcolm MacPherson (ISBN 978-0006530459). The book contains the cockpit voice recordings of a number of air accidents and (from memory) goes into quite a bit of detail about the crashes as well. Well written and compelling stuff, sounds a bit macabre but isn't really. Not necessarily recommended for the nervous flyer.

Regards,
Chris

I have been steadily adding to my collection of P.G. Taylor's work, via Abebooks.
Sir Patrick Gordon Taylor GC - aka 'Bill' - was an Australian pioneer aviator. He is sadly unrecognised even down here, despite navigating/co-piloting for Kingsford Smith on many early flights.
If you start with 'The Sky Beyond', which is autobiographical, you will see just what he achieved. For almost every chapter in that, there is a complete book on the particular subject.
Please, don't all rush out and buy them all at once - it will put the prices up

Cheers
MikeW

Just this afternoon finished Ernest K Gann's 'Fate is the Hunter' and I honestly can't remember the last time I so regretted coming to the end of a book.

He flew DC-2s and -3s for American Airlines in the late 1930s, various aircraft for the US Air Transport Command during WW2, then Matson Airlines DC-4s post war. During that time, he lost many friends and colleagues to accidents, and the title reflects his belief that nobody is master of his own fate, but rather the timing and combination of circumstances beyond your control may one day hunt you down...or save your life.

Some of his experiences are extraordinary, such as nearly crashing into the Taj Mahal in a C-87 ( cargo version of the Liberator, a plane he described as "an evil bastard contraption, nothing like the relatively efficient B-24 except in appearance ". ) After the war, in a DC-4 en route from California to Honolulu, and with the onset of a starlit Pacific night, he recalls his thoughts with such eloquence:

" I love such a night. I love entering its immensity in this way, enjoying the deception that there is as much below as above. We are suspended between the stars. The functions of our human conceit can expand without apparent folly here. The diminution in size and importance does not apply to night flight because from the darkened cockpit the stars are as close or as far away as anyone would please, and the light from the instruments is not sufficient to reveal a man's smug composure. Here it is possible to become one of the realm, and all the fixtures are comforting support to the fable of immortality. The night sky is a place for children, whose imaginations are equally limitless. "

Shortly thereafter, all four engines shut down !

I can't recommend this book highly enough. More than an aviation memoir, it is at times philosophical, poetic, shocking and elating. Already I feel the need start it again in case I missed anything first time round.

Christmas is coming, ladies and gents, so put it on your letter to Santa. I promise you it will reinvigorate your love of aviation and literature.

Hi Folks

Paul -
Great to hear, felt likewise.

Keep intending to track down some of his others.

ATB
Paul

My reading is limited to factual accounts and one book that I recently bought was read cover to cover in one day!!

It is written by former Police Officer Michael Bunting and titled 'A Fair Cop' I won't need to go into detail as you can view it from the link below, all I can say is that they way the book has been written and of the events that followed and of the way he was treated in prison kept me reading until I finished it.

http://www.afaircop.co.uk/

Nigel.

If, like me you are 42 you are a kid if the Star Wars era. In which case this book is good

George Lucas A Biography by John Baxter ISBN 0-00-257009-2

Best quote "all he seems to do is stare out the window and draw pictures of men in spacesuits." - Georges Maths Teacher.