By The Seat Of My Pants Memoir Of A Pilot

With a defective undercarriage, minimum fuel, lousy weather and relying on primitive instrumentation, how do you land a Boeing? 'By the Seat of my Pants: Memoir of a Pilot' is a deeply personal memoir of courageous determination. One man's life of flying adventures; occasionally perilous, often hilarious. An intrepid but humble man refuses to allow his dyslexia and poverty to decide his future. Captain Rosslee tracks aviation history captaining twenty-seven aircraft types from Gipsy Moths to Boeings. During WW2, as a Junkers Ju86 Allied bomber pilot, he contends with makeshift maps, primitive instrumentation and limited fuel over the inhospitable East African bush. He survives three WW2 forced-landings. Landing the first aircraft with passengers at Heathrow, he is later invited to meet Queen Elizabeth. And, with Comet1, doomed to disintegrate mid-air, pure chance keeps him alive. Over the Indian Ocean, two dead engines, the third about to die, where is his closest land?

By the Seat of My Pants is Dean Smith's story of his life as a flying cadet in WWI, an airmail pilot in the 1920's and, lastly, as the lead aviator in Admiral Byrd's 1928 Antarctic expedition. Told in a self-deprecating style with a matter of fact sense of humor, it is an engaging read from start to finish. Passages describe airmail runs heading West with no maps or runways available, and Smith's interesting take on the Byrd Expedition is a version of events not in the official records. Indeed, Smith claims his log-diary, which mysteriously went missing once the party returned stateside, was most likely stolen by Byrd himself lest it conflict with his narrative of the expedition.

By the Seat of My Pants is Dean Smith's story of his life as a flying cadet in WWI, an airmail pilot in the 1920's and, lastly, as the lead aviator in Admiral Byrd's 1928 Antarctic expedition. Told in a self-deprecating style with a matter of fact sense of humor, Smith's memoir is an engaging read from start to finish. Passages describe airmail runs heading West with no maps or runways available, and Smith's exciting take on the Byrd Expedition is a version of events not in the official records.

Personal account of one man's flying experiences from 1917 to 1930.

Writer Rinker Buck looks back more than 30 years to a summer when he and his brother, at ages 15 and 17 respectively, became the youngest duo to fly across America, from New Jersey to California. Having grown up in an aviation family, the two boys bought an old Piper Cub, restored it themselves, and set out on the grand journey. Buck is a great storyteller, and once you get airborne with the boys you find yourself absorbed in a story of adventure and family drama. And Flight of Passage is also an affecting look back to the summer of 1966, when the times seemed much less cynical and adventures much more enjoyable.

" Winner of the Best Aeronautical Book Award from the Reserve Officers Association of the United States "The sky was full of dying airplanes" as American Liberator bombers struggled to return to North Africa after their daring low-level raid on the oil refineries of Ploesti. They lost 446 airmen and 53 planes, but Philip Ardery's plane came home. This pilot was to take part in many more raids on Hitler's Europe, including air cover for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. This vivid firsthand account, available now for the first time in paper, records one man's experience of World War II air warfare. Throughout, Ardery testifies to the horror of world war as he describes his fear, his longing for home, and his grief for fallen comrades. Bomber Pilot is a moving contribution to American history.

Aviation safety expert and keen pilot Fletcher McKenzie has interviewed 23 Kiwi pilots who have worked around the world and are record-breakers of different kinds. Put yourself in the pilot seat and experience the intense thrills, the pleasures and the near misses of lifetimes spent in the air! The pilots represent a range of flying eras, aircraft and experiences - from the Second World War to the present day, from one of the original Dambusters to flying Richard Branson's private jet. Stories involve gliders, fighter jets, private aircraft, top-dressing planes, helicopters and many military aircraft, including the famous F-18 from Top Gun.

"Steve Scheibner went to bed September 10, 2001, with his bags packed and ready to go. He was scheduled to be the pilot on "American Airlines Flight 11 the next day. When he woke in the morning, however, a rare last-minute substitution meant 'someone else' would pilot that plane--the first plane that hit the World Trade Center on 9/11.... His powerful and moving testimony of God's providence will inspire you to examine your own life in light of eternity."--P. [4] of cover.

This is my story-the story of a pilot who flew airplanes for some thirty-seven years: ten years in the United States Air Force, primarily in jet fighters, and then twenty-seven years flying commercial jet airliners. I was inspired to write this story after reading the autobiography, a few years ago, of Gen. Chuck Yeager-he being the world-renowned test pilot, World War II fighter ace, and first man to break the sound barrier in the Bell X-1. My story is the story of an average pilot, an average guy who survived several close calls, had many interesting experiences along the way, and often wondered, "Am I still here because I was especially good or because I was especially lucky?" I think the answer is definitely a combination of the two, just as Yeager says or implies in his book. With him, it may have been a larger contribution of skill, but as he said, "The secret of my success is that I always managed to live to fly another day." I have to echo that comment. While flying around the country with American Airlines, during "hours of complete boredom" (as we say), we pilots often traded our "war stories" of our flying (and other) experiences. I often thought that I had many tales that were similar to some of Yeager's and that I should put my experiences down on paper, even if it would only be my family who might read it. So this, then, is my story, my life, primarily, as it revolved around my aviating experiences over some thirty-seven years, from the viewpoint of a pilot who has no particular claim to fame but who has survived "to fly another day." One of the best descriptions of a flying career says: "You start out with a big bag of luck and an empty bag of experience; you want to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck!" I guess I have done that.

Pilot Here or Pile It There is an autobiography relating many of Bill’s experiences during 45 years of a widely diversified career as pilot. It also includes a few unusual events or circumstances that Bill encountered as a direct result of being a pilot. He attained his civilian instructor and instrument ratings in mid 1946, which early on qualified him to engage in almost unlimited piloting endeavors. Considering that his activities as a pilot included; a military career, manager of a civilian flight school and charter service, a non-scheduled air-freight pilot and Civil Air Patrol pilot, some interesting situations were bound to occur. I neglected to mention he was chief pilot in a failed attempt to start a scheduled air shuttle service. Bill’s one ambition that he never achieved was to be in a combat situation. He received his Army Air Corps pilot wings and commission in June 1944, during WWII at the age of nineteen. He had two breaks in military service from which he was recalled in August of 1950 for the Korean conflict and again in 1958 prior to Viet Nam. Bill’s three tours of active duty certainly provided ample opportunities for the Air Force to fulfill his one missing challenge.