tinerj
Cleared for Takeoff
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2012
- Messages
- 1,350
- Display Name
Display name:
tinerj
With winter upon us, you may be looking for something interesting to read, and I can recommend these books. Most are out of print, but are readily available from Internet used bookstores. I use www.abe.com. I describe them as “weird”, and I do think you will find them unusual, but also interesting, and maybe educational.
No Highway by Nevil Shute (fiction). Written in 1948, No Highway is the first book that I know about that uses the possibility of metal fatigue as the driver for the story. The narrator is a mid-level manager who must deal with an engineer who is about as weird as they come. A precise person -- precise to four places in his calculations -- but spends his spare time calculating the Second Coming based on the dimensions of the Pyramids and Stonehenge. He uses his young adolescent daughter to make “automatic writing.” Yet, the engineer is during the day very convincing that the new passenger aircraft, the Reindeer, will suffer metal fatigue and the tail cone will separate at 1440 hours of flight. As evidence, he points to the fact that a recent “pilot error” crash of a Reindeer occurred at about that many hours. The narrator must also deal with the airplane designer, a man who can be good at getting consensus and smooth talking with one group, and a freighting, dictatorial, overbearing individual with those who disagree with him. The narrator must somehow deal with both his engineer and with the aircraft designer. He comes to understand that each one’s personality could not be otherwise if they are to succeed at their chosen profession. Take away: A person succeeds best when their personality matches the task at hand.
In one of the earlier Weird Posts, Old Geek suggested Around the Bend by by the same author of No Highway, Nevil Shute
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_the_Bend_(novel)
I would agree that this is even stranger. It tells the story of Constantine "Connie" Shaklin, an aircraft engineer who founds a new religion transcending existing religions based on the merit of good work. I read this years ago and found it to be curiously gripping and interesting.
Logbook – A Pilot’s Life by Crocker Snow. All right, about the only thing weird about this book is the format. It’s shaped like a pilot logbook, being wider than it is high. Each chapter begins with an entry in his logbook, followed by the story behind it. Chapter 1: 10/29/1926, OX-5 Travel Air, 20 minutes, first solo. His license was signed by Orville Wright. Chapter 2: 5/8/1927. Flying out to meet Nungesser and Coli on their Paris to New York Flight. The weather was so bad he figured he had a better chance of hitting them than taking their photograph. It is heavily illustrated with photos. The chapters before World War II have a lot of info about the women pilots he met, and it seems in Boston perhaps there were more women aviators than in the rest of the country. Amelia Earhart flew with him before she was famous. His wife was a pilot – and at the end of the book, they’d been married for 60 years. Take away: A pilot’s life can be rich, varied, and well-lived.
A Season in the Air by Thomas Simmons. Non-Fiction, autobiographical. Thomas Simmons is hitting bottom. It’s a bleak winter in Boston. He is completely unappreciated by his boss and his students – he teaches writing and poetry to engineers at MIT. His marriage is unraveling. He can’t finish his PhD dissertation, and he’s sinking into depression. What to do? Sure, as you descend into insanity, take flying lessons, especially if you have nightmares about the 1989 crash of the DC-10 with hydraulic failure at Sioux City. “They almost made it” echoes in his mind. Yes, this is a book about learning to fly in a Cessna 150 by a person who often has to lie down afterward in the FBO to keep his head from spinning. Take away: Flying is cheaper and more effective than a psychologist.
Three more weird books here: http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/showthread.php?t=66419
And the first three here:
http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum...ad.php?t=64912
No Highway by Nevil Shute (fiction). Written in 1948, No Highway is the first book that I know about that uses the possibility of metal fatigue as the driver for the story. The narrator is a mid-level manager who must deal with an engineer who is about as weird as they come. A precise person -- precise to four places in his calculations -- but spends his spare time calculating the Second Coming based on the dimensions of the Pyramids and Stonehenge. He uses his young adolescent daughter to make “automatic writing.” Yet, the engineer is during the day very convincing that the new passenger aircraft, the Reindeer, will suffer metal fatigue and the tail cone will separate at 1440 hours of flight. As evidence, he points to the fact that a recent “pilot error” crash of a Reindeer occurred at about that many hours. The narrator must also deal with the airplane designer, a man who can be good at getting consensus and smooth talking with one group, and a freighting, dictatorial, overbearing individual with those who disagree with him. The narrator must somehow deal with both his engineer and with the aircraft designer. He comes to understand that each one’s personality could not be otherwise if they are to succeed at their chosen profession. Take away: A person succeeds best when their personality matches the task at hand.
In one of the earlier Weird Posts, Old Geek suggested Around the Bend by by the same author of No Highway, Nevil Shute
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_the_Bend_(novel)
I would agree that this is even stranger. It tells the story of Constantine "Connie" Shaklin, an aircraft engineer who founds a new religion transcending existing religions based on the merit of good work. I read this years ago and found it to be curiously gripping and interesting.
Logbook – A Pilot’s Life by Crocker Snow. All right, about the only thing weird about this book is the format. It’s shaped like a pilot logbook, being wider than it is high. Each chapter begins with an entry in his logbook, followed by the story behind it. Chapter 1: 10/29/1926, OX-5 Travel Air, 20 minutes, first solo. His license was signed by Orville Wright. Chapter 2: 5/8/1927. Flying out to meet Nungesser and Coli on their Paris to New York Flight. The weather was so bad he figured he had a better chance of hitting them than taking their photograph. It is heavily illustrated with photos. The chapters before World War II have a lot of info about the women pilots he met, and it seems in Boston perhaps there were more women aviators than in the rest of the country. Amelia Earhart flew with him before she was famous. His wife was a pilot – and at the end of the book, they’d been married for 60 years. Take away: A pilot’s life can be rich, varied, and well-lived.
A Season in the Air by Thomas Simmons. Non-Fiction, autobiographical. Thomas Simmons is hitting bottom. It’s a bleak winter in Boston. He is completely unappreciated by his boss and his students – he teaches writing and poetry to engineers at MIT. His marriage is unraveling. He can’t finish his PhD dissertation, and he’s sinking into depression. What to do? Sure, as you descend into insanity, take flying lessons, especially if you have nightmares about the 1989 crash of the DC-10 with hydraulic failure at Sioux City. “They almost made it” echoes in his mind. Yes, this is a book about learning to fly in a Cessna 150 by a person who often has to lie down afterward in the FBO to keep his head from spinning. Take away: Flying is cheaper and more effective than a psychologist.
Three more weird books here: http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/showthread.php?t=66419
And the first three here:
http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum...ad.php?t=64912
