Today's Message Index:
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1. 10:33 AM - Weekend Pilot (Tim Verthein)
2. 11:50 AM - Re: Weekend Pilot (Jeff Boatright)
Message 1
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Just was glancing at my bookshelf, and after the recent talk about movies and books,
I thought I'd recommend a book...."Weekend Pilot" by Frank Kingston Smith"
Basically the story of he, a lawyer, deciding he'd like to learn to fly.
So, he goes out and buys himself a plane, then goes off to learn to fly it. The
book was from 1957, or there-abouts. I book I read as a young man that greatly
inspired me, and it's entertaining reading as well. AVWeb had this to say
about the author:
"Smith wrote columns for AOPA pilot, Flying and Sport Aviation magazines and also
penned the books "I'd Rather Be Flying," "Weekend Pilot" and "Flights of Fancy."
He wrote a total of 16 books and more than 1,000 magazine articles and is
credited with coining the term "weekend pilot." AOPA President Phil Boyer said
Smith's musings helped him and countless others succeed in the left seat. "He
had a wonderful way of making me feel that whatever fear or foible I experienced
was OK, that it was all part of the common experience of flying," Boyer
said. Smith learned to fly in 1955 as a way to relax from being a lawyer. He then
realized that it wasn't that hard -- it was an acquired skill -- and he set
about passing that wisdom to others. His first book was "Weekend Pilot" and
it gave his down-to-earth assessment of the challenges and joys of learning to
fly. "
I've never bumped into a copy of the book anywhere since the copy I picked up 25
or 30 years ago, but it's a dandy if you happen to run into it, or are thinking
about picking up a book to inspire someone, or help put someone else into
the flying spirit.
Tim in Bovey
Message 2
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| Subject: | Re: Weekend Pilot |
I second what Tim says - Weekend Pilot by Frank Kingston-Smith is a good read.
Another book in that vein that I enjoyed even more is "A Sky of My
Own" by Molly Bernheim, a transplanted Brit. The author was a
biochemistry instructor at Duke during WWII and after. Her husband,
also on faculty, learned to fly seemingly on a whim. She became
hooked on flying after he got his license. Like Kingston-Smith, the
writing is very down to earth (pun intended), and a lot of what she
writes is what many of us have experienced. It's one of the few
autobiographical books I've ever read more than once.
From a period review:
"In original, simple, at times poetic style, Mrs. Bernheim records
her first twelve years of flying: the voyages of discovery, the
brushes with danger, the technical details a pilot must master--the
whole experience of being a flier, as viewed by an active, perceptive
mind that will not be bound by years or convention."
I found both WP and ASOMO at the Oshkosh used book stalls in the
Airmart (or whatever they call all those tents now). Nowadays copies
are easy enough to find at abebooks.com, where 25 of ASOMO are
currently listed at $10-40, depending on condition:
http://tinyurl.com/48bj5d
--
_____________________________________________________________
Jeffrey H. Boatright, PhD
Associate Professor, Emory Eye Center, Atlanta, GA, USA
Senior Editor, Molecular Vision, http://www.molvis.org/molvis
mailto:jboatri@emory.edu
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