Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
By paulo999
#1711898
Much of day to day writing about aviation is turgid lumpy stuff. Of course for good reason, it’s a technical discipline with potentially bad outcomes.

There’s obviously the seminal texts we all know, such as Fate is the Hunter.

But contemporary writing? It must be out there, so post some links.

To get things started, a piece about Yurgis Kairys

“Every pilot has his own personal limits. For Jurgis, flying
inverted with the fin six inches off the ground or water is his
personal low altitude limit. "I'm unable go any lower," he says.”


http://www.seqair.com/Hangar/Dovydenas/ ... pHome.html
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By Genghis the Engineer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1712459
I'm not sure how we define "contemporary", but if it's post 1950 at-least...

A Gift of Wings, Richard Bach

A View from the Hover, John Farley

Propellerhead, Antony Woodhead

Are all available "from all good bookshops" and high on the list of books I wouldn't be without on my shelf.

G
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By Josh
#1712464
I really enjoyed the sadly defunct Flight Level 390 blog. Someone has mirrored it here after the author took it down, I assume because his airline’s PR department got to him.
By Hooligan
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1712777
I enjoyed Steve Coonts' "The Cannibal Queen" which is about a trip he made around all the contiguous US states in a Stearman one summer nearly 30 years ago. A nice view of flying around rural America at a gentle pace.
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By rf3flyer
#1712806
"The Sky Beyond" by Sir Gordon Taylor. If you like the PBY Catalina, and who does not, you'll love this. It's not about the Catalina itself but it is central to a lot of what is recounted.

"Airborne" by Neil Williams.
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By Dave W
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1712809
'Flight of Passage' - Rinker Buck. Two teenage brothers fly a restored Cub across the US.

Lovely book; I defy you to read the bit about prairie dogs and Reece's Pieces without guffawing. :D
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By ls8pilot
#1712827
A classic: "On Being A Bird" by Philip Wills - gliding in the age of wooden gliders and high adventure, first published in 1956.

Best novel "Winged Victory" by VM Yeates - despite the title this is reckoned to be one of the best and most realistic novels of air combat, written by an RFC veteran

Also "Chickenhawk" by Robert Masson, helicopter flying in the chaos of Vietnam
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By JAFO
#1712893
Not sure how contemporary the OP was thinking of but I would second Flight of Passage and Propellerhead - books I could read again and again.

And for those who like them I would add Think Like a Bird by Alex Kimbell, Flight of the Gin Fizz by Henry Kisor, Border Pilot by M.W. Bourne, Piper Cub Era by Beverly M. Butler, No Visible Horizon by Joshua Cooper Ramo, Voyage of the Southern Sun by Michael Smith, Rescue Pilot by Jerry Grayson and Down The Runway by Samuel Hawkins.

Think Like a Bird has descriptions which evoke the experience of flight better than any I've read.
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By nallen
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1712917
ls8pilot wrote:Best novel "Winged Victory" by VM Yeates - despite the title this is reckoned to be one of the best and most realistic novels of air combat, written by an RFC veteran


Seconded -- top-notch writing (and about far more than just aerial combat)
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By Kittyhawk
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1714087
Song Of the Sky by Guy Murchie. Beautifully and poetically written.

The Lonely Sea and the Sky by Francis Chichester.

Bax Seat and More Bax Seat by Gordon Baxter
By Hooligan
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1714098
Bax Seat and More Bax Seat by Gordon Baxter


Stopped buying Flying after Bax and Len Morgan no longer wrote their columns. Think they re-ran Bax's earlier contributions for some time after he became ill.