Best Aviation Books | TheaterFire

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SavingsPirate4495@reddit

If you want to do a deep dive into airline unions, read "Flying the Line"...two-volumes. It's a history of the Airline Pilot's Association (ALPA).

I'm recently retired and I will tell you I wouldn't urinate on ALPA if it were spontaneously combust. As what happens in most large groups, it has now become a POLITICAL organization/machine that has NOTHING to do with protecting pilot's careers. It exists for one thing and one thing only...its own perpetuation to protect itself.

I know that's not going sit very well with a lot of airline pilots that are nothing more than weak, pompous, sycophants. Guess what...

I

DO

NOT

CARE!

Addendum...when I refer to ALPA, I speak of ALPA National and most (not all) members of the respective MEC that were at my particular airline. Mammaries on a boar hog.

NOTE:...I have the HIGHEST regard and respect for the Committee volunteers. They do a PHENOMENAL job and seek to help the pilots as best they can. The volunteers at my airline were AWESOME!! Hell...I was a volunteer for almost 7 years! The volunteers put in waaaaaaay more time and effort for what they're compensated.

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Ecstatic_Signal_1756@reddit

I didn't see these listed so I'll add them:

Stranger to the Ground - Richard Bach

Night Flight - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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DualRatedPilot@reddit

Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators

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Strange_Parsley_5730@reddit

Concorde by Mike Bannister Fighter Pilot about Robin olds Better lucky than good and the lucky one by Dale Arenson The 747 book by Joe Sutter was mentioned, read it and it was very interesting

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AltoCumulus15@reddit

I’d like to read a Concorde book from the French side of the project.

Bannister’s criticism of the French side of the program was a bit nationalistic and was the only negative point of an otherwise good book.

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Strange_Parsley_5730@reddit

Wow sorry folks, I thought the post was tabbed out better

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PowderMonkey1874@reddit

Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds is the best personal account of aviation I’ve read.

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Ratio_Physical@reddit

Here are two my favorites which are great for students and new pilots;

The Killing Zone - Paul A Craig

Stick and Rudder - Wolfgang Langewiesche

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Positive-Hat2127@reddit

I've heard the 747 book by Joe Sutter is good, I've yet to read it though.

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WelderNo4099@reddit

One of the best. A must-read for any aviation nut.

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c402c@reddit

It’s great.

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ltcterry@reddit

I just reread Chuck Yeager’s autobiography yesterday. Fascinating insight into military flying and the early jet age.

Fun stories too.

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Silly_Valuable_1750@reddit

Anything by Bill Kershner- Instructional and entertaining

Robert Buck- Northstar over my shoulder and Weather Flying

Antoine de Ste Exupery

Rick Durden’s Thinking Pilots series

Flight of Passage- Rinker Buck

As others have noted-Fate is the Hunter, Stick and Rudder, Killing Zone

Yeah, I like to read.

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skele651@reddit

Wind, Sand, and Stars by Saint-Exupéry is an excellent early aviation book and deserves to be more widely read.

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TheOriginalJBones@reddit

Also Flight to Arras and Night Flight.

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RBR927@reddit

Flight of Passage is incredible.

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c402c@reddit

Fate is the hunter. No explanation needed

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pilotshashi@reddit

Fate is the hunter ☕️

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awkwarddachshund@reddit

The PHAK is a pretty good one

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badsignalnow@reddit

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason

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HateJobLoveManU@reddit

I like the Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge

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Fancy_o_lucas@reddit

Kelly Johnson’s personal memoir More Than My Share of It was a cool read to hear about how technology advanced through the mid 20th century.

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x4457@reddit

Lords of the Sky by Dan Hampton is my all-time favorite book I have ever read. He’s actually responsible for three of my top five, the other two being Hunter Killers and Chasing the Demon.

I’m currently reading a series by James Albright (author of code7700.com for those familiar) and he’s got both an incredible wealth of knowledge and an excellent writing style. I’m reading his book on CRM right now and it’s so good that I just bought two extra copies of it to give to colleagues.

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cessna120@reddit

Big fan of "CFI!". I swear I could have written that book and then had amnesia, it was so spot on to my time as an instructor. "Does That Mean I Fail?" By Brooks Black is also pretty hilarious and will give you some good pointers in how not to mess up a checkride.

Bob Hoover's autobiography should be mandatory reading for all pilots.

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flyingron@reddit

Sky Gods: The Fall of Pan Am by Robert Gandt. Despite the title, it has a lot of history of pilots in the ranks at Pan Am and is a nice history of the way things USED to be.

If you haven't got your instrument rating, see if you can find a copy of Peter Dogan's Instrument Flight Training Manual. It's out of print, but you can find copies online. '

Anything by Rod Machado is amusing (and some of the information is useful).

Sully's book "Highest Duty"

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Ok-Money2811@reddit

Everything Explained for the Professional Pilot by Richie Lengel.

You can throw away the FAR/AIM once you have that book…I have yet to find something you actually need to know that’s not in there with its regulation reference.

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HardCorePawn@reddit

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason

It's the memoirs of a helicopter pilot from the Vietnam War era... maybe not exactly "inspirational", per se, but a good read.

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RealP4@reddit

If you like a really amazing autobiographies about amazing pilots check out these 2 about these amazing aviators.

Lovings Love- A Black American’s Experience in Aviation.

Gyro! The Life and Times of Lawrence Sperry.

For stuff useable today Stick and Rudder is a absolute classic love that book.

I have heard a lot of people say great things about the book called “The Killing Zone: how and why pilots die”

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Different_Hour2257@reddit

Well you can also buy stick and rudder by Wolfgang Langewiesche, and if you want there is a list of good books you can recommend (you have already read some of them) : https://www.airheadatpl.com/blog/atpl-book-recommendations-the-ultimate-guide-for-aspiring-aviators

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Aggravating-Lie3421@reddit (OP)

Many thanks, will take a look

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

Just looking for general inspiration, it can be technical, personal accounts or similar from any aspect of the industry.

Books I have read so far;

Flying the Big Jets - Stanley Johnson

Be a better pilot - Alan Bramson

I learned about that from flying - written by Brian Lecomber and co featuring numerous pilot stories.

Mechanics of Flight - A C Kermode

Good for developing the depth of your knowledge, took me a while to get through…

Fate is the hunter - Ernest K Gann.

Would recommend this one to any new starting pilot to answer your questions such as ‘had a bad landing at the weekend, is my career over?’ ref page 31 - “the second landing has the men in the control tower reaching for their alarm buttons. In fact it is not a single landing but an endless series of angry collisions between the airplane and the earth” this is a chap who has 1000’s of hrs and getting checked for a DC2/3.

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