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The pilots
"Set in Cornwall, New Hampshire at a small airport. Among the Perry Sillivan, a new captain for New England Air, does not recognize the extent of his wife's bitterness and frustration; Ben Cain, a young, celebrated and successful artist to whom flying is a life-and-death struggle; Hilary, a mystery to everyone where he is a student; The college student and model turned professional pilot whose fears only reach her on the ground; The former fighter pilot who risks his son's life in a flight he is no longer equipped to make; The man who earned one of the first flight certificates in the world; The instructor and charter pilot whose career may be ended by the birth of his child; The man who left the most hazardous military flight duty in order to start his own charter business - and is caught in the most hazardous flight of his life."
362 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 6, 2017
Silly, sky-bound soap opera focuses on pilots who spend more time in the air than they do dealing with their messy personal lives.
February 1, 2026
I originally bought this book as an Aviation crazed teenager in 1977.
Unfortunately, back then I was sorely lacking in the attention span needed to tackle a novel with a multitude of characters and subplots, and so the book was pushed aside.
Almost a half century and an airline pilot career later, I picked this off my shelf again, and this time, finished it in a few days.
Instead of a contemporary novel, it now reads something like a period piece, looking back on how General Aviation was back when I learned to fly.
Flying Services staffed with struggling CFIs and charter pilots. Airport bums, gruff managers, and old timers who were leftover from flying’s infancy. Analog gauges and paper charts. A world without GPS, iPads and glass cockpits.
Personally, I found the characters, for the most part, very believable, and the descriptions of flying are very realistic.
A couple of the subplots that are supposed to be a bit provocative, come off as a bit silly now. But hey, it was the seventies!
All in all it should be an entertaining read for anyone who remembers, or is interested in the way Aviation used to be.
Unfortunately, back then I was sorely lacking in the attention span needed to tackle a novel with a multitude of characters and subplots, and so the book was pushed aside.
Almost a half century and an airline pilot career later, I picked this off my shelf again, and this time, finished it in a few days.
Instead of a contemporary novel, it now reads something like a period piece, looking back on how General Aviation was back when I learned to fly.
Flying Services staffed with struggling CFIs and charter pilots. Airport bums, gruff managers, and old timers who were leftover from flying’s infancy. Analog gauges and paper charts. A world without GPS, iPads and glass cockpits.
Personally, I found the characters, for the most part, very believable, and the descriptions of flying are very realistic.
A couple of the subplots that are supposed to be a bit provocative, come off as a bit silly now. But hey, it was the seventies!
All in all it should be an entertaining read for anyone who remembers, or is interested in the way Aviation used to be.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews