Aviation Book Reviews

These are some aviation books I recommend. Click a title for Amazon's page for that book. Books are listed in random order for your browsing enjoyment. More reviews are coming.

Rod Machado's Private Pilot Handbook: A great reference and tutorial for the student or private pilot. I wish I'd had this book when I was taking lessons- it's so much more readable than standard flight training manuals. Rod Machado is a well-known aviation writer, speaker, humorist, and flight instructor. He writes about serious topics with a sense of humor that makes the material so much more enjoyable. The book is packed with over 1100 graphics that help explain the concepts. Even nonpilots with a general interest in aviation will enjoy this book.

Rod Machado's Instrument Pilot's Survival Manual: What Machado did for private pilots in the book above, he does for instrument pilots with this book. This book is not a study guide for passing the instrument written or practical test, but a guide to safer instrument flying for pilots at all levels. The updated second edition was released in March 2003.

Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langewiesche. Originally published in 1944, this book has become a classic. It is a great source for explanations of the art of flying, skills which have not really changed over the decades since the book was written.

AIM/FAR 2004. The official book of Federal Aviation Regulations and the Aeronautical Information Manual for the United States, issued by the FAA. This edition is hot off the presses as of November 2003.

Forever Flying by Bob Hoover. I got an autographed hardcover copy of this autobiography when I met Mr. Hoover at the Oshkosh Fly-In when he was performing there several years ago. The book tells his life story, from being a fighter pilot in World War II, surviving numerous crashes, his experiences as a civilian test pilot (including the X-1 project in which he worked with his friend Chuck Yeager, who contributed to this book) and as a top aerobatics performer. He was about 75 when I saw his show that year after he got his medical certificate back from the FAA after a few years of struggle. Hoover's life covers most of the 20th century, and the book is full of stories throughout most of modern aviation history, making it a great read for fans of aviation or history.

The Spirit of St. Louis by Charles A. Lindbergh. I didn't get a chance to get this one autographed by the author, but it's another great aviation autobiography. If you're interested enough to be reading this, I don't need to tell you who Lindbergh was or what he accomplished, but you may not have known that he won the Pulitzer Prize for this 1953 book, which was reprinted a few years ago. Just in case you didn't know, the title is the name of the plane from his famous 1927 flight, which is the subject of much of this book. Lindbergh also discusses his life before his flight made him one of the most famous people of the 20th century.