West with the Night
by Beryl Markham
from North Point Press
One of the most beautifully crafted books I have ever read, with some of the most poetic prose passages I could imagine, such as the following, resonating with a stately and timeless quality so absent in our modern life:
There are all kinds of silences and each of them means a different thing. There is the silence that comes with morning in a forest, and this is different from the silence of a sleeping city. There is silence after a rainstorm, and before a rainstorm, and these are not the same. There is the silence of emptiness, the silence of fear, the silence of doubt. There is a certain silence that can emanate from a lifeless object as from a chair lately used, or from a piano with old dust upon its keys, or from anything that has answered to the need of a man, for pleasure or for work. This kind of silence can speak. Its voice may be melancholy, but it is not always so; for the chair may have been left by a laughing child or the last notes of the piano may have been raucous and gay. Whatever the mood or the circumstance, the essence of its quality may linger in the silence that follows. It is a soundless echo.Born in England in 1902, Markham was taken by her father to East Africa in 1906. She spent her childhood playing with native Maruni children and apprenticing with her father as a trainer and breeder of racehorses. In the 1930s, she became an African bush pilot, and in September 1936, became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west.
Air Traffic Control Career Prep: A Comprehensive Guide to One of the Best-Paying Federal Government Careers, Including Test Preparation for the Initial ATC Exams (Air Traffic Control Career Prep)
by Patrick Mattson
from Aviation Supplies & Academics, Inc.
FAR/AIM 2008: Federal Aviation Regulations/Aeronautical Information Manual (FAR/AIM series)
by Federal Aviation Administration
from Aviation Supplies & Academics, Inc.
Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success
by Kevin Freiberg
from Broadway
Twenty-five years ago, Herb Kelleher reinvented air travel when he founded Southwest Airlines, where the planes are painted like killer whales, a typical company maxim is "Hire people with a sense of humor," and in-flight meals are never served--just sixty million bags of peanuts a year. By sidestepping "reengineering," "total quality management," and other management philosophies and employing its own brand of business success, Kelleher's airline has turned a profit for twenty-four consecutive years and seen its stock soar 300 percent since 1990.
Today, Southwest is the safest airline in the world and ranks number one in the industry for service, on-time performance, and lowest employee turnover rate; and Fortune magazine has twice ranked Southwest one of the ten best companies to work for in America. How do they do it?
With unlimited access to the people and inside documents of Southwest Airlines, authors Kevin and Jackie Freiberg share the secrets behind the greatest success story in commercial aviation. Read it and discover how to transfer the Southwest inspiration to your own business and personal life.
Welder's Handbook, RevisedHP1513: A Guide to Plasma Cutting, Oxyacetylene, ARC, MIG and TIG Welding
by Richard Finch
from HP Trade
A newly-updated, state-of-the-art guide to MIG and TIG arc welding technology.
Written by a noted authority in the field, this revised edition of HP's bestselling automotive book-for over 20 years-is a detailed, instructional manual on the theory, technique, equipment, and proper procedures of metal inert gas (MIG) and tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding.
Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying
by Wolfgang Langewiesche
from McGraw-Hill Professional
In the early 1940's, Wolfgang Langewiesche wrote a series of articles in Air Facts analyzing the various aspects of piloting techniques. Based on these articles, Langewiesche's classic work on the art of flying was published in 1944. This book explains precisely what pilots do when they fly, just how they do it, and why. These basics are largely unchanging. The book applies to large airplanes and small, old airplanes and new, and is of interest not only to the learner but also to the accomplished pilot and instructor. Today, several excellent manuals offer the pilot accurate and valuable technical information. But Stick and Rudder remains the leading think-book on the art of flying.
SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History
by Dan Linehan
from Zenith Press
In April of 2003, a company called Scaled Composites lifted the veil of secrecy from a longtime research program and introduced SpaceShipOne to the world. And the age of commercial space travel took off . . . like a rocket. This book chronicles the development of the world’s first commercial manned space program--a program that includes an airborne launcher (the White Knight), a space ship (SpaceShipOne), rocket propulsion, avionics, simulator, and full ground support. With ample illustrations, photographs, and behind-the-scenes information, SpaceShipOne provides a full picture of this classified project--from the conception and design to the deals that brought together Scaled Composites’ Burt Rutan and Virgin Airlines’ Sir Richard Branson to the plans for building a fleet of commercial suborbital spaceships and launch aircraft.
The story of SpaceShipOne combines the adventurous spirit of Charles Lindbergh, the entrepreneurial drive of Howard Hughes, and the urgency of the space race at the height of the Cold War. Author Dan Linehan, who was there at the launch, lets readers in on the drama and details behind the making of spaceships that will take twenty-first-century tourists to the final frontier. Features a never-before-seen cockpit diagram, created especially for this book, identifying all seventy of SpaceShipOne’s instruments and controls.
This book chronicles the development of the world’s first commercial manned space program. With ample illustrations, photographs, and behind-the-scenes information, SpaceShipOne takes readers from the project’s conception and design to the deals that brought together Scaled Composites’ Burt Rutan and Virgin Airlines’ Sir Richard Branson to the plans for building a fleet of commercial suborbital spaceships and launch aircraft. Author Dan Linehan, who was there at the launch, lets readers in on the drama and details behind the making of spaceships that will take twenty-first-century tourists to the final frontier.
Hell Hawks!: The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler's Wehrmacht
by Robert F. Dorr
from Zenith Press
Hell Hawks! is the story of the band of young American fighter pilots, and their gritty, close-quarters fight against Hitlers vaunted military. The "Hell Hawks" were the men and machines of the 365th Fighter Group. Beginning just prior to D-Day, June 6, 1944, the groups young pilots (most were barely twenty years old and fresh from flight training in the United States) flew in close support of Eisenhowers ground forces as they advanced across France and into Germany. They flew the rugged, heavily armed P-47 Thunderbolt, aka the Jug. Living in tents amid the cold mud of their front-line airfields, the 365ths daily routine had much in common with that of the G.I.s they supported. Their war only stopped with the Nazi surrender on May 8, 1945. During their year in combat, the Hell Hawks paid a heavy price to win the victory. Sixty-nine pilots and airmen died in the fight across the continent. The Groups 1,241 combat missions -- the daily confrontation of sudden, violent death -- forged bonds between these men that remain strong sixty years later. This book will tell their story, the story of the Hell Hawks.
Principles of Helicopter Flight
by W. J. Wagtendonk
from Aviation Supplies & Academics, Inc.
Ace the Technical Pilot Interview
by Gary v. Bristow
from McGraw-Hill Professional
* A comprehensive study guide providing pilots the answers they need to excel on their technical interview
* Features nearly 1000 potential questions (and answers) that may be asked during the technical interview for pilot positions
* Wide scope--ranges from light aircraft through heavy jet operations
* Culled from interviewing practices of leading airlines worldwide
* Includes interviewing tips and techniques
A dynamic tool for acing the technical pilot interview with one thousand exam-style questions and answers.
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