A book on flying the 744.

[J D ADAM]

Hi Forum Members,
I have just completed a book called:-

SKYFARING (A Journey with a Pilot)  by Mark Vanhoenacker.

I would thoroughly recommend this to people who fly PSX but have never had the opportunity
to fly the real aircraft commercially.

It is the story of a mature student who first flew commercially at the age of 29 and now a Senior First Officer
with British Airways.
I personally learnt a lot from his expose of aviation and the 744 which added tremendously to my knowledge of flying commercially.


Derek

Published by Penguin 2015

[cagarini]

Precious!  Thx for sharing :-)

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Order placed!

Not with prime  :-)

[Paul Mooney]

Yes, a very good book, especially on the poetry of flying. One passage in it sparked off this thread

http://aerowinx.com/board/index.php?topic=4855.msg51733#msg51733

to which Mark Vanhoenacker contributed a video.

[Paul Mooney]

I can also highly recommend three titles from the series "From The Flightdeck" published by Ian Allen in the 1990s. Each book is a very detailed account of an individual flight, with lots of photos, and all the info on route, loading, weather etc to enable you to accurately reproduce the flight in PSX.

There are eleven books in all, but the three on the 744 are no 8 (Heathrow to Sydney), no 9 (Toronto to Heathrow), and no 11 (Heathrow to Hong Kong).

They're out of print now of course, but they do turn up on eBay and second hand book sites.

[Holger Wende]

For the German readers:

German book title is Himmelhoch.
http://markvanhoenacker.com/skyfaring/deutsche-ausgabe

Best regards, Holger

[Will]

I just ordered it as well.


Although, favorite memoir to this day remains Fate is the Hunter, by E. K. Gann. If anyone hasn't read that one yet, it's worth investing the time in.

[Phil Bunch]

It is also available in audio format through Amazon's "audible" brand, and I very much enjoyed it in that format.

https://smile.amazon.com/Skyfaring/dp/B00VLELLBG/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564246901&sr=1-1

[cavaricooper]

Phil-

As a long time Audible listener I was excited to hear this- but the listener reviews are less than stellar. Was the narrator tolerable? Apparently the content is great, but the performance...

Best- C

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

"Performance" makes me suddenly remember this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lul-Y8vSr0I&t=0m50s

[Phil Bunch]

Phil-

As a long time Audible listener I was excited to hear this- but the listener reviews are less than stellar. Was the narrator tolerable? Apparently the content is great, but the performance...

Best- C

The narrator is significantly less than high quality, and I should have mentioned this...since I enjoy the subject matter so much, I was able to quickly forget about this issue. 

I highly recommend downloading or listening to a free sample (available through Audible's web page) before buying the book.  It helped me to adjust the playback speed - I think I increased the reading speed by 25% in the Audible app. 

I wonder why Audible didn't hire a narrator whose reading skills were better...

YMMV.

[thecrazedlog]

I just ordered it as well.


Although, favorite memoir to this day remains Fate is the Hunter, by E. K. Gann. If anyone hasn't read that one yet, it's worth investing the time in.

Y'know, I read that book and to be honest didn't think much of it. I found his style annoying, the lack of dates frustrating and the overall book a bit .... not that good. Seems I'm a rarity though, so perhaps I have no taste

I did laugh at his description of their reactions during an electronics failure on take off in IFR though. Having both a pilots licence and working in IT I can somewhat understand how infuriating that must have been.

If you're a pilot or at least vaguely interested in flying, I recommend Stick and Rudder. I've not finished it but what bits I did read, dang that's a good book. Challenges a lot of beliefs.

[Holger Wende]

Hi all

For those who have the book SKYFARING (A Journey with a Pilot) already:
Does the book have nice coloful photos?
If not I would prefer to get the e-book version.

I still prefer to buy books with nice photographies as old-style paper versions 

Thanks, Holger

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

It has no illustrations or photos at all.

This is a book that is completely different in style from any of the other books that normally get discussed over here. It probably comes closest to an ambience description told by a narrator. As audio book it should be quite good.

Silly enough, the book is best compared to Christiaan van Heijst's magnificent photobooks... same feeling, different medium!

Hoppie

[G-CIVA]

Although now very dated I found this book by Stanley Stewart a wonderful read in all of its iterations from the 747 Classic to the 400 & on to the B777.  There is also a very detailed series of chapters at the beginning of each edition that helped me through my early days with PS1.3:



A decent search on the tinternet will reveal a decent quality used copy for a reasonable price.

[Holger Wende]

It has no illustrations or photos at all.
...
... best compared to Christiaan van Heijst's magnificent photobooks...

Hi,

Thanks for your quick reply, so I will order the ebook.

Christiaan van Heijst's magnificent photobook is exactly what i had in mind when asking. I take it out often and enjoy the beautiful sceneries he captured with his camera.

The northern light photos are among my favorites I enjoy most.

I wonder whether I should ask Hardy to add the Polar lights to his task list, the dawn colors he implemented are a dream already

Regards, Holger

[andrej]

Although now very dated I found this book by Stanley Stewart a wonderful read in all of its iterations from the 747 Classic to the 400 & on to the B777.  There is also a very detailed series of chapters at the beginning of each edition that helped me through my early days with PS1.3:



A decent search on the tinternet will reveal a decent quality used copy for a reasonable price.

Steve,
this is one of my top favorite books on B744. I have the B744 edition and I have completed several flights inspired by it.

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I am about to order "From The Flightdeck", Thank you Paul!

Chers,

[Gilad]

There is a 744 edition as well? I have a 747-200 edition.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Yes, third, see above. The red banner states the aircraft.

[cavaricooper]

Both are brilliant!



C




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