Cary wrote:We all have our favorites, for various reasons. My first flight instructor insisted that I read Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull because of the emphasis on the joy of flight. I followed that with others of Bach's books, Stranger to the Ground and Biplane. Bach's style is easy reading, and it obviously shows his own joy of flight. I think a teen would enjoy any of them.

I've enjoyed all of Ernie Gann's books that I've read, especially The High and the Mighty, Fate Is the Hunter, and Island In the Sky. What is neat about them is that they are real, based on Gann's experiences as an early airliner pilot. His style emphasizes the excitement of aviation (although we all know that airline flying is thousands of hours of boredom punctuated by a few moments of shear terror--oh wait, that describes a lot of flying, right? )

I had the privilege of meeting Don Sheldon in early 1973--he gave a talk at one of our "safety meetings" at the EDF Aeroclub, so of course I bought and enjoyed his biography, Wager With the Wind when it was first published. I bought it the year after I left the USAF, and it was disheartening to later learn that Sheldon had died of cancer the following year. I took away from that meeting that he was a quiet, unassuming sort of man, and what I really appreciated was that he didn't talk down to us fledgling pilots, although his piloting skills were the stuff of legend. Any kid would enjoy reading about his life, I think.

I'm currently reading Rinker Buck's Flight of Passage. I agree that it also appears to be a great book for encouraging a youngster, especially since it's about youngsters--kind of like the Hardy Boys of aviation.

There are so many aviation books, and most of them remind us all why we fly. Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Night Flight and Wind, Sand, and Stars are beautiful expressions of why we fly, although they may have a little too much romanticism for a 14 year old boy--a 14 year old girl would love them, though.

Just my 2 cents.
I enjoyed reading Flight of Passage immensely. If one has thoughts of crossing the country in a small plane, this book will inspire you.

Cary

Nizina wrote:You might want to try "Flight of Passage: A Memoir" by Rinker Buck. It is the true story of two early teenage age brothers that rebuild a J3 Cub and then fly it from Pennsylvania to California. It is really about their cutting their strings from their overbearing flying father, but it is a good read and filled with flying adventure that a young person can identify with.

Nosedragger wrote:I was asked today "what's the best book for my 14 year old son that wants to be a pilot?" I didn't have a good answer, I remember some of the study books being pretty dry and I'm not sure I would have read them if I wasn't flying at the same time.