About once a month or so, either a student or a new CFI will stick their head into my office — which features a fair-sized bookcase — and ask me what books they should read to further their education.
This always delights me for three reasons: First, I’m a “bookie” (in the positive sense of the word) and second, well, this is not really a generation who reads much of anything, let alone full-length books, so when a young person asks me something like that, it restores my faith in humanity. Third, and perhaps most importantly, I’m delighted when every once in awhile a new pilot shows a desire to learn more than the absolute bare minimum required.
Personally, I’m restlessly, relentlessly curious. I love to read, and also have gotten into the habit of collecting books over the years. My New Mexico house has an honest-to-Pete library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on three of the four walls. During COVID, everyone thought it was a digital backdrop (in the meantime, I thought my sister spent the entire time on a beach somewhere).
When I moved to the Northeast for my current gig, I considered just relocating the aviation portion of the library with me, which includes technical books, historic books, how-to books, biographies, autobiographies, histories, aviation fiction, aviation photography, and even an aviation humor book or two. So I measured the number of linear feet of aviation books that I have in my library to figure out what that would entail in terms of new bookshelves.
It came out to 75 linear feet. If I parked two Cessna 172s wingtip-to-wingtip and used them as a bookshelf, I still would have to put some of the books on their horizontal stabilizers.
In the end, I just took the books most relevant to teaching with me, although I think I’ve added a couple of feet to the collection since moving here a few years ago. Collections have a way of growing.
So, of all of those books, which do I most often recommend? Well, that depends on what the person asking the question wants to learn more about.
To be a better flight instructor, read Arlynn McMahon’s “The Flight Instructor’s Survival Guide” and William K. Kershner’s “The Flight Instructor’s Manual.”
To understand when you are most at risk over the course of your aviation journey read Paul A. Craig’s “The Killing Zone.”
To be a better pilot, read Wolfgang Langewiesche’s “Stick and Rudder.”
Want to better understand the machine? Read Mike Busch’s series of books on aviation maintenance.
Want to understand aerodynamics better? While she doesn’t actually have a book out (yet), hunt down Catherine Cavagnaro’s columns in the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) Pilot magazine.
Want a deeper understanding of weather? Look to Buck-and-Buck’s “Weather Flying.”
For perspective on the early days, read anything by Ernest K. Gann. For perspective on the 1970s read anything by Gordon Baxter. Oh, and for perspective on everything, read anything by Martha Lunken, who is top on my list of people I’d love to spend a day with.
On the history front, you would not be wasting your time working your way though the Time-Life Series Epic of Flight.
Need a good laugh? For that I direct you to Pete Fusco’s “Moondog’s Academy of the Air and Other Disasters.”
All of these have rich content. But additionally, they are all beautifully written. Each is a joy to read. Oh, and speaking of beautiful writing, be sure to savor Caroline Paul’s recent “Why Fly,” which masterfully blends aerodynamics with human relationship dynamics. She’s also an amazingly well-read author herself.
Just the other day, out of the blue, a very different sort of aviation book landed in my lap that’s worth talking about. One not so much for you, but one aimed at powering the interest of the newest generation. Yes. A children’s book: Courtney Kelly’s “Celeste Paves the Way.”
The heroine of this little 32-page book is actually not a pilot, but a civil engineer challenged with the replacement of an aging runway at an international airport.
Which, to me, really made this a standout book. I think we are all acutely aware of the workforce shortages aviation faces, and the importance of engaging young people at an early age to open their minds to the possibilities that aviation can offer.
And as pilots, we naturally look to ways to share our love, skills, and the tools we use, so there’s no end of flight deck-focused programs designed to try to get young folks out to the airport and into aviation. All of which I applaud. But we pilots are just the tip of the aviation iceberg.
Aviation is flight crews (front and back of the airplane); line, gate, and security personnel; maintainers; controllers; meteorologists; educators; airport and business managers; aviation insurance and finance specialists; factory assemblers; aeronautical engineers; and — yes — civil engineers, too. The flight deck isn’t for everyone. But there is a place for everyone somewhere in aviation.
I read recently, with great interest, that AOPA is adding an aviation maintenance focus to its widely successful high school Aviation STEM Curriculum. That’s a fabulous idea.
And while there are a number of children’s books that — very correctly –— plant the seed that anyone can “grow up” to become a pilot or aviation mechanic, this is the first book I’ve seen that showcases the broader reach of aviation outside of the better-known career paths. So that’s pretty cool.
But is it a good book? Well, to me, the test of a good children’s book is twofold. First, it must be written to be read out loud, because that is often how children’s books are “delivered.” The master of that art is probably author Theodor Geisel, better known by his pen name of Dr. Seuss. (An unexpected champion of equal talent with more robust content is actually Ian Fleming — yes, the James Bond creator — whose “Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car” is an absolute delight to read out loud.)
The second measure of an excellent children’s book, in my mind, is how well it keeps the adult saddled with reading to the child entertained. The absolute master of that art was A.A. Milne in the original (non-Disney version) Winnie-the-Pooh books. Those books are brilliantly written on two intellectual levels, with double entendres that go straight over the heads of the young readers but give a secret chuckle to the adult reader. Well, some adult readers. I didn’t get the joke about Piglet’s grandfather Trespassers William until I was well into my 50s.
Kelly has not let us down on either front. I read her new book out loud and found the rhythm of the words — which to my eye alone, reading in my head, I did not detect — to be well-crafted for spoken English.
And there are details for the adult aviator throughout the book, many of them hidden in the illustrations by Erin Nielson. A toolbox in a hangar is decorated with the portraits of famous aviators, a “FOD Squad” is shown sweeping a runway, the maintenance trucks have the FAA-required orange-and-white checkered flags, and so on.
The team of Kelly and Nielsen have done a good job with all of those little technical details that we pilots like, and get annoyed about when we see them portrayed incorrectly.
And although a hot button issue in some quarters — but what the hell, as one of my call signs is Lightning Rod — I will point out that the Celeste character is, obviously, female and also happens to be a person of color (or whatever the current acceptable terminology is, my apologies if I’m out of date).
Personally, from the pilot perspective, I like a diversified flight deck. I think we are safer when we have a crew with diverse backgrounds. Nothing is more dangerous in my mind than having a group of people who all think exactly alike tackling a problem when something unexpected happens and time is of the essence. The flight deck is safer, and aviation is richer, for giving everyone the opportunity to prove themselves — regardless of what they look like.
The author herself is an honest-to-goodness civil engineer, and I can actually say I learned a thing or two about runway design and construction that I did not know by reading this book for kiddos.
Lastly, I am a huge fan of hardcover books, so I was delighted to see Celeste available in this more durable format (along with ebook and paperback). Impressively, it’s also available in French (Céleste oeuvre la voie), German (Celeste ebnet den Weg), and Spanish (Celeste abre el camino), because, after all, what could possibly be more international than aviation?
Wrapping up today’s column, help me expand my reading list. What are your favorite aviation books — for any age — and what makes that book stand out to you? I’ve got room for a third Cessna.
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