Even if the content of this book were bunk, I'd still conclude that this author is great. Good reading for anyone who wants to write an instruction manual for anything.
Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
11–20 of 51 posts
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#12Anybody here fly commercially? I always wanted to, then 9/11 happened in my 18th year and caused a lost decade for the aviation industry. Thinking about a mid-life career change now, but it’s going to be a very expensive endeavor.
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#13It's amazing how literally everything in this book is still relevant in 2018, it really is the bible of flying. Take for example this line:
> The so-called "elevator" is really the airplane's speed control, the throttle is really its up-and-down control. This is hard to believe but is one of the keys to the art of piloting.
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#14Anybody here fly commercially? I always wanted to, then 9/11 happened in my 18th year and caused a lost decade for the aviation industry. Thinking about a mid-life career change now, but it’s going to be a very expensive endeavor.
I don't fly, but it's a tough road. Senior pilots at the big airlines make good money, but it takes a lot of years working for peanuts at the regionals to get there.
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#15So happy to see a well-illustrated book endure the test of time. I still look for old texts on science, physics, chemistry ... even (especially?) electronics.
In the chapter on landing, there's a series of illustrations[1] of a giant building with white and gray horizontal stripes. They're used to show how you can tell how high you are when landing. During a ground lesson, I'd show the student the picture and say "of course, it's not like you'll have a building like that actually next to the runway!." They'd agree, then I'd point out the window at this building[2], right n…
Hope you teach your new students 'crabbing' techniques during cross-wind landings before sending them off solo. I remember during one solo cross country taking-off from a V-shaped private field lined with 50 foot trees, zero evident or forecast winds, and after second rotation (which just happened to be at tree-top level) was hit by a cross-wind from the left. Now as we know it's not particularly healthy to attempt flying sideways 70 feet AGL so full right rudder was applied until the wings 'bit' and ascent was stable. Interesting that early exposure to cross-wind landings did trigger that immediate corrective response.
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#16Anybody here fly commercially? I always wanted to, then 9/11 happened in my 18th year and caused a lost decade for the aviation industry. Thinking about a mid-life career change now, but it’s going to be a very expensive endeavor.
I'm debating taking the commercial checkride and doing it part-time.
It's expensive to get the time for even basic commercial and seems impossible to get ATP unless your full-time.
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#17I don't recall ever reading this book, but as a student pilot, I was given a copy of "You have 178 seconds to live" and it had a tremendous impact on me.
https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/field_offices/fsdo/fai/...
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#18Anybody here fly commercially? I always wanted to, then 9/11 happened in my 18th year and caused a lost decade for the aviation industry. Thinking about a mid-life career change now, but it’s going to be a very expensive endeavor.
It is definitely an expensive road but the regional level pay has gotten much better. The regional I just left was paying new pilots upwards of $55,000 first year. As a junior captain I left making around $120,000. Probably nothing among a crowd of software devs but far above the $23,000 I made my first year, 7 years ago.
If you already have a 4 year degree and a relatively stable financial situation then I’d say go for it! Major airlines are hiring like crazy and just about anyone without skeletons in their closet should be working for a major over the next 10 years because of mandatory retirement.
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#19Anybody here fly commercially? I always wanted to, then 9/11 happened in my 18th year and caused a lost decade for the aviation industry. Thinking about a mid-life career change now, but it’s going to be a very expensive endeavor.
I don't fly, but it's a tough road. Senior pilots at the big airlines make good money, but it takes a lot of years working for peanuts at the regionals to get there.
This is somewhat outdated information, it's gotten quite a bit better over the last year or two. Regionals are paying pretty good these days. Starting pay still isn't amazing, most are in the high 40s, but it doesn't take very long to move up and the average regional pilot is making $70k. Senior captains at the majors are making high 200s. Most of the regionals have signing bonuses, too.
Re: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying (1944)
#20I have no idea how it ended up on the front page of HN, but this is an amazing book. Highly recommended for any pilot, especially those flying small airplanes. Don't let the date scare you, it holds up incredibly well. Wolfgang figured out how to describe things that good pilots do unconsciously in a way I've never seen matched. I'd like to share one passage that because of a small aside in the middle of a sentence h…
Don't let the date scare you, it holds up incredibly well.
Indeed, the laws of physics have not changed. It seems like a lot of people are turned off by old books, when I've found that my experience has often been the exact opposite --- for subjects like maths and electricity, the very old books had a way of explaining things that makes them quite easy to understand and perhaps even better than the new ones which simply glance over a subject and almost assume knowledge.