What I am reading

Non-Fiction - "On Silver Wing"

The author of thei book, Carol Ann Garratt, flew her Mooney around the world and this book is a travelogue of her trip. Carol Ann came to our airport (Old Brige, NJ) and gave us a talk about her trip. That's how I got copy of the book.

There is a website you can visit to see pictures and see pictures of her, her airplane and the map of her trip.

Part of the reason for the trip was to participate in the re-union of her father and his sister in New Zeland, after her mother died of Lou Gehrig's (ALS) disease. In fact she has donated all the proceeds from sales of the book to the ALS foundation.

The descriptions of the flights include lots of details of interest to pilots. For example, her Mooney was reffitted with addition fuel tanks so she could make the over-water flights across the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Or that when you are flying across oceans communications can be accomplishe only via HF radios, which require a long antena that has to be reeled out after takeoff and reeled in before landing.

But perhaps the nicest message I took from the book that aviation people all over the world are the same. Always happy to take in and help a fellow pilot. In fact, comparing the author's experiences with what we see on the news you'd be led to think she flew around some other planet.

posted by richieb @ 6:14 PM