Rating: 
Summary: Fun reading but...
Review: I'm trying to convince my teen-age nephew to spend the summer with me in California so I can teach him to fly. I was considering sending him a copy of FLIGHT OF PASSAGE along with a letter promising to let him make a flight like that if that's what he'd like. But as a flight instructor I just can't send him the book in good conscious. The kids in FLIGHT OF PASSAGE swear more than anyone I've ever met-and that's saying a lot! They spend the night drinking with a very disreputable type, fly hung over the next morning and run a Grayhound bus off the road in a game of chicken! Fun is fun and I sure don't think of myself as a prude but after twelve years as a professional pilot I know it's this sort of disregard for the rules that gets kids killed!
Rating: 
Summary: Strained relations
Review: Not so much a story about 2 mid-teenagers flying from coast to coast across America, but more the story of strained relations between brothers and between father and sons. It took over 25 years for Rinker Buck to get all this organised in his head, then put it on paper, but it was worth waiting for. What we get is the straight story, from his point of view, of the preparations and the journey, the turnaround in relations between him and brother Kern, and the two of them dealing with the expectations of a larger-than-life father who, perhaps secretly, wished to relive fame through the exploits of his sons. Told against the backdrop of ariel incidents, we find that the ebullient schoolboy prankster has to take (literally) a back seat to his shy, reclusive older brother, who suddenly comes out of his shell. It never descends into maudlin, or goes over-the-top, it is a straight from the shoulder account of the trip and the souring and cementing of relationships - a damn fine read.
Rating:
Summary: delightful yarn about boyhood and flying
Review: One of the best books I've read in many a year. Rinker Buck loved his older brother, and the two of them had a conflicted relationship with their outrageous dad, whose every approach was "high, hot, and slipping like crazy." With his help and sometimes meddling, they rebuilt a Cub Special and flew it across the country--and back again. I liked it so much that I bought four copies and gave them to my best friends.
Rating:
Summary: Great reading for anyone who has a brother or loves flying !
Review: I bought this book because it was about flying. I got hooked because of how well it was written, and the delightful and engaging portrait of relationships between father and sons (and between brothers). I couldn't decide what I was enjoying the most, the parts about flying or the parts about the boys effort to make sense of their struggle with their father and with themselves. It all blended so well. It really touched my heart. Thanks Rink.
Rating:
Summary: High adventure...provokes both revelation and remembrance
Review: This book is both revelation and remembrance...and it feels great; I'm reading it a second time right now. As a father, a son, and a 20 year pilot, this book crystallizes for me many of the unsettling, amorphous feelings that still surface, long after the focus and intensity of those self defining roles have passed. This is an adventure story about youth, flying, and discovery for sure, and it is a great one. Even more, it is a book about life, self, growing, family, and relationships that reveals and clarifies our own feelings while entertaining us magnificently. Do not miss it.
Rating:
Summary: A terrific story about a aviation derring do
Review: Wonderful account of two brothers and their relationship with their father, which often exceeds the drama of the actual cross-country flight. It belongs not only in every aviation library, but on those shelves that deal with the weighty matters of family ties.
Rating:
Summary: First-rate, everything I had hoped for.
Review: "Flight of Passage" is as much about the author's often rocky relationship with his father and with his older brother as it is about flying, but there is enough of both to make this an exceptionally interesting story. The first time I heard of the title, I was almost certain this was going to be a book I'd want to read. I was right. In fact, it exceeded my expectations. It's a delight, filled with funny stories and insights that made me repeatedly laugh out loud. Though it's very different in tone and content, I rank this as the best book I've read since "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." I read a lot of books, so that is, in fact, high praise.This is one of those books that fathers and sons will read and think about for a very long time.
Rating: 
Summary: More about relationships than flying
Review: I enjoyed the flying experiences they had and I think the book should have been more about that. Before they even started the flight, Rinker wrote the first third of the book about his rough relationship with his dad. The story of the flight was the most interesting thing in the book as far as I'm concerned, the rest belonged in a personal diary.
Rating:
Summary: Oh my God! It grabbed me and I can't let it go.
Review: Getting there was their goal, but they got much more than a trip across the country. They found a sense of life from working hard and accomplishing a dream. To be able to put it all down on paper with the deep honesty about life makes Rinker Buck my favorite writer. Every boy in school should read this book- NOW!
Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone who ever hung around an airport...
Review: After I finished the book, I immediately went out in search of the perfect field to obtain my "taildragger" endorsement. After 25 years of flying, it took me 4.5 hours in a 1946 7AC Champ, off a little grass strip. I loved every minute of the oil, gas and fabric smells! I am forever indebted to Mr. Buck for re-opening my eyes to the joys of "basic aviating".
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