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Summary: About a dad's gift of acomplishment and courage to his sons.
Review: Kinker Buck's book about his odessy to California from New Jersey is touching to any pilot. Both Kinker and his brother Kernahan were given the best gift they could get.. The gift of adventure and self confidense from their father who encouraged them to make this hope. The were the youngest kids ever to fly across the country! The airport they took off from is no longer. Somerset Hills (Basking Ridge Airport) is no longer and became condos like many airports do. Hopefully those of us who flew out of Basking Ridge Airport will put up a monument to let people know that some time ago people like Rinker and his brother had the opportunity to explore and grow in many ways. Such airports are important for any generation looking for meaning in life.
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Summary: True-life adventure that awakens memories of your youth.
Review: A wonderful tale of adventure set in the world of a younger brother struggling with his talented sibling and his over-powering father. I alternately saw myself as Rinker Buck, the teenager, as I relived the travails of my own youth, and as his father, as I struggle with my relationship with my own sons. The added bonus of this work is an exciting story of aviation accomplishment, as the brothers take the trip of a lifetime flying their aging, under powered, and rebulit pride and joy across the U.S.
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Summary: gr read introduces you to a cross section of america
Review: A book that transports you both geographically and back in time to a different time where you get to meet interesting characters who make up an interesting cross section of 1960s america. A terrific read where you learn about youth and family relationships through the eyes of a 15 year old embossed with the wisdom of adulthood. Flight of Passage reads like a novel with rich characters and vivid landscapes but is 100% non-fiction. A true gem.
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Summary: Living to tell about it, reading to live it
Review: Two boys, a rebuilt airplane, a cross-country journey including an impossible crossing of a mountain pass. Too good to be true. No. Too true to be left untold.
Rinker Buck's FLIGHT OF PASSAGE, retells the story of his joint flight into adulthood with his brother, a true story of two of the first teenagers to cross the country in a single engine plane.
Although Buck repeats thoughts a bit too often for my taste, the turbulent tale spins along until you just have to buckle up your seat belt and ride it out till its conclusion. Surprisingly, I didn't get too lost in the aviation terminology, even reaching a state of readiness to feel the acceleration every time the young boys "firewalled" the plane.
The narrator (Buck as a youngster) makes an inviting character to join with on the journey, especially if you're a man who remembers the frustrations of youth.
I'm glad Rinker lived to tell about it and lucky to be able to live it with him by reading his memoir.
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Summary: A wonderful young man's adventure and discovery of family.
Review: Two young men enter their great adventure flying a very crude Piper Cub across the country. The conflicts with their father as they emerge from childhood remind us all, of those conflicts between ourselves and our sons as we and they left the nest.
I really did not want the book to end as it was a very enjoyable reflection of all our passages into manhood.
Thanks Rinker Buck for sharing your story with me
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Summary: If you have siblings and a father, this book is must.
Review: In retrospect, I should have rated this a "10" Mr. Buck brought back memories of my own youth and my relationships with my father and younger brothers. Very poignant, well crafted and a delight from start to finish. I am passing this book on to both of my sons with the hope that it will give them a mirror into themselves
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Summary: Great book with special meaning for me
Review: Flight of Passage is an amazing book. I picked it up in 1998 when I saw the cover picture of a Piper Cub. I had flown a bunch of "orientation flights" in a Cub when I was a teenager in Civil Air Patrol in the late sixties. Although it was not official flight instruction, cadets were allowed to do everything but land the airplane. I learned a lot and loved every minute of it - flying low and slow with the door open, learning the basic air work, even the smell of the engine oil on a hot summer day. I wanted to be a pilot, but college, music, work, and marriage led me on a few different paths until my late forties, when I finally started taking flight lessons.
Events at the time were making it difficult to keep the lessons going, and reading this book inspired me to keep at it even if I had to take a few breaks from the lessons. The teenage Buck brothers did a lot more with their Cub than I ever did, but the book sure brought back the memories and the romance of flying. Rinker Buck creates a vivid picture of the life and times of his interesting family and of the late 1960's, in addition to writing one of the best "you are there" flying adventures I have ever read. Highly recommended even if you are not a big fan of flying books - it's a really good read.
But for me, the book had an even bigger role to play. I happened to meet Kern Buck at a Jiffy-Lube in Massachusetts in 1999. I overheard his name and asked him if he was related to the "Flight of Passage" boys, and he said he was Rinker Buck's brother, the pilot in the book! We talked for a while about flying, and it turns out that he had just updated his flight instructor certification after a break of a few years (he is an attorney now, working in the Boston area). I was also coming back from a break in my lessons and looking for a new instructor. Kern signed on as a part-time instructor at the small airport where I was flying at the time, and I took around 8 lessons with him before I had to take another break (buying a house and moving). Kern was a great instructor and really helped me make progress with my landings. I finally completed my lessons in early 2001 (with yet another instructor) and passed my private pilot check ride that May.
Last summer (2004) I decided to start working on a tail-wheel endorsement, and I found a local instructor who owns and teaches in a Piper Cub. I hadn't flown in a Cub since 1968, and the memories came flooding back once I squeezed myself into the back seat and Ed turned the prop to start the engine. This prompted me to re-read Flight of Passage and I enjoyed it even more as I was experiencing once again the pure flying fun of the spunky little Piper Cub.
Flight of Passage is a fine piece of writing and one of my favorite books.
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Summary: Brilliant coming of age story...
Review: I think Rinker Buck has captured in this story all the joy and passion of an adventurous youth's desires. It resonated with me in ways that are deep and emotional.
Good job, well worth the read.
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Summary: Thoroughly enchanting
Review: A thoroughly enchanting yarn. The story of 2 brothers fixing, then flying a small Piper cub across the US during one of their teenage summers. Told with a zest for adventure, and a great sense of humor.
One of the best parts of the story is Buck's colorful use of language. When talking about how his father had to keep turning a plane back and forth to land in a crosswind, he talks of the plane "jackassing" its way up the strip. Similarly with his tale of "Hank the Stearman man" and the other pilots in East Richmond, Indiana.
The pictures give the book a real scrapbook feel to it, and make things feel more real. (As if Buck's use of language weren't enough!)
The book can tend to get over-scmaltzy at times, but the author can be forgiven that, esp. given his obvious affection for the subject matter.
The ending chapters serve to cement the nostalgic feel of a "bygone" era, which makes one a little sad for its passing. However, this does not diminish the book; rather it made me treasure it all the more.
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Summary: A Fantastic Voyage
Review: As I began to read this book, I immediately found myself lost in the story. Mr. Buck's style of writing allows you to become absorbed in the story and actually part of the story. He wisks you off to marvelous places where you discover colorful and intriguing people. I could not put this book down.The interaction between the two brothers and the brothers with the father paralleled the relationship that I have with my brother and father. I connected with this book on a deep level. If you are in aviation in any way I recommend this book highly. It tells a fantastic story of aviation and two young pioneering pilots. Read it and you will not be disappointed.
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