Hunting Warbirds : The Obsessive Quest for the Lost Aircraft of World War II

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Summary: hunting warbirds
Review: Having already known about this project from a past NOVA special I was quite interested to read "the rest of the story"about this group of characters and how they came to together.It occured to me there's no degree or guidelines to go by only a true passion and determination to recover these obscure bits of history.Virtualy risking everything each and every time,even life itself with no regret,for a machine? Why? I could only compare it to the Harley phenomena.Why a seemingly stable group of people could be so normal and then the phone rings and it's "Show Time".Anywhere Anytime.Very few countries militaries could match the agility and resouresfulness(with virtually no budget)of this band of merrymen.These are the real Indiana Jones's of our time with Gary Larkins leading the pack.With todays continent hoping ,interneting,etc.etc. it's nice to know someone's still out there in the jungles of Borneo pushing back the snakes to the vast artic wastelands in search of the "Holy Grail".Truely the author has given us a rare and intiment look into the lives and experiences of a rare breed.After having read(in one sitting I might add)I now have a much better understanding of what being a "Warbird Fanatic " is all about.

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Summary: Hunting Warbirds
Review: Hunting Warbirds is a rare treat: a book that reads like a taught thriller, yet is a well researched work of nonfiction. It takes the reader all over the planet in search of rare World War II airplanes, accompanying a few [fool]hardy folks trying to move these huge, broken objects from the tundra to collectors in the States. I have never been interested in wars, and usually find those who are a collossal bore, but I could not put this book down. Hoffman manages to make the old planes seem like soldiers themselves, and the quest to find and refurbish them becomes a way to honor the last war we all agreed was just. This is more than a book about airplanes or war; it is an excellent study of the interconnection between people and our machines.

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Summary: perfect father's day gift
Review: I bought this for my father because he's always loved planes and he likes any books about planes. But I am probably going to have to get another copy because I started reading the story of the Kee Bird and couldn't put the book down. It's a real adventure, and I'm halfway through and can't believe what just happened with the plane. (Anyone who's read it knows what I'm talking about!) I am really hoping Gary and Darryl get things to work out -- but whatever happens, I am amazed that the author could make planes so incredibly fascinating. And all the strange people who are so in love with them that they'll risk life and limb just to bring back a piece. It reminds me of the Perfect Storm: a book I didn't think was my thing, but: incredible story, great writing, perfect gift.

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Summary: Read the story...
Review: I think this book was terriffic. Of course there are going to be some mistakes in the technical areas of the planes...the author never claimes to be an expert of every part of every plane that is covered...get over it. The book lets everyone have a small taste of a hobby (or addiction) that isn't available to eveyr person. I'd love to own a ME109, but can't. I like to read about the salvage and saving of these wonderful machines, and I think this book does a marvelous job of doing that. If you are reading to get a 110% account of airplane facts, buy a manual. If you want a story of a dying part of American history and culture, read this book.

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Summary: Read the story...
Review: I think this book was terriffic. Of course there are going to be some mistakes in the technical areas of the planes...the author never claimes to be an expert of every part of every plane that is covered...get over it. The book lets everyone have a small taste of a hobby (or addiction) that isn't available to eveyr person. I'd love to own a ME109, but can't. I like to read about the salvage and saving of these wonderful machines, and I think this book does a marvelous job of doing that. If you are reading to get a 110% account of airplane facts, buy a manual. If you want a story of a dying part of American history and culture, read this book.

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Summary: HUNTING WARBIRDS
Review: I thought this a great book. It seems that a new generation of writers that often publish in the outdoors magazines like Backpacker or Outside are discovering the WW II eccentrics who are well known to us, their sons and nephews, as being the aviators and mechanics of the past who won the air war over Japan and Germany. As a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, these men were our former mentors and role models. We went where we were sent and didn't question the duty or the reality of it all. Later, after finishing my tour in the Army, I flew the bush in Alaska, and this book reminded me of my early days on the North Slope, flying a Bell Jet Ranger with a seismic crew in the Colville River Delta. I was the furthest west chopper pilot during those spring months of 1969, and about the third youngest Army pilot to arrive on this edge of the Arctic Ocean. We flew around Prudhoe Bay and astonished many of the old bush pilots with our know-how and amount of flight time at such a young age. The B-29 story made me reminisce about those months up there, when anything could happen and did. Lot of fun and a lot of misery! Somehow, one has to go through these extremes in a swashbuckling manner to relate to these early aviation stories before GPS and much safe devices came about today. Good reading and a great young writer is Carl Hoffman.

Rating:
Summary: HUNTING WARBIRDS
Review: I thought this a great book. It seems that a new generation of writers that often publish in the outdoors magazines like Backpacker or Outside are discovering the WW II eccentrics who are well known to us, their sons and nephews, as being the aviators and mechanics of the past who won the air war over Japan and Germany. As a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, these men were our former mentors and role models. We went where we were sent and didn't question the duty or the reality of it all. Later, after finishing my tour in the Army, I flew the bush in Alaska, and this book reminded me of my early days on the North Slope, flying a Bell Jet Ranger with a seismic crew in the Colville River Delta. I was the furthest west chopper pilot during those spring months of 1969, and about the third youngest Army pilot to arrive on this edge of the Arctic Ocean. We flew around Prudhoe Bay and astonished many of the old bush pilots with our know-how and amount of flight time at such a young age. The B-29 story made me reminisce about those months up there, when anything could happen and did. Lot of fun and a lot of misery! Somehow, one has to go through these extremes in a swashbuckling manner to relate to these early aviation stories before GPS and much safe devices came about today. Good reading and a great young writer is Carl Hoffman.

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Summary: Enjoyed every word
Review: I was pleased with this book. It was an enjoyable introduction to a world I had no knowledge of. The author is clearly as fascinated with the people he met as with the airplanes themselves. The result is a story I could read as well as a history I could appreciate. I may not become an expert on vintage aircraft because of this book, but I know I'll appreciate my next visit to the Air and Space Museum all the more because of it.

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Summary: A Little Learning...
Review: It appears from the reviews posted on this site that, the less you know about World War II aviation and the warbird movement, the more you liked Hunting Warbirds. The more you know, the less you liked it. Despite his childhood interest in WWII aircraft, Mr. Hoffman is no expert in the field. If he were the numerous mistakes that slipped into the narrative wouldn't be there. (A small army of editors is cited in the acknowledgements, don't they know anything about this either?) What mistakes, you ask? Warbird collector David Tallichet is repeatedly refered to as "Davis Tallichet." B-17's were powered by nine cylinder engines, not 18 cylinder engines as Mr. Hoffman repeatedly states. The CAF reenactment of Pearl Harbor does not feature "Betty" bombers, they were twin-engine, land based aircraft. The CAF B-17, "Sentimental Journey" is based in Mesa, Arizona, not Tuscon. I may be picking nits here but errors of fact, no matter how insignificant, detract from the overall veracity of a text. Those of us fortunate enough to be involved in the warbird movement will spot them a mile away. Despite the numerous mistakes, I enjoyed Hunting Warbirds. If the mistakes were corrected in a new addition, I'd up my rating to four stars.

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Summary: A disappointing read about a fascinating subject
Review: My immediate enthusiasm for this story waned pretty quickly, under the influence of Hoffman's many errors of fact, so disappointing from one with his aviation credentials. Such obvious and simple errors, which should have yielded to even the most superficial research (You're standing there in front of the engine'Just count the cylinders, fer Chrissakes!), cast a nagging doubt over everything else he has to say. And why the hokey cloak-&-dagger act concerning the obsessive collector "somewhere in the midwest"? The Walter A. Soplata Collection in Newbury, Ohio was written up in Jon Allen's "Aviation and Space Museums of America",
and has been known among warbird buffs throughout the world for more than a quarter-century!