Rating: 
Summary: Uneven collection of one man's flying stories and musings
Review: Some of the chapters kept me interested, others were a chore to finish. Spends a bit too much time speculating on the thoughts of people he's never met. Sometimes inspiring, sometimes boring.
Rating:
Summary: Uneven collection of one man's flying stories and musings
Review: Some of the chapters kept me interested, others were a chore to finish. Spends a bit too much time speculating on the thoughts of people he's never met. Sometimes inspiring, sometimes boring.
Rating:
Summary: Starts great but...
Review: Some of the puzzlement generated by this book and expressed in the reviews may be generated by the fact of Langewiesche's genre.I'd characterize it as "the critical philosophy of the artisan." In American culture, people don't reflect deeply on their trade, profession, or career except as how to get ahead, unless they are talking to Studs Terkel. But in many societies, people do. In societies where "mere" trades have more respect, the artisan often creates his own relationship with the tools of his trade. An example from general philosophy is Heidegger's craftsman. As Langewiesche points out with regards to the patterns in which working air traffic controllers and their managers fall, it's not the norm to reflect on the truth of one's trade. The truth is, at one and the same time, that Reagan and FAA management was out to screw Patco, and that after the mass firing of 1981, management, as Langewiesche describes, was able to take over. It is impossible for either a controller or a member of management to actually enunciate this complex truth because to do so would disadvantage the side, in an adversary relationship. Another way Langewiesche engages truth as an artisan philosopher is with regards to fear of flying, often caused from a lack of knowledge of the passenger's physical relationship to the world. As Langewiesche describes, commercial aviation operates within tight safety and comfort parameters which effectively assure that any one flight is more safe, not only as compared to driving...but even as compared to sitting in your living room watching TV. This is probably especially true if the person in the living room is the normal gun owner (sorry, I just could not resist this.) At the same time, Langewiesche's committment to truth is such that he describes how this effective assurance is not a necessary truth. It is possible that fear of flying, like much thinking of an addictive nature, can only be analyzed using modal logic: the logic, that is, of statements which are necessarily true (true in all possible worlds) or only contingently true (true in our world but it could be otherwise.) The alcoholic realizes in AA when he or she is "Powerless" that their alcoholism is not an accidental, empirical fact, like a possibly cancerous mole which can be excised, and cured. He may realize that his alcoholism is a necessary truth about his existence. The fearful flyer (who is often beset with addiction issues) wants a similar guarantee of safety and as Langewiesche shows we can approach this without ever completely assuring safety as a necessary truth. To want it is perhaps to want to be god. In recent years, passenger cabins, formerly under higher fares the abode of the well-dressed and well-behaved, have become snake pits as, perhaps, the passengers insist on a trouble-free experience in which they are the god-consumer of our society. A pilot friend put it simply to me recently, "the passengers are pigs, we just shut the door on them and let the flight attendants do crowd control." Research is called for on the relationship of air travel to addictive thinking, if only for the safety of the attendants. Perhaps airlines should be booze-free as well as smoke free. Fearful flyers would do well to read this book for it provides in the main comfort. I want an artisan to reflect deeply on his trade, and Langewiesche like his father before him (an authority on flight in the postwar period) fill this need. Langewiesche reminds me of the early Wittgenstein, who wanted to be an aeronautical engineer. This is because Wittgenstein wrote in the Tractatus that when the problems of science are answered we have the feeling that the problems of life are not addressed. Having gone through the checklists the pilot remains human and reflects on the meaning of it all. To the average American this is unnecessary. To me, it makes you a better artisan as well as a better person.
Rating: 
Summary: A German philosopher in the air?
Review: Some of the puzzlement generated by this book and expressed in the reviews may be generated by the fact of Langewiesche's genre. I'd characterize it as "the critical philosophy of the artisan." In American culture, people don't reflect deeply on their trade, profession, or career except as how to get ahead, unless they are talking to Studs Terkel. But in many societies, people do. In societies where "mere" trades have more respect, the artisan often creates his own relationship with the tools of his trade. An example from general philosophy is Heidegger's craftsman. As Langewiesche points out with regards to the patterns in which working air traffic controllers and their managers fall, it's not the norm to reflect on the truth of one's trade. The truth is, at one and the same time, that Reagan and FAA management was out to screw Patco, and that after the mass firing of 1981, management, as Langewiesche describes, was able to take over. It is impossible for either a controller or a member of management to actually enunciate this complex truth because to do so would disadvantage the side, in an adversary relationship. Another way Langewiesche engages truth as an artisan philosopher is with regards to fear of flying, often caused from a lack of knowledge of the passenger's physical relationship to the world. As Langewiesche describes, commercial aviation operates within tight safety and comfort parameters which effectively assure that any one flight is more safe, not only as compared to driving...but even as compared to sitting in your living room watching TV. This is probably especially true if the person in the living room is the normal gun owner (sorry, I just could not resist this.) At the same time, Langewiesche's committment to truth is such that he describes how this effective assurance is not a necessary truth. It is possible that fear of flying, like much thinking of an addictive nature, can only be analyzed using modal logic: the logic, that is, of statements which are necessarily true (true in all possible worlds) or only contingently true (true in our world but it could be otherwise.) The alcoholic realizes in AA when he or she is "Powerless" that their alcoholism is not an accidental, empirical fact, like a possibly cancerous mole which can be excised, and cured. He may realize that his alcoholism is a necessary truth about his existence. The fearful flyer (who is often beset with addiction issues) wants a similar guarantee of safety and as Langewiesche shows we can approach this without ever completely assuring safety as a necessary truth. To want it is perhaps to want to be god. In recent years, passenger cabins, formerly under higher fares the abode of the well-dressed and well-behaved, have become snake pits as, perhaps, the passengers insist on a trouble-free experience in which they are the god-consumer of our society. A pilot friend put it simply to me recently, "the passengers are pigs, we just shut the door on them and let the flight attendants do crowd control." Research is called for on the relationship of air travel to addictive thinking, if only for the safety of the attendants. Perhaps airlines should be booze-free as well as smoke free. Fearful flyers would do well to read this book for it provides in the main comfort. I want an artisan to reflect deeply on his trade, and Langewiesche like his father before him (an authority on flight in the postwar period) fill this need. Langewiesche reminds me of the early Wittgenstein, who wanted to be an aeronautical engineer. This is because Wittgenstein wrote in the Tractatus that when the problems of science are answered we have the feeling that the problems of life are not addressed. Having gone through the checklists the pilot remains human and reflects on the meaning of it all. To the average American this is unnecessary. To me, it makes you a better artisan as well as a better person.
Rating: 
Summary: fascinating but aloof
Review: The author, a self-described "child of the sky," writer of two well-received travel books and correspondent to the Atlantic, here offers seven essays exploring and demonstrating the literal and metaphoric "view from above." The essays illustrate the importance of people as a part of geography, the necessity of intimacy and trust for accurate perception, and, more practically, the limits of man's efforts to control the weather, the sky, and, finally, himself. The book is at its best describing events such as the Valujet crash, or in dense journalistic passages on the relationship between the FAA and air traffic controllers, the Fujita scale, or chaos theory. His digressions remind one of John Mc Phee in their spare complexity. At its worst, the distant and sometimes jargon-filled prose only confuses or condescends to his landlocked readers. The reader does not come to know the author, it must be assumed, by his own design. The author seems to see himself as above--exotic, more honest, in sum, betterthan his non-flying readers, or many of his subjects (he is particularly patronizing to tourists). The flying novice would have an easier time reading through to the truly wonderful parts if the author were more accessible. Pilots and pilot wannabes will love the book, however, if flying is a way of thinking, as the author contends, it is not a way of thinking he has made particularly attractive.
Rating:
Summary: fascinating but aloof
Review: The author, a self-described "child of the sky," writer of two well-received travel books and correspondent to the Atlantic, here offers seven essays exploring and demonstrating the literal and metaphoric "view from above." The essays illustrate the importance of people as a part of geography, the necessity of intimacy and trust for accurate perception, and, more practically, the limits of man's efforts to control the weather, the sky, and, finally, himself. The book is at its best describing events such as the Valujet crash, or in dense journalistic passages on the relationship between the FAA and air traffic controllers, the Fujita scale, or chaos theory. His digressions remind one of John Mc Phee in their spare complexity. At its worst, the distant and sometimes jargon-filled prose only confuses or condescends to his landlocked readers. The reader does not come to know the author, it must be assumed, by his own design. The author seems to see himself as above--exotic, more honest, in sum, betterthan his non-flying readers, or many of his subjects (he is particularly patronizing to tourists). The flying novice would have an easier time reading through to the truly wonderful parts if the author were more accessible. Pilots and pilot wannabes will love the book, however, if flying is a way of thinking, as the author contends, it is not a way of thinking he has made particularly attractive.
Rating:
Summary: A mixture of the luminous and the laborious
Review: There were points in this collection of essays in which I was totally enraptured and connected. I found a thrill in some of the author's descriptions and concepts similar to the exhilaration of airplane landings and take-offs. In contrast, there were parts of each essay which I found to be tedious and even unrelated. These were the boring periods of a too-long transcontinental flight when I've even seen the movie! However, upon closing the back cover, I was glad I made the journey. I arrived at my destination basically content that I made the trip. My fare was worthwhile.
Rating: 
Summary: Exploring the World Above
Review: This book chagned the way I think about flying. In general it is well written and has the added value of being written by someone who is obviously intimately familiar with the subject matter. The rational and informative discussion of flight safety helped with my anxiety around flying (I read it on the plane). A friend of mine who is an airforce pilot enjoyed the book too but said that most pilots are not as passionate about flying as the author of this book.
Rating:
Summary: A really fun read and helped me with my fear of flying too
Review: This book chagned the way I think about flying. In general it is well written and has the added value of being written by someone who is obviously intimately familiar with the subject matter. The rational and informative discussion of flight safety helped with my anxiety around flying (I read it on the plane). A friend of mine who is an airforce pilot enjoyed the book too but said that most pilots are not as passionate about flying as the author of this book.
Rating:
Summary: The freedom and complexity of human flight
Review: This book is one of the few truly honest books ever written about flying As an experienced pilot myself, I find that Langewiesche, far from aggrandizing himself, uses his extensive experience to invite the reader into the profound, interesting, and remarkably complex world of human flight. Surprisingly, the book captures the personal freedom and challenge of flight, as well as the difficult political and social issues that surround it. This is a truly unusual book, and like Langewiesche's other writing, superbly descriptive. Unconventional, yes, but a damn good read.
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