On Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:47:28 -0800, vic20owner wrote:

Hi Noel, thanks for the reply. I'm new to real life soaring. I am 37
and have been flying r/c gliders for 15 years, and just completed my
third lesson in a Blanik L23. Over the weekend I worked a little on the
tow, turns, and landings. It was a lot of fun and of course now I can't
stop thinking about flying.

I was looking for something entertaining to read in between reading the
glider flying handbook and the test prep book. Something which is more
of a documentary or story, history or fiction ... it could be about
gliding, or just a story about learning to fly (in general) from
childhood through adulthood, etc. But gliding of course would make it
even most interesting for me at the moment.

Here are a number of suggestions.

----stories about flying. The books in this section are all quite
old, so you'll need to look in used bookstores, etc. None are
particularly rare, so try Alibris (www.alibris.com) or Amazon
used books. Volmar and Georgeson are fairly recent but may be
hard to find.

Dick Wolters: Once upon a thermal
- this first hand story covers the time from when he started to
fly through his first contest win, from the mid 60s to early 70s.

Philip Wills: On being a Bird
- another first-hand story, starting with learning to fly, one of
the first UK cross countries, gliding above the channel to test
radar in preparation for the Battle Of Britain, and through to
winning the Worlds in 1952.

Joe Volmar: I learnt to fly for Hitler
- the SSA may have copies. Joe was born American to German parents.
His dad took the family back to Germany in 1940 and Joe returned
to America in 1951. In between he tells how it was to grow up in
wartime Germany and learn to fly gliders with the Hitlerjugend.
I found it a fascinating book, since his viewpoint is all-American
kid than German boy.

Dick Georgeson: Leading Edge
- an autobiography. Dick got the first Gold Badge issued in NZ
and pioneered long distance wave flying. He worked with Bill
Hamilton when jet boats were being developed by Bill.

----the above are all just stories, so on to marginally more
technical stuff. Everything in this section is in print
except "Winning".

Martin Simons: Sailplanes 1920-1945, Sailplanes 1945-1960,
Sailplanes 1960-2000
- As you have an RC soaring background, you may know these books already.
They have great 3-views and photos and talk about the development
of sailplanes rather than concentrating on competitions and
pilots. They are big, coffee-table style books published by Eqip
in Germany.

George Moffat: Winning
- The original leads up to him winning the 1970 Worlds at Marpha
though it also talks about learning to fly. I have the 1st edition
and haven't seen the recently updated Winning II yet.
Lots of good advice interspersed with anecdotes.

Wolfgang Langewiesche: Stick and Rudder
- primarily aimed at power pilots, but still very good for its
pilot's eye descriptions of what an aircraft does and how to fly it.
Published in 1945 and never out of print.

Derek Piggott: "Beginning Gliding" and "Gliding"
- I read these when I was learning to fly and like them a lot.
I don't know what the American equivalents might be.

Tom Bradbury: Meterology and Flight
- weather from a pilot's viewpoint. It seems to be slanted more
toward gliding than power flying.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |