Flight of Passage a book to read

I know you inveterate book readers will scoff at the idea that I have finished my fourth book since retirement. I must fully commit to a book to read it because so few get completed. They better be good and pretty easy to read.

Sue picked this gem out of the costco paperback group and it is one right down my alley. The book is Flight of Passage a memoir by Rinker Buck.

With a name like that you just have to read it. It happened in the same era that I went to high school, 1964-1968. Its flight occurred 1966. While there is a lot of flying in the story, there is really very limited technical jargon needed to understand the book,

The story is of the interaction of two high school aged boys with their father. Their father was a hyperbolic magazine editor and leader of many civil rights demonstrations. Their family was a large catholic family that lived in New Jersey and flew planes. The father lost a leg in an aviation accident. This shaped some of the experiences of the boys.

Rinker's older brother, was really the idealized pilot of the two. He is the good student, but lacked the social skills his younger bother possesses.

One summer after working the entire winter restoring an 85 horsepower piper cub, the two flew cross country in 6 days, from New Jersey to California. This book covers many of their experiences in this flight. At the time others claimed that they were the youngest pair to fly coast to coast. They had no radio in their plane and limited knowledge of how temperature and altitude could interact with their flight.

Its a very nice easy read.

: ) Pat