Builders,
Here is another opinion from me, man of a thousand opinions: Stick and Rudder is the greatest book ever written on how to fly planes, period. Unlike some of my other opinions, I am not alone in this one. While most people with a pilots license in their pocket have never heard of this book, virtually every single veteran aviator noted for his skill and experience holds the same opinion of this book. My 25 years of building planes and modest amount of hours doesn’t make me one of those “Old School” pilots, but I am smart enough to hold the same text sacred as they do.
To assist in the discussion of this book, I will use paraphrased comments that people have made to me over the years at Sun n Fun and Oshkosh when I bring up the point that the book only costs $16, and maybe half of the fatal accidents each year could be avoided if the deceased pilots had owned, read, and understood the contents of this 69-year-old book. The paraphrased peanut gallery comments are in blue italics.
“They must have written something better since. I think Rod Machado’s books are better because they are funny and entertaining.”
OK, let me start by saying I have nothing against Machado, but he isn’t in the same category. We are speaking on educational classics here, not comedy/entertainment/flying lite.
“But that Machado is such a character! He is so daring and out of the box! He is really bold.”
Now let’s just hold on a minute: One of my pet peeves is how Flying magazine and some elements in marketing the EAA have tried to make aviation less offensive, more family entertainment. They want every person pictured to be drawn from the pages of the J. Crew clothing catalog, clothed in khaki slacks and getting into their Cirrus or 912 powered S-LSA. Compared to those contrived marketing images, Machado is Keith Richards, but judged against real aviation characters, he is just another guy in Levis Dockers with a John Edwards haircut.
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And now, a brief break from our sponsor, Real Aviation Character. Take this quiz: See how many of the 8 aviators of character below that you recognize. …
What an actual Character looks like #1.
Character #2.
Character #3.
Character #4.
Character #5.
Character #6.
Character #7.
Character #8.
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1) Pappy Boyington, Flying Tiger, USMC, CMH. Quote: “Show me a hero and I’ll show you a bum.” Lived life with the throttle firewalled. Drank, fought, smoked and flew on high blower, all the time.
2) Poncho Barnes, respected as a serious competitor in 1930s air racing, when it had a 30% fatality rate. Owner, “Happy Bottom Riding Club.” Legendary for never taking crap from anyone. Ever.
3) Bernard Pietenpol, patron saint of homebuilding, champion of flight for the common man. If you work for a living, and you are building a plane, you owe this man the acknowledgement that he was the pathfinder for every builder with persistence to take their place … In the Arena.
4) Col. John Boyd, supreme fighter pilot, father of ACM, inventor of Energy-maneuverability, inventor of the OODA loop, greatest thinker on conflict since Clausewitz. Rejected all attempts to be bought off. Philosophy: “You can be somebody (Play a role, fill a slot, hold a position) or you can do something.”
5) Charles Nungesser, French national hero and ace in WWI. Sets the 100% standard for the “triple crown” of fighter pilots in the 20th century (flying, drinking, romancing women), and his countrymen loved him for it. Spent all night in the clubs of Paris, flew against the Hun at dawn. The embodiment of the term Swagger. Dies attempting to fly the Atlantic with Coli 2 weeks before Lindbergh.
6) Hank Wharton, legendary arms sumggler, used a Lockheed Constellation on repeated missions to fly food to starving Biafrans through Nigerian jet air defenses. ‘Humanitarian’ with solid brass balls.
7) Jack Knight, airmail pilot, flew 800 miles, Wyoming to Chicago, in an open cockpit plane, at night, in a blizzard, Feb. 22, 1921, to save the fate of U.S. airmail. Later VP of United Airlines, before such jobs became positions held by accountants and lobbyists. Would not “fit in” at airline work today.
8) Valentina Tereshkova, awarded title Hero of the Soviet Union, first woman in space. On her 70th birthday she told Russian president Vladimir Putin that she was personally willing to go to Mars, now, even if it was a one way “suicide” mission. Not your average grandmother.
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It is very likely that every single one of these aviators (with the exception of Nungesser) read Stick and Rudder.
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Scoring: If you have heard of Machado but knew six or more of the Aviators of Character, you are in good shape, proceed as you are. – If you have read Machado’s books, but only identified 3 or 4 of the pictures, take warning: Do not read Flying, try to fly a Comanche 400 or radial powered plane soon. Throw away your Sporty’s catalog. Watch The Great Waldo Pepper or Thirty Seconds over Tokyo this week. – If you own Machado’s books but knew none of the images, you need serious help. You have been made a victim of the consumerism people who have told you that flying is about spending money, not learning, challenges, and personal achievements. Leave tonight for Cherry Grove, Minn., Pietenpol’s home town, and make it your aviation pilgrimage. Never speak to anyone with a Rotax 912 ever again. Fly in a biplane to Kitty Hawk, and look into the glass case at the little square of Wright Flyer fabric, carried to the surface of the moon and back by Neil Armstrong. Develop a plan on how your actions in aviation will show gratitude to those who came before you and gave you the possibilities you have. Do this today.
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Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. …
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Re Langewiesche’s reviewer: That guy couldn’t have been a pilot nor an aviation enthusiast. I’ve read it 3 times and parts 6 times and I have at least 3 times to go. It is absolutely fascinating and about as close as a human can get to just beginning to understand why people can rarely fly airplanes like birds, and therefore NEED to ‘listen’ to Wolfgang very carefully. (Re birds a la my observations: Each feather is a ‘sensor’ indicating to them the exact amount or lack of lift at any moment in any condition as well as the instantaneous trend of increasing or decreasing lift, and 50 other things. For us to fly, compared to birds, is like taking a shower in a raincoat. The other day I was watching a Red Tail gliding on the left side ridge wave as we were driving over a SE Utah pass. It did a flat, very slow turning 360, flying in perfect control BACKWARDS before completing the rest of the turn, appearing to lose no altitude in the process. THAT’S flying. Just not for me. The closest I’ve seen to that was one instruction hour we went up when no one else was because of the wind. I thought, great, I WANT realistic flying. At the end of the hour the wind velocity was very high, had completely reversed direction and crosswind component was present. We could not normally descend. A radical crab and slip took us down like an elevator with perfect timing letting the crab go but still landing on the windward wheel. Smooth and perfect. After the landing was at least halfway in the bag, I cheered the instructor like people cheer athletes. Well worth the price of admission; and I got to fly some, too!)
A similar thing happened to me many decades ago, when I was in the Civil Air Patrol in the early 1960s. I was not a pilot, but an observer, and went up with a pilot for a ride in an Aeronca Champ. There was a stiff wind blowing straight up the runway when we returned and the pilot set up a landing approach. I watched the ASI and we had 55 knots all the way to the ground, but due to the headwind, the descent looked more like a helicopter. They made him take a check ride even though I told them we had the needed speed for landing. There was no crosswind component that day. I worked with someone who once landed an Navy Cub in a strong wind
and could not get it to stay on the ground until four guys grabbed it and held it down until they could turn it around tail into the wind.
That there was a Pilot with a capital ‘P’…thanks for the story. As for the other fella’, that’s on the other side of the line…kind of like if you’re Sgt Preston and you and King have to go get the diphtheria medicine and bring it back through impossible conditions. {;^)
Hi William. I read your article at lunch and remember reading MOST of the book years ago. I put it down I think because I wasn’t sure if I could finish it. Slow reading, over my head, boring, I don’t remember, but I went home and retrieved it off my bookshelf ( I went right to it!) and found my bookmark at page 282. I will start at the beginning and read all of it now. Thanks for your info on various subjects. It makes me think. Pat Conley