Skywritings

ZERO 3 BRAVO
BY MARIANA GOSNELL

Mariana Gosnell's tribute to grass-roots flying — the story of her Luscombe flight around the country — amounts to a learn-to-fly campaign in hardcover. Zero 3 Bravo could do for general aviation what the movie Topgun did for naval aviation recruiting.

Her notes — in the shorthand she learned in school because she wanted a secret language — sat untouched long after her 1977 flight while she continued her career at Newsweek. After quitting the magazine to finish the book, she spent two years finding the "voice" in which she wanted to write. An eloquent voice it is, sensible, as Garrison Keillor notes in a review, and unpretentious.

Gosnell is no techie, thank goodness, becoming one of the last in her newsroom to toss away the typewriter in favor of a computer. Describing her 1950 Luscombe Silvaire as having a face that is "sweet, comic, adenoidal," she concentrates on the things she enjoys most about flying — the freedom, the solitude in the air, and "chummy little airports" on the ground. Open her book at any point, and you're more likely to find her exploring aviation society than power settings.

The airplane is her equivalent of a vacation cabin in the woods, but as she notes, her favorite retreat moves. The flight was actually made to escape the suffocation of New York City. She is still there, and the Luscombe is still her pressure relief valve.

The book offers pilots a chance to compare aviation in the 1970s with that of today.

The 950-hour private pilot has no desire to upgrade to a more complex, faster machine. She only reluctantly bought a radio with more channels and a transponder. However, she is beginning to think about a portable GPS receiver.

Her next book is about ice, all kinds of ice — ice on runways, Arctic ice, ice on aircraft, even iced tea. "I try to slip aviation in wherever I can," she said. If Gosnell on ice is as good as Gosnell in the air, she is an author to watch.

Zero 3 Bravo, published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, is available in bookstores for $25. — Alton K. Marsh

PIPER CUBS
BY PETER M. BOWERS

If you fly Cubs or just admire the plucky little yellow trainers that for generations were synonymous with light airplanes, you'll want to read the new book by Peter M. Bowers, Piper Cubs.

Published by TAB Books as part of its Flying Classics Series, Piper Cubs takes a thorough but digestible look at the story of Piper's historic tandem taildragger, from its Taylor predecessors to the Super Cub. The Cub's important wartime service is covered, as are modifications, from floatplane versions to an oddity called the Wagner Twin Cub. (The latter resulted when Harold Wagner of Portland, Oregon, joined a PA-11 fuselage and a J-3 fuselage in 1949.)

The text is jammed with more than 200 photographs, many never before published, and includes several color plates, plus three-view line drawings of various models. Bowers, who has been writing aviation articles and books since 1938, approaches his subject chronologically with skill and authority. His previous work includes another book in TAB's Flying Classics Series, DC-3: 50 Years of Legendary Flight.

In its heyday, the Cub was arguably the most famous airplane in the world. When I was growing up in Connecticut, for example, people outside of aviation used to refer to any single-engine monoplane as "a Piper Cub."

If you subscribe to the motto "Yellow is Beautiful," you are bound to find Piper Cubs well worth the $16.95 asking price. The book is soft- cover, 212 pages, and is available in bookstores or from TAB Books, Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania 17294-0850; 717/794-2191; fax 717/794-2103. — William L. Gruber

STATE PARKS OF THE MIDWEST
BY VICI DEHAAN

If you do much recreational flying in the nation's heartland, a new book called State Parks of the Midwest could be a valuable tool in planning those weekend getaways.

Written by travel author Vici DeHaan and published by Johnson Books of Boulder, Colorado, this text is a guide to camping, fishing, hiking, and sightseeing in midwestern parks. State parks, the publisher notes, often are less crowded than the better known national parks. In addition to snapshot descriptions of some 470 parks, the guide includes information on airports located nearby.

"As a pilot, I've flown to some of the state park areas in a private plane," DeHaan notes in her introduction. "For others who also fly in small planes, this book includes the names of airports located close to the parks whenever rental cars were available at the strip." Pilots will have to hunt for the information, however. There is no landing site index.

The 370-page, soft-cover book includes several maps and black and white photos. DeHaan also has written a guide to western state parks, and a book on the state parks of New England is in the works. State Parks of the Midwest costs $16.95 (the western guide is $13.95) and is available from Johnson Books, 1880 South 57th Court, Boulder, Colorado 80301; 303/443-9766; fax 303/443-1679. — WLG

THE FAMOUS AIRPLANES OF KANSAS
BY FRANK ROWE

It's safe to say that virtually all pilots want their kids to get excited about aviation. The Famous Airplanes of Kansas is an educational, high- quality coloring book that promises to spur youthful interest in flying while providing a good deal of historical background on the 30 airplanes portrayed in its pages.

Kansas has been the home to many of the world's most important aviation companies, including Beech, Cessna, Learjet, Boeing, Piaggio, Funk, and Stearman. As a result, the airplanes in the book — from the Longren Pusher and Cessna Jones 6 monoplane to the Piaggio Avanti and Beech Starship — should be of general interest outside the Sunflower State. Each airplane is presented in a full-page, ready-to-color drawing. Each is accompanied by a page of text that recounts the story of the airplane, in language comprehensible to the young, and a basic specification box.

The book was developed by Frank Rowe, a design engineer at Cessna, in cooperation with The Wichita Eagle. It was edited by Dennis Pearce with text by Elizabeth Lickei and typesetting by Christopher Blackwell. Their worthy effort comes off as fun and educational. It was all I could do to keep from breaking out the Crayolas myself, but alas, conscience forced me to hand over our sample copies to colleagues who have children.

The Famous Airplanes of Kansas costs $3.95, plus $2.50 for shipping. Quantity discounts are available. Order from Famous Airplanes, Post Office Box 820, Wichita, Kansas 67201. — WLG

Weather, the world's leading sure-fire topic for small talk, is, of course, of special interest to pilots. In Weather Report, poet Jane Yolen has collected a wide variety of poems about the weather. Within this tidy 64-page volume, the natural elements are celebrated in verse by poets from Robert Frost to Carl Sandburg to Yolen herself. Whimsical illustrations by Annie Gusman accompany the text, which is divided into sections with the themes of rain, sun, wind, snow, and fog. The hardcover book costs $16.95, plus $2 for shipping, and is available from Boyds Mills Press, 815 Church Street, Honesdale, Pennsylvania 18431; 717/253-1164; fax 717/253-0179. Address orders and inquiries to the attention of Connie Lee. — WLG