Life’s lessons
Ready for Takeoff
Author David Dale says he benefited from “aviation therapy” when growing up shy and insecure. He started flying lessons at age 16 and learned self-confidence through an aviation life and career that included his U.S. Air Force service, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He later became a Boeing 737 pilot for Southwest Airlines. Throughout his flying career, he says he learned many lessons, not the least of which is “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” In Ready for Takeoff: Stories From an Air Force Pilot, Dale offers short stories about his life, his adventures, and his experiences in the Air Force. Dale shares the excitement, the challenges, and the highs and lows of military life as well as the satisfaction of serving his country. As one reviewer says: “David tells it like it is!”
Friends matter
Astra in Hollywood
We introduced you to Astra and Captain Dan in April 2022 (“Bookshelf”), the story of a Gulfstream 100 and her pilot who was out of a job because of COVID-19. Astra was a lonely airplane because of the pandemic; author Julie Whitney’s husband was the out-of-work pilot. Now in Astra In Hollywood, the second book in the Astra series, we pick up where Astra the Lonely Airplane left us, as Astra is getting settled into her new home in California. She finds herself feeling a bit insecure and wondering if she is cut out for Hollywood. She shares her hangar with a big, beautiful Learjet who is much sleeker and faster; a big cargo airplane who is much stronger and bigger; and a helicopter who can do things she cannot, like fly backwards and sideways. The rhyming children’s book teaches the value of friendship to K-5 readers and is illustrated by Michelle Simpson.
COVID-19 solution
Cleared for the Option
We all came up with ways to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, and author Patrick Chovanec chose an inspiring way: learning to fly at age 50. First it was time on Microsoft Flight Simulator, which helped keep him occupied in that dreary winter of lockdown in New York City, and then, when the world started to reopen, a year of learning to fly in the real thing. Part memoir of that year, part textbook on the basics of flight, and part inspiration, Cleared for the Option: A Year of Learning to Fly offers practical information as well as personal stories, inspiring us all to remember the joy of both flying and of life itself. You’ll find personal anecdotes punctuated by real-world applications, so if you are thinking of learning to fly, Chovanec is a good guide, and if you’re already a pilot, you’ll find yourself nodding in agreement with his aviation knowledge.
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