I received two copies of Jim Fallows’ Free Flight from Amazon on Thursday night, (the other copy was a gift for the guy that tought me how to stop bouncing the plane on landings) and just finished reading it. Between that, I flew a business trip Friday and a pleasure trip Saturday. Pretty good aviation immersion, isn’t it.
First of all, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Very easy reading, and interesting every step of the way. I think that Jim captures much of what inspires the enthusiasm among the GA pilot community. As such, I’d especially recommend it to those who can’t quite understand why we love flying as we do. However, the real treat in reading the book is for the current or potential Cirrus owner, who has followed the company, met the people, and been part of the early experience (me, for example!). For this population, it’s an extrordinary reading pleasure. This is not to say that the rest of the population won’t enjoy the book - on the contrary.
I’ve found that being a pilot and new Cirrus ower has been one of the great experiences of my life. The book adds to the fun.
I’d highly recommend it to anyone. It’s absolute must reading for the members of Clyde’s community.
Perhaps if Jim would autograph a few copies and be willing to ship them, he might sell a few more to his pals here on the Forum.
I received two copies of Jim Fallows’ Free Flight from Amazon on Thursday night, (the other copy was a gift for the guy that tought me how to stop bouncing the plane on landings) and just finished reading it. Between that, I flew a business trip Friday and a pleasure trip Saturday. Pretty good aviation immersion, isn’t it.
First of all, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Very easy reading, and interesting every step of the way. I think that Jim captures much of what inspires the enthusiasm among the GA pilot community. As such, I’d especially recommend it to those who can’t quite understand why we love flying as we do. However, the real treat in reading the book is for the current or potential Cirrus owner, who has followed the company, met the people, and been part of the early experience (me, for example!). For this population, it’s an extrordinary reading pleasure. This is not to say that the rest of the population won’t enjoy the book - on the contrary.
I’ve found that being a pilot and new Cirrus ower has been one of the great experiences of my life. The book adds to the fun.
I’d highly recommend it to anyone. It’s absolute must reading for the members of Clyde’s community.
I really appreciate your interest, many thanks. Two practical points:
- Ah, the wonders of modern publishing. The writer gets just enough free books to give to his spouse, his children, and his parents. After that, I get them from Amazon.
Having now bought a big shipment from Amazon, I’d be delighted to sign and send to anyone who wants.
If you send me email with the address you’d like it sent to, and who you’d like it inscribed to (plus any special messages, “To the world’s first 50,000 hour pilot” etc), I’ll be happy to ship 'em off promptly.
In return I’d ask you to mail me a check for $25 per book, at 85 El Camino Real, Berkeley Ca 94705.
(List price of the book is $25. They cost me $22, including shipping. Priority mail shipping to you makes up the rest.)
OR, if you already have a book, mail it to me and I’ll be happy to sign it. ALSO planning to be in Oshkosh July 28-30 – giving a presentation there on the 29th.
- A delicate point. If any of you participate in aviation newsgroups – rec.aviation.piloting / .student / .owning etc – and feel like mentioning the book to your fellow usenet members, I’d be grateful. There is a real scorched-earth penalty for actual authors touting their own work on those groups, so I don’t want to do it myself.
LARGER POINT: obviously one of my interests is to get this book out and into circulation. But for people in the GA world in general, I think it would be interesting as basically the only pro-GA writing to have come from any “mainstream” source in a long while.
Thanks a lot, Jim F.
Jim,
I just ordered six books from you. I’m not sure how many you want to sell this way, but thanks for the service.
Great plug for your book by Rich Karlgaard in the 7/9 issue of Forbes.
John