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Post by Tom Goodrick on Apr 5, 2014 13:24:32 GMT -5
One of the reasons I do not put in many notes on my flying these days is that I am very busy reading mystery books. But I have found a series of books by Stuart Woods that are good mysteries and also contain a lot of references to flights the main character makes. I warn that while these are from the NY Times Best Seller lists, they do contain many references to sex unrelated to the plot, some people might not like them for that reason. I don't mind it. You can also find many reviews in the catalog of Amazon.com including many I have written. While most of my reviews give these stories from three to five stars, my results vary. This is on the 18th book of the series - [LUCID INTERVALS] and will receive the rating of 5 stars, I just reported the previous book [KISSER]in the series at 1 star because it had very little plot and it not much content except sex. The main character is Stone Barrington, an attorney and retired detective on the NYPD force. Stone lives in New York City. He has owned and flown many aircraft out of Teeterburro. He has just had his Piper Malibu converted to a propjet. In this book he takes some assignments from the owner of a Security business who pays for him to transition to and get rated in a Cessna Mustang jet. The first thing he does after getting his rating is fly his girlfriend (of the moment) to his 3rd house which is in Ilesboro, Maine. It has a 2450 ft runway. There is a good description of his training - ground and flight - and his early flights in the jet. I think he may "inherit" the jet after this story because the president of the company gets assassinated at the end of this story. For more info see my review of the book on Amazon.com.
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Post by billvons on Apr 15, 2014 9:29:22 GMT -5
Hi Tom,
Good to see your Post. I have been reading a lot, so I'll check out Stuart Woods.
All the best!
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Post by louross on Apr 16, 2014 11:26:47 GMT -5
Been reading A Brief History of Time by Steve Hawkings. Started just after Christmas, and now am a bit over half way thru. Slow going for me, even with my science background. Probably losing the ability to think.
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Post by Tom Goodrick on Apr 17, 2014 7:48:48 GMT -5
There are more aircraft operations described in the later Stone Barrington books by Stuart Woods. On Amazon.com some catalog listings show chronological positions of the books within the series such as 15/27 or 21/27. In the early books he did not use interesting airplanes though he mentioned in one book when he was able to set aside a few thousand $$ he took lessons and started using the airplane for some business trips around the New York / New England area. That is a pretty good place for using a small plane. You can beat the airlines in a lot of cases. (But it depends on whether your Company will allow you to fly by yourself or with a friend on business trips. I worked for the Army when I lived up there and the Army did not allow it except when using Army aircraft and pilots. I made several trips along the East Coast in a Twin Beech Flown by a pair of Army pilots. The funny thing was that NASA encouraged use of private aircraft. Most the guys who did that had full instrument ratings. Aircraft I heard of included Cessna Skylane RG, Beech Bonanza and a couple of Mooney's. My office preferred King Airs and a Gulfstream turboprop which I rode in several times. I passed up some rides with the Laboratory Director in his Mooney. (I didn't like him and sitting with him for a few hours in bumpy air did not sound like fun.
In the Stone Barrington Series of books, Barrington is a lawyer doing various jobs for a large New York firm. He lives in NYC and flies out of Teterboro. He is also a consultant to the CIA and gets some interesting assignments that way. In one he is assigned to a mission to pick up a defector in Europe in a C-17 (he is just a passenger) and bring him back to the US without the "bad guys" finding out about it. The guy they pick up drives his Mercedes slowly up the ramp into the aircraft while parked on a road in Germany and then, when locked in place they bring the car and the man back into the US. But the guy gets scared and bails out with the car - then jumps with a gliding chute when they cross the Long Island coast. The car ends up crashing into a swimming pool behind a house! Yes, a bit of a strange stretch!
I have written several book reviews. If there is any significant aircraft activity I usually mention it.
I started reading Hawkings' book back in the '60's and haven't finished it yet. I have also noticed that my mind cannot handle complex ideas anymore. I even have trouble with complicated plots in mystery books.
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Post by louross on Apr 18, 2014 10:38:42 GMT -5
I suppose the problem with handling complicated tasks is a combination of age and medication. In some cases, probably more the medication than the age. As was suggested here before in a thread, the important thing is to continue reading and/or doing thing that require mental ability, even simple tasks. Sometimes, just geting organized to go out back and cut wood for a project is taxing- sometimes I'll take make several trips in and out just to get the tools I need. I like to have my boy, or wife is he isn't around, to listen to my ideas because sometimes I say things that are really stupid. We were hooking up the welding cables to the electric company for power, but the copany cable are three meters off the ground so I'd put together several 1x2s to reach the top. Fially after a few years, the broke. So I was going to get a metal tube- 1x2- to hook them up, and he asked, very diplomatically, if I really thought that was a good idea. So you still di much FS?
lou.
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Post by Joe on May 8, 2014 1:14:43 GMT -5
Brief History of Time wasn't published until 1988. Luckily it isn't super long since I had to read it twice to get it.
One of my favorite science books is Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleik. He also wrote a bio of Richard Feynman entitled Genius.
I'm not as old as you guys but I'm 53 now and notice the short-term memory isn't as good as it was. There's some scientific underpinning now, though, for the thesis that old age brings wisdom; something to do with synaptic connections between varied experiences and maybe something having to do with increased lipids around the synapses themselves. So as I age there's some hope I'll become a better chess player-- I just won't be able to remember where I put my chessboard.
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Post by louross on May 8, 2014 10:27:42 GMT -5
Yep. I'm now on my second reading, and tasking notes as I go. Seem to be picking it up now. Later, I want to get The Great Design, I think it's called.
Wisdom??? Or is it , uhh, wait. Oh, I forgot the word. It's something like prudence, or be more careful, or something like that.
Always keep your chessboard in the fridge. That way your wife knows where it is. Lipids. Be careful there!
By the way, if I am now wiser than before, why do my kids think they're the wiser and I'm, just, well, you know.
Awaiting your reply... I remain,
lou.
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