Flight of Passage

[RitterKreuz]

Hope this is in the right forum... its real aviation themed  :D

I just finished reading Rinker Buck's book entitled "Flight of Passage".

What an amazing true story!

Two young brothers, Rinker and Kern Buck aged 15 and 17, inspired by their father's 1930s barnstorming tales take up aviation. The oldest son, Kern took to flying quickly while the youngest son was more suited to methodical pilotage navigation. One day, Kern comes up with an idea to chase his own romantic dreams of flight by flying with his brother from their home in the northeast all the way across the United States to southern California... all of this would be done in an old beat up piper cub - with no radios, using only sectional charts, plotters and pencils, "just the way the old air mail pilots used to do it!".

in 1965-66 The boys spend the better part of a year restoring the old piper J3 cub for the journey, and use the trip as an excuse to distance themselves from their father and establish their individualism and independence as young adults. But what the two didn't realize is that the trip would help them get to know their father on a whole new level... and bring the three of them closer together than ever.

The writer does a fantastic job of painting a vivid picture of America as viewed from the windows of the low and slow cub. The excitement the boys felt when they reached Texas and flew over a "real live cattle drive! with real cowboys! just like on that show Bonanza!" to the crushing feeling that the trip might be over when they make an emergency landing on a desert strip because of an unidentified loud, constant jolting and banging! the writer almost made me feel as if i were sitting in some sort of third observer seat in that little cub as they clawed for air over the rockies or settled into a Stearman field to camp out under a wing.

for any young man who has an aviation based relationship with his father... or just loves aviation in general "FLIGHT OF PASSAGE" is a must read!

i highly recommend it to anyone.

here is a link to the first few pages.

http://books.google.com/books?id=TP5lDz ... XY#PPP1,M1