Bogeys and Bandits: The Making of a Fighter Pilot [Mass Market Paperback]

Robert Gandt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1998

Americans are fascinated by the undeniable mystique of the elite world of Navy fighter pilots. In Bogeys and Bandits, Robert Gandt takes readers on a thrilling ride in the FA-18 Hornet, one of the fastest, sleekest, and deadliest aircraft in the world. Gandt lived and worked with several pilots learning to fly the Hornet: the identical twins from Middle America; the computer nerd with a penchant for speed; the grandson of a Tuskegee Airman, trying to live up to a proud legacy; and two women dealing with the post-Tailhook world of the Navy. Gandt weaves superb technological details of the Hornet and an insider's look at the highly demanding training program with portraits of the day-to-day lives of these very real people aspiring to fulfill a dream. Bogeys and Bandits will hold readers breathless as they soar through the skies in the cockpit of the fastest and deadliest fighter plane in the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gandt adds to his three previous aviation histories the story of six men and two women undergoing the testing process for becoming carrier-qualified pilots of the navy's FA-18 Hornet. Except that two of them are a pair of identical twins, the eight constitute a cross section of the current generation of aspiring pilots in terms of their strengths and weaknesses and their reactions to various problems facing that generation, such as downsized armed forces, political correctness, and the sheer sophistication of modern fighter aircraft. Eventually, one of the trainees is killed in a flying accident, one of the women is fighting to retain her wings, and the others are on active duty. Gandt's is a detailed, powerful, and thoroughly absorbing account of a process that cannot be made either simple or safe and still accomplish its purpose, and it affords a revealing look into the contemporary naval aviation community at work. Roland Green --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Tales from the cockpits and ground-training classes of those learning to fly the navy's most advanced fleet fighter/bomber jet- -the FA-18 Hornet. Gandt, a veteran navy fighter pilot (Sky Gods: The Fall of Pan Am, 1995), follows eight trainees from their introductory briefing to the difficult final exam and on to their service with the fleet, where they become accustomed to taking off and landing on a carrier pitching and tossing on the open sea. They must master a push- button, computer-controlled, $30 million marvel that routinely exceeds the sound barrier. Gandt notes that the ``Incredible Shrinking Navy'' has, since the end of the Cold War, far fewer openings for pilot trainees. Today's pilots are chosen with a heavy stress on college ranking, in contrast with wartime standards that welcomed any eager volunteers. Some high-ranking veteran fliers tell Gandt that they would not qualify under present standards and that they are amazed to hear today's sophisticated trainees discussing stocks and corporate jobs. Gandt also touches on more controversial matters: He calls the Tailhook incident a political witch hunt and suggests that, combined with the Clinton administration's decision to allow women to apply for combat duty, it has created serious new problems for the navy including a dangerous double standard. He claims that an unqualified female flier allowed to carry out a particularly difficult assignment was killed in a flawed carrier landing. The navy, he asserts, covered up the incident by attributing it to engine failure. While Gandt discusses these matters frankly, much of the book is taken up with the day-to-day reality of flying an extraordinary machine and the exhilaration that comes with it. His descriptions of flight sweep are vivid enough to transport the reader to the Hornet's cockpit. A fascinating look into an arcane, risky, high-tech world inhabited by bright, brave youngsters. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (May 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140264124
• ISBN-13: 978-0140264128
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #781,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Flying and Writing: These have been the dual passions of Bob Gandt's life. He published his first story at age sixteen - the same year he first soloed an airplane. Since then he has logged something over 25,000 hours, written thirteen books and published countless articles.

As a U. S. Navy pilot, he logged over 300 carrier landings and nearly 2,000 hours in the A-4 Skyhawk. In his 1997 deja vu work, Bogeys and Bandits (Viking Penguin), he joins a Navy F/A-18 training squadron at the same base where he had trained years before.

For 26 years he flew as a pilot with Pan American World Airways, domiciled in Berlin, Hong Kong, New York, and San Francisco. His 1995 classic, Skygods (Wm. Morrow & Co.), recounts the meteoric descent and crash of the once-great Pan Am.

In 1985 Gandt and his partners, Harry Shepard and Carl Pascarell, formed the Redhawk Aerobatic Team. Flying their Siai-Marchetti fighter-trainers (rescued from a military boneyard in the Congo), they performed their formation aerobatic routine for over three million air show spectators.

Gandt's first book, Season of Storms, grew from his acclaimed series in the Far Eastern newspaper, South China Morning Post, about the WWII battle for Hong Kong. His long association with Pan Am and its romantic history inspired the book, China Clipper (Naval Institute Press, 1991 and 2010), which relives the mystique of the great commercial flying boats. His fascination with warbirds and the high-adrenalin world of unlimited air racing provides the background for Fly Low, Fly Fast (Viking Penguin), the inside account of the battle for the unlimited air racing championship at Reno, Nevada.

Gandt's first novel, With Hostile Intent (Penguin Putnam) was followed by Acts of Vengeance, Black Star, Shadows of War, The Killing Sky, and Black Star Rising.

In 1998 he made his screenwriting debut in 1998 on the CBS series Pensacola: Wings Of Gold, adapted from his book Bogeys and Bandits. He worked as writer and technical consultant for the twenty-two-episodes of the show, which starred James Brolin as the commander of a Marine F/A-18 training squadron.

Gandt's book Intrepid, co-authored by Bill White, with a foreword by former naval aviator Senator John McCain, was published by Random House in the autumn of 2008. The Twilight Warriors, his account of the sea and air battle for Okinawa (Random House) is the 2011 winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature.

Gandt and his wife, Anne, make their home at the Spruce Creek Fly-In in Daytona Beach, Florida, where Anne heads up the real estate firm, Country Club Properties of Spruce Creek.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent account of life in the F/A-18 world, June 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bogeys and Bandits: The Making of a Fighter Pilot (Mass Market Paperback)

This book was a fascinating look at the state of Naval Aviation today. The nay-sayers who claim this book is fiction need to get their facts straight. As a former F/A-18 pilot and Navy jet instructor pilot, I personally flew with four of the students, and also know one of the other students from my time in the Navy. And, for the record, I am 95% sure that one of the male pilots' names was fictional, as I flew with someone who matches the description very well and finished training at the same time as the others. This book correctly conveys the attitudes, fears, and exhilaration of flying the Hornet, as well as the problems with the double standard in today's Navy. A must read for anyone with the slightest interest in flying for the Navy today.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A RAG like no other, January 6, 2000

By 

Herman Snerd - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bogeys and Bandits: The Making of a Fighter Pilot (Mass Market Paperback)

This book takes you on a journey through a fighter jockeys training and life. It follows the line of 8 piolets going through the training system call RAG. It is the FA/18 fighters training program. It is a true, real life story and is a great read for anyone who was,is or want's to be a fighter piolet. It shows the bores of inside the classroom learning, the thrill of one of the piolets first flights and the way it affects the wives and children of the piolets. A great story and great read!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent story----well and factually told., July 20, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Bogeys and Bandits: The Making of a Fighter Pilot (Hardcover)

BOGEYS AND BANDITS is the first factual accountof naval TACAIR in the Post-Tailhook "PC Era".Gandt's research is both extensive and accurate. His sources are unimpeachable (contary to what one critic here imagines). The main characters are better than any fiction could produce---because they're real people, real Naval Aviators. Best of all, Gandt does not shy away from the "women in combat" issue, as many would in today's PC-liberal climate. Refreshingly, he engages the issue head-on and up-front. Specifically he reveals some painful truths about preferential treatment in womens' flight training. He takes no position whatsoever---but he reports the facts with brutal honesty. Because of this I predict great whining (and the usual slander) from certain radical feminists, but the fact remains: Bob Gandt has done his homework, and has written a most excellent and enjoyable account of some true American Heroes.