Customer Reviews

Cockpit Confessions of an Airline Pilot

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

What a disappointment. What a waste of money. The title sounds good, there is the promise of going along in the cockpit of a heavy jet around the world -- but this book is mostly a waste of time. The grammar, the organization, the presentation, the jumping from one unrelated topic to another, the introduction of characters and situations that then are never heard of again are all annoying and distracting. And it all ends with weird TWA 800 missile conspiracy stuff. Er what?

This is really just another personal website that would be OK reading for free, but is not deserving of a place on a bookshelf. Keshner never really talks about the actual flying, and while there are some sorta neat stories in the book, and I'd love to hear them at an airport bar, I was left feeling cheated out of my money. I'd pass on this book, and move on to great flying books by Gann, Bach, Drury, Morgan and many more.

Read all the reviews, not just the 'best book ever' ones from 'a reader'

This is one of the worst books I've ever read. Or make that started to read. I had to throw it in the trash it was so awful. Being a former airline employee, I thought this would be a funny look at airline life. Instead, all the author talks about are the many trysts he encounters along the way. Plus, he uses foul language like there's no tomorrow. I'm also astounded that this book ever got past editing in it's current condition. It is the worst editing job I have ever seen. I would NOT recommend this book to anyone!

My recommendation, stay far away from this book, and certainly don't waste your hard earned money to purchase it. Being somewhat of a commercial aviation buff and possessing a profound respect for the personnel who make up the airlines, I expected to find a book which would reinforce my feelings along that line. Imagine my surprise and horror when among the book's pages I found nothing but the worst kind of smut, harsh language and hardly anything to do with the airline industry at all - the subject matter is vulgar and disappointing for those who were looking for a good aviation read. Beware!!!

Keshner is an excellent storyteller. I imagine he is the life of any party. His stories about cross-cultural experiences are funny and sad, showing both the brokenness and the goodness of humankind. These stories represent the book's value.
If you embrace irreverence, then Keshner's attitudes toward women, Arabs, homosexuals and authority may strike you as funny.
My primary disappointment with the book is the author's ongoing sophomoric fixation with female body parts. Also, his tell all approach will not enhance the public's confidence in the cockpit.

Author Keshner is more concerned with telling amusing stories and making himself out to be this "bad boy" irreverant aviator than writing a factual book. I too worked, and still do, for one of the major airlines he writes about and actually know many of the pilots he includes in his stories. Although Keshner spins some interesting yarns, his stories are clearly more fantasy than reality. He also has a crudeness to his writing that I didn't find amusing, entertaining or funny. The airline business is full of fun and amusing stories, I just didn't find Keshner's very amusing or believable. Save your money and look elsewhere for your airline stories.

I bought this book because a pilot I knew years ago had had many fascinating stories from his years in the cockpit. I thought this book would pick up where he'd left off. Not so. I found this book tremendously tedious and sophomoric. Most of the stories take place in hotels, bars, or restaurants. The sort of stuff I'd expect from sailors on shore leave. What a disappointment.

It is a jarring experience to read this book. The mindless sexual obsession of (many of the) pilots and their many gutter-mouthed conversations paint a bleak picture of a profession most of us have considered admirable and maybe a bit glamorous.But among these stories are surprisingly sensitive revelations by the author of his personal struggles and self-criticism. A mix of bigot and culturally-receptive traveler,Mr. Keshner is totally unpredictible. (Parenthetically, I would think that after his having published several books, either the author or his editor would finally have learned that "it's" means "It is" and "its" is the possesssive. These words were used 100% inaccurately thnroughout the book.)

Tasteless and juvenile. Soft teenage porn. I wouldn't recommend wasting either your time or money in reading or purchasing this book. On the other hand if books on sleeping with flight attendants or numerous references (explicitly) to "pussy" excite you, this might be the book for you. I am a college educated Air Traffic Controller and was disturbed by the STROIES and graphic descriptions made up in this book.

Unfortunately, from the first page this author shows his total lack of comprehension of English grammar and punctuation. Every page seems to have at least one inappropriate "it's" (where "its" is correct), many paragraphs flip almost randomly between past and present tense, question marks are used in the wrong places and inappropriately, some nouns appear to be randomly capitalized, and the author clearly has no comprehension of appropriate use of commas, semi-colons, as well as the difference between en dash and em dash. The author clearly either never learned or has totally forgotten everything he learned in grade school English. Yes, the writing is absolutely atrocious and inexcusable.

Even worse, every page is peppered with gutter terminology. The author appears to believe only gutter language can sell a book.

All this detracts from the book, which also appears to be a random set of ideas.

This has to be self-published, as no reputable publisher would put out such trash. (I did look at the publisher information, and it's definitely not any mainstream company.) The author would have been far more successful if he had worked with an established publisher and an editor. This book clearly did not have the services of any credible editor, as no editor would allow the numerous (VERY numerous) errors on every page.

Other books out there by flight attendants and pilots are enjoyable and enlightening reading. AVOID this one, however. It's a total waste of money to buy it.

And a comment to the offspring of the author who wrote a comment here: don't protect your dad. Help him by assisting him in working with a proper publisher and editor so his book can present the concepts he probably wants to convey but does not because of the trashy (yes) appearance of the book on every page.

Oh yes--he also seems to rather randomly double and triple space paragraphs. Why?

Save your money.

Some of the other reviewers are pretty brutal with
Keshner's book. Come on, lighten up a little! The
stories are alternately funny, sad, shocking or just
chilling. Pilots are exposed as being just as messed
up or more than the general population. Very un-PC,
there is something here to offend everyone,
especially Arabs.

On the surface, Keshner seems to be morally ambiguous,
emotionally detached (comatose?) and perhaps a little
intellectually dishonest. I detect however, a basically decent
man forced to play a lot of games just so he can pursue the
love of his life, flying.

One star deducted for being (apparently) self-edited and
proofread. Its OK to be self-published (if in fact it is),
but no offense, use pros next time... Still, this book is a little diamond in the rough.