Customer Reviews

The Cockpit : A Flight of Escape and Discovery

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The Cockpit: A Flight Of Escape And Discovery is the story of Paul Gahlinger, a university science professor who decided to fly his small Cessna aircraft from California to South Africa. Gahlinger ignored the pronouncements of every aviation official that such a flight could not be done. From the beginning nothing came easy or worked quite right. Governments refused to give him permission to fly over their countries. The weather was horrendous. His airplane as an aging, under-equipped machine beset by mechanical glitches. But he persevered through ice-storms, sand-storms, an earthquake, and the threat of civile war to successfully accomplish his flight and make it to his intended destination. As his story progresses, Gahlinger weaves together the history and mechanics of flight with his real-life adventure. The Cockpit is a unique, fascinating, true-life tale of hazardous personal adventure and the unconquerable human spirit.

A beautifully written story of one man and his airplane searching for an elusive goal, which he has not yet found. A brilliant PhD and MD, he relates so many accomplishments in his matter-of fact way that I was tempted to create a time-line to see how he could have accomplished so much at such a young age. He weaves the art and science of flying into his tale, explaining how the instruments work, adding entertaining bits of history, astronomy, and other sciences, educating while entertaining, much like Asimov. I am a fast reader, but read this book twice, to savor in the second reading the beautifully crafted prose. An exceptional book.

Dr. Gahlinger chronicles his experience flying from CA to South Africa (actually Egypt, but that is beside the point) in this wonderfully lucid and entertaining book. Superficially, the book is about flight, but metaphorically, however, Dr. Gahlinger takes us on his mental & emotional transformation from what appears to be a transition from being an academic doctor to becoming a medical doctor (among other things). I've taken a course from Dr. Gahlinger and very much enjoyed reveling in the details of his life --- his story is an inspirational one!! An outstanding read!

I felt that this book is extremely good especially to people in their late teens.... it is very inspirational and helps in understanding what you really want out of life, what you want to make out of it. It offers an interesting insight on his adventures and the way the story unfolds is very beautiful as well.... A must read especially for people in their late teens and aviation enthusiasts !!!

... you'll enjoy reading this book and will relate to the challenges Mr. Gahlinger faced flying across North America to Europe and Africa. I enjoyed how he weaves his life story and personal search for purpose in the world in with the flying adventures. The story of the bus accident in Egypt was intense. Enjoy!

I just finished reading this book in about 4 hours (which is rare for me) and was very interested in his joys and tribulations that
he encountered in his personal life and in his trip from Santa Cruz all the way to Egypt with his Cessna Cardinal. On the plus
side he has a very interesting personal life and flight across the USA, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Europe, and Egypt with a
brief bio of his stay in South Africa. I was disappointed in his cancellation of his African flight with his Cessna. He did a very
good job of describing the northern States and Labrador from the air but he barely covers the land between Ottawa and
Labrador. He is also quite brief about his flight over a good chunk of populated Europe. On the other hand his description of
his flying experiences over dangerous areas are very interesting and a must read for all real and virtual pilots. His is very good
with his avionic explanations except for a small number of mistakes on the functioning of certain instruments.

I really enjoyed a good chunk of the book but wished he would of included some scenic pictures, maps, and pictures of his
characters.

Pilot (East coast America, Utah, and Arizona)

I must have read this book 4 or 5 times cover to cover.

It's provides great inspiration ( especially if you're a pilot )

It's never boring and very well written.

Highly recommended !