Flight of Passage [Hardcover]

Rinker Buck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1997

The author recounts how he and his brother, then teenagers, piloted a plane across the U.S., and how the landmark flight drew them closer to each other and to their father, a stunt flyer. 75,000 first printing. BOMC, QPB, & Reader's Digest Cond Bks."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Writer Rinker Buck looks back more than 30 years to a summer when he and his brother, at ages 15 and 17 respectively, became the youngest duo to fly across America, from New Jersey to California. Having grown up in an aviation family, the two boys bought an old Piper Cub, restored it themselves, and set out on the grand journey. Buck is a great storyteller, and once you get airborne with the boys you find yourself absorbed in a story of adventure and family drama. And Flight of Passage is also an affecting look back to the summer of 1966, when the times seemed much less cynical and adventures much more enjoyable.

From Library Journal

In 1966, the 15-year-old author and his 17-year-old brother flew across the United States in a Piper Cub. This book recalls their adventure, from conceiving the idea, persuading their father to allow it, preparing the airplane, and taking the trip itself. As a memoir, it is enlivened by adult reflection on youthful feelings and thoughts. Buck is a skilled writer who, even at that age, was familiar with the classics of aviation literature by Saint-Exupery and Ernest Gann. His description of crossing the Rockies at Guadalupe Pass in Texas echoes the best scenes of Saint-Ex's short stories and Gann's novels. But Buck has fashioned a rite of passage, involving the important presence of the boys' father, Tom Buck, an old barnstorming pilot who, although a successful magazine editor, never forgot his glory days. Buck sensitively describes the father-sons and brother-brother relationships through the filter of intense and confused emotions of a teenager. Highly recommended for all collections.
-?Mary Ann Parker, California Dept. of Water Resources Law Lib., Sacramento
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1st edition (June 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786861002
• ISBN-13: 978-0786861002
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (97 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #888,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than a coming of age book, June 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Flight of Passage (Audio Cassette)

"Flight of Passage" goes deep within the human heart of brothers, sons and fathers. It is not often in this day and age that we are given this masculine insight of two brothers and their love for each other. Nor, are we given such a privleged look into the relationship of a father and his sons.

The airplane (espcially the Piper Cub) is a metaphor. The boys learn how to cherish life, to be good men, to be good citizens in fact from their work on this small airplane as it cruises across the United States.

And, do they cross the U.S.! Strangly we are given the rare opportunity to see our nation from the air, with the eyes of teenagers who believe in themselves, their dad and their Piper Cub. We meet the men and women of America as the Piper lands in strange little airports in the midwest, the south west and the California coast. Not only do they fly out, they fly back to New Jersey. What the brothers discover is the grandness of this country, qualities that bind this country together, and the things that make each region unique.

This is not a travelogue. This is a coming of age story that touches the heart -- deeply.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book with special meaning for me, January 8, 2005

By 

Bruce Irving "Flying Singer" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flight of Passage: A Memoir (Paperback)

Flight of Passage is an amazing book. I picked it up in 1998 when I saw the cover picture of a Piper Cub. I had flown a bunch of "orientation flights" in a Cub when I was a teenager in Civil Air Patrol in the late sixties. Although it was not official flight instruction, cadets were allowed to do everything but land the airplane. I learned a lot and loved every minute of it - flying low and slow with the door open, learning the basic air work, even the smell of the engine oil on a hot summer day. I wanted to be a pilot, but college, music, work, and marriage led me on a few different paths until my late forties, when I finally started taking flight lessons.

Events at the time were making it difficult to keep the lessons going, and reading this book inspired me to keep at it even if I had to take a few breaks from the lessons. The teenage Buck brothers did a lot more with their Cub than I ever did, but the book sure brought back the memories and the romance of flying. Rinker Buck creates a vivid picture of the life and times of his interesting family and of the late 1960's, in addition to writing one of the best "you are there" flying adventures I have ever read. Highly recommended even if you are not a big fan of flying books - it's a really good read.

But for me, the book had an even bigger role to play. I happened to meet Kern Buck at a Jiffy-Lube in Massachusetts in 1999. I overheard his name and asked him if he was related to the "Flight of Passage" boys, and he said he was Rinker Buck's brother, the pilot in the book! We talked for a while about flying, and it turns out that he had just updated his flight instructor certification after a break of a few years (he is an attorney now, working in the Boston area). I was also coming back from a break in my lessons and looking for a new instructor. Kern signed on as a part-time instructor at the small airport where I was flying at the time, and I took around 8 lessons with him before I had to take another break (buying a house and moving). Kern was a great instructor and really helped me make progress with my landings. I finally completed my lessons in early 2001 (with yet another instructor) and passed my private pilot check ride that May.

Last summer (2004) I decided to start working on a tail-wheel endorsement, and I found a local instructor who owns and teaches in a Piper Cub. I hadn't flown in a Cub since 1968, and the memories came flooding back once I squeezed myself into the back seat and Ed turned the prop to start the engine. This prompted me to re-read Flight of Passage and I enjoyed it even more as I was experiencing once again the pure flying fun of the spunky little Piper Cub.

Flight of Passage is a fine piece of writing and one of my favorite books.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you come from a flying family, you'll love this book!, December 1, 2005

By 

Carolyn Rowe Hill "author of 'The Dead Angel" (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flight of Passage: A Memoir (Paperback)

With a father, three brothers, two sisters-in-law, a niece, and several nephews who fly or have flown or soloed, and a few hours toward soloing myself, this book had instant appeal for me. Brother Jim's wife, Chris, recommended it to me and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Rinker Buck does a grand job of telling his story; the whole story not just the mind-boggling, spectacular flight across the country he and his brother, Kern, took as teenagers. The book is well written; easy and absorbing to read. This is not a book you will want to read quickly. I have not finished it and am in no hurry to do so. The story is to be savored; parts read and re-read. There are some photographs included which always adds to the appeal of a story about real people. (Two of my brothers soloed at 16. With a ten-year age difference between them, the older one soloed the younger one. It made all the local papers.)

The relationship between the boys and their father is compelling, as is the fact that this is a family of eleven children, which makes for a pretty terrific mother, as well as a barnstorming, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants pilot for a father.

Read and enjoy!

Carolyn Rowe Hill