Customer Reviews

Flying the Big Jets: All You Wanted to Know about the Jumbos But Couldn't Find a Pilot to Ask

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Captain Stewart first prepares the reader with competent knowledge of the aircraft and navigation before letting the person take a peek at the entire flight from beginning till end from London to New York.

I find the language used and the way the book is written in to be very serious, as if the Capt. takes your interest in what he does seriously. Of course, this book omits all the boo boos and emergencies that the writer experienced in his career, but it is a great book to learn by heart if you are an airliner enthusiast.

There is something for the experts as well as amateaurs. A must read!

This book is designed for two groups of people: pilots who desire to someday fly the 'big ones', and non-pilots who desire to someday fly the 'big ones'. The author provides an introduction to each of the major systems of a large commercial aircraft, and explains how flying large jet airliners is different from flying smaller piston or turbine powered airplanes. The author has taken a potentially very difficult subject and made it fairly easy for the novice pilot (or aspiring pilot) to understand. A very interesting book well worth reading, and a must have for all you 'wannabe' airline pilots. (This is a review of the first edition).

I throughly enjoyed this book. So many fascinating details about the planes, flight procedures and complexity of navigation. As a bonus you get a useful introduction to the physics of flying as well as the history of navigation. My copy of the book already has two people signed up to borrow it!

For those who like planes and decided to understand how it really works, there is still nothing better that I have seen. It comprehends basically all aspects of flying: how a big jet works, how to fly it and basics of aerodynamics and meteorology. In the last chapter, the author vividly describes a complete flight from London to New York, depicting from the pre-flight plan up to the gate at JFK. I strongly recommend it.

I was excited to read this book given I have always been interested in what it is like to fly these massive hunks of metal. I have also read a few books by this author about airline crashes, which always proved to be interesting. So here is my problem, I was expecting an interesting and maybe at times even exciting book, what I got was a somewhat bland, even dull at times book that spelled out all the facts about flying a jet. OK, I know that is exactly what the author stated the book would be about on the dust jacket, but he did not mention that the text would be bone dry.

With that criticism out of the way, I did enjoy learning about flying a commercial jet. I thought the run down of the mechanical operations of the aircraft and the actual job of flying the aircraft were the most interesting. The rest of the book was informative and in enough detail to be considered a good overall review, it was just a bit dry, textbook dry. To be honest I do not know exactly what I would have done to make the book more exciting, but hey, he is the author. It is his job to make the book interesting. And to be a nitpicker, how much actually changes with each new version of the book? Overall the book was ok, it had some interesting parts but really is only for someone that is truly interested in how these aircraft work and what it is like to fly them.

This book is excellent reading for anyone who ever steps on an airplane. It provides excellent information, without getting lost in detail. Easily understood by the layman, it also gives a good dose of anecdote and interesting information on the industry and the pilot's occupation. Well done

Stanley Stewart does an excellent job describing the basic knowlege and procedures for flyng a 747-400. Obviously, you won't learn to fly one just by reading this book, but you will have a good appreciation of the sort of background a senior pilot has.

The prose is dry, and Stewart's occasional attempts at humor fall totally flat, but otherwise this book is totally authoritative and therefore a mandatory addition to the armchair pilot's bookshelf.

On the one hand, what did I expect? This doesn't exactly promise to be a whole new book. On the other hand, this is so much like Stewart's "Flying The Big Jets--The 747," that it's clear though most of the text all he did was use a word processor to change "747" to "777." There are of course some areas where this won't do--the aircraft have some differences that must be addressed--but even here he didn't sit down and write new material but rather simply inserted individual sentences and paragraphs as needed, wherever the Triple-7 differed in some way from the 747. Even the flight that's the last chapter is exactly the same except we're going to Boston's Logan Airport now instead of New York's JFK. But the weather and flying condititions, and the descriptions and experiences the pilot has along the way, are identical to those of the 747 book. He could have had it snowing in this trip, for instance, to discuss how a pilot deals with a wintery snow landing vs. the rainy landing of the last book.

There are a few plusses: diagrams of the cockpit gauges have been redrawn--much better this time. The section on avionics is updated a bit to reflect new technology. And the text is laid out a little better by the publisher. But if you already have Stewart's 747 version of the book (which I've also reviewed), no need to get this one. If you don't, and you're curious as to what goes into flying a jumbo from chocks away to chocks under, then this is a reasonably good book, if bland at times. (The chapters on meteorology are particularly challenging to stay awake while reading.) There is a near-complete lack of anecdote or personal observation. For a man who has flown around the globe, he has little to say. There are a few attempts at levity, but they fall painfully flat. Stewart may be a fine pilot, but he doesn't sound like he'd be interesting company at a dinner party. He makes something this exciting sound as dull as driving to work. Well, maybe to him that's what it is.

Vendeur rapide et sérieux !!! Tout est impeccable : emballage, vitesse d'expédition, qualité du paquet, etc.
Un grand bravo !

The finest book I've seen that combines both excellent technical descriptions of the various 777 aircraft systems together with an excellent Captain's narrative of a North Atlantic crossing from London's Heathrow airport to Boston, Massachusetts. If you want learn about the Boeing 777 and how it's flown in actual line operations, this is the book to read!