Customer Reviews

Great Northern Bushplanes

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I heard about this book while talking to one of the persons quoted in it. Dick Peterson, an AME who worked on a lot of the planes in the book and knew most of the pilots. Also, I have the good fortune to know one of the pilots as a friend with whom I fly every year to my Canadian summer home. Because of this personal interest, I may be just a little prejudiced but I found the book fascinating reading. The history of the float planes from the earliest Curtiss HS-2Ls to the present Cessnas, Beavers, Otters and Twin Beeches is presented along with stories of the escapades and strange happenings of the pilots that flew them. For the technically curious, that information is included in the back of the book. Anyone with any curiousity, bent toward "seat-of-the-pants" flying, would love this book.

If you are interested in learning about historic float planes which have been used bush flying, this is the best I've found. It has reviews of 12 to 14 planes staring from early Fokers ending with Cessna 180's & 185's. Stinson RC9, Huskys, Beavers, Otters, Norsemans,Beech 18,and Founds are discussed.All planes are shown in pictures, mostly colored. Some aircraft specs are listed. Reviewing the data & stories, the book could have expanded on why one plane was more commercially successful than another. The Dehavland Beaver & Otter seemed to overshadow all the others but The Husky seemed to have favorable characteristcs in some cases better than the Beaver. Very interesting. I borrowewd this book from an Anchorage library. I like it so much I might not return it hehe