Customer Reviews

Island in the Sky

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

 

 

When Ernie Gann wrote this book in 1944 he had just come to realize that the love of flying was going to consume his life. Gann was a left-seat man and he was able to tranfer his need for perfection to the printed page. A veteran pilot will find no flaws or mistakes or stupid exaggerations in the technical descriptions in this book. Ernie Gann will put you in the left seat and make you sweat. He will give you the sense and the thrill of flying a four-engine transport under dubious conditions in 1944. I am sorry this book is out of print. That is truly a shame. GANN IS DEAD. LONG LIVE ERNIE GANN.

Gann keeps you on the edge of your seat as Pilots of the WWII Aircraft Ferry Service search for one of their own that has strayed off course on the way to England. The search continues for the lost and presumed downed plane in the Canadian north. Good story of the fight for survival in bitter low tempartures and what can happen if your unprepared. This story made a good motion picture also. (Andy Devine, John Wayne) I would like to see/buy this story and "The High and The Mighty" ontape if someone has it. Tom Rogers, Boston, MA (Ford2592@ix.netcom.com)

I would love to receive any comments on this book or the story - my grandmother tells me of him all the time!

Good, hard suspenseful writing, peopled by pilots we recognize from "Fate is the Hunter." Therein, however, lies the problem. This is the novelized story of Captain Owen "Chuck" O'Connor, those with him when he made an emergency landing in a C 87 in the far north, and those who searched for and found him. But where "Island's" Dooley has himself and three crew to worry about, O'Connor had a planeload of twenty including sevetral sick soldiers whose conditions couldn't be treated at forward hospitals.Where one of Dooley's crew dies, all of O'Connor's load came out very much alive. Some were in better shape when they left "Lac O'Connor" than when they arrived.
So, a one-star penalty to a fine writer for making his job too easy. After all, he made it up to us later

The pilot was a rude but polite man. He gave me shelter w/pay. They finally put him to rest 8 yrs ago. I need a copy of the book. @ 25 S lazona #18 Mesa AZ 85204