Customer Reviews

No Visible Horizon: Surviving the World's Most Dangerous Sport

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I was disappointed with this book. The topic of aerobatic pilots and their unique planes sounded like it would be a fast, smooth read. Instead, though I found myself interested in the author's brief descriptions of aeobatic flying, the balance of the book left me cold.

The reader is introduced to dozens of famous aerobatic pilots but one never gets to really know any of them on a personal level. Their flying technique is well-described but I finally started feeling a detached, who-cares attitude. The book should have included some diagrams of the various aerobatic stunts to help the reader picture the stunts. Without this, I couldn't picture what was being described. Some photos of the many famous planes mentioned in the book would have been welcome too.

The author is a columnist for Time magazine and herein may be the problem with this book. No Visible Horizon reads more like a collection of columns than a cohesive, well-structured book.

Many of us in the aerobatic community feel that this book plays to sensational stereotypes of daredevil flying, which is not an accurate portrait of most aerobatic pilots. Ramo also uses faulty statistics to quantify the dangers involved, vastly undercounting the number of participants in the sport.

Ramo's attitudes are the sort that get people killed, as illustrated by his anecdote of starting a downward maneuver a mere 700 feet above the ocean. In point of fact pilots who observe routine safety precautions -- like maintaining a safe altitude -- are not subject to Ramo's "one mistake and you're dead" mantra.

There are some good books about aerobatics, but this is not one of them. Try Patty Wagstaff's "Fire and Air", "Basic Aerobatics" and "Advanced Aerobatics" by Szurovy & Goulian, or Alan Cassidy's "Better Aerobatics" instead.

This is sure gonna be a contraverisal book.

This is a book which is likely to irritate competition pilots who like to present aerobatics as a lower risk than it's generally perceived - in order to .. increase acceptance.. and maybe make their wives feel better?

It's also the type of book that will bore most people who are new to aerobatics - and left my wife stone cold.. and anxious.

Tough! I loved it.

Yes, it's dramatic and over the top, and made my wife ill with worry the next time I flew - but it was aimed perfectly at me.. and for the first time in a long time I felt I had found some material which explained how I "feel" about the sport .. the passion behind it, which I have always found hard to describe.

I believe few pilots will be left unmoved by the sheer gritty intensity of it - and those that say it's an inaccurate and irresponsible represetnation of the real life, should chill and let their heair down for once. Be honest, and accept that despite all the discipline and control they insist they have, and live by, an element of wild unrestrained joy of fear is definitely there .. in all our hearts.. if not, go fly your boring boeing!

I thought it was great, and have bought several copies for people who know me - and I can finally articulate how I feel to others.. thanks Joshua!

This is not anything close to what I experienced flying competitive aerobatics, nor does it represent outlook or experience of the vast majority of aerobatic pilots I know. The opening story about the split-S at or below 1000 feet above the ocean into a cloud deck pretty much set the tone for the rest book ... this is not something anyone I know would ever consider doing, much less repeating in a public forum!

There is a huge difference (in visual appeal to the observer on the ground, in pilot risk, in flying technique, and in the motivations of the pilot flying) between flying airshows and aerobatic competitions and this book does not make that clear in any way. Not very many current competitive pilots fly airshows and vice versa (Kirby Chambliss is an extraordinary pilot and a very notable exception). Most airshow pilots are ex-competition pilots and very much in the minority. Any airshow pilot faces far higher risks in order to put the aircraft close to the ground and to impress a non-technical audience on the ground. Note that the best way to offend the responsible recreational or competitive aerobatic pilot (the vast majority) is to call him or her a "stunt pilot". Unless they're one of the very small minority stupid enough to casually maneuver very close to the ground ... in which case that's what they are, not aerobatic pilots nor airshow pilots, but "stunt" (as in dumb) pilots!

For a realistic view into the world of the "average" competitive aerobatic pilot (not airshow pilot), their motivations and their attitude towards risk, read "One Zero Charlie: Adventures in Grass Roots Aviation" by Laurance Gonzales (still available used).

I found this book browsing in the library-had not read or heard anything about it. I could not put it down once I started reading-but let me set some criteria first before one runs out and buys it. I agree with what the acro pilot from Colorado says, but I factored that in as I read it. I fly sailplanes in the Rockies, and this may be considered high-risk by some. The authors descriptions of why people participate in risk sports makes reading the book worth reading IMHO. If you enjoy reading of other's adventures, or try to figure out why you ski/windsurf/skydive/kayak/rock-climb/etc---READ THIS BOOK. And for aviation types, it offers that rare combination of excellent writing from someone who understands piloting. The description of pilots is priceless.

There's so much misunderstanding about competitive aerobatics that the aerobatic community has an obligation to bristle at the sensationalistic and very skewed opinions of the author. Those that think these pilots are insane lunatics will definitely get their "I told you so!" moments in this book. The truth of the subject of this book is somewhere between the positive and negative reviews. People get killed every year performing aerobatics - all of them without exception were not competing or were airshow/stunt pilots. There's never been a fatality at an aerobatic contest owing to the extreme measures these pilot exercise to make it so. That's the main disappointment with this book. It misses the intense passion that everyday kind of people/pilots have for this sport and how they're able to muster the rare skills to do it well.

What an interesting, thoughtful, engaging book. It reminds me of The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I got this book from a pilot friend who recommended it as a great read even for people who aren't into flying or extreme sports, for that matter (I hate flying and he thought this might help a bit to see people do far more dangerous things in a plane than just take off, fly and land... it did help a bit).

The author writes about what makes people fly upside down five feet from the ground at hundreds of miles per hour and his own struggles with life and why he feels the need to do such things. I love his descriptions of the people in the aerobatics world. What a cast of characters. It is almost an anthropology book... as it lets you peek into a world totally foreign to most of the planet.

I loved this book and could barely put it down. The overly-technical stuff you can just skim if you aren't into it and get to the gems about his life, life and what makes people take risks. Great, great book.

I heard of this book on NPR many years ago. As an airline pilot and one that also flies skydivers, this book is the perfect medium to transport me into the cockpit of an aerobatic pilot's lifestyle. A great read!!

Read this book in a weekend. Author is very intellectual and what results is a well-researched tightly written book. Excellent!

No Visible Horizon boasts a cover reminiscent of Richard Bach's works, but you can't judge a book by its cover.

Sergei is a phenomenal coach, Phil is a heckuva competitor, and Leo was a champion's champion. Other than that, the author and I disagree on much of the aerobatic world. I'm a current aerobatic competitor, instructor, and coach, and have flown as a member of three air show teams. Aerobatics has been my livelihood for two decades. I can repsect the author's perception of aerobatic flying, but do not think it reflects the viewpoints of most aerobatic pilots I know. Unfortunately, it does fit a common misconception that pilots who engage in aerobatics are reckless. In that, the book does aerobatics a great disservice.

Getting lost in a well-written book is magical. Discovering a well-written book about flying is doubly so--the mystique and beauty of flight have rightfully fascinated the human race for centuries. What delights me about Richard Bach's treatment of flight, or Beryl Markham's, or Antoine Saint-Exupery's, or Anne Morrow Lindbergh's, is their unabashed enthusiasm. Their writing could easily be about the love of one's life, strong with wonder and awe and humility. These are great writers.

Ramo, on the other hand, writes about aerobatics as though bragging of some cheap and tawdry "one-night-stand." The story seems to be more about conquest than passion, more about dominance than love. There's a gratuitous sensationalism, and egocentricity, that makes it read like a tabloid. The physics of aerobatics as presented are flawed. There were inaccuracies in several areas with which I have first-hand experience, and it made me question the accuracy of the rest of the book as well.

I wanted to like this book because of the subject matter, but I cannnot recommend it. I'm just glad a read a borrowed copy instead of buying one.