Customer Reviews

Noel Wien: Alaska Pioneer Bush Pilot (Classic Reprint Series)

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This book is one of my favorites. I am buying another as I have worn down the original paperback that I found in a used bookstore. The book follows the life of Noel Wien from his beginnings in rural Minnesota to his eventual ownership of the largest Airline in Alaska. If you are a pilot or if you are an aviation afficianado, this book will appeal to you. The stories are very readable and the writer does a great job of making them storylike. He ties Wien into Alaska's history, especially the early days of aviation.

I see that this is now out as a reprint and inasmuch as I just finished reading an original hardcover, I am glad to see it is being made available to keep alive the incredible story of Noel Wien and his pioneering of bush pilot flying in Alaska.

To those of us who fly in modern airplanes with marvelous instruments over well laid out air routes with accurate maps and GPS's, the stories of the exploits of Noel Wien and others in the early days of flying in Alaska read like fiction.

To begin with, Alaka is down right inhospitable to airplanes, especially airplanes in the 1920's. The hardships and problems of operating an open cockpit aircraft in that environment would be enough to discourage all but the most resolute and most talented pilots. Just living in Alaska in those times was only for the rugged and adventurous.

The author has told Wien's story in a most readable way which will leave you shaking your head at his experiences and difficulties, yet filled with admiration that there was a man so filled with the spirit of adventure, courage and talent that he stood head and shoulders over those that followed him, both as a pilot and a man.