The story of the author-aviator's summer-long experience-of-a-lifetime, flying his magnificent open-cockpit biplane through 11 European countries. Flying, friends, food and fun are told as it happened in daily emails all reproduced here, with new materials explaining the backstory that leads to this great adventure, as well as the amazing story of how the 7-year flying adventures ended. Most of the book was written as it happened.
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About the Author
At the age of 50, Michael McCafferty sold his software company, and in the process traded the stressful life of an entrepreneur for the life he had so long imagined. This included exotic cars, fantasy homes, and his beautiful open-cockpit biplane. This period of 7 years was filled with many extraordinary experiences, and this book tells the true story of the best of them. That life of conspicuous consumption and outrageous behavior is now over, traded for a life of helping others, and as an advisor to entrepreneurs. 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are donated to research for a cure to paralysis due to spinal cord injury, currently Rutgers University's Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience - The Spinal Cord Injury Project. Michael McCafferty lives in Del Mar, California. Email: FastMikie@Gmail.com Website: MichaelMcCafferty.com
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More About the Author
Aviator, writer, entrepreneur, mentor, angel investor in software startups.
Inventor of "TeleMagic" the first "CRM" or contact-management software for the PC, in 1985.
Inventor of "TeleMagic" the first "CRM" or contact-management software for the PC, in 1985.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An artfully-told adventure tale you'll gobble, as I did,
By
This review is from: The Spirit of Adventure: Touring Europe in an Open Cockpit Biplane (Paperback)
This marvelous tale might aptly be titled, "The ART of Adventure" because of the author's beautifully crafted saga, told in colorful, vivid language. I've visited many of the spots he flew to, and he's managed to capture the spirit of each. I live in Europe near one of the spots he describes on the French Riviera and it's taken me six months of daily life to "tune in" to cultural oddities he somehow managed to astutely capture and describe in just a few days.
It's the kind of book you needn't set out to read cover-to-cover. You could randomly flip to any day of this adventure log and be fascinated with that day's happenings. It's so compelling, though, that I'm sure you'll flip to another day immediately and won't want to miss one of them, once you've gotten just a taste of the author's artful style of writing. I didn't set out to read the whole book. But, once I'd skipped around to a few random days of his trip account, I just started at the first day and "flew" through the story along with him. It made me want to jump in the cockpit with him and fly off to the next destination. This man seems to "be here now" and expresses an over-arching, zen-like appreciation for for each amazing moment of his journey. It kept making me think of that "Jonathan Livingstone Seagull" book, except that this one's no fantasy. McCafferty really made this journey, though his spirit is every bit as moving as was the Seagull's fantasy. I once had a pilot's license, and reading this book makes me want to get it updated and fly again. You could read it for any number of reasons: airplanes, adventure, Europe, artful writing. Whatever your motivation, you'll be glad you did.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Adventuresome Spirit,
By
This review is from: The Spirit of Adventure: Touring Europe in an Open Cockpit Biplane (Paperback)
Here is a book for anybody stuck in a rut, living within four walls, who finds himself inside the box.
McCafferty takes you on his whirlwind tour of Europe by biplane and puts you square in the cockpit alongside him. Rarely will you get a chance to share the personal vision of such a gifted writer and at that on his own personal adventure! Spend the few dollars for this departure from the ordinary and wing on out of the doldrums!!! A portion of the price goes to support the author's favorite charity-the search for cures for spinal damage. You will not be sorry. I savored each page as a delicacy, and traveled to places I cannot go, in ways I can never afford nor do, as I am not at my age likely to become a pilot. Good enough to let McCafferty spin his tale! Now go back to the BUY link and pick up a few extra copies to send to friends who are perhaps just getting older. You will thank yourself and the author in short order.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you like Jack Kerouac, you will love Mike McCafferty,
This review is from: The Spirit of Adventure: Touring Europe in an Open Cockpit Biplane (Paperback)
Book Review: The Spirit of Adventure, by Michael McCafferty, ''on the road''
Jack Kerouac, move aside. Your successor is here. And he is way ahead of you, in the enjoyability of reading about his adventures, and in his method of traveling ''on the road''. His method is not hitch-hiking and boxcar jumping, but a much more pleasurable and comfortable piloting of his own open-cockpit biplane. This great fun book, The Spirit of Adventure, is an ''on-the-road''-style adventure story, the daily-journal account of the author's odyssey of flying his biplane up and down and across Europe during a whole summer of flying, and meeting new friends in the towns of Europe. It is extremely well-written, with wonderful and humorous descriptions of the interesting people, and of all the towns and cities of Europe through which he ventured, either landing in and touring, or flying low over, through high Alps mountain passes and Riviera sea coasts and resorts of the rich and famous---and of course there are beautiful photographs on almost every page, both from above in the sky, and from on the ground in Europe, which includes of course the British Isles and the author's ancestral homeland in County Donegal, Ireland, where he searched his ''roots'', and met some very interesting characters, whom you will immensely enjoy meeting too. This beautiful pictorial book is at the top of my list of the most pleasurable reading experiences I have ever had. I thank the author very much for having done such good work in putting together such a valuable reading ''adventure''. I thank him also for his great generosity in donating all the proceeds from the book to research in finding a cure for paralysis caused by spinal-cord injuries. I would recommend this book as highly as possible, and especially knowing that you are contributing to such a worthy cause, the relieving of great suffering for victims of spinal-cord injury. But aside from the charitable aspect, this book, The Spirit of Adventure, is a great read: very enjoyable; great writing; not a boring minute anywhere in it. You will look forward eagerly to getting back to it, every day when you wake up. If you like Jack Kerouac, you will love Mike McCafferty. Reviewed by Professor Michael Wargo, JD
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