Customer Reviews

Zero 3 Bravo: Solo Across America in a Small Plane

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Luscombe isn't my favorite lightplane, but it is Gosnell's, and she writes about it with such affection that I'd like to fly one. The trip evidently takes place in the late 1970s, because Jimmy Carter is president. (She visits Plains GA and the largest peanut-butter factory in the world.) Gosnell is a journalist, so she goes out of her way to visit unlikely places and meet interesting people. (Among them is the crew of the man-powered Gossamer Condor, whose record-breaking flight she is on hand to document.) I feel sorry for the lad who quit reading on page 10. He missed a wonderful yarn, and one that deserves a place on the bookshelf of any lightplane pilot. -- Dan Ford

Ms. Gosnell offers us a wonderful extended visit with the great variety and unique personalities that populate the small general aviation airports of America. As a pilot who usually flies at bigger, less personal airports; I'm reminded of my experiences at the smaller fields I've visited where love of flying is more important than profit and people are truly unique. While the flying descriptions are well done and accurate, this book is really about the journey and the people and events encountered along the way. The book is for everyone, not just pilots. I'm going to pull out my charts and re-visit some of those small fields I usually just fly over!

The author presents us with a lovely world of flying from place to place in her airplane. The anecdotes are well-limned, the sentiments carefully expressed, the philosophies true.

The style is informative and recreational and always engaging.

This book was a good choice to read after recently finishing "Crazy in the Cockpit." I confess I skipped/skimmed through the more technical aviation-related sections, concentrating on the travel narrative aspect. Makes for good bedside reading.

With my AOPA Airport guide with me when I read, I kept track of where she flew each step of the way. Being a female pilot myself, I understood her feelings along the way. I hated to finish the book and end the wonderful experience. A trip I hope to make someday.

I was so sorry when I had reached the last page!! This book is written with such clarity, such unjaded enthusiasm and love for flying that I was along with Marianna on each step of the coast to coast and back adventure!! I cringed and cowered at the dangerous parts - she took some real risks - not necessarily in the air!! I wanted to rescue the puppy!! If you are even remotely interested in light aircraft, this will whip up your enthusiasm - so take a break from your simulator and try a real simulator!! Enjoy!!

I loved William Least Heat Moon's "Blue Highways" describing his travels on the back roads of America. Now Mariana Gosnell has done an aerial version of it and has done it equally well. I had two childhood dreams. I'll never be a cowboy but, even at my advanced age, I can be a pilot. Until then, please take me with you on your next odyssey Mariana

From her preflight musings in the office to her final landing at Spring Valley, her story is never old or cliche. The highs and lows of cross country flying are told in beautiful detail. Each page tells a tale, and paints a vivid and colorful portrait of an America that few of us get to see or experience. If you love flying, or are just curious about what it feels like to fly, this book is as close as you can get outside of the cockpit.

Walk away from a less than perfect flight and the self-criticism can be paralyzing. Walk away from a successful flight and you're on top of the world. Why did I relate most to Gosnell's one and only paragraph in which she expresses her self-doubts and cries? Because that maybe best captures this spirit of aviation: to test yourself, your capabilities and limits, and to flourish. I'd like to believe a male aviator could write with such modesty. As in the cliche - It's not the destination, but the journey.

I only recently found a copy of this book and, having learned to fly in a Luscombe myself, felt a kindred spirit and acquired the book. Since I now fly a glass cockpit jet, I fear I have become too far removed from my roots. Ms. Gosnell's book helped me relive so many adventures of my own. Her book made me long for the simple yet intense adventures such a trek can provide.

She does a great job of showing how aviation has a way of transcending social differences. She artfully expresses the attitudes of the aviation fraternity without overstating.

Kudos to Ms. Gosnell. This book is a true adventure and Ms. Gosnell has a great story to tell. She is every womans's anywoman in an enviroment that is brutally equal to all who tread upon it, the sky!