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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Humorous Classic, good as a suppliment, September 23, 2000
A hilarious introduction to the Hang Gliding scene. This book does not replace a training manual, such as the excellent one written by Dennis Pagen. It is a great source of advice for novice pilots who are just coming off the training hill. Most of the advice is serious and much of it cannot be found elsewhere. A lot of what he says is incidental to actually flying, such as how to treat people who shuttle your vehicle. There is some overlap between Fair's book and a beginner training manual, but his audience is for pilots who already (barely) know how to fly, and this perspective allows him to skip much of the basic how-to stuff while concentrating on how to apply it to real-world conditions.Such as: how to launch in windy and gusty conditions, how to set up a landing on a small field, different types of turns, how to transition from a single-surface to a double-surface glider, etc. The tone of the book is like having a hip older brother or seasoned pilot take you under his wing and give friendly advice. The book has some of the author's own illustrations, which are effective if somewhat home-made. There are some hilarious chapters dealing with snappy answers to stupid questions such as "how do you breathe up there?", "what happens if you hit an air pocket?", and my all-time favorite "what do you do whjen your arms get tired?". The book is fun, cheap, and useful. If you aren't looking for a stand-alone Pilot's Bible, GO FOR IT. (one of the author's comments is never to elicit advice from someone named "Crash" who uses terms like "Far Out", "That's Cool", and "Go For It".)
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