Showing results for "scott birrell"

When Scott Birrell said he wanted to be a pilot after leaving school, his headmaster's response was crushing: 'Don't be stupid, boy.' This is the story of how he proved his ambition was anything but stupid.After taking his first flying lesson at the age of 14, he went on to be a flying instructor, a commercial pilot flying the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, an international airline captain, a chief trainer, a senior pilot examiner and a major figure in the aviation world....

In this memoir, the author of Nimrod: Rise and Fall details his experience testing the UK's strategic bomber while flying for Avro during the Cold War.In 2007, a restored Avro Vulcan Mark 2—XH558—took to the skies to help commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Falklands conflict. To coincide with this, the memoirs of one of its test pilots, Tony Blackman, was published to great acclaim.Tony flew no less than 105 of the 136 built, logging 850 flights...

A Bucket of Sunshine – a term coined by RAF aircrew for the nuclear bomb that their aircraft would be armed with - is a first-hand insight into life in the mid-1960s on a RAF Canberra nuclear-armed squadron in West Germany, on the frontline in the Cold War. The English-Electric Canberra was a first-generation jet-powered light bomber manufactured in large numbers in the 1950s. The Canberra B(I)8, low-level interdictor version was used by RAF Germany squadrons at t...

Emergency is a collection of true stories about events where disaster seems imminent. Yet each situation is concluded without loss of life thanks to the skill of the pilots and their crews, whose bravery and resourcefulness have earned them well-deserved commendations. Written by a British Airways First Officer, Stanley Stewart, who has spoken at first hand with the pilots and crews involved in all the incidents recorded here, the book offers a unique insight into what really happened: not...

Three thousand feet above the Zambian bush, the DHC2 Beaver had only ten minutes' fuel remaining. Night was drawing in; ground features were indiscernible. I could not raise anyone on the radio. Would this be the end? John Flexman knew he wanted to be a pilot from moment he saw an RAF flypast as a boy of eight. At sixteen he joined the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy, getting his 'wings' in 1961 at the age of 18. From there on he never looked back. His flying career took him around the wor...

The smash-hit bestseller about the world's worst air crashes and the disaster detectives who pick through the wreckage to find out why they happened - now fully revised and updated, with 30% new material.From the early tragedies of the Comet and the DC10 to the modern-day horror of the Concorde catastrophe in Paris and the mysterious loss of an Air France Airbus over the Atlantic, Faith painstakingly recreates the accidents, explains what went wrong and discusses how they can be pre...

Are you amongst those who fly because they have to, yet dread it? You are in good company. There are many like you who reluctantly fly, perhaps because of work or due to the fact they won’t allow their fears to curtail their enjoyment of life. Statistics are of no help. What can help, though, is a better understanding of exactly what is happening during a typical flight from the only vantage point that counts, your passenger seat. This eBook uses friendly language and terminology to clearl...

Air travel is one of the safest modes of travel when we take into account the distances and freedom that it allows us. And yet, we still remain obsessed with aviation disasters. What caused these accidents? Whose fault was it? In her series of books, Why Planes Crash, Sylvia Wrigley investigates the worst aviation disasters of the twenty first century.Why Planes Crash: 2001 is the first of the series. Wrigley has put together eleven of the most interesting inciden...

Air travel is an almost essential part of everyday life. A significant proportion of travelers are curious about what is actually happening on the flight deck. This book, based on forty years of personal experiences, takes the reader into the cockpit.Written in a humorous style, it relates incidents, accidents and some romantic attachments. The narrative includes the transport of a complete circus, a period spent flying for an African mining company, a brush with Nigerian authoriti...

“I will never forget my first flight, the feeling of being pushed back in the seat, the rumbling that suddenly turned into silence. It fascinated me then, it does now.”When Ryan Campbell was six, he fell in love with aeroplanes. Inspired by his first flight, and his uncle and grandfather who were both aviators, flying was a passion that dominated his childhood. It was no surprise to his family and friends when at 15 Ryan became the youngest pilot in Australia. Then...

The definitive account of the rise and fall of the iconic Concorde plane from British Airways' former Chief Concorde Pilot'A remarkable story' DAILY EXPRESS'A stonking good read' FLYER_________What's it like to fly faster than a bullet?Could you really glimpse the edge of space?Why will we never see Concorde's like again?Mike Bannister was British Airways' Chief Concorde...

No aircraft is absolutely safe. This book is about Aviation, from learning to fly, becoming a test pilot, flight testing, demonstrating on some of the third world's worst airfields, then specializing in Avionics and finally joining the Board of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, helping to formulate the regulations that the author had spent so many years living by. Many stories are told, including flying with the legendary Howard Hughes when the world thought him a mad recluse, and testing m...