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Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 9:33 pm
by skybaron
Looking for a good book to flip about tales of float flying...
Any top rated recommends?

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 10:02 pm
by 5400AirportRdSouth
You'd like anything by Jack Schofield, some great west coast float flying yarns;

Flights of a coast dog
Coast dogs don't lie
No numbered runways

Good for quick reading, just collections of his stories and experiences.

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 7:34 am
by Siddley Hawker
Flying On The Edge - Tales of flying in Newfoundland and Labrador by Gene Manion. Really great read about Newfoundland Air Transport.
My Life In The North by the late Jack Lamb. Great story, particularly the DC-3 ferry from Kabul to The Pas.
The Accidental Airline, all about QCA. Forget the author, Jim Spillsbury?

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:18 am
by PA-18
I'd have to say "Bush Pilot With A Briefcase" - story of Grant McConache
as well as "For The Love Of Flying" - story of Laurentien air serive
These are my favorite 2 books on bush flying

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 1:15 pm
by . ._
"Bush Pilot With A Briefcase" was definitely a good read. Lots of things in it that make you think, "JEEBUS! These guys were lucky as hell!" :shock:

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 11:43 pm
by pilotidentity
I agree with all of the above - also - Wings of the North by Dick Turner

And

"Arctic Pilot" by Walter Gilbert - this book was written in 1939 about the flying he did up north in 1931. Good luck finding it but its a gem. The pages are almost 1/8 of an inch thick. Its fun to read as not much has changed with pilots or the companies they fly for.



http://archives.cbc.ca/science_technolo ... ips/16967/

Love this one about the Lambs http://archives.cbc.ca/economy_business ... ips/16900/

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 1:52 pm
by sheephunter
I just finished the Artic Fox / Don Braun & Warren and it was good but not a lot really about float flying but a lot of northern adventure. Liked Bush Pilot with a brief case, it tells of a lot of things we now get pounded into our heads during training which Grant obviously didn't take seriously or had a thick skull "ice was one of them". He are a few more, I'll let the others critique as I will read anything to do with aviation... especially in the north.

Trespassing in Gods Country / George Theriault
True North / George Erickson
Smoke in the Cockpit / Don "Smokey" Patry
Glacier Pilot / Berth Day
Bent Props and Blow Pots / Rex Terpening
Wager with the wind / James Greiner
On Patrol / Ray Tremblay
Bush Pilots / Peter Boer
Bush Flying / Robert S. Grant
CloudDancer's Alaskan Chronicles / CloudDancer
CloudDancer's Alaskan Chronicles II / CloudDancer
Pilots of the Purple Twilight / Philip H. Godsell
Wings of the North / Dick Turner
Bush and Arctic Pilot / A.R. (Al) Williams
Harold Farrington Pioneer Bush Pilot / D.F. Parrott
and finally I just got for my birthday a couple days ago and will start reading tonight For the Love of Flying / Daniell Metcalfe-Chenail. and I didn't mention Stick & Rudder because of being more about technical flying than float or bush flying but it is one pilots should read every few years and especially young pilots coming out of school.

This should keep you busy. I find most used on ebay or amazon and don't walk by many bookstores without having a look.

Thanks to those of you that have added titles. Appears I need to search for a few. Look like some good reads still out there.

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 2:35 pm
by sheephunter
Just found two more while organizing the others.
The Alaska Bush Pilot Chronicles / Mort D. Mason
Lost - True Stoires of Canadian Aviation Tragedies / Shirlee Smith Matheson

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 11:30 pm
by Rowdy
funny.. I've read all of the above....

I have a signed copy of george theriaults... trespassing in gods country. His son is AMAZING to work for btw. I wish George jr would write a book...

Same goes for my old man.. the stories he has are amazing.. I'm writing a few of em down just in case

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:26 pm
by Widgeon Guy
Bent Props and Blow Pots
A Pioneer Remembers Northern Bush Flying
Mention "bush plane" and most Canadians think of Wop Amy, Punch Dickins and the other intrepid aviators who flew open-cockpit planes across Canada's uncharted north after WWI . But those pilots wouldn't have gone far without the diligence and derring-do of "air engineers" such as Rex Terpening. It was the engineer's job to fly alongside the pilot, coddling the often-cantankerous aircraft through sub-zero temps., improvised landings & the inevitable crashes. Fortunately for today's readers, Terpening carried a camera and pencil along with his toolbox. His unique personal trove of photos, notes and anecdotes- and his unflagging sense of humor-make Bent Props & Blow Pots a mesmerizing and rollicking read.

Harbour Publishing

Not bad good photos to.

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:55 am
by 185_guy
+1 on Bent Props and Blow Pots,

Bush and Arctic Pilot by Al Williams is a good book about his personal experiences mostly in a Norseman,

I just got a hold of "Austin Airways" by Larry Milberry. It looks to be a good look back through the history of one of Canada's oldest airlines.

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 10:33 am
by supercub7
Flying the Alaska Wild/ Mort Mason

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 6:33 pm
by oldncold
Two i would recommend 1/ arctic wings by william leising and 2/ Southern Cross by sir w Kingsford. great reads.

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 1:17 am
by adhc2
"Flying Overloaded" By Don Hamilton. Three generations of Artic Bush Pilots, and his the son Fred still runs an operation up there based out of Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island Nunavut. The book is about flying in the High Arctic primarily with a piston Otter year round. A truly amazing collection of tales about the challenges up there in the old days. I flew up there for his son in 2008 and 2009 and it was some of the most challenging flying I,ve done. Available through their web site http://www.HighArctic.com

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 9:02 pm
by DPFriesen
Rich Hulina of Sioux Lookout has self-published a book of his award-winning photography, "Bush Flying Captured". A lovely coffee-table book with great shots of many bush planes in Northwestern Ontario, Manitoba, the West Coast, and Alaska. I was fortunate to participate in some of the shoots, this one being my favourite.

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 11:02 pm
by beechnut
The Pathless Way

Justin DeGauthier author

B.C Airline in the 1960's is another great read if you life B.C Coast Aviation .

it is long out of print but can be found on the use markets

Regards Beechnut

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:07 pm
by The Old Fogducker
The Pathless Way was excellent ... good call beechnut.

I must have read it twenty times before I started flying the coast in Beavers VFS and YYU.

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:36 pm
by tcraft
Trail of the wild goose, Hank or Bud Parsons, can`t remember what one,good read.

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 4:12 pm
by AirDoan
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but thought it wasn't worth a whole new one. Anyone in the YYJ area have a couple of these books I can borrow? I do prefer physical books to e-type and I'm trying to save some money for my first float season road trip and can't really afford books! I am slow at my current work and would like to do something moderately constructive instead of watching TV or refreshing the employment section every five minutes.

Re: Best Float Flying Read

Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2017 1:10 pm
by oldtimer
Trail of the Wild Goose was written by H.P. "Hank" Parsons, Parson's Airways Northern Ltd. of Flin Flon, Man. Hanks brothers, Bud and Keith owned Parson's Airways, Kenora Ont. The NFB has a short video called "Bush Pilot:
Birth of a myth.' available on their web site or it is also on YouTube. Hank Parsons has a cameo in the video. If there is one thing about the NFB production it is the fact that the sound effects are about the most true to like I have ever encountered. I spent 4 years with Parson's Airways Northern limited on the Norseman and even the sounds the waves make up against the floats are so very true to life.