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Flight For Control
After a ten-year leave, Kathryn Jacobs has been invited back to the N.T.S.B to investigate a series of unexplained airline crashes. But her husband, Captain Bill Jacobs, has his concerns. While her twin daughters are off at camp, and Bill is actively campaigning for the Pilot Union Presidency, Kathryn secretly begins her investigation. What she learns will shock the nation. Flight For Control is a thriller that reads like a mystery. But to Kathryn, there is no mystery on the condition of the airline industry-it's broken. Planes are crashing. Pensions are lost. Pilots are financially and emotionally bankrupt due to fatigue, furloughs, and loss of seniority. It's time that someone takes control before it's too late-unless it already is. Your life is in your pilot's hands. Do you know who's flying your plane?
396 pages, Hardcover
First published January 10, 2012
22 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 27, 2012
An excellent read. Plot and character development are first rate. A real "page turner". If you like aviation or a mystery Flight for Control is a must read.
October 24, 2013
I listened to the audio book, which was an average performance. The book itself was not very well written. The female characters were two dimensional and the men were one dimensional. The plot was pretty contrived and poorly executed. I was pretty sure whodunnit before the end, and it was hard to finish. I certainly don't know any women who play strip poker, or undress in front of each other randomly, and it had that women bonding vibe that feels so artificial. I've read many airplane crash fiction (which is why I decided to listen to this book in the first place) and this was definitely subpar, both in detail and readability. I don't like giving poor reviews, but I really didn't enjoy this book.
April 3, 2012
Nice mystery/thriller set in the aviation industry. Premise was kinda crazy but still a fun read.
August 30, 2012
Worst Kindle purchase this year.
Page upon page concerning booze, drugs and gratuitous sex.
Not in the least what I expected from the decription.
Page upon page concerning booze, drugs and gratuitous sex.
Not in the least what I expected from the decription.
January 25, 2018
Wild
And scary ride through the inner workings of the pilots life at the airlines. Sure glad that it's just a novel and not real life. Right Karlene?
Love the ALPO reference!
And scary ride through the inner workings of the pilots life at the airlines. Sure glad that it's just a novel and not real life. Right Karlene?
Love the ALPO reference!
April 9, 2018
Terrible. Is there an award for worst air safety investigation fiction? Skip all the sex stuff and start about chapter 60 if you read this dog. I'll pass on her following three in the series.
July 19, 2013
There are aviation yarns, and then there are aviation yarns. This one has it all: intrigue, crashing airplanes, drugged pilots, revenge, sex, ‘layovers,’demented doctors and sinister people bent on taking control of the entire U.S. commercial aviation industry for their own aggrandizement. Flight For Control has more plot twists and convolutions than the localizer approach to LaGuardia with a Canarsie transition.
Airplanes are falling out of the air, and the NTSB can’t seem to figure out why. Past investigator Kathryn offers to help solve the puzzle, but her husband, Bill, a pilot and president of the Airline Pilots Organization, the pilots’ union, demands that she remove herself from the cases. Bill is a bad dude, and he gets worse as the book moves down its angled, poorly-marked but inevitable taxiway toward a conclusion that, although a bit far-fetched, comes to be believable in this age of terror and exotic plot twists. I won’t give it away here, but it comes out making sense, trust me.
Ms Petitt is an airline pilot and writer, and her expertise comes through in both cases. She clearly knows her way around a cockpit, with technical details of various Boeing products at her fingertips, and a way of making those details clear to her readers. She creates tension in every chapter, introducing twists and turns that move things along. Her characters have their own motivations throughout, and their voices and movements stay true to form. Just when the reader thinks they’ve solved the riddle, Petitt does her writerly aerobatics and fits yet another flight delay into the departure sequence.
Kathryn has her own demons, including the death of a brother and uncle in a plane crash in which she should have been a passenger. That accident leads to her mother’s suicide, and this tragic family legend is Bill’s key to ending Kathryn’s investigation, which is sniffing too close for comfort around him. The end is as satisfying as these things go, with the bad guy in jail ‘for a very long time,’ Darby, a principal character not really… well, read the book, I won’t give too much away, and Kathryn in position to make the changes her criminal husband could not.
There are a few glitches in the book. Perhaps a bit too much suspension of disbelief for some, though as I said, these days anything is possible. This reader wondered about the reference to fourth and fifth degree burns. Perhaps this is a local hospital designation, however I’ve not heard of any burns beyond third degree. Bill’s planting the 757 in Puget sound seems derivative of the US Airways 1549 Hudson River adventure in January 2009, and perhaps it is, but it does work. This is fiction, after all. Certain people seem to move about in the plot without anyone questioning their activity, and in the days of HIPAA regulations, certain hospital procedures, such as sharing patient information with strangers, would not be tolerated. But this is fiction. Also, I wondered about Princess the cat. A bit gratuitous? Perhaps. It does give us a look into the soot-blackened soul of Bill Jacobs, so I suppose the author can be forgiven by us readers, if not by PETA.
All in all a dandy story about the airline industry and a behind the scenes look at the emotional, financial and physical aspects of people who make it run. If half of what Petitt says about fatigue, pay-levels, job security and career satisfaction is the case, the safety of airline travel is nothing short of a miracle. Full disclosure, this reviewer flew commercially in the helicopter business for many years, so I know first hand some of the pressures and irritations of the job. I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say, “...but you get to fly!” That fact never paid one bill, trust me. Those who labor today in the vineyard of the sky ought to get our— pun intended— undying devotion and consideration. Read Flight For Control. And next time you fly, tell the whole crew what a fantastic job they did. Better yet, write their chief pilot a letter and cite that crew in it.
Byron Edgington, author ofThe Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life
Airplanes are falling out of the air, and the NTSB can’t seem to figure out why. Past investigator Kathryn offers to help solve the puzzle, but her husband, Bill, a pilot and president of the Airline Pilots Organization, the pilots’ union, demands that she remove herself from the cases. Bill is a bad dude, and he gets worse as the book moves down its angled, poorly-marked but inevitable taxiway toward a conclusion that, although a bit far-fetched, comes to be believable in this age of terror and exotic plot twists. I won’t give it away here, but it comes out making sense, trust me.
Ms Petitt is an airline pilot and writer, and her expertise comes through in both cases. She clearly knows her way around a cockpit, with technical details of various Boeing products at her fingertips, and a way of making those details clear to her readers. She creates tension in every chapter, introducing twists and turns that move things along. Her characters have their own motivations throughout, and their voices and movements stay true to form. Just when the reader thinks they’ve solved the riddle, Petitt does her writerly aerobatics and fits yet another flight delay into the departure sequence.
Kathryn has her own demons, including the death of a brother and uncle in a plane crash in which she should have been a passenger. That accident leads to her mother’s suicide, and this tragic family legend is Bill’s key to ending Kathryn’s investigation, which is sniffing too close for comfort around him. The end is as satisfying as these things go, with the bad guy in jail ‘for a very long time,’ Darby, a principal character not really… well, read the book, I won’t give too much away, and Kathryn in position to make the changes her criminal husband could not.
There are a few glitches in the book. Perhaps a bit too much suspension of disbelief for some, though as I said, these days anything is possible. This reader wondered about the reference to fourth and fifth degree burns. Perhaps this is a local hospital designation, however I’ve not heard of any burns beyond third degree. Bill’s planting the 757 in Puget sound seems derivative of the US Airways 1549 Hudson River adventure in January 2009, and perhaps it is, but it does work. This is fiction, after all. Certain people seem to move about in the plot without anyone questioning their activity, and in the days of HIPAA regulations, certain hospital procedures, such as sharing patient information with strangers, would not be tolerated. But this is fiction. Also, I wondered about Princess the cat. A bit gratuitous? Perhaps. It does give us a look into the soot-blackened soul of Bill Jacobs, so I suppose the author can be forgiven by us readers, if not by PETA.
All in all a dandy story about the airline industry and a behind the scenes look at the emotional, financial and physical aspects of people who make it run. If half of what Petitt says about fatigue, pay-levels, job security and career satisfaction is the case, the safety of airline travel is nothing short of a miracle. Full disclosure, this reviewer flew commercially in the helicopter business for many years, so I know first hand some of the pressures and irritations of the job. I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say, “...but you get to fly!” That fact never paid one bill, trust me. Those who labor today in the vineyard of the sky ought to get our— pun intended— undying devotion and consideration. Read Flight For Control. And next time you fly, tell the whole crew what a fantastic job they did. Better yet, write their chief pilot a letter and cite that crew in it.
Byron Edgington, author ofThe Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life
May 27, 2013
I love airplanes and stories about pilots, so I was immediately drawn to this one. The book has a very exciting opening chapter: the observation of a plane crash from inside the cockpit, through the eyes of the co-pilot.
The protagonist is Kathryn, a former National Safety Transportation Board investigator, married to a pilot who is about to be elected as Chairman of the Pilots' Union. Due to a raft of recent accidents, the NTSB wants to call her back to duty, which she accepts while keeping the information from her controlling and rather jealous husband.
The book is generally well written and has good pace. Also Petitt is a pilot and is very knowledgeable on the subjet. I really valued the political message in the book that she delivered through the story and did not bang me over the head with it, namely: if we force airlines to compete on price and we weaken the regulations, we face the inevitability of safety risks.
However Flight for Control has a couple of flaws that can not be overlooked:
- The basic premise of the book, which I will not spoil for you here, is a bit far-fetched. In reading thrillers and crime fiction, we all suspend our disbelief to some extent but this premise just goes too far.
- Male and female writers both operate on a spectrum of "sensitivity" for want of a better word. For example at one end, writers line John Locke write testosterone filled books at the 'male' end of the spectrum. Whereas many female authors spend a lot of time on the nuances of relationships and love. One of my favorite authors is L. J. Sellers. She has it just absolutely right! Karlene Petitt however spends way too much time on the agonizing of the female characters that it becomes a distraction and got me skipping pages.
For these reasons, I can only award three stars and I felt ripped off at buying the Kindle edition for $9.99. However, if these don't bother you, you will find it a great read.
The protagonist is Kathryn, a former National Safety Transportation Board investigator, married to a pilot who is about to be elected as Chairman of the Pilots' Union. Due to a raft of recent accidents, the NTSB wants to call her back to duty, which she accepts while keeping the information from her controlling and rather jealous husband.
The book is generally well written and has good pace. Also Petitt is a pilot and is very knowledgeable on the subjet. I really valued the political message in the book that she delivered through the story and did not bang me over the head with it, namely: if we force airlines to compete on price and we weaken the regulations, we face the inevitability of safety risks.
However Flight for Control has a couple of flaws that can not be overlooked:
- The basic premise of the book, which I will not spoil for you here, is a bit far-fetched. In reading thrillers and crime fiction, we all suspend our disbelief to some extent but this premise just goes too far.
- Male and female writers both operate on a spectrum of "sensitivity" for want of a better word. For example at one end, writers line John Locke write testosterone filled books at the 'male' end of the spectrum. Whereas many female authors spend a lot of time on the nuances of relationships and love. One of my favorite authors is L. J. Sellers. She has it just absolutely right! Karlene Petitt however spends way too much time on the agonizing of the female characters that it becomes a distraction and got me skipping pages.
For these reasons, I can only award three stars and I felt ripped off at buying the Kindle edition for $9.99. However, if these don't bother you, you will find it a great read.
December 15, 2014
I found Flight for Control while searching for Kindle reads, and discovered a very compelling story. I enjoyed the details on cockpit procedures and the aviation industry. Pettit's characters were well written, although I did want to smack her protagonist more than a few times.
The one thing that took me out of the story was the timeline. The book has a 2012 publication date, so I assumed it was in a contemporary setting. Yet there were references to characters fighting in Vietnam. That would make them all approaching mandatory retirement without any mention of this in the book. The characters all seemed to be in their mid thirties to mid forties.
Beyond that, I enjoyed this book immensely, and I'm already embarking on another flight with Ms. Petitt.
The one thing that took me out of the story was the timeline. The book has a 2012 publication date, so I assumed it was in a contemporary setting. Yet there were references to characters fighting in Vietnam. That would make them all approaching mandatory retirement without any mention of this in the book. The characters all seemed to be in their mid thirties to mid forties.
Beyond that, I enjoyed this book immensely, and I'm already embarking on another flight with Ms. Petitt.
July 12, 2012
Karlene knows the aviation business and reflects her knowledge throughout the book. I read this book while flying into and out of Seattle. Bad timing. Flight for Control held my interest from start to finish. Great descriptions. excellent character arcs, and lots of neat plots and crashes. So there is a good balance of internal and external conflicts.
That said, the flashback scenes catch the reader off guard, and the party scenes where multiple characters are interacting can be confusing at times. A nice read. However, DO NOT ATTEMPT WHILE FLYING! lol
That said, the flashback scenes catch the reader off guard, and the party scenes where multiple characters are interacting can be confusing at times. A nice read. However, DO NOT ATTEMPT WHILE FLYING! lol
August 23, 2012
Karlene writes from an insider's perspective. As a long-time airline pilot herself, she knows the in and outs of piloting and dealing with the FAA.
The book begins with the crash of an airliner and goes through subsequent crashes of too many planes to be coincidental. Kathryn Jacobs, the protagonist, is a former accident investigator for the NTSB and is drawn back onto duty by her former boss.
It's a long book, but it holds the interest all the way through.
The book begins with the crash of an airliner and goes through subsequent crashes of too many planes to be coincidental. Kathryn Jacobs, the protagonist, is a former accident investigator for the NTSB and is drawn back onto duty by her former boss.
It's a long book, but it holds the interest all the way through.
January 15, 2016
Scary Good
I am not a fan of flying so this book makes me even less a fan. All airlines are beholden and driven by stockholders who only want profits. This book tells me that self regulation of the airline industry is not working. Why do planes fly if they have pilots so jetlagged they are basically drunk.
This book has a great storyline, great character building, and unbelievably scary in the fact that it could happen
I am not a fan of flying so this book makes me even less a fan. All airlines are beholden and driven by stockholders who only want profits. This book tells me that self regulation of the airline industry is not working. Why do planes fly if they have pilots so jetlagged they are basically drunk.
This book has a great storyline, great character building, and unbelievably scary in the fact that it could happen
January 4, 2014
Karlene Pettit has written a highly improbable plot, but as a mother/wife of three airline pilots, I think she has nailed the complex problems faced by commercial pilots throughout their careers, and the lack of recognition of these problems by the FAA, and their employers. Very readable, whether you are associated with the airline industry or not.
March 9, 2015
Extremely original, and I can see calling it thrilling, yet so implausible. Give it a good copy-edit, correcting the numerous errors such as "starring" instead of "staring," and I would raise my rating to four stars.
April 9, 2012
WOW! Way better then I expected this book to be!!! I feel it is the aviation version of Kathy Reichs Temperance Brennan Novels and Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Isles Series..
September 26, 2015
Flight For Control review
Wow! What a story. Flight For Control is a fast paced action adventure about pilots and the airline industry written by author Karlene Petitt.
Wow! What a story. Flight For Control is a fast paced action adventure about pilots and the airline industry written by author Karlene Petitt.
May 28, 2015
Great book written by my friend Karlene, I will read her next one as soon as I can.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews