Flight of Passage: A True Story

by Rinker Buck

Writer Rinker Buck looks back more than 30 years to a summer when he and his brother, at ages 15 and 17 respectively, became the youngest duo to fly across America, from New Jersey to California. Having grown up in an aviation family, the two boys bought an old Piper Cub, restored it themselves, and set out on the grand journey. Buck is a great storyteller, and once you get airborne with the boys you find yourself absorbed in a story of adventure and family drama. And Flight of Passage is also an affecting look back to the summer of 1966, when the times seemed much less cynical and adventures much more enjoyable.

Genres: Aviation, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Adventure, Travel, Autobiography

369 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Rinker Buck began his career in journalism at the Berkshire Eagle and was a longtime staff writer for the Hartford Courant. He has written for Vanity Fair, New York, Life, and many other publications, and his stories have won the Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Writing Award and the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award. He is the author of The Oregon Trail as well as the acclaimed memoirs Flight of Passage and First Job. He lives in northwest Connecticut.

Follow him at Facebook.com/RinkerBuck.

Reviews

[Phillip Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flight of passage is the story of Rinker and Kern Buck flying coast to coast in 1966 and it is an engrossing tale. The brothers went on an adventure that would not fly today because parents are more protective today or what you would call helicopter parents. Tom Buck and his wife trusted their sons to fly across America with no interference except for a few phone calls. Parents today would imagine worse case scenarios like crashing in the Rockies or being found dead mummified bodies in the desert. My mother was that way but the Bucks were willing to let their boys fly solo on an adventure with the possibility of death. What I also liked was how the Buck boys were committed to restoring the Piper Cub when many teenage boys would just slack off on weekends. The challenge in reading this book is understanding aviation terms that should have been explained in a glossary section. Overall, it was a great book about an adventure that many of us wish we had the courage to embark on.

[Coco · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never would have read this one if we had not chosen it for my book club. What a great find, though. Rinker Buck and his brother take a cross-country trip in a Piper Cub. Doesn't sound like much, I know, but their adventures, along with some unforgettable characters they meet along the way, make for a memorable read. Their dad is quite a guy and I really enjoyed looking at their family photos. Even if you don't care about aviation, give this one a try.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well boys I got one hell of a humdinger of a book for you. A book about a cross-country trip in a Piper Cub, about brothers, about father & son relationships, about a time when America was fighting to maintain innocent exuberant optimism in the face of challenges only a mature nation would be able to handle well... paralleling the lives of these two teens over the course of a critical few months in 1966.

It's got thrilling adventure, larger-than-life characters, laugh out loud humor, sex & alcohol & swearwords, hardly any girls or women, and, best of all, it's intelligent & wise. In fact, your women won't tsk at you for reading it, and might even want to do so themselves.

My mother recommended it to me, and I'm grateful. Now I'm passing it to my husband, confident that he'll enjoy it, too. 4.5 stars rounded down because no epilogue referring to his daughters (you'll know why that matters after meeting them in the beginning of the book). Highly recommended to boys, men, and people who love them. Or who are interested in the purported subject.

[William Liggett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you read a book of nonfiction that is as exciting as any thriller. This is such a book. Imagine flying from coast to coast of the United States in a single engine airplane with all the effects of weather, terrain, and pilot fatigue. Then imagine you did this at age 15 and 16 as Rinker Buck and his brother did. Even though, or maybe because, I'm a private pilot, some of the experiences they describe made me nervous. Their successful flight revealed their courage, skill, and youthful bravado. I recommend this book for anyone wanting to read a true adventure—safer than trying it yourself.

[Courtney Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great coming of age book for anyone interested in aviation. I savored each new challenge the young aviators faced and conquered. Highly recommend!

[Hermann Gucinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rinker Buck's memoir tells the story of growing up and breaking free from a strong Dad in a large catholic family in the early sixties, using a unique approach--he and his then 17-year old brother Kern totally re-build a plane, a Piper Cub bought for $300, and then fly it across the US from New Jersey to California and back--no radio, seat-of-the-pants flying. This could be a serious story for a specialized audience, but it is not--the humor--page after page of it--, the adventures, the timeless theme make for a page-turning read.

[Christian D. D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"FLIGHT OF PASSAGE" by Rinker Buck

Very engaging. A wonderful aviation adventure and coming-of-age story (a real-life Bildungsroman if you will) and family bonding tale all rolled into one.

RANDOM STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS:
--pp. 30-32: "'moon my ass to traffic'" story...."highly individualistic statement of my own"...."Fuck up, be a hero"....hilarious

--pp. 42-44: The author's dad's ballsy, daredevil landing reminds me of two proverbs of the aviation community: 1. "A good landing is any landing you walk away from." 2. "There are many old pilots, and there are many bold pilots, but there are few old bold pilots." The pilots' metaphorical phrase "Pushing the envelope" also comes to mimd.

--p. 48: "mythic Texas," heh heh

--p. 52: The T-6 Texan had "these immense, clunky dials that looked like they belonged in a Soviet spacecraft." Heh heh, da tovarish!

Cousin Brucie!!

--p. 54: Heh heh, gotta love fleecing those silly rich Protestant ladies out of extra money--nice work there, Rink! ;-)

--p. 57: "'Rink, everybody cheats!'" Or to quote legendary pro wrestler "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair, "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat." Heh heh heh.

--p. 60: "I suffered the common affliction of boys who aren't naturally adept at mechanics." I can relate all too well (having traumatic flashbacks to 9th grade Wood Shop class)!

--p. 75: Catholic "doctrine of silence," haha, Dominus Vobiscum!

--p. 120: "'Pittsburgh, you know what the call it? "Hell with the lid taken off."'" Ha!

--p. 188: Aahh, good ol' prairie dogs, or as we called 'em in North Dakota, "DakRats."

--p. 200: Throwing away the rattler meat?!?! Aw damn, Rink, what a waste!

--p. 226: "El Paso was very slow-paced and twangy, and we were starting to relax." You wouldn't hear the city described that way nowadays!

--p. 253: "I disliked bus drivers on principle and now this jackass was flashing his lights." Haha!

--p. 266: "What I would have been happy with, right then, was a wing-rack full of air-to-air missiles." Hear, hear! Friggin' journalists, disrespecting people's personal space (or in this case, airspace)!

--p. 267: "one of those white, Mexican-style shirts than hung down over his waist." As in guayaberas?

--p. 280: "To me, she looked like Winston Churchill in drag." Haha!

--p. 305: "It's a hard thing to admit, but sickness like that in someone you love does drive you away." As the son of a bipolar father (who passed away 8 years ago this month), I can relate.

[Suzanne Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at a used book shop because someone had recommended it -- wish I could remember who! It's a straight-up true adventure story: in 1966 Rink, 15, and his 17-year-old brother, avid amateur pilots, hatched a plan to fly a Piper Cub (a TINY plane!) from New Jersey to California. I have no particular interest in flying, but this was quite an expedition. I most enjoyed Buck's depiction of his relationship with his brother and his descriptions of the landscapes they passed over and the various airports they stopped at. As it happened, Rink's brother broke a record as the youngest pilot to complete a transcontinental flight, but theirs was not an attention-seeking stunt. They were two brothers on the adventure of a lifetime, blissfully ignorant of just how dangerous such a trip could be and oblivious to the attention their feat was garnering. The book is also a portrait of Rinker's father, who loomed large in his two sons' lives. He taught them to fly and pushed them to be risk-takers, as he was himself. He reminded me of my least favorite character type in fiction: the know-it-all, dominating father. I'm thinking of the fathers in The Mosquito Coast and The Poisonwood Bible. Tom Buck was just that kind of man. As Rinker Buck writes in the introduction, "it was inconceivable that we could have been Tom Buck's sons and not flown to California as soon as we were able." They were out to prove themselves to him.
As it turns out, Rinker graduated from Bowdoin College just two years ahead of me, and many of his siblings, including his mother until her death, live in Maine. I enjoyed discovering that connection. All said, this was an entertaining telling of an adventure I would never dream of experiencing myself. Apt pandemic reading!

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was given to me by a friend who knew that my daughter had soloed on her 16th birthday and is just marking time until she is 17 to get her private pilot's license! While those interested in aviation may find this a good read for that information alone, it is a great book on another level as well. As the author heads west, his relationship with his father is explored and that makes for interesting reading even for those of us who are timid flyers!

[Ejayen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give this book five stars because I love it, but the language... Avoid this book if you don't like swearing and bad language, whole conversations would have to be crossed out. But if you don't mind the language and can stand the 1960's actions, this book it great.
Whether they are getting bruises from the turbulence, or throwing things out the window, the two boys are busy having the time of their lives.

[Bill Riddell]

Terrific read, depicting the small details of this exciting trip and the preperation for it.

For pilots of small airplanes it is especially fun to feel the experience of past trips and the nuances of flight.

[Fred Forbes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in my high school days, I certainly could have been called an "adrenaline junkie" so I can identify with these two lads of the same age who rebuild a small piper cub aircraft and decide to fly it coast to coast. With no radio, no less. Navigation by following a map and looking down at the highways.

My activities centered around rock climbing, SCUBA diving, caving (and yes, cave diving), rock climbing, mountaineering, canoeing, camping, sports car racing, skiing and sailing. Sky diving had to wait until I was a bit older since Dad would not sign off. In the case of these two, ages 15 and 17, their Dad was a barnstormer of a pilot so he was certainly egging them on.

As interesting as the tale is - just the thought of trying to get an 85 horsepower plane over the Rockies gives me chills - it is the insightful examination of family dynamics that make this tale so readable.

Interested in a challenge, curious about sibling relationships and father-son bonding? These are well covered. I read Buck's book on going back over the Oregon trail in a covered wagon and have his book on coming of age in his first job and the one of his trip down the Mississippi in my "to be read" stack and am looking forward to them. An accomplished writer, the story flows well, has strong descriptive sections and brought back for me, some of those "thrills of yesteryear". Different arenas, perhaps but same adrenaline surge!

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a rare find of character driven non-fiction that grips you from the very first pages. The rich detailed descriptions of the plane, it's pilot's, flying, maintenance, mechanics and restoration had me riveted.I highly recommend it to anyone interested in aviation and/or a coming of age adventure.

[ChrissiesPurpleLibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

“There is no knowing beyond knowing, I could try and recapture that moment if I liked, but there’s no attaining the past and I could never relive that journey. It’s the kind of thing that only happens when you’re young.”

This story reaches beyond a typical memoir. It holds you with laughter, awe and reflection. This read was unexpected but I don’t regret one moment reading it.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was hilarious! If you like flying, or just like a good real-life coming-of-age adventure story (2 teen/young-adults fly cross country in a small plane), this is a great book!

[Jay Schutt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very enjoyable read for me. The author, who was one of the participants in the actual true account story, wrote the book with a great flow that made it a fun and easy read.

[J.D. Frailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book loaned to me by neighbor Michelle and which had sat on the shelf for over a year until, realizing I had it and flogged by a vague sense of guilt, picked it up and read it. So glad I did. An entertaining true life story of two brothers who rebuilt a single engine 85 hp piper cub, with no radio, and flew across the United States. It was 1966, so lots of great references to music and culture, also Vietnam, student protests, Kennedy assassinations, etc. It was a super bonding trip for the brothers and it helped them understand and better relate to their father, an old time barnstormer who had lost a leg in a plane crash. Press coverage began to build when they reached Arkansas, having started in New Jersey, and at each successive airstrip, especially starting in El Paso Texas, mobbed by reporters. The boys didn’t have any idea it would be that big a deal, but the odyssey of these wholesome looking kids, 17 and 15 years old, was a great distraction for the country away from the negative stuff going on at that time. Rinker buck has written a couple of other books, I will for sure look them up.

[Jake Dingman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy a good memoir and as a student of history, it is fun to go back in time through the stories of others. The adventure of the Bucks, the “simpler time” they lived in, and the way people grew up are fascinating to me. Reading the story of their travels from town to town, how they were greeted and treated, and what their memories were of the adventures, and relationships, was quite enjoyable.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great adventure memoir and story! Not only was their flight filled with interesting people and places but the developing brotherhood between Rinker and Kern was wonderful. This book may be hard to find, but it's so worth the effort!
I'm really surprised that it hasn't been made into a movie. But, whatever. Definitely find and read the book.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me forever to read, but I enjoyed the story and especially the writing.

[Billy Gillette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fantastic and inspiring book. As a pilot, I really want to go out and buy a Cub now! Even for those that do not fly, this book is still a great coming of age story and an incredible journey to follow.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Not too technical and a great story! Crossing the country with these guys was a lot of fun! Not quite a 5 rating but would go a solid 4.5

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book about flying and a boy coming to terms with his father.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started out loving the narrative of Rinker Buck, until he and his brother, Kern, reach Texas on their cross-country odyssey in a small Cub plane. The story lost its authenticity for me at that point. The reason is because earlier in the memoir, Rinker, emphasized the summers spent with the family on vacations riding in a converted school bus and other odd adventures their father made for the family of 11 children. But he never mentioned a corral their father built for them to learn to handle calves, and he only brings it up as a memory at a very convenient time (when they fly over the cattle lands). It just seems too coincidental to be true. Right after this, their experience of flying through Guadalupe Pass was not believable, either. And like some of the other reviewers, the episode with running a bus off the road was disconcerting to me.

Rinker Buck writes wonderful prose, he is able to tap into the complex emotions of a father-son-brother relationship. For readers that have experience flying or just love the romance of barnstorming and the history of aviation, this is probably a wonderful book.

[toxygen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable book. Originally, I expected only flying story, but the book offerd much more to me -- view into psychology of different types of relationships, i.e. between siblings, son and father or person and general public. Amazingly written description of terrific journey with lots of funny and dead-serious anecdotes. Highly recommended for every aviation fan or anybody who likes good memoires

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't usually do autobiographical stuff--but I really liked this book. It's the story of Rinker Buck and his brother Kernahan (P.S. love the names) and their flight across the country in a Piper Cub airplane. They were the youngest people to ever do so and this story is heartwarming and hilarious.

[Alycia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved thus book. I hated the swearing and bad language, but I still give this book a 5. It is written well and is adventurous. It is a page turner. It had some really funny stories in it too.

[Nikki Levin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book I never would have read without it being put on our Book Club's reading list for the year. Very glad it was. Found it immensely entertaining and informative. What an amazing story!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great read about 2 brothers flying coast-to-coast in a small Cessna. I (along with the other 6 people who read this book) STRONGLY recommend it!

[Laneburritt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice read. The story about two teenage boys flying across the country seems to elicit the dreamer in me. When i was a teenager I wanted to fly so much.