Lessons from Piloting for 45 Years

by Klaus Truemper

149 pages, Paperback

Published November 20, 2024

Reviews

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's only recently, with the advent of GPS, ADS-B, and elaborate weather analysis, that every pilot has extensive in-flight information available: about the route, obstacles, airports, weather, other nearby planes, and more. It is a wealth of information. At the same time, engines and electronics have become much more reliable.

However, these astonishing improvements do not affect some fundamental aspects of flying: The weather does whatever it wants; mountains create hazards; equipment fails. [...]

-Klaus Truemper, Lessons from Piloting for 45 Years

I bought this book for two reasons: 1) I thought the author's blog posts[0] were very informative and looked forward to reading more of his writing, and 2) the author's travels in a plane closely resembled the one I am currently working on constructing.

I worried, incorrectly, that much of the content from the blog would be repeated in this book. To the contrary, there was a wealth of detailed debriefs of various scenarios that startled, shocked, or alarmed the author for one reason or another. This was more I learned about flying from that! than "look at these fun adventures I went on," but don't be discouraged, there were also great adventures.

The scenarios are brief and to the point, provide the context necessary to understand the risks, and often provide rules or guidelines (or reiterate previously established ones) to help avoid similar situations. Not all of these are revolutionary, but they are grounded in real-world experience that can sometime be missed when reading about the risks inherent to flying a light plane on long cross country flights. I really enjoyed this book, and if you're a private pilot looking to take advantage of your license I recommend it.

[0] pointsforpilots.blogspot.com