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Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot
'Flight, like any great love, is both a liberation and a return': an airline pilot captures the wonder of flight for the modern traveller.
** Sunday Times Bestseller**
**Book of the Week on Radio 4**
Think back to when you first flew. When you first left the Earth, and travelled high and fast above its turning arc. When you looked down on a new world, captured simply and perfectly through a window fringed with ice. When you descended towards a city, and arrived from the sky as effortlessly as daybreak.
In Skyfaring , airline pilot and flight romantic Mark Vanhoenacker shares his irrepressible love of flying, on a journey from day to night, from new ways of mapmaking and the poetry of physics to the names of winds and the nature of clouds. Here, anew, is the simple wonder that remains at the heart of an experience which modern travellers, armchair and otherwise, all too easily take for the transcendent joy of motion, and the remarkable new perspectives that height and distance bestow on everything we love.
** Sunday Times Bestseller**
**Book of the Week on Radio 4**
Think back to when you first flew. When you first left the Earth, and travelled high and fast above its turning arc. When you looked down on a new world, captured simply and perfectly through a window fringed with ice. When you descended towards a city, and arrived from the sky as effortlessly as daybreak.
In Skyfaring , airline pilot and flight romantic Mark Vanhoenacker shares his irrepressible love of flying, on a journey from day to night, from new ways of mapmaking and the poetry of physics to the names of winds and the nature of clouds. Here, anew, is the simple wonder that remains at the heart of an experience which modern travellers, armchair and otherwise, all too easily take for the transcendent joy of motion, and the remarkable new perspectives that height and distance bestow on everything we love.
352 pages, Paperback
First published March 24, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 455 reviews
April 15, 2022
This book fails, but only just, on every single element. It's really sad. There were so many ways it could have succeeded and been a fabulously interesting book, but instead, the author just holds back.
He doesn't hold back in his writing, this is the exception. And it's a shame. He attempts a poetic, almost visionary kind of prose. If you have something somewhat metaphysical to say, it will come through without it being hammered home with a label that says, "Spiritual Writing of a Beautiful Experience". Some people like this though.
The author tries to tell us of how his experience is with flying, how it feels to be free and in the skies in a giant bird flying at hundreds of miles an hour and I am going, yes, yes, and ... And he changes the subject.
Then he explores the concept of place and home and how place is not just geographical, but a location in time, and again I'm paying attention, yes, yes, I see this and.. the author changes the subject.
There are the revelations of things that every pilot experiences but the passengers don't know about. Like how people miss the aurora borealis because it is at night and the pilot doesn't want to wake anyone so when he sees them he doesn't make an announcement. Well, should I fly to northern climes I will make a point of asking to be woken. This is all very interesting I am thinking, tell me more, and he does, just a few things. This could have been the most interesting part of the book, but the author is more concerned with his personal, more spiritual aspects of flying which are a bit boring really.
Everytime the author comes up with a new angle on flying or planes, place or time, he starts off interesting but it just peters out. I am sorry for that, I expected a lot more of this book.
3 stars. Well, 2.95, just missing the average.
He doesn't hold back in his writing, this is the exception. And it's a shame. He attempts a poetic, almost visionary kind of prose. If you have something somewhat metaphysical to say, it will come through without it being hammered home with a label that says, "Spiritual Writing of a Beautiful Experience". Some people like this though.
The author tries to tell us of how his experience is with flying, how it feels to be free and in the skies in a giant bird flying at hundreds of miles an hour and I am going, yes, yes, and ... And he changes the subject.
Then he explores the concept of place and home and how place is not just geographical, but a location in time, and again I'm paying attention, yes, yes, I see this and.. the author changes the subject.
There are the revelations of things that every pilot experiences but the passengers don't know about. Like how people miss the aurora borealis because it is at night and the pilot doesn't want to wake anyone so when he sees them he doesn't make an announcement. Well, should I fly to northern climes I will make a point of asking to be woken. This is all very interesting I am thinking, tell me more, and he does, just a few things. This could have been the most interesting part of the book, but the author is more concerned with his personal, more spiritual aspects of flying which are a bit boring really.
Everytime the author comes up with a new angle on flying or planes, place or time, he starts off interesting but it just peters out. I am sorry for that, I expected a lot more of this book.
3 stars. Well, 2.95, just missing the average.
January 24, 2016
I used to be deathly afraid of flying. Once on a flight from Dallas to Amarillo, the pilot left the cockpit and leaned over my seat to look at the wings. He said there was a problem with the hydraulics system and that we may have trouble landing. We buzzed the control tower to make sure our landing gear was engaged and couldn't help notice the fire trucks and ambulances lined up on the runway. Even the news trucks had time to get there. After about an hour of terror, circling the sky unsure if we had our wheels locked down, we landed uneventfully.
Another time, I was on the last flight out before a massive thunderstorm hit Minneapolis. The storm system had produced a tornado that destroyed the town of Greensburg, KS the day before. We took off and flew sideways for a good solid minute before the pilot was able to gain control of the plane again. A solid minute flying sideways.
I once flew in a prop plane from Zambia to Botswana with cracked windows as the pilots used iPads to navigate and meticulously scanned the horizon for other planes. Maybe that's normal for some, but I'm not a prop plane kind of guy.
I say I used to be afraid because I'm not anymore. Crazy as it seems, each of these experiences worked to subdue my fear, and my terror is now in the past. What each of these terrors have in common is that I survived without a scrape. Call it immersion therapy or flooding, all I know is that I saw my fears up close and personal, then I walked right past them onto the other side. Visiting hours over, I descended the steps of the museum, the fear of flight hanging like a prosaic watercolor in the gallery of the past. Nearly forgotten, in fact.
Reading Mark Vanhoenacker's Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot opened up a new chapter for me. The idea of actually enjoying flight. Written almost as a prose poem, Vanhoenacker, a 747 pilot, allows the passenger to enter the cockpit of a pilot's mind. And not just any pilot's mind, but the the mind of someone who passionately and wondrously loves their profession.
If the cover evokes a canvas, his words and sentences are the brushstrokes. I've had the privilege of traveling globally and Vanhoenacker's definition and coining of the term "place lag" was revelatory for me, "the imaginative drag that results from our jet-age displacements over every kind of distance; from the inability of our deep old sense of place to keep up with our airplanes." If you've ever had your morning coffee in San Francisco and then afternoon tea in Hong Kong in the same 24-hour period or eaten from a box of Turkish Delights in Dubai and then shared them with your family in Dallas hours later, you'll recognize this phenomenon.
With this book, Vanhoenacker opened my eyes to another dimension of flight. Beyond the unknown, beyond the fear, past the overcoming, there is a place of awe and beauty above the clouds and below from the vantage point of a bird in flight. After all, flight is really just lift, place, wayfinding, machine, air, water, encounter, night, and return. These are not just pacifying words, they are also like images of the statuesque that happen to also be the very sustenance of life.
Another time, I was on the last flight out before a massive thunderstorm hit Minneapolis. The storm system had produced a tornado that destroyed the town of Greensburg, KS the day before. We took off and flew sideways for a good solid minute before the pilot was able to gain control of the plane again. A solid minute flying sideways.
I once flew in a prop plane from Zambia to Botswana with cracked windows as the pilots used iPads to navigate and meticulously scanned the horizon for other planes. Maybe that's normal for some, but I'm not a prop plane kind of guy.
I say I used to be afraid because I'm not anymore. Crazy as it seems, each of these experiences worked to subdue my fear, and my terror is now in the past. What each of these terrors have in common is that I survived without a scrape. Call it immersion therapy or flooding, all I know is that I saw my fears up close and personal, then I walked right past them onto the other side. Visiting hours over, I descended the steps of the museum, the fear of flight hanging like a prosaic watercolor in the gallery of the past. Nearly forgotten, in fact.
Reading Mark Vanhoenacker's Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot opened up a new chapter for me. The idea of actually enjoying flight. Written almost as a prose poem, Vanhoenacker, a 747 pilot, allows the passenger to enter the cockpit of a pilot's mind. And not just any pilot's mind, but the the mind of someone who passionately and wondrously loves their profession.
If the cover evokes a canvas, his words and sentences are the brushstrokes. I've had the privilege of traveling globally and Vanhoenacker's definition and coining of the term "place lag" was revelatory for me, "the imaginative drag that results from our jet-age displacements over every kind of distance; from the inability of our deep old sense of place to keep up with our airplanes." If you've ever had your morning coffee in San Francisco and then afternoon tea in Hong Kong in the same 24-hour period or eaten from a box of Turkish Delights in Dubai and then shared them with your family in Dallas hours later, you'll recognize this phenomenon.
With this book, Vanhoenacker opened my eyes to another dimension of flight. Beyond the unknown, beyond the fear, past the overcoming, there is a place of awe and beauty above the clouds and below from the vantage point of a bird in flight. After all, flight is really just lift, place, wayfinding, machine, air, water, encounter, night, and return. These are not just pacifying words, they are also like images of the statuesque that happen to also be the very sustenance of life.
July 13, 2015
For this review, I am posting almost exactly what I emailed to the author, for the book was an exact fit for me to read; it matched my interests.
"With this book you have gripped my soul! Despite current efforts by government to ensure my safety with discomfort and airlines to squeeze me into a small seat and keep me locked there for hours, I still love to fly. Transportation is my heritage.
A grandfather worked for and developed a brake for the B & O Railroad. My father was a sea captain who got promoted ashore to orchestrate what got loaded in United States Lines ships in what order and which ships would go where in what order.
I earned my pilot’s license in my 20s and felt a similar thrill when I passed a scuba test in my mid-60s. Now 79, I revel in the memories of visits to 60+ countries.
When you write of Cape Town, Hong Kong or Buenos Aires, my mind conjures visions of events and peoples met.
The language in this book eloquently provides new synapses for my brain: Combinations and reflections that open out new pathways of thought.
Having lived on the Chesapeake Bay and within a block of the Long Island Sound, the chapter on 'Water" resounds in my inner being the most. But then, so does the one on 'Lift' that give the understanding of incredulousness of wanting to be able to fly.
Above all, this book gives me the pilot perspective and language that I would not get elsewhere or on my own. I am grateful for the new terms in my vocabulary, especially 'Place Lag'.
Discussion of maps and beacons opened thought of ancient maps, 'google' maps, sea charts, AAA road maps and the National Geographic World map where I have posted dots for places I have been by ship, plane, bus, car and Train.
This is a book to reread when relaxed sufficiently to let thoughts go into the sky, a different sort of skyfaring.
I would so like to meet Mark Vanhoenacker. He is erudite but practical, learned but able. His allusions to authors and books co-exist with his physical flying skills and his ability to let us into his mind as it reveals an uncanny ability to see things a new way and describe the thought to others.
Who else has ever called our attention to the smells of cities? Who else in talking of airplane delays has mentioned not only ice and fog but also animals on a runway, thereby reminding me of safari guides chasing impala off dirt runways so that we could land or take off?
This book means more to me than the pas 250 or so books read in the past few years!”
"With this book you have gripped my soul! Despite current efforts by government to ensure my safety with discomfort and airlines to squeeze me into a small seat and keep me locked there for hours, I still love to fly. Transportation is my heritage.
A grandfather worked for and developed a brake for the B & O Railroad. My father was a sea captain who got promoted ashore to orchestrate what got loaded in United States Lines ships in what order and which ships would go where in what order.
I earned my pilot’s license in my 20s and felt a similar thrill when I passed a scuba test in my mid-60s. Now 79, I revel in the memories of visits to 60+ countries.
When you write of Cape Town, Hong Kong or Buenos Aires, my mind conjures visions of events and peoples met.
The language in this book eloquently provides new synapses for my brain: Combinations and reflections that open out new pathways of thought.
Having lived on the Chesapeake Bay and within a block of the Long Island Sound, the chapter on 'Water" resounds in my inner being the most. But then, so does the one on 'Lift' that give the understanding of incredulousness of wanting to be able to fly.
Above all, this book gives me the pilot perspective and language that I would not get elsewhere or on my own. I am grateful for the new terms in my vocabulary, especially 'Place Lag'.
Discussion of maps and beacons opened thought of ancient maps, 'google' maps, sea charts, AAA road maps and the National Geographic World map where I have posted dots for places I have been by ship, plane, bus, car and Train.
This is a book to reread when relaxed sufficiently to let thoughts go into the sky, a different sort of skyfaring.
I would so like to meet Mark Vanhoenacker. He is erudite but practical, learned but able. His allusions to authors and books co-exist with his physical flying skills and his ability to let us into his mind as it reveals an uncanny ability to see things a new way and describe the thought to others.
Who else has ever called our attention to the smells of cities? Who else in talking of airplane delays has mentioned not only ice and fog but also animals on a runway, thereby reminding me of safari guides chasing impala off dirt runways so that we could land or take off?
This book means more to me than the pas 250 or so books read in the past few years!”
July 24, 2015
This is an extraordinary book - basically a 30 something British Airways 747 First Officer sharing his love of flying. It covers some of the science of flight, the geography, the emotional aspects of living "an international life" which is normal for all long haul pilots, and much of the author's response to what he sees from the air (land, sea, clouds, snow, man made stuff). It also covers some personal background - family, career choices, first impressions of airports and planes. On business and on holiday I have flown hundreds of times, and this book positioned some of the basic concepts I had missed as well as lots of interesting background on how airlines and airports do their job. The author has a real affection for the 747, its design, instruments and systems. I enjoyed his description of the audible warnings, especially the female voice ordering "DECIDE" when the plane gets to the last altitude before a aborted landing is possible. I even went on You Tube to find a recording of it. Well written and fun. Good find.
October 14, 2015
This book was a lovely meditation on flight and travel, written by a pilot who experiences these phenomena differently from most other people. Mark Vanhoenacker is clearly a well-read, thoughtful person with an ear for the poetic. He also included lots of interesting technical information about air travel that I am glad to know.
Why only two stars then? Frankly, I think only a person who shares the same level of passion as Mr. Vanhoenacker for the skies will find herself fully absorbed in the book. There was no narrative per se, no story to catch me up and make me lose track of time. The individual meditations on flight were charming, but I could easily have read them as a series of essays or magazine articles over months or years as a single book.
I debated giving this more stars for the beauty of its writing and the introspection of its author, but I also felt that the lower rating was more honest to my experience reading the book. If you love flights, either in the literal sense or the fantastical, you may find this book far more engrossing than I did. I hope you do because even having not cared for it, I can recognize that Vonhoenacker wrote a lovely book.
Why only two stars then? Frankly, I think only a person who shares the same level of passion as Mr. Vanhoenacker for the skies will find herself fully absorbed in the book. There was no narrative per se, no story to catch me up and make me lose track of time. The individual meditations on flight were charming, but I could easily have read them as a series of essays or magazine articles over months or years as a single book.
I debated giving this more stars for the beauty of its writing and the introspection of its author, but I also felt that the lower rating was more honest to my experience reading the book. If you love flights, either in the literal sense or the fantastical, you may find this book far more engrossing than I did. I hope you do because even having not cared for it, I can recognize that Vonhoenacker wrote a lovely book.
October 3, 2015
Every once a while it's good to read a non-fiction book. At times it shows us the world as it is rather than adding a spoon of fiction and cover it with a story. Every life around us is a story. There is a story in each one of us, waiting to be told and waiting to be heard.
I was browsing through The New York Times book reviews section when a particular book about flying and pilots caught my attention. There have been so many books about pilots and their love for flying then what makes this book stands out from the rest of them?
The answers were hidden in the pages, in the words of the author who beautifully describes his passion for the job, his love for flying and how he visualises everything with respect to flying and time Zones. I particularly loved the concept of place lag and how beautiful it is know that this world, even though a big mass of land, is still such a small place. Please read this book because I got answers for most of my curiosities and also saw the world from the eyes and mind of a person who usually spends his time at a cruising altitude of 30,000 ft.
I was browsing through The New York Times book reviews section when a particular book about flying and pilots caught my attention. There have been so many books about pilots and their love for flying then what makes this book stands out from the rest of them?
The answers were hidden in the pages, in the words of the author who beautifully describes his passion for the job, his love for flying and how he visualises everything with respect to flying and time Zones. I particularly loved the concept of place lag and how beautiful it is know that this world, even though a big mass of land, is still such a small place. Please read this book because I got answers for most of my curiosities and also saw the world from the eyes and mind of a person who usually spends his time at a cruising altitude of 30,000 ft.
February 5, 2017
A successful book
I always wondered what it would be like to live that life, with its outrageous geographical shifts and big machines instead of my life of one drug store and elegant sail planes. I think I have an inkling thanks to this interesting subjects and elegant prose. Thanks for the good read.
I always wondered what it would be like to live that life, with its outrageous geographical shifts and big machines instead of my life of one drug store and elegant sail planes. I think I have an inkling thanks to this interesting subjects and elegant prose. Thanks for the good read.
July 2, 2017
Famous American writer and cartoonist, Theodor Seuss Geisel once said:
“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
When I read Skyfaring - The Journey with a Pilot, I saw a man who set forth to accomplish his dream of flying despite the hurdles. In his late twenties, he started flight training, leaving his several years long career as a management consultant. The story of Mark Vanhoenacker is an inspiration for anybody who presuppose some dreams always remain as dreams.
“I’d be woken by an alarm in the 4 a.m. darkness of Helsinki or Warsaw or Bucharest or Istanbul, and there would be a brief bleary moment, in the hotel room whose shape and layout I’d already forgotten in the hours since I’d switched off the light, when I’d ask myself if I’d only been dreaming that I became a pilot.”
The book, in simple terms, is a memoir where the author sketches his experiences through years of flying. It includes information to an extent; facts that everybody loves to learn about the airline industry. He has done it well without going deep into technical details. There are simple acts of caring, joy of finding new people, places, times, weather, cultures and occasionally the curiosity of a child who is amused by everything.
It was quite unexpected how I found out about the book. I came across this article, In Flight - The New York Times, written by Mark Vanhoenacker. Check this out if you need inspiration to start.
Read the book as a lover of fiction, because if you’re just a fact seeker (who prefers only non-fiction books), you will end up with frequent longueurs and might get disappointed. The well crafted and lyrical narration shows the prowess of the /pilot/, who is a regular contributor to the New York Times and a columnist for Slate.
“We may be pleased by the still-glinting wings of an airliner high above us, leaving a contrail soaked in crimson light, while at street level the sun has already set. We see the plane we are not on, bound for a place we are not, in the last light of a day that has already left us.”
Experiencing a story vicariously through an author is fascinating; it offers a vivid collection of ideas that transport the reader from a fictional setting to the reality that our world offers. Rarely do authors allow the readers to experience the beauty of dreams through reality.
“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
When I read Skyfaring - The Journey with a Pilot, I saw a man who set forth to accomplish his dream of flying despite the hurdles. In his late twenties, he started flight training, leaving his several years long career as a management consultant. The story of Mark Vanhoenacker is an inspiration for anybody who presuppose some dreams always remain as dreams.
“I’d be woken by an alarm in the 4 a.m. darkness of Helsinki or Warsaw or Bucharest or Istanbul, and there would be a brief bleary moment, in the hotel room whose shape and layout I’d already forgotten in the hours since I’d switched off the light, when I’d ask myself if I’d only been dreaming that I became a pilot.”
The book, in simple terms, is a memoir where the author sketches his experiences through years of flying. It includes information to an extent; facts that everybody loves to learn about the airline industry. He has done it well without going deep into technical details. There are simple acts of caring, joy of finding new people, places, times, weather, cultures and occasionally the curiosity of a child who is amused by everything.
It was quite unexpected how I found out about the book. I came across this article, In Flight - The New York Times, written by Mark Vanhoenacker. Check this out if you need inspiration to start.
Read the book as a lover of fiction, because if you’re just a fact seeker (who prefers only non-fiction books), you will end up with frequent longueurs and might get disappointed. The well crafted and lyrical narration shows the prowess of the /pilot/, who is a regular contributor to the New York Times and a columnist for Slate.
“We may be pleased by the still-glinting wings of an airliner high above us, leaving a contrail soaked in crimson light, while at street level the sun has already set. We see the plane we are not on, bound for a place we are not, in the last light of a day that has already left us.”
Experiencing a story vicariously through an author is fascinating; it offers a vivid collection of ideas that transport the reader from a fictional setting to the reality that our world offers. Rarely do authors allow the readers to experience the beauty of dreams through reality.
March 9, 2016
The author, Mark Vanhoenacker, flies a Boeing 747 for British Airways. I thought that if you are a pilot for an airline that you could fly any of its airplanes. Not the case. You are trained on a particular airplane and required to stay with it until you are trained on and move to another airplane. I also thought that pilots for an airline were part of a small club and that they knew each other. The author rarely encounters the same pilots on his flights.
Mr Vanhoenacker, fortunately for his readers, has lost none of his sense of wonder at the miracle of flight itself. The book is a beautifully observed collection of details, scenes, emotions and facts from the world above the world that pilots inhabit. I had doubts as to whether I would find a book about flying from a pilot’s perspective to be all that interesting.
An example of what those of us sitting in the back of the plane don’t realize: The pilots map of the world does not include cities, states, countries, rivers or even the boundary between land and the ocean. Instead, it only shows beacons, waypoints and airports. The world from the air is quite different from the world we know.
It is surprising that a 350 page book about piloting 747 airplanes can be so informative and interesting. Enjoy!
Mr Vanhoenacker, fortunately for his readers, has lost none of his sense of wonder at the miracle of flight itself. The book is a beautifully observed collection of details, scenes, emotions and facts from the world above the world that pilots inhabit. I had doubts as to whether I would find a book about flying from a pilot’s perspective to be all that interesting.
An example of what those of us sitting in the back of the plane don’t realize: The pilots map of the world does not include cities, states, countries, rivers or even the boundary between land and the ocean. Instead, it only shows beacons, waypoints and airports. The world from the air is quite different from the world we know.
It is surprising that a 350 page book about piloting 747 airplanes can be so informative and interesting. Enjoy!
August 5, 2015
I've always loved flying, but after reading this soaring work, I know much more about why I love to fly. The unexamined life is not worth living, according to Socrates, and in this narrative, a pilot's sense of appreciation and wonder are steeped with the same awe as a philosopher's poetry. This is transcendent stuff -- reflections ranging from the wonders of mechanical tuning to the puzzling beauty of sand crossing continents on the shoes of travelers, lessons in history and art from a master craftsman of flight, allegories that touch on the expansive joy of mortality beholding its place in the world. I couldn't put the book down. (I also got the audio version and listened to it on a road trip. These words were meant to be heard.)
Skyfaring is a first class journey into the pinnacle of a beautifully examined life, and what better guide to have than a pilot.
Skyfaring is a first class journey into the pinnacle of a beautifully examined life, and what better guide to have than a pilot.
January 7, 2025
The publisher says that this book is a “poetic and nuanced” description of the miracle of flight. While that may be good marketing, it is also very misleading. I think that there are two far more apt words for describing this book: boring and pretentious.
Vanhoenacker spends the bulk of the book’s almost 350 pages playing armchair philosopher. He is far more interested in pontificating about things (many of them only tangentially related to flying) than he is in giving readers any real or nuanced insights about the life of a pilot or in providing interesting stories related to humankind’s venture into the skies. He bases his supposedly deep and esoteric insights on nothing more than the fact that he flies airplanes, as if seeing the world from 35,000 feet somehow imbues one with wisdom in ways unattainable for those of us at ground level (and forget the fact that he wrote this in his early thirties and was still a right seater who flew with far more wizened pilots). If you want a book about a random person's thoughts and feelings about flying and myriad other things, then Skyfaring is for you. If you want a book that tells some kind of story or provides real insights about being a pilot or the mechanics and processes of flying a 350 ton chunk of metal through the sky, you'd be better served looking elsewhere.
Another issue I had with the book is the author's style of writing. Don't get me wrong; he is a gifted writer. The problem is that he is trying too hard to be literary rather than to provide his readers with any kind of story or narrative. While he is obviously a smart guy with a liberal arts education, he goes to great pains to prove his intelligence via his prose style and he does so at the sacrifice of having much of interest to say or of organizing his ideas in a way that makes sense. Vanhoenacker frequently and unnecessarily mixes his philosophizing and ruminations with lines or stanzas from well-known poets. He infuses Latin, Greek, and foreign words into his text even when they aren’t really central to his ideas. He explains the etymology of words that many of us already know (and that again are not central to what he wishes to say). He employs metaphors from classical literature and antiquity when far simpler ones would suffice. And he shows that he has a good friend in his thesaurus in that his vocabulary is often more heady—and I think ostentatious—than it needs to be. The word I would use for his style is, ironically, sesquipedalian (though pedantic would work as well). In short, Vanhoenecker seems more determined to sound erudite and to write prosaically than to tell an interesting story. Almost as frustrating for the reader is that the author jumps from subject to subject seemingly at random; at one moment he reminisces about his teenage years to jump to the present to philosophize about something only to then throw in pages about technical details of aircraft. It is disorienting.
I have devoured books about airplanes and flying since I was 10 or so and I have even done some flying in small airplanes. I still marvel at the fact that we are capable of flying. Yet while Vanhoenecker’s point in writing this book was to explain that magic to others—to those who have forgotten the fact that they are in seats hurtling through the sky at 600 mph—Skyfarer ironically adds to the mundanity he seeks to displace.
Vanhoenacker spends the bulk of the book’s almost 350 pages playing armchair philosopher. He is far more interested in pontificating about things (many of them only tangentially related to flying) than he is in giving readers any real or nuanced insights about the life of a pilot or in providing interesting stories related to humankind’s venture into the skies. He bases his supposedly deep and esoteric insights on nothing more than the fact that he flies airplanes, as if seeing the world from 35,000 feet somehow imbues one with wisdom in ways unattainable for those of us at ground level (and forget the fact that he wrote this in his early thirties and was still a right seater who flew with far more wizened pilots). If you want a book about a random person's thoughts and feelings about flying and myriad other things, then Skyfaring is for you. If you want a book that tells some kind of story or provides real insights about being a pilot or the mechanics and processes of flying a 350 ton chunk of metal through the sky, you'd be better served looking elsewhere.
Another issue I had with the book is the author's style of writing. Don't get me wrong; he is a gifted writer. The problem is that he is trying too hard to be literary rather than to provide his readers with any kind of story or narrative. While he is obviously a smart guy with a liberal arts education, he goes to great pains to prove his intelligence via his prose style and he does so at the sacrifice of having much of interest to say or of organizing his ideas in a way that makes sense. Vanhoenacker frequently and unnecessarily mixes his philosophizing and ruminations with lines or stanzas from well-known poets. He infuses Latin, Greek, and foreign words into his text even when they aren’t really central to his ideas. He explains the etymology of words that many of us already know (and that again are not central to what he wishes to say). He employs metaphors from classical literature and antiquity when far simpler ones would suffice. And he shows that he has a good friend in his thesaurus in that his vocabulary is often more heady—and I think ostentatious—than it needs to be. The word I would use for his style is, ironically, sesquipedalian (though pedantic would work as well). In short, Vanhoenecker seems more determined to sound erudite and to write prosaically than to tell an interesting story. Almost as frustrating for the reader is that the author jumps from subject to subject seemingly at random; at one moment he reminisces about his teenage years to jump to the present to philosophize about something only to then throw in pages about technical details of aircraft. It is disorienting.
I have devoured books about airplanes and flying since I was 10 or so and I have even done some flying in small airplanes. I still marvel at the fact that we are capable of flying. Yet while Vanhoenecker’s point in writing this book was to explain that magic to others—to those who have forgotten the fact that they are in seats hurtling through the sky at 600 mph—Skyfarer ironically adds to the mundanity he seeks to displace.
June 22, 2016
I love to travel - and I have a daughter who lives on another Continent to me, so I fly frequently. However, for some reason that I've not quite worked out, flying scares me witless. The day before the flight my stomach starts its familiar sensation of knots and twists, and as we drive to the airport I feel nervous and fearful.
Once on the plane I do actually feel a little better, although I have hinted to my husband that I'd probably feel a whole load better if we were in Business Class! But he reckons I grip his hand on take off and landing far harder than I ever did in childbirth (and I'm busy braking with my feet too).
So, has this lovely book by Mark Vanhoenacker made me feel any better about the whole caboodle? Well, yes I really do think it has. He certainly didn't bog me down with the mechanics of it all - I could follow pretty much all he said in that respect.
What I loved was the sense of wonder even a seasoned pilot feels about what he sees and where he travels. He's a thoughtful, slightly dreaming man and I loved the way his imagination literally took flight. I'd even be brave enough to sit in the cockpit with him!
I completely understood the chapter on 'place lag' - the adjustment I so often have to make between having an early breakfast in my very quiet North Yorkshire village, driving to the airport, and then having dinner across the world the same day in, say, Florida. This never ceases to amaze me and makes flying worth it a thousand times over.
Most of all though, this book has helped me see that a long flight is not something simply to be endured, but instead it is all rather wonderful!
Once on the plane I do actually feel a little better, although I have hinted to my husband that I'd probably feel a whole load better if we were in Business Class! But he reckons I grip his hand on take off and landing far harder than I ever did in childbirth (and I'm busy braking with my feet too).
So, has this lovely book by Mark Vanhoenacker made me feel any better about the whole caboodle? Well, yes I really do think it has. He certainly didn't bog me down with the mechanics of it all - I could follow pretty much all he said in that respect.
What I loved was the sense of wonder even a seasoned pilot feels about what he sees and where he travels. He's a thoughtful, slightly dreaming man and I loved the way his imagination literally took flight. I'd even be brave enough to sit in the cockpit with him!
I completely understood the chapter on 'place lag' - the adjustment I so often have to make between having an early breakfast in my very quiet North Yorkshire village, driving to the airport, and then having dinner across the world the same day in, say, Florida. This never ceases to amaze me and makes flying worth it a thousand times over.
Most of all though, this book has helped me see that a long flight is not something simply to be endured, but instead it is all rather wonderful!
September 20, 2016
I have flown domestic, short haul and long haul flights in everything from cattle class to Upper Class and as a form of transport it is a little bit dull. Flying is seen as mundane now and love it or hate it, you cannot deny that modern air travel is the thing that has opened up the world up. It is one of the safest forms of transport ever invented too, making travelling to destinations far and wide, safe, easy and painless.
In this eloquent book, Vanhoenacker tells us just what it is like to be a commercial pilot in this modern age. The plane that he is trained to fly is the classic 380 ton Boeing 747. He tells about crossing oceans and continents, night flying and the delights of spending time in different destinations on each day of the week. He loved flying from an early age, but it was only after he graduated and ended up travelling the world as a management consultant that he started to re-consider his career choice, wondering if he could be a pilot. He took the plunge, retrained and realised his dream of becoming a pilot.
I really enjoyed this book, he writes in a calm measured way, as you’d expect and hope for, from a pilot. What comes across most is that he has never lost the sense of wonder in flying. You hear of him as a small boy being completely entranced by it and he still is now, from the magical scenes of the Northern Lights to the history behind the names of beacons that they track across the world. He takes pleasure in the names of winds and clouds, night flying with only the stars for company and reassurance in the skills of the engineers that enable him to fly. I like the way that he focuses the chapters on a particular aspect of flying; Water, Place, Air, Night and Machine; all different perspectives of the same journey.
The writing is a breath of fresh air; it is adept and detailed without feeling complicated. When he is flying across the oceans you see the curve of the earth as he does and sense the ice on the wings as they descend into world famous cities. A beautifully written book, even one for those who don’t like flying. 4.5 stars
In this eloquent book, Vanhoenacker tells us just what it is like to be a commercial pilot in this modern age. The plane that he is trained to fly is the classic 380 ton Boeing 747. He tells about crossing oceans and continents, night flying and the delights of spending time in different destinations on each day of the week. He loved flying from an early age, but it was only after he graduated and ended up travelling the world as a management consultant that he started to re-consider his career choice, wondering if he could be a pilot. He took the plunge, retrained and realised his dream of becoming a pilot.
I really enjoyed this book, he writes in a calm measured way, as you’d expect and hope for, from a pilot. What comes across most is that he has never lost the sense of wonder in flying. You hear of him as a small boy being completely entranced by it and he still is now, from the magical scenes of the Northern Lights to the history behind the names of beacons that they track across the world. He takes pleasure in the names of winds and clouds, night flying with only the stars for company and reassurance in the skills of the engineers that enable him to fly. I like the way that he focuses the chapters on a particular aspect of flying; Water, Place, Air, Night and Machine; all different perspectives of the same journey.
The writing is a breath of fresh air; it is adept and detailed without feeling complicated. When he is flying across the oceans you see the curve of the earth as he does and sense the ice on the wings as they descend into world famous cities. A beautifully written book, even one for those who don’t like flying. 4.5 stars
April 13, 2019
SKYFARING is an excellent book written by an experienced international commercial pilot that gives us an inside view of air travel from the pilot's point of view. I was particularly fascinated by his theory of "place lag" and what this means to the human psyche as we travel. This book would be a perfect start for any Depth Psychology student studying the effects of "Place", and particularly as it relates to travel in a more and more global community. In fact, it would be so interesting to do a qualitative study in Aviation Psychology with pilots on the subject of "Place lag" as Mark Vanhoenacker describes it, and useful in finding ways to lessen the difficult effects of it. This book is just packed with interesting information and so enjoyable to read. 5 stars!!!!
—By Martha Love, author of Increasing Intuitional Intelligence: How the Awareness of Instinctual Gut Feelings Fosters Human Learning, Intuition, and Longevity
—By Martha Love, author of Increasing Intuitional Intelligence: How the Awareness of Instinctual Gut Feelings Fosters Human Learning, Intuition, and Longevity
August 10, 2015
The dust jacket of this book and the reviews on the back cover extensively use the word poetic to describe this book. This is accurate and I can't think of how I could write a review of this book without using the word poetic to describe it. At it's core, it is a book about the tales of a 747 first officer as he flies literally around the globe. However, even people without any particular interest in aviation may find this book appealing. If elaborate prose and a complex vocabulary is not your thing then this book is definitely not for you. If I were to read this book again from the start I would do so on a Kindle, as nearly every paragraph has a word in which I was not familiar. That said, the book blend technical facts about flying one of the most complex pieces of machinery in existence with a very personal and sensitive description about the places and images in which he so frequently visits. The various chapters of the book (Machine, Air, Night, Water) are intentionally broad and are really good conduits to describe some of the more unique experiences that the author's profession affords. Because the prose is so complex and the story line ebbs and flows so much, even after so recently finishing the book it's kind of difficult to recall all of the (many) specific factoids scattered throughout in the book. However, the book does leave more of a feeling, even if the specific facts are hard to recall. For anyone thinking about reading this book I'd suggest checking out one of the author's magazine articles that you can find online (he writes aviation pieces for several well known magazines). If you like his writing style then, by all means, check out the book. If you find this style too indirect and difficult too follow I would advise against this book. But in my estimation, this was one of the better books I've read this year.
Read
June 15, 2015Excellent read - got me daydreaming
This book did an excellent job combining the emotional pleasure of flying with the techniques. Fun read that will have me daydreaming and thinking on my trips.
This book did an excellent job combining the emotional pleasure of flying with the techniques. Fun read that will have me daydreaming and thinking on my trips.
September 3, 2020
Reading this book gave me a great sense of calm, very welcome in these times. Although the author's desire to tell a little bit of everything does make the book disjointed at times, I admire how he shares his continuing romantic sense of wonder, not just of flying but the way it changes how he views the world below. There's obviously a lot of curious trivia scattered across the pages of the book, but most of all it's about people and places and landscapes and air. That's what I like about it.
July 27, 2015
While wondering what review to write, I went through those of other readers to get the proverbial juices flowing. I think you can grab a bit from every review to get a picture:
I wasn't particularly happy with the overly metaphysical tone in some of the descriptions, but I don't think it's "overdone", it sets the tone and gives you a perspective of how Mr. Vanhoemacker perceives being a pilot.
On the technical side, well yes, the explanations don't get overly technical, they sometimes fall a bit short, and the Author might sometimes explain things that for me (admittedly an engineer) seem obvious.
Of course the book won't and can't appeal to everyone, but on the one thing this book succeeds is in providing you a different perspective, a different view of the world, and getting to listen to somebody's lifestyle. For me it was a particular pleasure to read about someone who so thoroughly enjoys and wonders at his everyday job, who really loves it. Given that I love my job, reading about someone else loving a different profession is really refreshing.
Furthermore, while far from the pilot's level of detachment from a "home" in the traditional sense, I've had a rather peripatetic life, and at times feel like what I'm living is somehow a postcard. When I return to the city I live after weeks away, or when I visit my hometown, I feel as if I weren't there. In this particular sense I sometimes identified myself with Mr. Vanhoemacker, thus making it more enjoyable to read him.
All in all, I strongly recommend the book, while it does get a bit tedious at some points, reading about how somebody else experiences life and how a pilot views flying is certainly worth it, and it is bound to expand your own horizons, even if you disagree with his particular way of describing the experience.
I wasn't particularly happy with the overly metaphysical tone in some of the descriptions, but I don't think it's "overdone", it sets the tone and gives you a perspective of how Mr. Vanhoemacker perceives being a pilot.
On the technical side, well yes, the explanations don't get overly technical, they sometimes fall a bit short, and the Author might sometimes explain things that for me (admittedly an engineer) seem obvious.
Of course the book won't and can't appeal to everyone, but on the one thing this book succeeds is in providing you a different perspective, a different view of the world, and getting to listen to somebody's lifestyle. For me it was a particular pleasure to read about someone who so thoroughly enjoys and wonders at his everyday job, who really loves it. Given that I love my job, reading about someone else loving a different profession is really refreshing.
Furthermore, while far from the pilot's level of detachment from a "home" in the traditional sense, I've had a rather peripatetic life, and at times feel like what I'm living is somehow a postcard. When I return to the city I live after weeks away, or when I visit my hometown, I feel as if I weren't there. In this particular sense I sometimes identified myself with Mr. Vanhoemacker, thus making it more enjoyable to read him.
All in all, I strongly recommend the book, while it does get a bit tedious at some points, reading about how somebody else experiences life and how a pilot views flying is certainly worth it, and it is bound to expand your own horizons, even if you disagree with his particular way of describing the experience.
May 19, 2015
Skyfaring is a bit of a throwback, a book that rhapsodizes about the romance of flying, of travel, in the way that you don't see much anymore. Mark Vanhoenacker is a first officer who flies Boeing 747s for British Airways, and although he's been flying professionally for about a decade, he's still almost giddy with enthusiasm for flying. Well, who can blame him? I worked at a major airport for overeleven years and never got tired of walking through the terminals, watching people coming and going, watching the planes arriving and departing. Being a pilot going to exotic places would be a total rush.
The two books that Skyfaring reminds me of are William Langewiesche's Inside the Sky and Beyond the Blue Horizon by Alexander Frater. Langewiesche is pretty hard-nosed about aviation in general, but his essay on the physics of flight is lovely. And Frater's attempt to re-create the 1930s London-Sydney route that took weeks and made dozens of stops captures both the romance and the absurdity of air travel then and in the 1980s, when he made the journey.
Of course, nothing captures the absurdity of air travel today, and that's one thing that Vanhoenacker leaves out entirely. There's nothing here about airport security or suicidal pilots or airplanes that vanish in thin air. You won't even find mild turbulence in these pages. It's all brilliant sunrises and the camaraderie of the flight crews and the longing of the traveler -- for home when he's away and for distant lands when he's at home. I have to admit, I'm a pushover for this kind of thing and I loved it while I was reading it, but it really seems as if it's of a different time.
The two books that Skyfaring reminds me of are William Langewiesche's Inside the Sky and Beyond the Blue Horizon by Alexander Frater. Langewiesche is pretty hard-nosed about aviation in general, but his essay on the physics of flight is lovely. And Frater's attempt to re-create the 1930s London-Sydney route that took weeks and made dozens of stops captures both the romance and the absurdity of air travel then and in the 1980s, when he made the journey.
Of course, nothing captures the absurdity of air travel today, and that's one thing that Vanhoenacker leaves out entirely. There's nothing here about airport security or suicidal pilots or airplanes that vanish in thin air. You won't even find mild turbulence in these pages. It's all brilliant sunrises and the camaraderie of the flight crews and the longing of the traveler -- for home when he's away and for distant lands when he's at home. I have to admit, I'm a pushover for this kind of thing and I loved it while I was reading it, but it really seems as if it's of a different time.
March 24, 2023
Mark Vanhoenacker's Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot may be the most romantic book about flying since Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Wind, Sand and Stars. About 90 percent of the book is awe-inspiring ... the other 10 percent is sort of humdrum, but that's a great ratio of excitement to tedium.
He tells you so much about how he came to love flying and how he came to be a pilot of 747s and now 787s. He tells you about the planes, the airports, and the cities where he travels to. But he also tells you about the pilots and the crew members and how they work with each other. It's hard to tell you how much he tells you!
He says he may fly only three different airplanes during his whole career: the short-haul Airbus, a 747, and one more (that's the 787). Other pilots have flown a dozen or more. One real surprise: Flight attendants often are qualified on more airplanes than the pilots and can fly more routes.
He writes beautifully of clouds and even contrails. Some tropical cities like Singapore have great vertical rising clouds every time he flies into them.
Finally, it's a book I'll read again ... simply because a lot of the information is quite useful when it comes to traveling by air.
He tells you so much about how he came to love flying and how he came to be a pilot of 747s and now 787s. He tells you about the planes, the airports, and the cities where he travels to. But he also tells you about the pilots and the crew members and how they work with each other. It's hard to tell you how much he tells you!
He says he may fly only three different airplanes during his whole career: the short-haul Airbus, a 747, and one more (that's the 787). Other pilots have flown a dozen or more. One real surprise: Flight attendants often are qualified on more airplanes than the pilots and can fly more routes.
He writes beautifully of clouds and even contrails. Some tropical cities like Singapore have great vertical rising clouds every time he flies into them.
Finally, it's a book I'll read again ... simply because a lot of the information is quite useful when it comes to traveling by air.
August 21, 2022
Ilmojen halki (Skyfaring) on ihanan lyyrinen kuvaus lentämisestä – nii käytännössä kuin aistillisella tasollakin. Muun muassa ilmalle ja vedelle on kummallekin omistettu oma lukunsa, joka käsittelee kyseisen aineen lukuisia ilmenemismuotoja ja niiden vaikutusta lentämiseen – ja tietysti myös niiden merkitystä jopa metaforisella tasolla. Teos maalailee ilmailun tainaomaisuutta auttaen siten ymmärtämään niitä syitä, joiden vuoksi kirjoittaja – ja moni muu lentäjä – kokee suurta vetoa lentämistä kohtaan. Puoleensa vetävä kirja henkilölle, jota kiinnostaa ilmailu, mutta ehkä hieman rönsyilevä tavalliselle tallaajalle, joka etsii ehkä vain löyhästi ilmailuun (tai pelkästään lentämisen mekaniikkaan) liittyvää luettavaa.
“Usein alhaalla näkemäni meri on valkoraitainen, enkä tiedä, ovatko nuo valkoiseksi muuttuneiden vetten apostrofit aaltojen yllä viuhuvan tuulenruoskan työtä vai ovatko vaahtopäälaineet itse asiassa jääpilviä.” (s. 176)
“Jos on joskus käynyt valassafarilla, niin pilvissä liikkumisessa on jotakin samaa – tunne, että noita valtavia, laiskana lipuvia olentoja ohjaavat vakaammat valot, että ne tuskin edes huomaaavat jotakin niin pientä ja väräjävää kuin me, ja että ne asuttavat aikaa, jonka me olemme kadottaneet.” (s. 185)
“Usein alhaalla näkemäni meri on valkoraitainen, enkä tiedä, ovatko nuo valkoiseksi muuttuneiden vetten apostrofit aaltojen yllä viuhuvan tuulenruoskan työtä vai ovatko vaahtopäälaineet itse asiassa jääpilviä.” (s. 176)
“Jos on joskus käynyt valassafarilla, niin pilvissä liikkumisessa on jotakin samaa – tunne, että noita valtavia, laiskana lipuvia olentoja ohjaavat vakaammat valot, että ne tuskin edes huomaaavat jotakin niin pientä ja väräjävää kuin me, ja että ne asuttavat aikaa, jonka me olemme kadottaneet.” (s. 185)
July 2, 2016
What a beautiful book. I checked this out from the library, but I'm tempted to buy the Kindle version to revisit it on a future flight.
A favorite passage:
"To come home from a trip to a high place and a far city, from hours over the tundra or distant oceans, is a sudden and joyful deceleration. I feel this almost physically. As the airplane slows on the runway, both the actual speed and the place streaking, the self-blurring, begin to end. And once home it is the simplicity of the ordinary things, rather than the shock of difference, that is heightened by the scale of the journey. All those miles, all those hours over ice or sand or water, to return to a snack taken from a cupboard, to a photograph on a shelf, to the closet quietly closed with the suitcase at last at rest inside. I may go out to eat with friends, comforted that they do not know what other seasons and countries I have seen since we last ate together. I like that they rarely ask where I have been, as if I have not been away at all, as if that other self stayed at home or walked across town to be with them."
A favorite passage:
"To come home from a trip to a high place and a far city, from hours over the tundra or distant oceans, is a sudden and joyful deceleration. I feel this almost physically. As the airplane slows on the runway, both the actual speed and the place streaking, the self-blurring, begin to end. And once home it is the simplicity of the ordinary things, rather than the shock of difference, that is heightened by the scale of the journey. All those miles, all those hours over ice or sand or water, to return to a snack taken from a cupboard, to a photograph on a shelf, to the closet quietly closed with the suitcase at last at rest inside. I may go out to eat with friends, comforted that they do not know what other seasons and countries I have seen since we last ate together. I like that they rarely ask where I have been, as if I have not been away at all, as if that other self stayed at home or walked across town to be with them."
August 23, 2017
This is a pretty good book. I liked it in small doses, but it's been slow going. The author is a decent writer, but he seems to be short of, well, gripping material. This could have been a series of articles in an inflight magazine.
I wanted to like "Skyfaring" more then I did. I'm his intended audience: I love to fly, and am always disappointed when I can't get a window seat. Here's the review that led me to read it:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/wanderin...
Eh. 2.6 stars.
I wanted to like "Skyfaring" more then I did. I'm his intended audience: I love to fly, and am always disappointed when I can't get a window seat. Here's the review that led me to read it:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/wanderin...
Eh. 2.6 stars.
October 25, 2016
If there was an option for 0 stars, I would give it that. Did this guy buy all the copies himself to make it a bestseller? Either that, or he bribed the writers of the bestseller list. There is no story or any point to this tripe. What a waste of time to even write this nonsense. Don't bother; go for a run instead. You'll feel better.
May 8, 2019
Upon boarding a commercial airliner (whether for a short domestic flight or longer overseas flight) many passengers simply slip into their familiar travel routine and cocoon themselves with their electronic blanket of noise cancelling headphones, tablets, laptops or the in-flight entertainment and the flight becomes a mere means of conveyance from one place to another.
Therefore, one might be excused for expecting the pilot of a 747 to be more of a technocrat than an aviator, given the routine nature of flight in today's world - cocooned in the cockpit by instrumentation, switches and lights with a steady stream of technical information being fed through his headphones - but surprisingly, or perhaps not surprisingly (given the view from the cockpit), Vanhoenacker sees the world he is flying over, and the skies he is flying through, and the places he visits on the ground with the eyes of a poet/philosopher.
He is obviously an avid reader and his reading informs his thoughts and meditations. This is a seamlessly woven mixture of fascinating technical detail about modern airline flight along with personal insights and observations about the meaning and impact of travel. It should encourage more fliers to spend time looking out the window at the wonders beyond than gazing at the small screen in front of them. The journey adds meaning to the trip.
Therefore, one might be excused for expecting the pilot of a 747 to be more of a technocrat than an aviator, given the routine nature of flight in today's world - cocooned in the cockpit by instrumentation, switches and lights with a steady stream of technical information being fed through his headphones - but surprisingly, or perhaps not surprisingly (given the view from the cockpit), Vanhoenacker sees the world he is flying over, and the skies he is flying through, and the places he visits on the ground with the eyes of a poet/philosopher.
He is obviously an avid reader and his reading informs his thoughts and meditations. This is a seamlessly woven mixture of fascinating technical detail about modern airline flight along with personal insights and observations about the meaning and impact of travel. It should encourage more fliers to spend time looking out the window at the wonders beyond than gazing at the small screen in front of them. The journey adds meaning to the trip.
July 25, 2022
Lyrical, philosophical, full of poetic allusions and movie references, "Skyfaring" presents pilot, Mark Vanhoenacker's, musings on the life of a Boeing 747 pilot.
My son is a 767 pilot so the parts of Vanhoenacker's descriptions and musings that most interested me were about the direct experiences, processes, and procedures that pilots undergo.
Very interesting stuff!
Vanhoebacker writes beautifully, and he has other flight-related books out, maybe someday he'll consider a novel?!
My son is a 767 pilot so the parts of Vanhoenacker's descriptions and musings that most interested me were about the direct experiences, processes, and procedures that pilots undergo.
Very interesting stuff!
Vanhoebacker writes beautifully, and he has other flight-related books out, maybe someday he'll consider a novel?!
February 10, 2019
ציפיתי לספר פיקנטי עם סיפורי טייסים מעניינים. קבלתי טרחנות מתפלספת עם הרבה פרטים טכניים מיותרים
January 14, 2016
As a child, I dreamed about flying airplanes. I sought out books about flying, trying to get some insight into what it was like and what a career in aviation might entail. I read Lindbergh's We and The Spirit of St. Louis. I built model after model. When I was older I devoured the memoirs of military pilots who flew in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. And then I did become a pilot, and embarked on a 24-year career flying trainers and fighters for the US Air Force. My dreams of late have turned to writing about flying. But are there any readers still looking for books about flying? It's not like it's still a new thing, after all.
Judging by the critical reaction to Mark Vanhoenacker's memoir, yes, there are readers who dream of flying. There are a lot of them. Now the question is, can I write about flying a tenth as well as Mark Vanhoenacker?
What Skyfaring does best is to explain the psyche of a person who, like me, dreamed of flying, and having flown, discovered it more than lives up to the dream. What it does next best is to explain the arcane, often maritime, history behind the structure of rules of flight, and to do it in a poetic, evocative way.
I first learned about Mark Vanhoenacker when I saw one of his articles in a magazine. It was about the five-letter names of junctions and waypoints on aeronautical charts, and it picked up on something I'd noticed myself, that the seemingly arbitrary names are anything but random, and often reflect national, regional, and cultural themes. This article, I was happy to discover, forms part of a longer chapter in Skyfaring.
The kind of flying I did is quite different from the kind of flying Mark Vanhoenacker does, but he and I love many of the same things: at night, the silence and solitude, the utter blackness of oceanic crossings, the light of distant cities over land, the aurora and, occasionally, St Elmo's fire; in daylight, the incredibly blue and clear skies above the weather, the sensation of speed you experience when you're close to clouds, the shadow of your own airplane below you, the grand geographical features passing slowly underneath.
In Skyfaring, we see a uniformly rosy picture of flying and the career of a long-haul commercial pilot. Mark Vanhoenacker doesn't tell war stories: there's not a single "There I was ..." moment in his memoir. I cannot believe any pilot at the mid-point of a career flying Airbus 320s and Boeing 747s doesn't have a few hair-raising experiences to relate, and I was more than a little disappointed he didn't share any of those experiences with us. This may be a case of self-censorship: he's still flying for British Airways, after all.
I loved everything else about this book. I haven't dreamed of flying in years. Writing about flying, as I have begun to do, is quite frankly my personal attempt to bring back the sense of wonder and adventure I experienced as a child, dreaming of a career in aviation. Reading Skyfaring inspires me to try harder, to keep the dream alive.
Judging by the critical reaction to Mark Vanhoenacker's memoir, yes, there are readers who dream of flying. There are a lot of them. Now the question is, can I write about flying a tenth as well as Mark Vanhoenacker?
What Skyfaring does best is to explain the psyche of a person who, like me, dreamed of flying, and having flown, discovered it more than lives up to the dream. What it does next best is to explain the arcane, often maritime, history behind the structure of rules of flight, and to do it in a poetic, evocative way.
I first learned about Mark Vanhoenacker when I saw one of his articles in a magazine. It was about the five-letter names of junctions and waypoints on aeronautical charts, and it picked up on something I'd noticed myself, that the seemingly arbitrary names are anything but random, and often reflect national, regional, and cultural themes. This article, I was happy to discover, forms part of a longer chapter in Skyfaring.
The kind of flying I did is quite different from the kind of flying Mark Vanhoenacker does, but he and I love many of the same things: at night, the silence and solitude, the utter blackness of oceanic crossings, the light of distant cities over land, the aurora and, occasionally, St Elmo's fire; in daylight, the incredibly blue and clear skies above the weather, the sensation of speed you experience when you're close to clouds, the shadow of your own airplane below you, the grand geographical features passing slowly underneath.
In Skyfaring, we see a uniformly rosy picture of flying and the career of a long-haul commercial pilot. Mark Vanhoenacker doesn't tell war stories: there's not a single "There I was ..." moment in his memoir. I cannot believe any pilot at the mid-point of a career flying Airbus 320s and Boeing 747s doesn't have a few hair-raising experiences to relate, and I was more than a little disappointed he didn't share any of those experiences with us. This may be a case of self-censorship: he's still flying for British Airways, after all.
I loved everything else about this book. I haven't dreamed of flying in years. Writing about flying, as I have begun to do, is quite frankly my personal attempt to bring back the sense of wonder and adventure I experienced as a child, dreaming of a career in aviation. Reading Skyfaring inspires me to try harder, to keep the dream alive.
June 23, 2015
Skyfaring : A Journey with Mark Vanhoenacker is a book that eloquently describes the life of a pilot and how the author came to become a pilot and who now flies 747s on long routes and previously flew Airbuses around Europe.
The book is quite autobiographic with Vanhoenacker describing being the son of a father who was a Belgian missionary before meeting an American who had also travelled widely. Vanhoenacker grew up in New England, became a management consultant but then decided that his love of flying led him to become a commercial pilot.
The book has a strong voice that describes the technological wonder of flying, the strange world of working on international aircraft and seeing so many places all the time and the natural wonders seen from the air.
The writing in the book is reminiscent of Alan de Botton's popular philosophy books. It's got a definite thoughtful tone but in this book it becomes a bit self-indulgent. However, the book definitely has something to say and for anyone who finds that flying is an incredible experience should find that it holds their attention. If the book had been edited a bit more tightly it could have been better. Still, the book does succeed in describing the wonder of flight and the author's love of his job that he clearly feels is a calling.
The book is quite autobiographic with Vanhoenacker describing being the son of a father who was a Belgian missionary before meeting an American who had also travelled widely. Vanhoenacker grew up in New England, became a management consultant but then decided that his love of flying led him to become a commercial pilot.
The book has a strong voice that describes the technological wonder of flying, the strange world of working on international aircraft and seeing so many places all the time and the natural wonders seen from the air.
The writing in the book is reminiscent of Alan de Botton's popular philosophy books. It's got a definite thoughtful tone but in this book it becomes a bit self-indulgent. However, the book definitely has something to say and for anyone who finds that flying is an incredible experience should find that it holds their attention. If the book had been edited a bit more tightly it could have been better. Still, the book does succeed in describing the wonder of flight and the author's love of his job that he clearly feels is a calling.
July 13, 2015
Hmmm. Look, it's a strong proposition and our author has an ear for the metaphysical and the lyrical that will doubtless stand out among what I imagine is a straight-talking, (overwhelmingly) Alpha Male peer group.
Alas, it didn't quite land. Lots of wonderment and awe; the quiet beauty of the earth ever peeking through the window - but light on many aspects I wanted to hear about. Dislocated, almost. It reminded me of well preserved copies of the National Geographic. Volcanoes in brilliant double-page colour; no people.
I totally bought 'place lag'. I totally buy the glory and miracle of flight (I used to be someone who hated flying and am now someone who feels unbelievably privileged to have lived in an age where Moscow is a bit of a shag and San Francisco feels like a much cooler Brighton).
But it could have been more. I'd want to know about the human responsibility; about the effect of 9/11. The Mile High Club (I jest). I don't know. A little more heart.
Perhaps - unnoted by the author himself - the point about pilots is that they need to be that little bit... distant and clinical. And that's probably an advantage to all of us on board (including me, the insomniac in 23C, sandwiched between the teething infant twins and the pungent septuagenarian pilgrim). He's in control. He loves his job. Rest easy.
Alas, it didn't quite land. Lots of wonderment and awe; the quiet beauty of the earth ever peeking through the window - but light on many aspects I wanted to hear about. Dislocated, almost. It reminded me of well preserved copies of the National Geographic. Volcanoes in brilliant double-page colour; no people.
I totally bought 'place lag'. I totally buy the glory and miracle of flight (I used to be someone who hated flying and am now someone who feels unbelievably privileged to have lived in an age where Moscow is a bit of a shag and San Francisco feels like a much cooler Brighton).
But it could have been more. I'd want to know about the human responsibility; about the effect of 9/11. The Mile High Club (I jest). I don't know. A little more heart.
Perhaps - unnoted by the author himself - the point about pilots is that they need to be that little bit... distant and clinical. And that's probably an advantage to all of us on board (including me, the insomniac in 23C, sandwiched between the teething infant twins and the pungent septuagenarian pilgrim). He's in control. He loves his job. Rest easy.
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