Zen Pilot: Flight of Passion and the Journey Within

by Robert DeLaurentis

"I was rocketing toward the ground in an aircraft loaded with high-octane aviation fuel. All I could do was negotiate where the impact would happen."

Robert DeLaurentis had an impossibly big dream: to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engine piston plane. Meant to be the ultimate test of his flying skills as a pilot,the journey would take him to the ends of the earth and over some of the most inhospitable terrain on the planet.He diligently prepared himself and his plane, the "Spirit of San Diego," for the excursion. Having previously flown to far-off places, he thought he knew what to expect.But reality doesn't always make for the best co-pilot.What began as a call to adventure turned into a soul-defining mission riddled with equipment failure, fierce weather, foreign bureaucratic nightmares, and nearly ended in a crash into the vast Pacific Ocean. The voyage would stretch his limits, test his mental strength, and eventually define him.Beaten down, broken and discouraged, he found that the only way to survive was to surrender to the Universe.In this follow-up to Flying Thru Life, DeLaurentis shares the insights he gained for overcoming paralyzing fear, defeating obstacles, and confronting any situation with grace and ease.This raw, at times terrifying, real-life adventure will inspire anyone who loves flying, yearns to fly, or simply has their own "impossibly big dream."DeLaurentis' extraordinary journey shows us what it takes to be a Zen Pilot.

Genres: Aviation

376 pages, Paperback

First published November 16, 2016

Reviews

[Mike Harrington · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the book because I am a pilot and was looking forward to the Zen view of a global journey. My low rating is due largely to the fact that while the author could have chosen to focus on the beauty of the journey, he instead focused on the danger. Is flying dangerous? It can be, of course, and he did have a legitimate emergency, which should have been highlighted. But it seemed that every discussion of the airplane was a discussion of how the plane could kill him. I think that’s melodramatic and probably does a disservice to those who wonder about aviation. If he truly felt that way about flying, he would probably not be doing it. I believe he was pushing for suspense and danger to sell his story whereas I think he could have done just as well to focus on the beauty of the ride. Not discounting his one real emergency, but the airplane is not waiting to kill - if it were, none of us would do it. And that focus and panicked tone throughout the book is far from Zen.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really good and i am so happy i won it on goodreads first reads for an honest review.
I found this book to be a book on the authors experience in his skills as a pilot and how the different failures made him learn how to survive to his universe.this is the follow up to the flying thry life which i wished i had but i did think this book was well written and i enjoyed it very much.I will now have to read the former book to see his true inspirational of this book...
I believe that anyone who enjoys adventure should read this one...i have given it 5 stars.

[Francesco Sarcinella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Molti libri ci insegnano a volare. Questo ci parla di cosa il volo può insegnarci. La storia di un uomo con un grande sogno impossibile, fare il giro del mondo in un aereo con singolo motore a pistoni. Ho apprezzato moltissimo il libro, peccato che non ci sia una versione in italiano. Bisogna masticare abbastanza bene l'inglese. Consigliatissimo.

[Joni Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing true story of one pilot's quest to complete the ultimate long cross-country--once around the world.

[Scott Humphries · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this book the author recounts his solo flight around the world in his Piper Malibu Mirage. I read this book as a long-time Malibu Mirage pilot, hoping to hear some fun stories from around the world and marvel at some cool flying. I was largely disappointed. This book sure doesn't seem written for a pilot audience, despite the author's incessant and annoying reminders that he was making his journey to educate us all. There were nonstop cliches, either verbatim or paraphrased. Everything happens for a reason. Bleh. The universe doesn't want me to complete my journey. Wait, the universe wants me to complete my journey. And on and on. There were editorial foibles as well, like waiting until the very climax of the book, after his final landing back at home, to interrupt the majesty of the moment with a stilted, unnecessary description of how the airstair door on a Mirage works; probably could have done that while describing the prior 3 months of flying. But I think he finally lost me when, while describing accidentally taking off on the shorter of the two runways in American Samoa (when he professes to have desperately needed the longer one to get airborne), he blames his "handler" for directing him to the wrong runway. YOU are the pilot in command. It is YOUR job to take off on the right runway. And it's a very simple exercise to figure out what runway you're on -- look at your compass. I'm surprised that a pilot who would blame his handler for taking off on the wrong runway would survive an around the world flight journey. Maybe DeLaurentis would have a different schicht for a pilot audience. Maybe he could rein in his Santa Monica U degree in "spiritual psychology" long enough to just tell the story without all the "universe did this, god did that, my spirit was tied" etc. It didn't happen in this volume.