This book sale find was a quick read albeit not quite what I expected. Vanhoenacker is an American pilot based in the UK who grew up in Pittsfield, MA, son of an American mother and a father from Belgium. He attends college and travels a bit but the desire to be a pilot is never far from the surface, and he completes his training in the UK.
The book alternates between memories of growing up gay in Massachusetts with his travels as a long haul pilot to Cape Town (the cover image), San Francisco, Dubai, Jeddah, Pittsburgh, and all parts in between. Cites and memories are grouped into chapters, City of Memory, City of Gates, etc. The convention references his experience as a lonely kid who made up an imaginary city to keep him company.
It’s thoughtful with fun pilot related facts in between:
Long haul pilots get 24-48 hours between flights.
Certain types of planes go to certain places, so when he cycles off the 747, he knows he won’t go to San Francisco any longer. I’m not sure if this is airline dependent.
There may be multiple routes to some long haul cities like Cape Town with one route largely over water.
Pilots have access to wind roses, a circular graph that visually displays how wind speed and direction are distributed at a specific location over time, showing dominant directions (spokes) and frequency (spoke length/color) for different speed ranges. They’re used in planning airports including the runways. (Windrose for an airport in Germany. Wikicommons.)
Pilots connect with air traffic controllers in different countries as they pass over said country’s airspace.
English is the lingua franca.
Higher and hotter air is thinner, which means engines have less of it to breathe. In thinner air, you have to fly faster to obtain the same amount of lift from the wings.
I’m a big fan of all things plane and recently found this fun channel. Airplane Facts with Max. Join an airplane mechanic as he explains a fun fact and then randomly makes a comparison to the Lord of the Rings. A good time had by all.
Cher Time 