The Book: " Stick and Rudder" Have you read it?

The only aviation book I've read that I recommend to others is Wager With The Wind, by James Greiner.
 
Stewartb said:
The only aviation book I've read that I recommend to others is Wager With The Wind, by James Greiner.
Click to expand...
Stewart, you are up in ak....have you read, "In the Shadow of Eagles"? It's one of my favorites (Bush pilot book). I'll have to check out "Wager with the Wind".
 
While we're on the topic of aviation books, if you haven't already, read "Yeager". You won't learn much about the finer points of flying, but it's really entertaining and the life of Gen. Yeager is just fascinating.
 
FloridaPilot said:
If you have read the book what was your favorite part of the book, would you like to elaborate...Thanks!!
Click to expand...
I think all beginning student pilots should read the first two and a half pages before taking their first lesson. It's called "Part 1 Wings" and starts off like this:

"Get rid at the outset of the idea that the airplane is only an air-going sort of an automoble. It isn't. It may sound like one and smell like one, and it may have been interior-decorated to look like one; but the difference is--it goes on wings.

And a wing is an odd thing, strangely behaved, hard to understand, tricky to handle. In many important respects, a wing's behavior is exactly contrary to common sense. On wings it is safe to be high, dangerous to be low; safe to go fast, dangerous to go slow."​

Rather than keep quoting, I think I'll brew a cup of tea and savor the rest of these pearls myself, yet again for the umpteenth time. I so, SO, treasure this book!

dtuuri
 
Last edited:
FastEddieB said:
I think a lot depends on when you first read it.

In my case, it was years before I started flying. To this day I think it helped cement for me the concept that the plane moves through a body of air that is itself moving. That, barring gusts and shear, there is no "wind" acting on an aircraft once it clears the ground.

It's a concept that I've pretty well internalized, but there are many pilots who have not. I remember one fellow who thought his plane needed more nose-down trim in a headwind, for instance. I think he's flying a Cirrus now but never gave any indication of ever having gotten the very basic concepts that Stick and Rudder puts forth*.

But I can see how someone who's been flying a while and already has basic concepts down might find Stick and Rudder a bit primitive and elementary. Still recommend it though.

*Let me dig up a link to a list of "Stick and Rudder Moments" I compiled a while back.

Found it: https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/stick-and-rudder-moments-redux.79699/
Click to expand...

Great comment. I experienced exactly the same. And can also see maybe a great pilot with lots of experience getting bored with it. But then again...lifelong guitarist here. Beginners books bore the hell out of me. There is a "bible" (much seen as S&R) guitar handbook that is a mix of things I learned thirty, fourth years ago, BUT I love paging through it, even though I know almost all of it, and it (much more than flying which still has the same physics as in his time) really IS outdated with some equipment that is just not used anymore..still reminds me of things I hadn't thought about for a while. I also now and then still learn from it. There are other guitarists at my same knowledge level, experience that probably would say they were bored and couldn't get through it. We are all different.

As a student, like you, the air mass and why there isn't wind blowing on a plane except it's own speed through the air mass, how that affects navigation, etc. we're revelations for me. I read the same data in ground school but his description brought it to life for me.

Also sight picture, and the effects of attitude on glide path (I love the curtains we get finally to look behind :) )
As I said, I read it just before starting training. In fact, I would definitely say reading it made me realize I CAN learn to fly and the principles. It gave me the boost to seek out a flight school. So you could say it is good for GA.

After that, I browsed it during and after flight theory, aerodynamic principles...it helped a LOT.
Later, I read t cover to cover again. Difference is I hop over parts I already spent time learning and move on to concepts I hadn't quite understood before.

I don't get the comments that it is old fashioned.
 
dtuuri said:
I think all beginning student pilots should read the first two and a half pages before taking their first lesson. It's called "Part 1 Wings" and starts off like this:

"Get rid at the outset of the idea that the airplane is only an air-going sort of an automoble. It isn't. It may sound like one and smell like one, and it may have been interior-decorated to look like one; but the difference is--it goes on wings.

And a wing is an odd thing, strangely behaved, hard to understand, tricky to handle. In many important respects, a wing's behavior is exactly contrary to common sense. On wings it is safe to be high, dangerous to be low; safe to go fast, dangerous to go slow."​

Rather than keep quoting, I think I'll brew a cup of tea and savor the rest of these pearls myself, yet again for the umpteenth time. I so, SO, treasure this book!

dtuuri
Click to expand...

Yeah...that opening hooked me too. And the next part where he goes on about a pilot having to do the exact opposite of what his "land instincts" will scream to him to do. That stuck with me.
 
LongRoadBob said:
There is a "bible" (much seen as S&R) guitar handbook that is a mix of things I learned thirty, fourth years ago, BUT I love paging through it, even though I know almost all of it, ...
Click to expand...

If you're talking about Denyer's The Guitar Handbook I completely agree with you. My copy is quite literally falling apart. I still drag it out from time to time. Highly recommended.
 
Half Fast said:
If you're talking about Denyer's The Guitar Handbook I completely agree with you. My copy is quite literally falling apart. I still drag it out from time to time. Highly recommended.
Click to expand...

Yes...that was the one! Funny how that goes. The equivalent to S&R, Guitar handbook, when I trained in aikido was "Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere" same thing. Unusual, interesting illustrations, old but filled with things you like to read.
 
Yes, and I refer to it occasionally. It is a classic. Other good aviation books have been recommended in this thread, but only S&R is about how to fly.

Bob
 
Read Stick and Rudder twice and I agree that the small wheel goes in the front. Can't think of a reason why it shouldn't.
 
cgrab said:
Read Stick and Rudder twice and I agree that the small wheel goes in the front. Can't think of a reason why it shouldn't.
Click to expand...

I can.

J-3-Tricycle_2.jpg

Seriously, though, like most design features, it's a compromise. For my 172 and what I (mostly) use it for, tri gear is great. But I would not have wanted a nosewheel on my Sport Cub when I flew into the Idaho backcountry.
 
always wanted to. So I just made an amazon order...Arrives tomorrow (prime member) so I'm now committed...thanx guys/gals!
 
You guys have me interested. I've now ordered The Proficient Pilot plus Fate Is The Hunter.
 
LongRoadBob said:
I didn't see mention of a ghost writer, but he also had a great writing style and there was a ton of interesting information as well as getting the feel of where aviation was at that time, and how huge a thing his flight was.
Click to expand...
It is widely thought his wife, Anne, heavily edited and rewrote the work. She was an outstanding writer with some classics like "Gift From The Sea".
 
Pilawt said:
Suggestion - as you read the stories in Fate Is The Hunter, follow along with Google Earth - it helps the locations come alive.
Click to expand...
That's a great idea!
 
I think Stick and Rudder owes something to an earlier book called Your Wings by Assen Jordanoff -- it's full of flying knowledge which any pilot should absorb. It has cartoon illustrations of helmet-and-goggles aviators like Stick and Rudder.
 
Wolfgang's son William is an accomplished non-fiction writer who is worth reading. Though he shies away from being labeled an '2nd generation aviation writer', he touched on the field with "Inside the Sky" and a book on the miracle on the Hudson. He gets deep into fascinating subjects like lawlessness at sea "Outlaw Sea" and the World Trade Center bombing. I recommend his stuff highly, especially for the 'I want the real inside story' pilot types.

I read his S&R back when my certificate was being inked but I had already spent 10 years building and crashing every manner of model aircraft (you'd be surprised how much of the basics are learned) and was getting deeply immersed in soaring which is all stick and rudder. However, I picked it back up when I was doing some tailwheel training. Can't remember what I remember but it quenched the thirst that comes with a fresh learning curve.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Honestly, it's way over my head. I'll stick with something simple like Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators. ;)
 
Yeah, but it didn't do as much for me as I thought it would, based on all the hype.

Seaplane Operations

From the ground up

Contact flying

On the other hand..
 
There are two editions of Th Proficient Pilot....the original, copyrighted in 1980, and the Revised and Updated, copyrighted 1885 (ISBN 0-02-607150-9). Make sure you get the newer version. I proudly own both, signed by the great man himself.

Bob Gardner
 
bobmrg said:
There are two editions of Th Proficient Pilot....the original, copyrighted in 1980, and the Revised and Updated, copyrighted 1885 (ISBN 0-02-607150-9). Make sure you get the newer version. I proudly own both, signed by the great man himself.

Bob Gardner
Click to expand...
Was the 1885 edition mostly about balloons, or did he also talk about the glider experimentation that was going on at the time? ;)
 
bobmrg said:
There are two editions of Th Proficient Pilot....the original, copyrighted in 1980, and the Revised and Updated, copyrighted 1885 (ISBN 0-02-607150-9). Make sure you get the newer version. I proudly own both, signed by the great man himself.

Bob Gardner
Click to expand...


Too late. Already ordered the 1980 one.

Oh, well - at least if I die in a flaming plane crash, my wife can use ordering the wrong edition as a reason to sue Amazon.

I also have a book on aviation comms by Gardener something-or-other. Pretty good, but unfortunately it's also an older edition. Being an older edition myself, I sorta like that...
 
Palmpilot said:
Was the 1885 edition mostly about balloons, or did he also talk about the glider experimentation that was going on at the time? ;)
Click to expand...

Why doesn't autocorrect know what I mean instead of what I type?

Bob
 
Pilawt said:
Suggestion - as you read the stories in Fate Is The Hunter, follow along with Google Earth - it helps the locations come alive.
Click to expand...
ooooo good idea. I'll have to reread it and do that.
 
I've kept all my life concepts I picked up reading that book as a teen-ager - common-sense concepts that have served me extremely well over fifty of flying. I've bought many copies as gifts to give to those who have expressed an interest in flying. I't s the best book to read to build-in the "fundamentals".

I bought a very fast and very light KR-2 in the 80's and never did feel confident that I could get it on the ground without incident. I never did have any incidents but one day I got sick of feeling so uncertain of my landing technique. I found my copy of S&R and read the chapter on "Landings" several times, paying particular attention to where he says not to worry about hitting the prop when doing wheel landings. In fact, he recommended wheel landings. I had about 5 inches between runway surface and prop in the level position and frankly that was the very thing that was bothering me. I kept trying to finesse it on with three-pointers and winding up saying to myself, whew, that was close, or lucky, or whatever I said that day. One Saturday afternoon I read that chapter on Landings yet again while drinking one of my favorite vodka-loaded sundowners I was fond of at the time. I'd decided I was no longer going to be intimidated by this squirrelly little short-coupled plane with the built-in PIO that had me on edge all the time when trying to get it on the ground. Langsewiesche said to "plant the damn thing down and hold it there". Forget about hitting the prop. He was right. I never hit the prop and I never worried about getting the plane down to a safe, completely-in-control, satisfying landing once I'd done of few of his recommended landing procedures. I no longer cared what the wind was doing. As time went by I got much more skilled at landing three-point or "near" three point, but when the wind is howling across the runway and with something that light, I still used and use the "plant it and hold it" method of getting it on the runway. Before that the plane was flying me to the landing. After that, I did the flying. It made flying the KR a plane I could finally relax in and was able to enjoy the fingertip sky dancer that it is.

His explanation of why a wing flies is one any kid understands completely from having held our hands out the car window. Bernoulli Schramoulli . . . Langsewiesche taught the real reason a wing produces lift.

Highly recommended. You don't have to read ALL of it, just the parts that capture you or are of special interest. If I were an instructor however, I would make my students read this entire book before we did anything else.
 
Autocorrect:

I texted my daughter that I couldn't take off until the dog had lifted.
 
I can only read Stick and Rudder in segments. Fate is the Hunter, I read all the way through. Good book with interesting stories but I think it would be a pamphlet had it not been for Ganns' verbose descriptions of other pilots.
 
Back in the day I think I've read just about everything Gann and Bach have written. Guy Murchie's book Song of the Sky, is another old classic that gets overlooked sometimes. There is a more recent arrival however that should be on everyones' list - Robert Buck's - North Star Over my Shoulder. Anyone who has been flying for any length of time has read Buck's classic Weather Flying. Since it was first published in 1970 it's become required reading for anyone interested in understanding the environment within which we fly. His most recent (and final) book, North Star Over my Shoulder . . . is just an incredible read. He passed away not long ago at 93 and I'm so glad he gifted the world with this account of his amazing life which started off with a bang. 17 years old, 1930, breaking the transcontinental speed record from New Jersey to Los Angeles in a Pitcairn Mailwing. Think of it . . . 1930 . . . very few airports, no navigation aids, nothing but needle, ball and airspeed to stay right side up in weather or at night with no horizon. All he and others had back then was instinct and luck. To top things off, on his way back to New Jersey he beat the existing record flying west to east. His writing style is a joy to read, as anyone who has read his other books can attest to. This last book of his is not to be missed.

Another extremely well written memoir by another amazing pilot is Beryl Markham's West With the Night. She was the first person to fly solo from east to west across the Atlantic, 1936.

What a life these folks had.
 
MikeS said:
Back in the day I think I've read just about everything Gann and Bach have written. Guy Murchie's book Song of the Sky, is another old classic that gets overlooked sometimes. There is a more recent arrival however that should be on everyones' list - Robert Buck's - North Star Over my Shoulder. Anyone who has been flying for any length of time has read Buck's classic Weather Flying. Since it was first published in 1970 it's become required reading for anyone interested in understanding the environment within which we fly. His most recent (and final) book, North Star Over my Shoulder . . . is just an incredible read. He passed away not long ago at 93 and I'm so glad he gifted the world with this account of his amazing life which started off with a bang. 17 years old, 1930, breaking the transcontinental speed record from New Jersey to Los Angeles in a Pitcairn Mailwing. Think of it . . . 1930 . . . very few airports, no navigation aids, nothing but needle, ball and airspeed to stay right side up in weather or at night with no horizon. All he and others had back then was instinct and luck. To top things off, on his way back to New Jersey he beat the existing record flying west to east. His writing style is a joy to read, as anyone who has read his other books can attest to. This last book of his is not to be missed.

Another extremely well written memoir by another amazing pilot is Beryl Markham's West With the Night. She was the first person to fly solo from east to west across the Atlantic, 1936.

What a life these folks had.
Click to expand...

Thank you for that bit of advice, I'm going to look into those.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top