March 8 1990: An intoxicated three-man crew including Flight Engineer Joseph Balzer fly a Northwest Airlines Boeing 727 with 91 passengers aboard from Fargo North Dakota to Minneapolis Minnesota. July 25 1990: All three pilots stand trial for flying a commercial airliner while under the influence of alcohol; all three are convicted and sent to federal prison. July 26 1990 present: Joe Balzer fights for redemption and to regain all that he has lost. Flying Drunk is his story. Since he was a...

March 8, 1990: An intoxicated three-man crew, including Flight Engineer Joseph Balzer, fly a Northwest Airlines Boeing 727 with 91 passengers aboard from Fargo, North Dakota to Minneapolis, Minnesota. July 25, 1990: All three pilots stand trial for flying a commercial airliner while under the influence of alcohol; all three are convicted and sent to federal prison. July 26, 1990 – Present: Joe Balzer fights for redemption and to regain all that he has lost. Flying Drunk is his sto...

Naval Aviator Brad Morehouse finds himself relegated to the flight engineer seat of a commercial 727 following a tragic accident during the Blue Angel’s triumphant homecoming in 1983. From the lowest notch on the totem pole he watches the downward spiral of Omega Airlines as one crew blunder after another threatens to force the once proud captains’ airlines into extinction. Accidents were a growing concern in the airlines during those years. In 1978 a United Airlines DC-8 crashed in Portla...

The inspirational autobiography of the heroic pilot who miraculously landed a crippled commercial flight in the Hudson River.Now a major motion picture from Clint Eastwood, starring Tom HanksOn January 15, 2009, the world witnessed a remarkable emergency landing when Captain "Sully" Sullenberger skillfully glided US Airways Flight 1549 onto the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 passengers and crew. His cool actions not only averted tr...

FOR A FIGHTER PILOT IN THE MIGHTY EIGHTH, DEATH WAS ALWAYS A HEARTBEAT AWAY.When the skies of Europe blazed with the fiercest air battles in history, fighter pilots like Norman “Bud” Fortier were in the thick of it, flying four hundred miles an hour at thirty thousand feet, dodging flak and dueling with Nazi aces. In their role as “escorts” to Flying Fortresses and Liberators, the fighter squadrons’ ability to blast enemy aircraft from the sky was key to the succes...

The Rogue Aviator: In the Back Alleys of Aviation is a memoir of an adventurous and fun-loving pilot who experienced a unique and tumultuous career. An additional theme of this book is an insider's view of the commercial aviation industry and the degradation of safety that results when concern for the company's bottom line trumps the concern for the safety of the aviation operation. The current front-and-center issue of pilot fatigue frequently enters the narrative with many personal anecd...

Black Sheep One is the first biography of legendary warrior and World War II hero Gregory Boyington.In 1936, Boyington became an aviation cadet and earned the “wings of gold” of a naval aviator. After only a short period on active duty, however, he was “encouraged” to resign from the Marine Corps due to his unconventional behavior. Remarkably, this inauspicious beginning was just the prologue to a heroic career as an American fighter pilot and innovative combat leader. With the on...

North America's vast land mass, sparse population, and deserted north were perfectly suited for aircraft operations on skis and pontoons. The bush pilots opened the North, exploring to its farthest reaches, establishing communication between isolated settlements, delivering supplies, medicines, medical assistance and the mail. They were superb pilots and mechanics, dare devils, barnstormers, inventors, and explorers. Operating without compasses, radios, or detailed maps, they built their a...

Originally published by Wm. Morrow in 1995, SKYGODS is the story of Pan American World Airways from its meteoric ascent to its plunge to extinction. Pan Am blazed the way across the world's oceans with its magnificent Clipper ships, launched the first international jet service, was the first to fly the behemoth 747, was the lead customer for America's SST and the Concorde, and was even taking reservations for the first commercial flights to the moon.SKYGODS is the true story of an A...

Three thousand feet above the Zambian bush, the DHC2 Beaver had only ten minutes' fuel remaining. Night was drawing in; ground features were indiscernible. I could not raise anyone on the radio. Would this be the end? John Flexman knew he wanted to be a pilot from moment he saw an RAF flypast as a boy of eight. At sixteen he joined the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy, getting his 'wings' in 1961 at the age of 18. From there on he never looked back. His flying career took him around the wor...

Second lieutenant Dick Curtis arrived in Italy in May 1944–twenty years old and part of a shipment of P-51 Mustang fighter pilots so desperately needed that they were rushed into combat with less than thirty hours of flight time in their new high-performance aircraft.Six of the twelve pilots assigned to the 52nd Fighter Group were shot down in the first two weeks. By his ninth mission, Curtis was the only one still flying. A maverick, he barely escaped court-martial with his high-f...

In May 2000 the British nuclear hunter-killer submarine HMS Tireless limped into Gibraltar using emergency propulsion and with her nuclear reactor shut down. Days earlier, while traversing the Straits of Sicily the crew had discovered a crack in one of the nuclear reactor pipes, requiring the immediate shutting down of the reactor to prevent a potential reactor accident, an operation never before conducted on a British submarine at sea. Th e previous six days had been a difficult time for ...