The African-Bush Pilot


Book Description

The African-Bush Pilot The debut autobiography by Cecil Mullins is an auspicious success from the very first page to the last. He tells the breathtaking odyssey of his life from a small town Southwest Virginia boy to a well known, highly regarded pilot who flies the aircraft he dreamt of as a young man. His writing style is fast paced, graphic and often gritty with an occasional side bar of humor and ribald commentary about the fairer sex he encounters during his highly charged, adventurous career as a "Bush Pilot" and his unpredictable forays with non-scheduled airlines. The book is a must read. The reader will feel as if he is in the cockpit with the "Bush Pilot" as the fights the elements, warfare, mechanical and equipment problems and violent weather. It is a great book...you will not want to put it down. Go out and get a copy and experience the thrill of what you find as you turn the next page...and the next. Reaching the pinnacle of his career by surviving unbelievable mechanical failures and mishaps, violent weather, flying into African civil wars and revolutions in the dead of night to evade missiles and gunfire were but a part of the life he chose to live. He survived and prospered by his intellect, courage and unparalleled skill as a top flight mechanic, flight engineer, co-pilot and finally pilot and Captain of his own craft.




West with the Night


Book Description

Autobiography detailing the author's life in Africa and career as a pilot.




African Bush Pilot


Book Description

The first of a series of short stories of real life bush flying adventures in Africa. Seat of the pants flying as a single pilot operation before the advent of GPS navigation, when pilots flew with their wits on intuition and adrenaline. A true story written with humor, portraying the culture and flavor of Africa in the 1980s.




Bush and Mountain Flying


Book Description

This book focuses mainly on highly advanced techniques and skills required to operate safely in remote, challenging and extreme conditions.Any pilot who is looking for training or mentoring in Bush and Mountain Flying skills and techniques should seek it from an appropriately skilled, experienced and knowledgeable pilot in this field and not a flight instructor whose claim to fame is flying around the ¿cabbage patch¿ or only flying charters or airliners. A flight instructor rating does not qualify one as an instant ¿flight guru¿, knowledgeable in all aspects of flying, nor does it make one an appropriately skilled, experienced and knowledgeable pilot in bush and mountain flying. The techniques in this book explore the very edge of the airplane's performance envelope and include flying close to stall speeds at low altitudes and thus are extremely dangerous to inexperienced pilots without the required skills and judgement.




The Bush Pilots


Book Description

Describes the personalities, planes and experiences of bush pilots flying in the Canadian wilderness, the Australian outback, the jungles of New Guinea and Latin America and the frozen land of Alaska.




Flying to Extremes


Book Description

Recalling some of the most memorable escapades ever conducted in the Canadian Arctic with bush planes, Flying to Extremes takes place in the late ?60s and early ?70s from a base at Yellowknife, in the heart of the Northwest Territories. Beyond recounting so many near-mishaps, this book is also about colourful people: the trappers, prospectors, miners, adventurers and gold-ingot thieves who constituted the fauna at the main bar in Yellowknife in those days. For Arctic dreamers, there was always the flight to the Nahanni River, with its Deadman's Valley, hot springs, tales of lost or dead prospectors, the many airplanes crashed in pursuit of gold, and much more Nahanni lore. This entertaining book recollects Prinet's adventures as a young man while capturing the humour, beauty, danger and unique culture of northern communities, in the dramatic landscape of the Canadian Arctic. Readers familiar with the region and those who can only dream of visiting it will both find this title a nostalgic and captivating read.




Predator: Life and Death in the African Bush


Book Description

With his phenomenal photographs of the five great predators of the African bush--lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, and crocodiles--Ross's compelling and sometimes violent images capture the true scenarios that are played out every day on this magnificent landscape.




Noel Merrill Wien


Book Description

Born into a family of aviators, Merrill Wien was destined to become a pilot. His father, Noel Wien, was one of the first pilots to fly in Alaska and his life was full of firsts, including making the first round-trip flight between Asia and North America in 1929. His mother played a big role in the founding and development of Wien Alaska Airlines, the second-oldest scheduled airline in the United States and territories. One of the most versatile and experienced pilots of his time, Merrill has flown just about every aircraft imaginable from DC-3s to Lockheed 1011s to historic military planes like the cargo C-46 and B-29 bomber to the Hiller UH-12E chopper. Although fundamentally modest by nature, family and friends encouraged Merrill to share his remarkable stories given his accomplishments and experiences with so many famous people and events. His tone is engagingly informal as he recounts crossing paths with such luminaries as Joe Crosson, Howard Hughes, Lowell Thomas Sr. and Lowell Thomas Jr., Sam White, Don Sheldon, Brad Washburn, Wally Schirra, and Bill Anders. He re-creates for readers his firsthand experiences flying top-secret missions for the Air Force, viewing the devastation of the Good Friday Earthquake in Anchorage, and the challenges of starting his own helicopter company, to name just a few. His fascinating narrative is complemented by photographs from his personal archives.




Jorgy


Book Description

"Jorgy" Jorgensen is a legendary Alaska Native bush pilot, but his life is much more than a great flying story. He was raised by his Inupiat Eskimo mother and his Norwegian gold-miner father in a tiny mining camp in interior Alaska. After his father's death during the Depression, when Jorgy was only seven, they lived a subsistence lifestyle: Jorgy worked in the gold mines, ran a trap line, and mushed dogs. He served in Mukluk Marston's Alaska Territorial Guard and was a sergeant by the age of 17. After Pearl Harbor, he became Sig Wien's fire potter and gas boy, and learned to fly. He operated a dragline in the summer, he was a boxing champion, and he singlehandedly desegregated Nome's movie theater. His flying career was equally varied: he flew all across Alaska, from the T-3 ice island delivering scientific equipment and supplies, to delivering cargoes of fresh fish in King Salmon, to moving reindeer from Hagemeister Island; he flew in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, Canada. He flew from 1943 to 2001, logging more than 35,000 hours of flight time, with only one--minor--accident. Telling his extraordinary life story in spare, no-fuss fashion, this book allows a vivid glimpse into a tulmultuous and exciting period in aviation from the point of view of one of Alaska's early Native bush pilots.




F.E. Potts' Guide to Bush Flying


Book Description