Absolute Altitude: A hitch-hiker's guide to the sky

by Martin Buckley (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $3.22

  In this age of sleek 500-seat transglobal airliners, what remains of the mystery and romance of flight? Martin Buckley circumnavigated the world in a whole series of mostly small aircraft, flying by some of the oldest and strangest planes still in use to some of the oldest surviving pilots, as well as contemporary pilots who still fly by the seat of their pants. Some years ago Martin discovered that with a qualified pilot's license you can sometimes hitch-hike in the co-pilots seat (pilots like it, plane owners and insurance companies like it, and customs officials are usually well-disposed). He decided that the subject of his next book would be to try and hitch around the world by plane.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.22

  In this exciting and unusual travel book, Martin Buckley journeys through many places, from Benbecula to Rarotonga, from Sudan to New Zealand, from Corsica to Tucson, Arizona - but the country he explores is a romantic and dangerous place that seduces all who travel there - the sky. Three years ago, Martin Buckley gained a pilot's licence, and set off to 'hitch-hike' by plane around the world. His encounters with a range of sometimes eccentric and always obsessive pilots led to aid flights through war zones in a UN Cessna, aerobatics in a jet fighter, chasing goats across snowy mountains by helicopter and touching the edge of the stratosphere in a Learjet. The result is a wholly original travel book, free-spirited and often very funny, weaving a bird's-eye view of aviation's peculiar history into the narrative and offering intimate insights into the passion and perils of the pilot's seat.