What a Change

Last summer I flew to Zambia.  There were a couple of stops and it took a grand total of 22 hours and 30 minutes.  Yeah, it was a long flight. At least I thought it was, until I read Tim Grove's First Flight Around the World.   It took 4 planes, each with 1 pilot and 1 mechanic 363 hours and 7 minutes to fly around the world-and that's just air time.  Counting all the stops and receptions they had to attend along the way the entire trip took 150 days.

150 days!!??  To us, that's crazy talk.  But at the time it set records, these airmen were the first to circumnavigate the globe, the first to cross the Pacific Ocean and the first to cross the China Sea.  They did all of this in planes that had open cockpits.  That's unthinkable!

Regular readers will know non-fiction is not my preferred genre, but First Flight Around the World  is the best type of non-fiction.  It's a story that is fascinating on it's own masterfully supplemented with pictures and quotes from journals/newspapers/etc. from that time period.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  It was the perfect mix of the technical, diplomatic, and personal aspects of the mission.  If you have any interest in aviation you should definitely read this book.

Winning...that's kids stuff.