Just finished reading Night Flight yesterday. I tend to gravitate to the books that are under 100 pages : ) The author, Antoine de Saint-Exupery (from "the Little Prince," which I read for the first time on the Green Tortoise, a cross country bus ride) has a great outsider perspective on things. It is about the early days, the "Bad Old Days" as one of my CFIs referred to it, when there were pioneers and low low tech and bad/no charts. It detailed an evening where a bureaucrat send a pilot to his doom. More than a piloting book, this is more a critique of bureaucracy and a meditation on leadership. I will excerpt two inspectors talking to each other:
"You should keep your place, Robineau" Riviere weighed his words. "You may have to order this pilot tomorrow night to start on a dangerous flight. He will have to obey you"
"Yes"
"The lives of men worth more than you are in your hands." He seemed to hesitate. "It's a serious matter"
I won't reveal too much but I will say the part about the "two truths" is shattering. Nuff said.
Want to finish "Fate is the Hunter." I'm stalled half way through. Sometimes I read something that I recognize as good and valuable, but somewhere half way I run out of fuel. Does this every happen to you?
1 comment:
Antoine de Saint-Exupery was a pederast.
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