STICK AND RUDDER An Explanation of the Art of Flying
ISBN:9780070362406 read summary

The service and condition of this special book was perfect. The shipment, the book and the price was all that I could ask for.. Great happiness here with my book.

Thanks,

Rick

Funny, the title is Stick and Rudder and yet the author spends half the book complaining that the stick should be restricted to prevent dangerous excessive elevator and rudders shouldn't exist because they are the major cause of crashes.

The book was written in the 30's and focuses on tail draggers. It is interesting to hear the author's predictions on how "future" aircraft will be designed. For example, he predicts safety improvements in aircraft design will eliminate fatalities due to stalls. He praises safety aircraft that do not allow the angle of attack to approach a stall - protecting pilots from themselves (but unsafely limiting aircraft maneuverability, in my opinion). He also suggests rudders will be unnecessary in the future, e.g., with the "new" tricycle landing gear allowing cross-wind landings while "crabing" (without the aircraft aligned to the runway). Somewhat amusing.

Mr. Langewiesche rants too loud and often on the angle of attack and the big engineering mistake of rudders. Still, in reading through the book, I did get some new insights on glide control, landing technique and emergency aircraft maneuvers.

Overall, I (250 hour private pilot) found useful conceptual models in the book actually helped me solve some control problems I was having. With the publication date in mind, it is definitely worth reading for a flight student or for an experienced pilot.

Anyone working on or that has a privates pilots license should have read this, if you havn't your missing out on one of lifes great reads. I recommend this as I'm sure so many others do, and its a must read for pilots and aviation enthusiasts. Its simple yet covers all the basics.

I first read this book when I was learning to fly in the late 60's. When I got my CFI I used it as a teaching tool for all my students and insisted they read it. It is timeless in its explanation of how an airplane flies. Anyone who disses this book is an accident waiting to happen. If you can't recover from a spin don't fly an airplane. I added that last comment to encourage students to make sure your CFI teaches you the procedure. It is simple and may save your life.

Although this book seems to have been intended for the student pilot, my opinion is that it's more valuable to be read leisurely after you've been flying awhile. For a student pilot, I can see where some of what's presented might be confused with the curriculum that today's instructor could be trying to get across. Of course, my review here is biased since I read it after 400 hours but I feel that this book has given me an additional, though slightly different, view of aerodynamics and has definitely helped me become a better pilot!