Flight

This was a great read. Good entertaining stories. Finished din a couple of days.

If you have led the life of a typical person who always follows orders, has a mundane career and never takes risks, read this book and see what you've been missing. The author led a life that only a small percentage of people ever experience. This book will make you wonder how in the hell he survived to tell his story.

I purchased this book because of my interest in the aircraft being flown and the skill of pilots. While very entertaining and I think some of the material could either been left out or at least less explicit. While the story behind these pilots is both heroic and incredible, their skills were amazing.Unfortunately like the author several of these pilots became involved in the drug smuggling business. I know because I was part of a state police agency that use to hunt them down. While their flying skills were just as amazing smuggling drugs into Georgia as their skills were working for Air America their cargo consisted of tons of dangerous substances that when not caught ended up in our American streets infecting our children and impacting our society in a very costly fashion.While the author talked about the crooked Georgia State Police , he failed to mention that these crooked cops were arrested just like him and the others like him.While the crooked cops were far and few between they were very dangerous to the many honest officers working to identify them and their smuggling friends, including the many pilots who lost their way as well. Sadly many of these people had started out with the best intentions and gave way to immoral behavior in behalf of greed and just the thrill of it all without the thought of what the outcome and negative consequences would be for their many victims.It sounds like the author may have found a purpose greater than his past and has taken a the of righteous. I pray this is so for him and the many others who choose .this path of self destruction in spite of their many talents and abilities.

I heard Mr. Hansen read excerpts from the most dramatic portion of the book on a podcast (Cold War Chronicles). If you've heard that story there is PLENTY more in this book to entertain you. There's quite a lot that's thought-provoking as well.Mr. Hansen is open about his vices and his foibles. Unlike many other memoirs of the era, they don't just underpin some hilarious or shocking stories, they also establish a baseline that he eventually must struggle to overcome in order to move on with his life. That growth only occupies a small portion of the book towards the end, but anyone finding themselves or a friend at a similar crossroads may well value those few chapters more than the rest combined.

I read a lot of books that revolve around FAC’ing, attack pilots and elite units on the ground as well. CIA operations via Air America falls squarely into my realm of interest as well.This book is almost too good to be true as it captures war, humor, a tiny bit of romance (and thats enough!!), salvation and reflection. I really enjoyed the fact that we get to learn about Neil not just in his role as a pilot overseas, but also the drug running that he became part of afterwards.I’m picky - and I did see some editing mistakes, but they are few and far between and as good of a story as this is they are easy to dismiss.Super cool that the author mentions those he has tracked down today and what they are doing with their lives.This, Da Nang Diary, A Lonely Kind of War, Flying Black Ponies, Prairie Fire and so many others are just so excellent. IF you are on the fence about reading this book - by all means trust me. Its a great read!!!Thanks Neal!

Well written, felt like I was there watching over authors shoulder during his career and didn't want the book to end. He certainly went through many interesting and/or unpleasant experiences.Really enjoyed the detailed description of his checkout flights for the new pilots (including Roger) early on.Despite being anti-drugs myself, was interesting to learn how/why author got into the drug running. In my mind the most unpleasant thing he did was giving dodgy suggestions to trusting subordinates regarding how to spend their leave :)Look forward to reading again in the future.

As a pilot I enjoyed all the details of the flying stories and there were plentyi of those. Great descriptions of what it must have been like flying those scary missions. The only downside is the rather sad ending. Good read though.

I walked into this with somewhat low expectations. Man was I wrong. This was a phenomenal read that I had a hard time setting down.I hadn't read a Viet Name era book in many years, but I'm glad I bought this one.As a professional pilot myself, I stand in awe of what that cadre of pilots did. The writing was excellent and I'm glad I found this book. Excellent read!

Ein sehr interessanter, autobiographischer Einblick in das - vor allem - private Leben von Air America-Piloten, der sehr ehrlich zu sein scheint und auch ohne die heute manchmal zu findende nachträgliche Schönfärberei in Bezug auf den Status der Piloten, die ja Vertragspiloten einer CIA-eigenen Gesellschaft waren. Die früheren Kollegen werden durch die Verwendung falscher Namen geschützt. Gleichzeitig offenbart sich der Autor durch das Eingeständnis mancher Verrücktheiten, die man in dem Film Air America von 1990 gesehen hatte, wie des Ausmalens von Bilderbüchern während des Fluges als eines der lebenden Modelle für die Film-Figur Gene Ryack.

This is an awesome read for aviation fans but also anyone interested in real history. I went from cover to cover in hours, thumbs up Captain you deserve all my respect. But I would have feared you as a trainee ah ah ah! I learned to fly late1969 and got my ticket early 1970. It's an easy read spoken in straight words and well written, beats Patterson for suspense or Mr Cussler for accuracy (about aeroplanes). It's in the same class as Yeager's only better imo... I'm a retired air traffic controller and my first day at job was March 31 1970. I was always intrigued by Air America. This book shed some light to 50-year-old questions and corroborated some events that I remember reading about (like that DC6 crash close to MIA). Wow, I'm a fan. Thank you!

I am a fan of this aviation war type of history. This was a good read for me. Not sure I agree with the operation or any action in SE Asia but never the less it happened. Not really the way a just society should function.

An excellent book and amazing story to tell Just couldn't put it down once I started to read it Buy it you won't be disappointed

I enjoyed the book.