Description

This is a wild ride through Ace Abbott’s bizarre aviation career involving 25 aviation employers and 44 countries over 36 years. After an exciting time in the US Air Force flying the T-37, T-38, and finally the famed F-4 Phantom in the Far East, Ace’s commercial flying career began. This ranged through many highs and lows… flying rich and famous celebrities was often immediately followed by a frantic search for the next flying job. Flying as a Learjet charter pilot for the next several years, he frequently flew to the Caribbean and Latin America… sometimes he’d have to barter for the fuel to get home, and he even ending up being locked up in a Venezuelan jail! After the Learjet jobs, he spent two decades flying 727s for fourteen different airlines before his mandatory retirement at age 60. Ace’s book will take you into his experiences in the dark and scary parts of the aviation world, where airlines and the FAA push profits over safety (such as pilots having a 24-hour duty day) and thing often don’t go as planned. This is a pilot’s-eye view of an aviation career and an enjoyable read. As the back cover says, “The author’s primary source of motivation in writing his story is the desire to share a wonderful adventure with pilots of all backgrounds who have had similar careers and to inform aspiring pilots of the unique nuances of an aviation career.”

Written by Ace Abbott, Copyright 2009. ISBN 978-1-4401-5664-9 (Softcover). Published by iUniverse. 188 Pages, Softcover.

Chapters include:

Introduction
1. Training An Air Force Pilot
2. Flying The Fabulous Phantom
3. Finally, Off To War
4. Back to the “Big BX”
5. “An Accident Looking For A Place To Happen”
6. From Learjet Chaos to the Boring Whine of the Turboprop Freighter
7. It’s Better in a Boeing
 8. Pilot’s Nirvana
9. The Turbulent Ten (’87-’97)
10. “I’m From the FAA, and I’m Here to Help You”
11. My Final Five
12. Conclusion (Debrief)
Suggested Reading
Glossary
Bibliography