First published 2007
Joshua Cooper Ramo decides to leave casual weekend flying behind. He commits to serious competitive aerobatics, training for a top finish at the U.S. national competition. The sport demands pilots twist their planes at hundreds of miles per hour while enduring forces ten times stronger than gravity. Ramo meets legendary pilots like Leo Loudenslager, an airline pilot who flies figures so demanding they make his eyes bleed. He encounters Kirby Chambliss, who performs maneuvers inches from runways and shoots through cliff openings. Every flight balances on a knife's edge where gas leaks, weather, or cockpit fires can kill. Pilots watch their mistakes unfold in slow motion, guilt following them down. In good years, aerobatics becomes pure beauty. In bad years, no sport kills more participants. Ramo explores why pilots never stop flying despite losing friends regularly. To win requires leaving the possible behind and entering pure faith. His journey becomes both a physical battle against gravity and a search for perfection.
Genres: adventure, non-fiction, biography-memoir, aviation
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-journey, pursuit-of-perfection
288 pages · Kindle Edition · Simon Schuster