Zero 3 Bravo: Solo Across America in a Small Plane
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15
Ratings1
Average rating4
Mariana Gosnell takes the reader along on her extraordinary voyage across the U.S. in her single-engine Luscombe Silvaire, Zero Three Bravo. Enticed by the ribbon of sky that she could see from her Manhattan office window, she took a leave of absence from her job and made a three-month solo flight, navigating by use of landmarks and landing in America's little-known, back-country airports. She traveled south from her home airport of Spring Valley, New York, down to North Carolina and Georgia, west across Texas to Los Angeles and north to San Francisco, and then east over the Rockies, the plains, and the farms of the Midwest until she was back home.
Reviews with the most likes.
This is the only book with which I'm in love & hate relationship.
This book is an aviation encyclopaedia, endless source of aviation and non aviation stories, it's a travel book, a family history book, a personal diary and much much more.
I've never read a book that had contained so much information on so few pages. Even though the book is only around 370 pages long, the author was able to compress so many stories and descriptions on so few pages that ZIP compression looks like a joke. Moreover, the writing style is very pleasant to read and the whole narrative is very authentic and adventurous.
The author has insane ability not only to make a recollections of scenes she witnessed, but to put it on paper in very vivid and detailed way so that reader can experience it the same way. You will know every type of aircraft she met while doing cross-country flight through USA, including the color and sound of the engine. I must admit the number of aircraft types listed in the book is above knowledge of most aviation fans. You will read stories of random ordinary and yet special people she met on the way. You will read about historic events (first human powered flight) like you were standing right there when it happened. In some ways, this level of detail is very exhaustive as the reader is almost forced to imagine these scenes with these many aircrafts (with frequent use of google to find out what this and that type look like). It certainly took me long time to churn trough the book (almost 4 months!). I had to literally take breaks for a few days to ingest the influx of information my way.
I would recommend this book to people who would like to experience a re-live the atmosphere of flying cross-country to small airports around the States some 30-40 years ago.
