Book Review: Lane Wallace’s Unforgettable: My Best 10 Flights

Flying magazine
distinguishes itself with signature columnists that subscribers anxiously await
reading each month. As a teenager, I grew up on a diet of hilarious tales spun
by Gordon Baxter and airline piloting wisdom from the sage Len Morgan. Richard
Collins coached me on air safety while extolling the virtues of his Cessna 210.
Little did I know that decades later, I too would own a 210 and become an
aviation writer.

Twenty-first century readers of Flying magazine know of Lane Wallace from her monthly column. When it
debuted…

I instantly fell in love with her writing and the magical way she uses
words to convey images and feelings. She expanded my universe as a writer,
pilot and a human being, by helping me see the world through an entirely new
set of lenses. Now fans of Lane Wallace (and I am an unabashed one) can enjoy
her inimitable writing in her new book Unforgettable:
My Best 10 Flights.

Yesterday, in one of life’s synchronous moments, shortly
after mailing out invoices to Sporty’s for the many copies of my Max Trescott G1000 and IFR books and CDs courses they’ve sold over the last few months, the mailman
delivered an envelope from Sporty’s with a complimentary copy of Lane Wallace’s
new book. While I’m hoping Sporty’s will still pay my invoices, at that moment
it felt like a fair exchange of value.

I spent a rare, lazy, rainy California Sunday afternoon
reading Lane Wallace’s new book. I think most of the ten chapters, one for each
of her 10 best flights, come from articles or stories she’s written for Flying magazine, as I recognized a few
of them. But that takes away nothing from the book—even if you’ve read every
story before, you’ll want to read them again.

Unforgettable: My Best
10 Flights begins with Lane explaining “My entire aviation writing career,
in fact, stems from my fear, only three years after getting my license, that I
would soon lose the clear memory of the events that inspired me to become a
pilot in the first place.” She then talks about her first flight to EAA
AirVenture at Oshkosh, a place to which all pilots MUST make a pilgrimage at
least once in their life. I’ve have attended for the last five or six years in
a row, yet her book gave me a new insight I’ll remember the next time I’m
there.

Later in the book, I recognized a story about flying with bush
pilots in Alaska. I savored the entire chapter, purposely reading slowly while
eagerly awaiting my favorite part of the story. I live just a few miles away
from Lane in the non-stop, hustle bustle of California’s Silicon Valley. It’s a
wonderfully vibrant place to live, but it’s easy to get caught up in the fast
paced, work-oriented culture. So I felt connected with Lane as she described how,
after landing on a short, sandy beach on an island in Alaska, she immediately
began setting up to take photos for the story she was writing. But the pilot
told her “Stop.” Lane was initially confused so he continued. “You’ll get your
photos. But just stop for a bit first. Be here. Listen.” And then Lane describes,
in ways only she can, the beauty and majesty of the world surrounding her on
the Alaskan island.

Many of Lane’s unforgettable best flights are in her beloved
Grumman Cheetah. She shares with readers the joy of fish tacos in Baja Mexico,
her serendipitous encounters while hop scotching between small airports in
Texas, and the contrast in a Florida flight that started in bad weather and ended
in joy. In other non-Cheetah flights, she takes readers through the Alps in a
blimp, on two trips years apart to small villages in war-torn Sudan
and to the stratosphere in the back seat of a U-2 high altitude reconnaissance
aircraft.

Although we live nearby, the only place I’ve ever run into
Lane is at EAA’s AirVenture in Oshkosh. The first time was four years ago when
she was about to begin a presentation on flying across Australia and the
projector wasn’t working. The engineer in me came out and I stepped up to solve
the problem. The other time was at AirVenture 2009 when she walked up to say
hello to a magazine editor I was talking with. For those of you wondering, yes
she is as delightful in person as you might imagine from her writing.

In my Max Trescott’s
GPS and WAAS Instrument Flying Handbook, I wrote “If we had royalty in the
United States, then Rod Machado would be the Prince of General Aviation.” Rod’s
a true mensch, a person of
integrity and honor and we’re lucky to have him in our industry. We’re just as
lucky to have Lane Wallace, who I’d like to proclaim as the Poet
Laureate of General
Aviation. Aviation is richer for her writing.

Unforgettable: My Best
10 Flights is a must
read for any aviation fan. Hopefully aviation’s new Poet Laureate is already hard
at work on her next book!