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Women of the Wind
Author Phil Nussbaum is intereviewed by In Flight USA
Author/Action Hero Peter Heller Creates an Instant Classic of Aviation Literature in The Dog Stars
By S. Mark Rhodes
Author Peter Heller is well known for his innovative and adventurous non-fiction and journalistic work including Kook: What Surfing Taught Me about Love, Life and Catching the Perfect Wave, an account of several months of the author’s life learning to surf under the guidance of surf gurus in Mexico and California. He also famously learned to fly in less than a month in a Men’s Journal piece entitled “How to Be a Bush Pilot in Less than a Month.”
Mr. Heller’s debut novel, The Dog Stars (Knopf) connects directly to his interest in aviation. The Dog Stars tells the story of a pilot named Hig who attempts to cope in a post-apocalyptic landscape by piloting his 1956 Cessna around what used to be Colorado (with his dog as a co-pilot).
With this work, Mr. Heller has emerged as a unique voice in American letters, someone whose storytelling ability bears watching. Mr. Heller was nice enough to speak with Mark Rhodes about The Dog Stars, aviation and other aspects of his adventurous existence.
IF USA: This is your first novel after several well-received works of non-fiction, many of these works revolved around your own personal experiences like surfing or flying. What was it like to construct something fictional?
Goodies and Gadgets - November 2012
Holiday Ideas for the Pilot on Your List
Watches For The Adventurous Woman
The Abingdon Co. is a specialty watch company that was created with one goal in mind: to provide adventurous women with stylish, practical and high-quality aviation and travelling watches.
Founded in 2006 by a young woman pilot, Abingdon Welch, The Abingdon Co. offers three models – the “Jackie,” the “Amelia” and the “Elise.” The watches feature multiple times zones, flight calculations and conversion capabilities (foreign exchange, imperial to metric units), date function, chronograph timer and luminous hands and markers. The assemblies in each watch come from all over the world, including the US, Switzerland, Japan, and Hong Kong. They are crafted using top quality materials and techniques: quartz movement, surgical grade stainless steel or ionized 18k gold plating, genuine mother-of-pearl dial, sapphire crystal glass and interchangeable leather or stainless steel bands.
The Abingdon Company’s complete line of aviation watches are available at http://theabingdonco.com/
Two Great Gift Books for the Holidays...
By S. Mark Rhodes
Aerial Photography is one of aviation’s oldest traditions (and a rare creative act associated with the practice of aviation) dating back well before the Wright Brothers to mid-19th century France where baloonists frequently captured the city of lights from above. This venerable tradition is brought up to date in this year’s Leave No Trace; The Vanishing North American Wilderness (Rizzoli/Universe), which is a great collaborative book by Essayist Roderick Nash and photographer/pilot Jim Wark.
Winter Reading Club
The Art of the Airways (Zenith Press) is a handsome coffee-table book whose appeal might stretch beyond the garden-variety aviation enthusiast. This work is a chronicle and celebration of airline poster imagery and advertising from the golden age of commercial flight. The work provides some