Alfred D'amario

Hangar Flying Alfred D'amario

Flying is sometimes defined as "hours and hours of sheer boredom punctuated by moments of stark panic." In HANGER FLYING, Lt/Col Alfred J. D'Amario shares many of those "moments of stark panic" that punctuated the 5,000 or so flying hours he accumulated during his twenty years in the Air Force. The author, who much prefers to be called Joe, takes the reader through Basic and Advanced pilot training, transition to jets, fighter gunnery and fighter bomber training and real combat in Korea. Then there are six years of "peace time" flying in Training Command followed by eleven years of Cold War missions in the six engine B-47 and eight engine B-52. But, Hanger Flying is about in-flight emergencies and hair-raising experiences, not about the hours and hours of just boring holes in the sky. Hanger Flying (the practice, not the book) is what assembled pilots do when they aren't flying. It is a "Can you top this?" exercise in story telling. And that is what the author does in this easy reading, fast paced account of many of the close calls he had both in and out of combat.