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Summary: The most exciting and inspiring book I have ever read.
Review: I have read and re-read "Fate is the Hunter" so many times that the pages are loose and falling out. You are not just reading the best aviation book of all time, you are in the cockpit behind the master himself, as he savors the illicit thrill of a zero-zero takeoff from a fog bound Presque Isle airport in a C-47 during the war, taking a load of steel girders to Goose Bay. Just after takeoff, the girders break loose and slide to the rear of the aircraft, which starts a climb so steep that the plane is shuddering in a stall. As Gann and his co-pilot are pushing the control column forward as hard as they can with their feet a crewmember is trying to move the girders back up the near vertical floor.Gann's writing so inspired me that I wanted to become an airline pilot, but my flying ability was just slightly better than Bixby, his inept co-pilot that almost collided with the Taj Mahal, another fascinating story later on in the book. I became a dispatcher instead, an occupation I truly loved, which was also inspired by Gann's interaction with the dispatchers of his line. I wrote Ernest Gann at his home in Friday Harbor, Washington and tried to convey just how much I enjoyed "Fate is the Hunter" and what an impact it made on my life. I received short note from him. It was very gracious and humble, and is one of my greatest treasures. I also highly recommend "Hostage to Fortune", a chronology of Gann's incredible life from a rebellious young man that could never follow his father into business and be chained to an office, through a lifetime of adventure, to his retirement on Red Mill Farm, on an island in the Pacific northwest.
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Summary: Easily the best book I've ever read!
Review: First off, I am an aviation nut. I am a student pilot and aspiring ATP. For me, finding a good book let alone a good aviation book is nearly impossible. So many books are chocked full of technicalities that I either already know or don't care about. Finding a truly interesting aviation book is a rare treat. After about 2 pages of 'Fate is the Hunter' I was truly hooked. This book puts you right in the cockpit with Mr. Gann as you venture the world from the start of his flying career on the DC-2 to flying across the endless Pacific during WWII when airlines were called to help the war effort. Mr. Gann is truly a talented writer and in my opinion one of the best in Aviation right up with St Ex. If you are as engrossed in aviation as I am, this is one book you wont want to put down and will wish would never end.
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Summary: My Great-Grandfather Knew Him
Review: I am finally reading this book, after so many people in my family, both flying and non-flying, have. This book is almost a mecca for us, because it mentions my great-grandfather, Thomas J. Reid, who died in 1952 when the instrument approach to Newark went down, and he ended up in an Elizabeth, NJ, apartment complex. I now appreciate the kind of conditions my grandfather must have flown in, and can only hope that he is looking down on my own beloved brother, who has himself chosen a career as an airline pilot. But as a reminder, almost all of us have the same picture, framed somewhere in our houses: a picture of T.J. Reid in his uniform.
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Summary: required reading for the aviator or really just anyone
Review: Being a fan of aviation and spending a great deal of my time reading about various pilots and aircraft, it is without a doubt easy to confess that FATE IS THE HUNTER is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. Probably one of the greatest things about this book is that you really do not have to know a lot about aviation to really understand it. While it is true that Gann writes in a style that is somewhat different from most of the more contemporary writers, it can still be said that the way that he tells this story is will entertain, inform and captivate who ever reads it. Probably the most unique thing about this book is that you do not have to know much about aviation to appreciate and enjoy it. Infact, just about anyone who has been in an aircraft can and most likely will find this story at the least appreciable and at the most an eye opener to the world of commercial aviation and the courages pioneers of commercial flight who insticts and abilities are seldom matched by todays standards. Those who have read this book know what I speak of and to those who have not read it I strongly recommend it. The pilots, the planes and the elements of flight have never been described the they have been in FATE IS THE HUNTER. Read it, enjoy it and appreciate it.
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Summary: The Iliad and Odyssey of Aviation
Review: Speaking from a background of 36 years as a pilot of small aircraft, tactical supersonic military aircraft, and Captain of a number of modern day airliners, including the Boeing-747, I regard "Fate is the Hunter" as an aviation classic that is not only a "must read" for every aspiring pilot, but a "must have" in his/her library, to be read over and over again, as I have. Gann's book provides a unique insight into the origins and challenges of the trial and error development of the procedures that have now become the rule in modern transport aircraft operations. For anyone who has an interest in the developmental history of aviation in America or, as in my case, anyone who wants to know more about the forces behind the phenomena of "when you pull back on the yoke the houses get smaller and when you push forward on the yoke, the houses get bigger," "Fate is the Hunter" is the place to start.
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Summary: Epic pilot stuff
Review: I'm amazed that so many of my friends who are military and/or commercial pilots don't know of this book. This book should be every pilot's bible. Epic stories about flying mail in pre-war NE U.S., and then overseas during WWII. Thumb's up all the way.. a must for aviators. Mike Zinsley
author of The Rapture of the Deep
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Summary: Gann's greatest
Review: I've been an admirer of Gann's for forty years. My considered opinion after reading all his work several times is that Fate is the Hunter is his best by far.
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Summary: An essential for any aviation enthusiast
Review: Fate Is The Hunter is pilot Ernie Gann's vivid collection of aviation experiences set in the early days of commercial air travel. From a sabotaged engine over the jungles of South America, to sudden death in a farmer's field in Ontario, Canada Gann catalogues flying in a way I often found myself thinking, "I wish I could have said it like that!" In fact, I couldn't put the nearly 200-page book down until I'd finished it 18 hours later--and only then with a regretful sigh because there wasn't more. This book is a must for any aviation enthusiast.
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Summary: Required reading!
Review: For those of us who fly professionally, and for those hope to one day do so, this book is a must-read! Capt. Gann and those aviators of his time were fearless (or nuts!) by todays standards. We owe them a great deal.
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Summary: Nostalgia and inspiration
Review: I read this book when i was in my teens, and years later, after my copy finally succumbed to old age and hundreds of turns of the page, I wanted to read it one more time. What a glorious, inspiring book, taking us back to a romantic time in flight; when flying by the seat of your pants really meant something, and when the glories of an America in transition were more clearly evident from the air than from anywhere else. The book is Gann's loving tribute to the brutes he flew, but it also is a hark-back to a time when automation had not yet dulled our senses, and when the coda of soaring above the clouds was humbled by the fate that is constantly our hunter. Beautifully written, its a must-read, whether or not you're into flying.
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