Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying

Let's start with a fact: I am a pilot. This book changed how I approached flying and changed how I fly. Let's get the obvious out of the way to assuage the ninnies in the group: Yes it's dated. Elevators are no longer called "flippers" and we don't really call our airplanes "ships." The language is right out of the 1930's. Airplanes today have flaps and tricycle gear. It moves slower than, say, Machado's book. It repeats things. It's basic. Now the best part: It is an excellent and pure book on the ART of flying. I am amazed by the reviewers here with the 2-second attention span that didn't see this. I'll say it again, this book changed the way I fly and made me a better pilot. It emphasizes safety and it explains in pure form what is safe and what is not. The fundamentals are true and the repetition drives the points home. I took notes as I read this because I wanted to apply what I learned in the cockpit. It works, pure and simple. It teaches you basics that you didn't know you didn't know. Really it does. Get the book, be patient, absorb what it says. Savor Wolfgang's humor. Read the book thoroughly and don't apply your media-addled, PDA-addicted, 0-attention-span, 2006 mind. Instead read it for what it is; an instructional manual purely about how to handle the stick and rudder to keep you from getting killed. It's not meant to be anything more and you shouldn't expect it to be. I, frankly, loved it. This should be required reading by the FAA. You want to glide shallower?, push the nose down! What? Amazing. It imparts information that will make you a safer pilot. It's an art form, not "Top Gun." Enough said.

"Get rid at the outset of the idea that the airplane is only an air-going sort of automobile. It isn't. It may sound like one and smell like one, and it may have been interior decorated to look like one; but the difference is -- it goes on wings."Still the best way to get the fundamentals straight. In the 1930's test pilot Wolfgang noticed that the words and the realities of piloting did not seem to agree. After careful thought, he published a series of articles for Air Facts magazine that analyzed the true actions of stick and rudder. The book was released in 1944 and has been in print ever since. Some of the writing shows its age -- I don't think any flight instructor will talk about the airplane's flippers -- but the actual actions of the flight controls has not changed. If you are a pilot and you don't have this book, you need to add it to your professional bookshelf.

As a flight instructor, I recommend this book to all my students. Although over 50 years old, it still tells exactly why an airplane acts the way it does, and he tells it in layman's terms. This book is a Must-Read for every person working toward a pilot's license.

I'm a student pilot with only a few hours under my belt. There is a lot of information to absorb while learning: Simple operation of the craft, radio communications, navigation, even just becoming familiar enough with the instruments to be able to read them at a glance.Stick and Rudder provided me with a clear understanding of what would happen - and why - when I manipulated the controls, before I ever left the ground. Best of all, it's written in a concise format, easy to read and understand. My CFI uses the FAA Flight Training Handbook as a text. Stick and Rudder helped me interpret the required FAA text and in fact the latter seems to have cribbed material from the former. Definitely get this book. Learning to fly is complex enough and the more tools you have to simplify the process, the better. This is one of the best.

Stick & Rudder is an all time favorite about how an airplane flies. Written over 50 years ago, it explains in a very easy-to-understand manner the basic four forces of flight, the three axis of motion, how an airfoil works, how basic aerodynamics affects flight, and how to perform the fundamental maneuvers. The information is as valid now as the day it was written. As a ground and flight instructor, I have used this as a basic text for all my students for the past 12 years. Discusses in detail straight & level flight, climbs and descents, turns, stalls, takeoffs, landings, torque, various aircraft configurations, and piloting techniques. An absolute "must have" for every pilot from Recreational to Airline Transport certificate, this is the FIRST book every aspiring pilot should read.