Toward The Evening Sky - Paperback

by Jerry W. Cook (Author)

This volume is essentially a continuation of the book, "Once a Fighter Pilot". It begins the day after "Once..." ends; and from there encompasses forty-five years of flying, mostly jets. As in "Once a Fighter Pilot", it is a compilation of aviation related short stories that are arranged in the approximate order in which they occurred. The recounted experiences include several facets of aviation with which the author was personally involved; airline, military, private, charter and corporate. Also at the end of several of these are postscripts which contain some personal observations that were shaped by these aviation occurrences. The anecdotes range from humorous to terrifying; from disbelief to amazement. They address fear of flying for passengers and gross incompetence in high places. Some aviation bureaucrats and politicians are exposed for their ignorance and arrogance. Midair collisions, near misses in the air, near crashes with the ground and the loss of friends in crashes serve to reinforce the old aviation adage: "A superior pilot is one who uses his superior judgment to avoid situations requiring his superior skill!"

Author Biography

Brigadier General Cook served in the United States Air Force as a fighter pilot and instructor pilot for ten years before leaving to join the former Pan American World Airways and the Arkansas Air National Guard. He retired from the military in 1986 and concentrated on his civilian flying career until his retirement from Stephens Inc. as a vice president and director of aviation in 2011. He has logged over 20,000 flight hours covering some nine million miles. He is the author of the book, "Once a Fighter Pilot", published by McGraw-Hill in 1996, and again in 2002. It is also published in France as "Pilote de Phantom" by AltiPresse.