If You Ain't a Pilot...

If You Ain't a Pilot...

Cockpit chaos and classroom camaraderie fuel the entropic adventures of Second Lieutenant Ray Wright and his fellow classmates of UPT Class 88-07 at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi. Though competing against one another for the flying assignments of their dreams, like the fearsome F-15 and F-16 fighters, a good mission sometimes takes a backseat to a good party or punch line in this classroom of cut-ups.

The high stakes, however, loom over Lt. Wright. In a program where one out of three students fails, not everybody who starts UPT will finish it. And not everybody who does finish will get a desirable flying assignment. Some wonâ€™t even escape the Columbus Air Force Base. Will Lt. Wright get his dream assignment flying a C-141 cargo plane based out of beachside Charleston, South Carolina? Or be forced to perpetuate the If you ainâ€™t a pilotâ€¦ system as the dreaded FAIP (First Assignment Instructor Pilot) in Columbus, Mississippi?

Though a military memoir, IF YOU AINâ€™T A PILOTâ€¦ is a story of youthful innocence, a happy tale of the best of friends. Beneath the storyâ€™s surface layer of how an Air Force officerâ€™s aeronautical rating determines his worth, similar thematic layers unfold around gender, race, and other ways people define each other. At its core, this story is about people, our relationships, and how we choose to treat each other. While 30 years have passed since the memoirâ€™s eventsâ€”and our aircraft, our enemy, and our pop-culture ties have changedâ€”we still struggle with our differences.

IF YOU AINâ€™T A PILOT taps into the mystic of Top Gun, the satirical wryness of Candide and Catch-22, and the allure of the air-travel genre captured by Mark Vanhoenackerâ€™s recent Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot (2015), Tom Wolfeâ€™s The Right Stuff, and James Salterâ€™s The Hunters.

Set at the end of the Cold War in the heart of Dixie, IF YOU AINâ€™T A PILOTâ€¦crosses Top Gun adrenaline with Pee-Weeâ€™s Playhouse antics at a flight training base where Air Force idealism collides with Deep South heritage. Complete at 142,000 words, this comedic memoir written for a general audience charts the year when a newly commissioned officer is challenged not only by flight school but also by the Air Force dictum If you ainâ€™t a pilot, you ainâ€™t $#!+.

That said, the primary mission for IF YOU AINâ€™T A PILOT...is to make readers laugh. While the story is written for a non-military audience, military pilots, civilian pilots, and any person who ever dreamed about flying as a kid will love IF YOU AINâ€™T A PILOTâ€¦.
Country USA
Manufacturer Wright & Wright Publishing
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2016-08-13
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Wright & Wright Publishing
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2016-08-13
Format	Kindle eBook

If You Ain't a Pilot...

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