If You Ain't a Pilot...

De: Raymond J. Wright

Narrado por: Robert Ferraro

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 won’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 ain’t a pilot...system as the dreaded FAIP (First Assignment Instructor Pilot) in Columbus, Mississippi?

Though a military memoir, If You Ain’t a Pilot...is a story of youthful innocence, a happy tale of the best of friends. Beneath the story’s surface layer of how an Air Force officer’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 memoir’s events - and our aircraft, our enemy, and our pop-culture ties have changed - we still struggle with our differences.

©2014 Raymond John Wright (P)2019 Raymond John Wright

Great listen! Ray Wright's audible is Excellent!

Ray Wright's book is a terrifically witty and humbly truthful rendition of his life as a US air Force student pilot. Ray and his classmates formed lifetime bonds as they pushed through the trials and tribulations of the year-long course while finding time for fun antics to keep their youthful faces in laughter.
Definitely a Must Read for all who enjoy aviation!

Boring

The narrator is HORRIBLE. Story about kids in flight school with very little flying.