Freight Dog: The Dark Side of Aviation

By: Kimber C. Turner

Narrated by: Ron Allan

Length: 2 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Don't worry about your tray table and seat back for this one. Forget what you've been told about the romantic notion of the airline business. It's not like what you've seen in the movies. Buckle your seat belt and join Captain Kimber C. Turner for a flight over a thirty year career of ups and downs in aviation. This story of his love/hate life in airplanes will take you from laughter to livid and back again. Kimber C. Turner is a retired airline pilot with over 18,000 hours of flight time, and a former radio talk show host. Now he is out of the sky and off of the air. In his retirement, Captain Turner does some voice over work and an occasional guest spot on the radio. He also writes a book now and then.

©2014 Kimber C. Turner (P)2014 Kimber C. Turner

Jaded employee rant.

Are you a bellyache? Do you like to bellyache? if so, read this book! I just couldn't imagine why anybody would want to listen to anyone complain about how much their bosses sucked for 2 hours.

Employee Rant

Any one of us could’ve written the same book about our own work experiences. This is mostly a litany of grievances against incompetent managers and bosses with some explanations about the job of freight pilot thrown in. I don’t disagree that we all have these same types of experiences but why relive someone else’s story when we all have our own?

Not Real Interesting

Was hoping for an eye-opening look at nighttime aviation. Instead, minimal good pilot stories, but lots of complaining about management, which was really boring.

No personal stories, minimal flying stories and barely a word about the successful freight airlines, FedEx and UPS.

Short, mostly boring and , yet another case of a good narrator saving a not-great story.

Enjoyed the insight into aviation

If you could sum up Freight Dog in three words, what would they be?

just like us

What was one of the most memorable moments of Freight Dog?

hearing about messages being left in dome lights is a neat idea

Which scene was your favorite?

thinking about the extravagant travel during the good years

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

in the clouds or hopelessly grounded

Any additional comments?

Enjoyed the narration to keep me intrigued.

Good career example.

Well written with details that aren’t learned anywhere else. And a story that keeps the listener interested.

NOT the book to buy for insight into being a freight pilot.

It had been suggested to me that this book was a peek into what to expect flying freight.

What it gives instead is a series of uninspired, one sided union propaganda stories, in which the author repeatedly refers to his coworkers with disrespectful, derogatory stylings and ridicule.

He repeatedly complains about how he was treated and touches on his divorce. Yet in virtually every case, poses himself as the hero of the day or victim of the situation.

The book finishes with the author describing his own business prowess using his two failed non-aviation businesses as examples.

At the end I was left with the overwhelming thought, ‘has this guy ever looked in the mirror and considered he may be part of his problems?’

Feel like the author had a great opportunity to tell a story and instead wasted it on grinding old axes.

nice to get pilot's perspective

I am a truck driver who did Long haul ground freight out of Wilmington, I enjoyed the pilot's perspective

Freight Pilot

This recommended audio book was a good insight into a career as a freight pilot. A good way to spearhead the industry for yourself.

surprising

this audio book was better than I expected it to be. Not to mention it was easy to listen to and follow along .

Aviation enthusiasts must get this.

If you have the slightest interest in aviation you ought to read this. A truly wonderful story.

Not for sofa pilots

If you looking for amazing adventures smuggling cargo out of South America...you will be disappointed and probably write the average uniformed bad review. For the few in the industry it is a reflection of reality we can relay to and certainly get the humor. It is a collection of less them great experiences, but for each complaint a solution is offered. I liked it. And after all the pain you can't disagree that the only reward in commercial aviation is the kick in back with full throttles forward and the smile you get after punching through the clouds into a blue sky.

good

an angry employee towards his company nevertheless we are all angry towards our companies, who am I kidding right?
but overall it's a great insight into the cargo pilot life

Good listen

Overall it gave a good insight into the often unglamorous world of freight piloting. It was interesting to hear of the struggles the author had whilst trying to develop his career and there’s some great examples of the bureaucratic fog airlines and freight companies seem to shroud themselves in. Some of the pilots individual experiences are really funny. The only gripe I had is that it seemed at times to be a directed rant at his old employer and felt like he just wanted to get some stuff off his chest.

Overall however, I really enjoyed it.

Complain, complain, complain

Tells how much he hates DHL until the very end when he tells us ‘it was a privilege to fly for them’. Make your mind up man!

I finished my run of duty shifts yesterday. During that time I saw a vertically decapitated teenage girl, a 26 year old teacher with stage four breast cancer and a terrified elderly person die slowly with COVID.

Not once did I think about complaining about climbing up some wobbly steps to take command of a state-of-the-art wide bodied airliner or being snapped at by a Chief Pilot.

If only …