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(More customer reviews)This unaffected personal diary uniquely evokes the Golden Age of Aviation. Here is mid 1930s American flying as surely it must have been, not the polished record breaking Lockheeds but mud and cinder airfields, patched airplanes with their deadly OX-5 engines and the singular joy of just flying. Floyd Henderson was a 21 year old grocery clerk in Lafayette, Indian in 1934 when he began recording his day to day activities. It took him a year to accumulate 10 hours of flight time in 15 and 20 minute hops yet flying formed the structure of his life during the two or three years covered. Whatever spare time and whatever spare cash he had was spent at the local "port." He washed airplanes, repaired engines, changed oil and spent endless hours talking airplanes with local pilots. "Joe and I rolled the [Waco] F onto the apron. I wired another tach that Cap has on the center section strut and we started it. I sat in the F for an hour and became very cold while the motor ran at about 900 RPM . . ." A parade of late 1920s and early 1930s aircraft passes across the pages, often with details of their handling characteristics and vices. The "Boeing" of the title was a Model 80A, 18 passenger, trimotor biplane, retired from the airlines, a mammoth of its day. The Boeing flew from one small town airport to the next hopping passenger rides for $1.00. When it passed through town Floyd joined its five man crew. We see "barnstorming" in all its details. The crew lived in tents on whatever airport they happend to be, ate at the local diner and showered in the local "Y". There was an advanceman in a car and a truck with equipment and spares. When the weather turned cold they followd the sun into Georgia. Floyd sold tickets, washed and polished the airplane inside and out and eventually flew the ungainly maching for brief spells. These snapshots of flying are projected against the background of life in mid Depression Indiana. There is a succession of "dates" with a succession of girls, many of them spent watching "Tailspin Tommy Tompkins" and other aviation movies, some of which Henderson "reviews" briefly. To visit his special girlfriend, Floyd would fly the few miles and simply land in a convenient farmer's field. Though the word "depression" is never mentioned and economic conditions never discussed, we see this, too as it must have been. Nickel hamburgers but no nickels to buy time; savings spent gingerly for winter coal and the frustrating search for even a part time job. This book is not for everyone. Appreciating the day by day and flight by flight chronicles requires at least a beginning interest in flying or in Depression era American life. If both of these click you are sure to rate Barnstorming the Boeing as a real find, an undiscovered classic.
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