The Rogue Aviator: In the Back Alleys of Aviation, 2nd Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a retired AA pilot who spent a brief time in "the back alleys of Aviation" with Ace Abbot. I immensely enjoyed the book and found it to be an extremely accurate portrayal of a profession that to some appears glamorous. Throughout the book, Ace Abbot deals with a wide range of subjects including unscrupulous management, monetary compensation, FAA assessment, safety issues, physical and emotional tolls, among others. Aspiring military and civilian pilots alike will find this book enlightening.

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Take a ride on the wild side throughout Ace Abbott's thirty-six year journey that includes: exhilarating low-level formation flights and night airborne refueling missions in the F-4 Phantom; five-star hotels and restaurants in Paris, greasy cargo ramps, and South American jails. Ace's journey will oscillate between aviation penthouses to aviation outhouses as he transitions through the turbulence of the airline post-deregulation chaos.

This radically erratic adventure is filled with equally implausible, pulse-racing aviation anecdotes and scenarios that reveal Ace's frequent excursions "outside of the box." Ace will take you to places where few layman or pilots have ever been. He will relate his close encounter with the Rastafarian culture when he smuggles Bob Marley out of Kingston, Jamaica. He hobnobs with iconic celebrities and Palm Beach Socialites while his chauffeuring of the rich and famous provides him a millionaire's lifestyle on a school teacher's salary.

An additional theme of this book is aviation safety, particularly regarding the current front and center issue of pilot fatigue. Ace relates his all-too-frequent personal experiences of fatigue in the cockpit and discusses the role of the FAA and the pilot unions regarding this problem. The stories of duty periods in excess of twenty hours were a result of his exposure to "the back alleys of aviation."