Review by: Dr Al Parmet

Walt Gun PhD is well known in aviation circles as one of the first psychologists to study human factors. But psychology is his second career. First, Captain Gunn flew for TWA as pilot of a dozen different aircraft in four decades. He has aptly titled his reminiscences as a Life Aloft. His total flying hours add up to nearly six years in the air. Of course he is still an active pilot, helping to restore a DC-3 that he once flew on commercial routes.

These vignettes are not really an autobiography, but compose some of the "hanger flying" stories that Dr. Gunn uses for his students. He teaches future pilots and safety managers in courses he teaches at Central Missouri State University. These tales illustrate the events in the life of a commercial airline pilot. Some are from before the days of Cockpit Resource Management and Human Factors-they illustrate why such study is needed and how to integrate the person into the machine. This is not dry reading however. You will feel your back hurt as you sit for hours in the uncomfortable seat of a DC-4, freeze with the rest during an ice storm in an unheated DC-3 or squint out of the narrow windows of a Constellation.

Then too there are the human stories of interesting passengers. With TWA, the figure of Howard Hughes lurks in the background. Jack Frye, whose letter to Donald Douglas resulted in the DC-3. There are movie stars like Fred Astaire and Cary Grant, VIPs like President Lyndon Johnson or the King of Spain. Bad storms and failing equipment, good days and bad, all the little things that make up the life of a commercial airline pilot. Quick reading and worth the time.

Mail contact: Wings Publications, Box 161, Mission, KS 66201

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