Bogeys and Bandits: The Making of a Fighter Pilot
Gandt adds to his three previous aviation histories the story of six men and two women undergoing the testing process for becoming carrier-qualified pilots of the navy's FA-18 Hornet. Except that two of them are a pair of identical twins, the eight constitute a cross section of the current generation of aspiring pilots in terms of their strengths and weaknesses and their reactions to various problems facing that generation, such as downsized armed forces, political correctness, and the sheer sophistication of modern fighter aircraft. Eventually, one of the trainees is killed in a flying accident, one of the women is fighting to retain her wings, and the others are on active duty. Gandt's is a detailed, powerful, and thoroughly absorbing account of a process that cannot be made either simple or safe and still accomplish its purpose, and it affords a revealing look into the contemporary naval aviation community at work.Roland Green--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.