The author of Luck and Timing has long been aware that he has indeed been lucky in life during many aviation connected experiences. He has acted in what in hindsight he considers less than smart ways while flying an airplane. Yet his luck was good as was the end result. His timing was also good in that he did not die because of his dumb actions.
This philosophy about life has been reinforced by other than flying events that occurred through the years: his coming down with a crippling case of Polio as a nine year old, his trouble adjusting to a cross-country move from school and friends because of the conditions present in World War II, his admittedly very immature reactions to being in the military service when he turned eighteen, and then post-War having to adjust to a world where the threat of War with Russia kept him unsure of any future planning. All of this brought him to believe that he would never live to the age of twenty-five.
Flying airplanes has been the authors goal since childhood. From making model airplanes and jumping off buildings with a homemade parachute to actually flying airplanes and gaining advanced licenses and ratings, the author continues to enjoy his most loved interest - aviation. As stated earlier, Luck and Timing is a book that brings forth the authors philosophy about life, that all we do and experience is brought about more by our luck and timing in events that happen, rather than what happens because of our particular quality of brain power. In other words, life does not depend on how smart we are, it depends on how the breaks go. We cannot control what is going to happen so we each have to rely on our own luck and timing to see what comes about - good or bad.
The book Luck and Timing is also a book that has a lot of interesting and informative aviation information for the reader to enjoy. Certainly any existing pilot, student pilot, or just someone who is somewhat interested in aviation will enjoy reading about how light airplanes and their pilots went about doing things over the past fifty to sixty years, during the Great Depression years though World war II and up until recent time. Equipment available and methods used have certainly changed over all of those years.
Information for Luck and Timing has come directly from the authors flight log books and his remembrances of individual flights. Airplane characteristics, weather, and equipment peculiarities often were a serious contributor to less than satisfactory flights. The author uses these flights along with his sometimes poor decisions to point out that Luck and Timing must be considered in how things turn out.
The book holds fifteen chapters with many pages in each, along with one hundred and thirty-five pictures of airplanes, airports, prominent aviation persons that the author has known, weather conditions, and interesting places. The authors collection of fine pictures greatly adds to the interest the reader will experience by reading this book.
