Description

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Helen Krasner learned to fly in 1997, and during the next couple of years obtained her Private Pilot's Licence for both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft. She has also reached solo standard on a flexwing microlight, and had a go at flying gliders and gyroplanes. She has flown in many different places, both in the UK and abroad, the latter including Europe, California, and Russia. In 2001 she and a co-pilot won the prestigious "Dawn to Dusk" flying competition, coming second in 2003; they also won the trophy for the best all-female competitors three times. In 2003 Helen qualified as a helicopter instructor, and for a number of years she combined teaching students to fly helicopters with a part time writing career. For the last few years she has earned her living mainly as a writer, writing primarily about aviation. She has had several books and numerous articles published, one of which was nominated in 2004 for an 'Aerospace Journalist of the Year' Award. Publications to which she has contributed include 'Todays Pilot' and 'Pilot' in the UK, 'HeliNews' and 'Australian Aviation' in Australia, and 'Global Aviation' in South Africa. She was also newsletter editor for the British Women Pilots' Association for five years.Since 2006, Helen has been writing a regular monthly column for the UK publication 'Flight Training News' (FTN), which is still continuing. Some of those articles have appeared in short collections as ebooks. This latest book includes a number of those previously published, and also many newer ones. Overall, it is a compilation of what Helen considers to be the best 60 of her FTN articles, all of which were originally published between 2006 and 2015. They have been divided in the book into four sections: Learning to Fly, Beyond the PPL, Just Helicopters, and Helicopter Instructing. It should be noted that there are a disproportionately large number of helicopter related articles, and Helen makes no apology for this, as she is primarily a helicopter pilot.This book should appeal to a wide cross-section of people - aviation enthusiasts and armchair flyers, Private Pilots, and also many who are involved in aviation as a career. It will be of particular interest to those who fly helicopters - or would like to. It is written in an informal, easy-to-read style, and explains complicated concepts simply and clearly. Despite covering some fairly technical issues, it is a book to be dipped into and enjoyed.