Flight of Passage

In the summer of 1966, Rinker and Kernahan Buck, two teenaged boys from New Jersey, bought a dilapidated Piper Cub for $300, rebuilt it, and piloted it on a record-breaking flight across America, navigating all the way to California without a radio, because they couldn't afford one. Their trip retraced a mythical route flown by their father, Tom Buck, a brash, colorful ex-barstormer who had lost a leg in a tragic air crash before his sons were born, but who so loved the adventure of flight that he taught his boys to fly before they could drive. The journey west, and the preparations for it, become a figurative and literal process of discovery, as the young men battle thunderstorms and wracking turbulence and encounter Arkansas rednecks, Texas cowboys, and the languid, romantic culture of small town cafes, cheap motels, and dusty landing strips of pre-Vietnam America. The brothers have a lot of resolve among themselves, too--as Kern, the meticulous, dedicated visionary, and Rinker, the rebellious second son, must finally come to understand and depend on each other in the complex way that only brothers can. Most of all, FLIGHT OF PASSAGE is a timeless story of fathers and sons. These two young men must separate from their difficult, quirky father--literally by putting a country's distance between them--but they do it on their father's terms: in an airplane. As he looks back from the perspective of now being a father himself, Rinker Buck's tale of two young men in search of themselves and their country becomes a book about the eternal enigma of family--of the distance and closeness of generations, of peace lost so that understanding can be gained--and it is explored with a storytelling power that is both brave and rare.

An old-fashioned air adventure in the tradition of Charles Lindbergh's celebrated autobiography, The Spirit of St. Louis. Buck, who has written for New York magazine, among other publications, revisits the crowning moment of his youth, the newsworthy 1966 coast-to-coast trek undertaken with his older brother, Kernahan, in a reconditioned Piper Cub. Young Kern Buck, soon after getting his pilot's license at 17, cooked up the idea of flying all the way from New Jersey to California in the two-seat, hand-crank, tailwheel airplane, which the brothers would purchase for $300 and meticulously restore over a long winter. Rinker's presence would be required as copilot and navigator in the radioless Cub. After settling on a southern route through Texas by way of Arkansas, the brothers steered ``stack to stack'' through the steel smog along the river mills at Pittsburgh, with overnights in Indiana, Arkansas, and Texas, reporters picking them up for interviews along the way. The memorable pass through the Rockies, near El Paso, where the pilots battled oxygen starvation as they approached the Guadalupe Pass, is the dramatic centerpiece of the book. From the distance of early middle age--he is now near the age of his father at time of the flight--the author filters his impressive tale through a prism of sympathy for the passionate, damaged man who taught his sons to fly and whose own barnstorming yarns inspired their unusual feat. Says the author, who like his brother sought a way to make a place for himself beyond the shadow of Buck Sr., ``The simple audacity of our trip, our complete naivet‚ and nonchalance, astounds me still.'' This enchanting story of youthful accomplishment, which includes masterly insider descriptions of flight, should reach a broad audience. (25 b&w photos, not seen) (Book-of-the-Month Club/Quality Paperback Book Club selection) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In 1966, the 15-year-old author and his 17-year-old brother flew across the United States in a Piper Cub. This book recalls their adventure, from conceiving the idea, persuading their father to allow it, preparing the airplane, and taking the trip itself. As a memoir, it is enlivened by adult reflection on youthful feelings and thoughts. Buck is a skilled writer who, even at that age, was familiar with the classics of aviation literature by Saint-Exupery and Ernest Gann. His description of crossing the Rockies at Guadalupe Pass in Texas echoes the best scenes of Saint-Ex's short stories and Gann's novels. But Buck has fashioned a rite of passage, involving the important presence of the boys' father, Tom Buck, an old barnstorming pilot who, although a successful magazine editor, never forgot his glory days. Buck sensitively describes the father-sons and brother-brother relationships through the filter of intense and confused emotions of a teenager. Highly recommended for all collections.
-?Mary Ann Parker, California Dept. of Water Resources Law Lib., Sacramento
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In July_ 1966, Rinker Buck navigated while Kern Buck piloted the brothers from New York to San Diego in a standard Piper Cub (no lights, no radio, no heat) that they had painstakingly restored to near-mint condition. Kern was 17, Rinker 15, and their father, '30s aerial barnstormer turned journalist Tom Buck, 50 and starting to really feel the toll of a relentlessly active life. In the first paragraph of his colorful, exhilarating, heart-stirring account of the adventure, Rinker reveals the importance of that conjunction of ages: "What we were really doing was proving ourselves to my father." Tom Buck taught his eldest sons to fly and expected them to excel; they obviously did, which was particularly gratifying to Tom in the case of Kern, a naturally reticent, "geeky" kid. But Tom had a hard time granting his sons independence. He badgered them during their nightly calls home (Kern soon delegated calling duties entirely to Rinker, who stood up to Tom better). Using his media connections, Tom drummed up journalistic interest in the flight; the boys initially found this annoying, although Kern then got into it. At the end of their feat, the brothers were firmly reconciled to their father and to one another (Rinker had long been embarrassed by his nerdy older brother, and Kern had been demoralized by Rinker's popularity and athleticism). The journeys of miles and spirits that led to these resolutions Rinker recounts with such verve and love that Flight of Passage bids fair to become a coming-of-age classic. Ray Olson