Description

This book is a store of knowledge from 20 years of flying sport aircraft. If you've ever wondered why the air behaves as it does, this book is for you. The greatest emphasis is on small-scale effects--exactly where we fly.

Details are provided on everything from turbulence to thunderstorms. The chapters on lift sources and flying efficiency alone are worth the price of this book. Understanding the Sky is your key to complete comfort in the air.

Reviews

The book is intended for sport aviators -- ultralight, sailplane and hang glider pilots, as well as balloonists, RC modelers and parachutists -- who want to learn the esoteric things they may have missed during general weather courses.

Matters such as reverse gradients, low-level shears, thermals, daily variations, upslope breezes, down-bursts and gust fronts are described. Sport Aviation Publications said it believes the chapter on thunderstorm judgment and prediction is alone worth the price of the book. Understanding the Sky covers large-scale weather, explaining the message of the sky and the structure of the atmosphere in several chapters; the rest of the book is devoted to more local effects.

The author, Dennis Pagen, is a pilot with 19 years of experience in various fast and slow aircraft. He has previously written 10 "how-to" books on sport aviation. This latest book is a culmination of years of research that Pagen says he hopes will benefit all pilots who wish to know more about the air in which they travel.

Understanding the Sky comes with 12 chapters, 288 pages, more than 260 photos and illustrations, five appendices, a glossary and a complete index.

Winter 1992 issue of the Whole Earth Catalog

"What's going on up there a weather book by one of sport aviation's best teachers, who has looked at clouds from both sides. Whether you're watching from the ground or the air, the sky has plenty of puzzling features. Dennis Pagen has seen and explained more than any other writer I know." -- Hank Roberts

1993 issue of the Whole Earth Catalog

There is no better way to feel out local weather than in a small airplane (or reincarnated as a red-tailed hawk). This is the most lucid book on the messages of the clouds, the patterns of the local winds, thunderstorms, and thermal lore. The life-or-death nature of the information has produced good prose and great illustrations. Pagen also includes the big picture how storm fronts carry your watershed news from the arctic or the equator. -- PW

Format Paperback, 6" x 9", 200 pages, 140 illustrations,
33 photos, four-color cover. In English.
Author Dennis Pagen