Inspiring, humorous and captivating – a great read! I’ve recommended this book to many people as it has so much going for it. Captain Gordon is a great storyteller, and does he have stories to tell! From humble roots in rural Missouri, military service, and then dogged determination to become a pilot – it’s an inspirational story of what is possible.

Belongs on anyone’s “thumping good read list”! I have had the good fortune to know Pat, since Jimmy Carter was deciding to run for President. I’ll wait if you want to do the research. Notwithstanding, Pat has been my mentor in the everything from flying, writing and the headier parts of life with which we all grapple and too seldom share confessions.Pat can hold an individual conversation, a table or a hall with equal ease and with emotional honesty to which many aspire yet few of us can deliver. We can be reading his hard won beliefs and inner fears one moment and be blowing fluids across the room when he catches us unprepared with his next sentence.I have seen that so many times and get to see his skills in the print of FTFA. The image of his Cherokee Grandma, newly made into a unicorn disrupted an entire Swiss restaurant last night. Unrepentant, another passage was equally, delightfully, disruptive just now.There is no prerequisite to be an aviator, you’ll pro’ly learn a few things along the road with Pat. There are few that can better deliver honesty, sincerity and a belly laugh, in one sitting, than Pat. Put away your cellphone and reconnect with the original form of social media.Thank you Pat!

A great read! Lady Luck was in my corner when I chose this book to accompany me during a weeklong ocean front vacation.I was pleasantly surprised, while flipping pages non-stop, at the author’s ability to take me on a reader’s journey atypical of any nonfiction I have read.Pat Gordon’s storyteller prowess revealed honesty, vulnerability, perseverance, courage, steadfast truth to self, hunger for continual educational growth, and humor-lots of humor.Through visceral descriptives, he takes you on a fabulous trek, adventurous and interestingly technical at the same time. You may find yourself thinking ‘I want to learn to fly.’This much I have learned: Pat Gordon is a great storyteller-and he can FTFA!As I look forward to next year’s vacation, Book Two, please.