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About the Author
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Patrick Smith is an airline pilot, air travel columnist and author. In his spare time, Patrick has visited more than 70 countries and always asks for a window seat. He lives near Boston.
Born Patrick Santosuosso, a third-generation descendent of Neapolitan olive growers, he took flying lessons at fifteen and went on to become a C-minus student at St. John's Prep School. In 1990, he earned his first cockpit position, as a copilot on regional turboprops, earning $800 a month.
Patrick's self-published punk rock fanzines and poetry journals of the 1980s and 1990s are considered among the more curious works of literature ever produced by a resident of Revere, Massachusetts.
In addition to addressing the staple concerns of passengers, from turbulence to terrorism, Ask the Pilot urges people to reevaluate the link between flight and travel.
A Note from the Author
"My love of commercial aviation nurtured a passion for seeing the world, and I encourage that passion in others. I'd never have traipsed off to sixty-some countries if I hadn't been infatuated with the airplane first, and what underpins my writing is a desire that readers, too, will come to see the airplane as more than just an inconvenient means to an end.
If I rely on a single tenet, it's that the airplane is intrinsic to the journey. Thus, finishing this book, you should feel not only safer and better informed, but rejuvenated about the idea of flying. And traveling.
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Moreover, I wanted to write a book that didn't sound like it was written by a pilot. Ask the Pilot is meant to be unexpectedly thoughtful, provocative, and even a bit eccentric. It is more than a collection of facts, stats, and gee-whiz about planes; it touches on everything from aerodynamics and safety issues to airport architecture and the liveries of the world's airlines.
I feel that the success of the book, and of the columns too, stems from a tendency to be intriguing in ways that people do not expect. The plan is to make air travel compelling by going against the grain- be it my unorthodox opinions about security, or rhapsodising sentimental about the paint scheme of Air India. The topics I most enjoy highlighting are the nuanced ones."
Visit flickr to view photographs from the author's recent trips around the world, including sets from Ghana, Jordan, Senegal, Budaest, Romania, and the infamous Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine. Various aviation-related pictures are also featured.
