Hauling Checks - A Review

Hauling Checks - Alex Stone (Author for review)

Product Details (from B&N)

• Pub. Date: November 2009
• Publisher: CreateSpace
• Format: Paperback, 166pp

• ISBN-13: 9781449563332
• ISBN: 1449563333

Synopsis (from B&N)

I'm a cargo pilot. In the industry, I'm known as a "Freight Dog." I fly canceled checks and other types of high-value cargo around the country, mostly at night, in airplanes that are older than I am. Flying freight-or "work" as we call it-in small, twin-engine aircraft is a lesser known side of the aviation world. Our day starts when banker's hours end. Thousands of flights move millions of pounds of work from city to city every night while the rest of the country is asleep.
We're out there in the freezing rain getting de-iced when you're laying down for bed. We're sweeping the snow off our wings with a broom at three in the morning. That horrible thunderstorm you heard last night while you were sleeping, we were flying through it. The fog you woke up to in the early morning hours, we were landing in it.

Hauling Checks is a comedy about the darker side of aviation. A cast of degenerate pilots, who work for a shady night time air cargo operation, take you on a flight through the unfriendly skies. The pilots abuse every Reg in the book in their quest to make deadlines for their high value cargo. As the company falls on hard times, management resorts to questionable measures to save the failing airline.

My Thoughts:

This is a comedy about flying checks from bank to bank at night and by comedy I mean every crazy, hair brained stunt you could think of, is done in this book and more. The pilot in the story seems to be an okay guy but the company he works for is as crazy and dirty as they come. The book chronicle some of the pilots adventures working for this company. I'm serious it's a good thing you know it's fiction or this book would go from funny and relaxing to downright freaky lol.

It read a lot like a memoir but is in fact a work of fiction. Good thing the author makes sure you know this or flying at night would become a nerve wracking event. All in all this was an entertaining, quick read that I enjoyed.