Packed with dozens of lifesaving illustrations!

HIGH ALTITUDE, LOW RISK!

Piloting aircraft above mountainous regions demands more than a thirst for adventure. It also requires a keen understanding of the unique challenges involved in mountain flying — for the safety and pleasure of everyone involved.

That’s why if you’re a pilot, a flight instructor, or are learning to fly, Flying the Mountains is the one-stop, practical resource you need to stay safe while soaring at extreme altitudes. Written with insight by a noted high-elevation flight instructor and pilot, Flying the Mountains:

* Outlines the nature of mountain flying

* Relays mountain flight accident statistics and causes

* Details effects of altitude on aircraft and pilots

* Examines in-flight ailments related to mountain flying

* Reviews take-off conditions from mountain airports

* And much, much more!

Logically organized by phases of flight — from preflight preparation to landings — Flying the Mountains delivers a potent combination of statistics, techniques, and examples of actions (correct and incorrect) used in actual flight scenarios.

A new form of strip mining has caused a state of emergency for the Appalachian wilderness and the communities that depend on it-a crisis compounded by issues of government neglect, corporate hubris, and class conflict. In this powerful call to arms, Erik Reece chronicles the year he spent witnessing the systematic decimation of a single mountain and offers a landmark defense of a national treasure threatened with extinction.

Every year around the globe, people cross paths with avalanches--some massive, some no deeper than a pizza box--with deadly results. Avalanche expert Jill Fredston stalks these so-called freaks of nature, forecasting where and when they will strike, deliberately triggering them with explosives, teaching potential victims how to stay alive, and leading rescue efforts when tragedy strikes. In "Snowstruck," Fredston draws on decades of personal experience to take "avalanches out of the statistical realm and into the human one" ("Skiing Magazine"): a skier making what may prove his final decision, a victim buried so tightly that he can't move a finger, rescuers racing both time and weather, forecasters treading the line between reasonable risk and danger. Fredston brings to life the awesome forces of nature that can turn the mountains deadly--and the equally inexo-rable forces of human nature that lure us time and again into treacherous terrain.