"Filled with tales from Mike’s 25 year career, this is an honest and interesting insight, shared in a really easy to read tone, like an old friend regaling you with stories in the pub."
The trials and tribulations of aviation as told from the Ramp office. ‘Mayfly’ by Mike James offers an honest, unfiltered view of his time in commercial and chartered aviation. While we’re used to hearing stories from pilots and cabin crew, in this memoir we see the close scrapes experienced by those on the ground. From eventful chartered flights of cattle to Beirut to the plate spinning required to change crews and paperwork when planes experience technical difficulties. Told with good humour, and perhaps increasing cynicism towards the end of his career, this glimpse behind the scenes is entertaining but perhaps not recommended for particularly nervous fliers. Lots of people will have experienced airline travel, usually with experiences of some delays as well as smooth journeys. Mayfly shares with the reader the work that’s required before the passengers set foot on board, and all the work going on while we are blissfully unaware, browsing the duty-free. There’s fun and comedic anecdotes to balance out the heart wrenching tragedies, hammering home the fine margins that airports, airlines and their staff have to deliver services both safely and to schedule. Filled with tales from Mike’s 25 year career, this is an honest and interesting insight, shared in a really easy to read tone, like an old friend regaling you with stories in the pub.
Charlotte Walker, A LoveReading Ambassador
| Primary Genre | Indie Author Books |
| Recommendations: |
A funny, irreverent look at an airfreight company from an insider viewpoint.
A funny, irreverent look at an airfreight company from an insider viewpoint. Mike James (pseudonym) had me giggling from page 1 with the ups and many more downs of the joys of being a loadmaster calculating how the cargo should be loaded for balance. The imagery of 30 in-calf Friesian cows with many hours of delays is hilarious (although I'm sure the smell wasn't) as is the description of a 1950s freight plane - a builder's skip with wings and the performance of a rheumatic vicar climbing a hill on a rusty bicycle. I shall never look at a skip the same way again. All in all, a very funny book.... Read Full Review