From Publishers Weekly
Crossing the country in her much-loved small plane (a Luscombe N803B, identified as Zero Three Bravo on radio transmissions), Gosnell, a former medical and science reporter for Newsweek, offers a bird's-eye view of our nation's land-, sea- and skyscapes. A flight-infatuated adventurer on a summer holiday, she wings happily aloft in the airlanes reserved for noncommercial craft, dipping low enough to distinguish country fields and city streets, or soaring upward to exult in the firmament. Here and there, she touches down for a dinner date, a shopping tour with her mother, or simply to reconnoiter a town, have a cup of coffee and gas up. All the while, Gosnell enthuses about her plane and the mechanics of flying, bringing to life the network of kindred spirits who use and staff the small airports that service the private flying community. With contagious delight, she opens up a unique world for her readers. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC alternate. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA-Ever wonder how those planes that carry messages streaming behind them get off the ground? Ever think about what goes on at those small airports you occasionally pass in your car? Here is an intriguing look into the mysterious world of general aviation (a.k.a. small planes), presented by a former Newsweek writer. Gosnell makes readers feel as though they're there with her as she explores the country in (and out of) her 1950 Luscombe Silvaire two-seater. She draws readers into the separate, mostly masculine world of small airports and introduces them to the mostly likable eccentrics who hang out there. The book is an enjoyable mix of flying lore, scenery descriptions, adventures, impressions of people, weather, conversations, worries, and reminiscences-all so smoothly done that it's never boring. Well worth booktalking.Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VACopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Former Newsweek reporter Gosnell recounts her trip across the United States alone in her private plane. She describes experiences at many small airports as she flies from New York down across the southern United States to California, then north and back across the Midwest. She encounters plenty of interesting characters, hears many stories, and weaves these together with touches of aviation history to make a contemplative personal narrative. Gosnell's journalistic style lets us appreciate the variety of people and places she visits, from New York City to Plains, Georgia. Recommended for all libraries with strong aviation and travel collections.- Gwen Gregory, U.S. Courts Lib., Phoenix, Ariz.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
A pleasurable ride with aviatrix Gosnell on her leisurely summer odyssey, flying in to out-of-the-way airfields and seeing the US from a fresh perspective. The lure of the blue sky outside her office window in midtown Manhattan finally proved irresistible to Gosnell. Taking a three- month leave of absence from her reporter's job at Newsweek, she set out in her small, single-engine Luscombe Silvaire to hop-skip-and- jump to the West Coast and back. Gosnell had fallen in love with flying during a summer vacation in Kenya when she took a charter flight over the game-rich African plains, and she extended her vacation there in order to take flying lessons. Back home, she finished her flight training and bought her first airplane--``a weekend cabin that moved.'' On the cross-country trip described here--flying below 1500 feet whenever the weather and terrain permitted, stopping off at familiar and unfamiliar places, dropping in on friends, hiking and backpacking when the mood struck, exploring caves, spending the nights in her sleeping bag and as often as not under the wing of her beloved little plane--Gosnell saw America as few do: the ocean shores, the Mississippi, the Rockies, the Great Plains, and terrain both benign and terrifying. The characters she met were as interesting as the sights--among them, crop-dusters, tow-plane pilots, fire spotters, flight instructors, trading-post managers, cave specialists, and, of course, the FBOs (fixed-base operators: the term stands for both the small, private airfields and the dedicated folk who run them). A notable stop on the way back was at Columbus, Ohio, for a homecoming visit with her family. A satisfying companion to Laurence Gonzales's One Zero Charlie (1992). Like Gonzales, Gosnell is hopelessly in love with flying, and we are ensnared by her enthusiasm. (Photographs--not seen). -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
Mariana Gosnell takes the reader along on her extraordinary voyage across the U.S. in her single-engine Luscombe Silvaire, Zero Three Bravo. Enticed by the ribbon of sky that she could see from her Manhattan office window, she took a leave of absence from her job and made a three-month solo flight, navigating by use of landmarks and landing in America's little-known, back-country airports. She traveled south from her home airport of Spring Valley, New York, down to North Carolina and Georgia, west across Texas to Los Angeles and north to San Francisco, and then east over the Rockies, the plains, and the farms of the Midwest until she was back home.What results is a lyrical description of land, sky, and water interwoven with experiences among small-town folks, maverick crop-dusters, banner towers, mechanics, and airport loiterers. With each landing there is a story to be told: the deaf-mute pilot who grounded himself until the eggs in the bird's nest lodged in his plane's engine had hatched, the woman running an airport by herself after losing both her husband and son to flying accidents, and the pilots and "hangar bums" who tried to hide their surprise when they saw a woman pilot flying cross-country solo.This true story -- including photos taken on the trip -- will make the confirmed urban dweller yearn for open spaces and the adventurous life.

ANNOTATION

With former Newsweek reporter Mariana Gosnell as the pilot, every takeoff is an adventure and every anecdote brings readers closer to falling in love with flying. Fromcount is "a literary work of straightforward affection . . ." (Newsweek).

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With all the exhilaration that comes from being up in the sky alone, with the warmth that comes from being on the ground with the people at small airports, Mariana Gosnell tells the story of her three-month adventure in her single-engine tailwheel airplane, Zero Three Bravo. The adventure began on a hot summer day when "the city seemed particularly punishing to body and spirit." Enticed by the ribbon of sky that she could see from her office window high above Manhattan, she decided to fly her small plane solo across the country and back. Taking a leave from her job, and packing all the clothes, charts, and emergency equipment that she could squeeze into her Luscombe Silvaire (a Model 8F built in 1950, with two seats, high wings, and a 95-horsepower engine), she sets out to fly from one small airport to another around the United States. We're with her in the cockpit, sharing the excitements, sights, and even the techniques of flying, as she cruises low, navigating almost solely by landmarks, maneuvering through rain and winds, and always delighting in the ever-changing panorama below. From her home airport in Spring Valley, New York, she heads south to North Carolina and Georgia, west across Texas to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and back again over the Rockies and the plains and farms of the Midwest. Along the way with her, we meet the dreamers, tinkerers, escapists, loners, and ordinary folk who fly small planes for pleasure and for a living. They are cropdusters, fishspotters, Sunday pilots, banner towers, and the many others who are still attracted to the challenge of gypsying around the skies in a tiny craft. And we come to know the men and women who run or hang out around small airports - a friendly fraternity of those who share a love of flying machines and a beckoning sky. Usually there's a big welcome in the little office, a few stories to be swapped, information given and received, hospitality tendered (a meal, a ride to town, a bed for the night) - a

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Crossing the country in her much-loved small plane (a Luscombe N803B, identified as Zero Three Bravo on radio transmissions), Gosnell, a former medical and science reporter for Newsweek, offers a bird's-eye view of our nation's land-, sea- and skyscapes. A flight-infatuated adventurer on a summer holiday, she wings happily aloft in the airlanes reserved for noncommercial craft, dipping low enough to distinguish country fields and city streets, or soaring upward to exult in the firmament. Here and there, she touches down for a dinner date, a shopping tour with her mother, or simply to reconnoiter a town, have a cup of coffee and gas up. All the while, Gosnell enthuses about her plane and the mechanics of flying, bringing to life the network of kindred spirits who use and staff the small airports that service the private flying community. With contagious delight, she opens up a unique world for her readers. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC alternate. (June)

Library Journal

Former Newsweek reporter Gosnell recounts her trip across the United States alone in her private plane. She describes experiences at many small airports as she flies from New York down across the southern United States to California, then north and back across the Midwest. She encounters plenty of interesting characters, hears many stories, and weaves these together with touches of aviation history to make a contemplative personal narrative. Gosnell's journalistic style lets us appreciate the variety of people and places she visits, from New York City to Plains, Georgia. Recommended for all libraries with strong aviation and travel collections.-- Gwen Gregory, U.S. Courts Lib., Phoenix, Ariz.

School Library Journal