We groundlings take flying for granted! What with auto-pilots, global positioning systems and night flights non-stop to anywhere in the world — with hot food and the latest movies to entertain us till we fall asleep.

However, flying wasn’t always like this and this book takes us back half a century to where pilots control planes single-handedly all the time — where one mistake could mean dropping out of the sky — making this book an eye-opener for anyone who has ever wondered how one could get those ‘tin cans’ off the ground and back down again safely!

A ‘tail dragger’ doesn’t mean that the rear part of a plane reluctantly follows the propellers in flight as one might imagine, but describes those old planes sitting upon the runway with their noses in the air and a tiny wheel at the back barely keeping the tail off the ground — going against the modern travellers expectation that everything should be horizontal.  André and his friends, however, grew up with these planes and the passion for them is shown on every page and we soon realize why — Piloting a plane used to be an art and a science combined — No wonder old hands resent new gadgetry!

André has flown, and is still flying, his beloved Dakotas almost everywhere, especially across war-torn Africa and even down to Antarctica. He soon helps us into appreciate that the glitz and glamour of flight can wear very thin for those who have to get us there day after day!

“This is more than just anecdotes from a man who’s been there and done that — and survived to tell his tale. I feel blessed to have read it and gained an insight into a career and in to places I might never have known about otherwise.”