Flying Drunk: The True Story of a Northwest Airlines Flight, Three Drunk Pilots, and One Man's Fight for Redemption Book

I thought this was the story of one of the guys in the AA Big Book. It's similar but it's not the same guy. Nevertheless I enjoyed the story.

I learned something unexpected, (Joe is a good teacher, he teaches when he's not even trying),"ground effect" is an aerodynamic condition in which an aircraft does not have enough airspeed to fly unless it stays close to the ground...no more than one-half of its own wingspan above the earth...an aircraft in this slow condition will stall and crash if it flies above its ground effect distance." Interesting and scary.

Lessons learned from this book and other true life criminal court stories: Stay out of trouble. Stay away from the legal and penal system. The system is rigged. The police lie, witnesses lie and change their stories. Crucial evidence is disallowed, judges are biased and prison is holy hell. Stay away from the judicial and the penal systems at all costs. Black or white, you will be screwed.

Joe's time in the penitentiary taught him valuable lessons. You can see and hear the changes in him as he described his prison experience. He used to speak of others as "guys" or "fellows", now they are "dudes". I am interested to know who were the criminals who gave him advice on prison and jail behavior before he turned himself in.

He was a good student and he was lucky to have Jack and Damian and a couple others looking out for him while he was in the big house. After receiving death threats he learned to "keep his head on a swivel." (A term my husband likes to use.)

There's a surprising number of pilots in prison. Usually from running drugs.

After his release from prison, he still owns a home, even though he often spoke of serious financial hardships. Just a little white privilege here. He lucks up on a good parole officer and a decent job where people where willing to give him a second chance. That doesn't happen often. Too bad it can't be like that for everyone.

He was a changed man, though. With a hard, distrustful look in his eye now. One difference is that he hadn't come from poverty and crime so after prison he had a crime free environment to return to.

Joe says, "I have learned in recovery that courage is putting fear into forward motion." I like that. I'm going to use that. I like and will use the idea of the "image before me of all the people who were praying for me that day, and I was comforted with a feeling of peace." This was when he went in for the crucial interview with American Airlines.

Joe doesn't mention the dissolution of his marriage in the book, but it's alluded to in the author's bio, referring to him as a single dad. I would have liked to read that part of the story. What he did share was that his wife Deborah was ride or die. So I would like to know what was the final straw.