PanAm and Beyond - Turbulence on the Ground Kindle Edition

Most books about Pan Am are what happened in the air. This well written fictional version of what took place int the management side of the house is a good version of what happened on the ground

As a former airline employee (not Pam Am), I had great expectations for this book. I figured that I could enjoy an amusing read about the "behind the scenes" of Pan Am. Well, after reading the first few pages of very non-descript and boring prose about boring incidents, I felt disappointment; after more pages I felt that I had wasted my money buying this book. In the end, I got as far as the beginning of Chapter 3 before deciding to give up. Why?The myriad of mundane episodes, bordering on slap-stick comedy and strung one after another, are not all that interesting or funny after a while. They didn't even bring a smile to my face. Instead, they made me raise my eyebrows and scream, "Enough already!" The combination of boring stories and boring writing add up to a boring book.The following episodes, which might have been amusing if told properly by an expert story teller, cause you to shake your head in mismay and ask, "Are these supposed to be funny"? The book is full of episodes, you know, the kind which might have been a barrel of laughs at the time, if you were experiencing them right then and there. But reading about them, one after another got very tiring very fast. For instance, there was an air-freighted cat that escaped from its cage, so in its place the author sends a stray alley cat (and that's the end of story); dogs shipped in cargo getting mixed up and sent to the wrong owners; cargo arriving from overseas, only to be reloaded as cargo again and flown out on the return flight; a skunk getting loose at the airport terminal, and causing everyone to run all which ways; medical treatment for a minute skunk-bite, which almost involved an ambulance ride; an alligator getting out of its cage and creating a panic; someone checking into a brothel, thinking that it was an ordinary hotel; bringing smelly cheese on a flight and hiding it under good seats in order to make the nearby passengers complain and want to change the good seats because of the odd odor; night-club escapades of first-time-to-Paris tourists; plus there are many more of the same.All I can say is, this book reads like a high-school-student's diary full of prankish stories that must have been "good laughs" at the time. To anyone else, like readers who are distanced from these stories by both time and circumstances, these escapades are not worth the trouble reading.The rave reviews make me wonder if others really bothered to read the book, or if they gave it 5 stars for the sake of sentimental value.

CEOs of all airlines should require all employees to read this very interesting and humorous book.If you purchase a paper back version, do not open it until you have several hours of free time for it is impossible to close the cover and put it down once you comence reading. You become addicted chapter after chapter until the final page!! This is one book where you will not need a book marker.This book should be put into reprint for it is so entertaining and also because the availablity on the used book market is almost zero.The electronic version is available and reasonably priced, but the paper back is a collectors' item!!!!!! I had intended to pass my copy on to one of my grandsons, but I have decided it is to remain in a safe place in one of my bookcases so I can go back and read it again.

A fast read that makes you feel you're right there with the narrator. It's interesting to find out what went behind the scenes of the famous and world known PanAm.

This book was among the best sellers at Amazon during the first year of publication. The many top reviews from all over the world are impressive. It is now an e-book and shows that Pan Am is not forgotten.

This book is very well written. It is an easy read, very interesting book.

The author describes this book, written in the third person, as "semi-biographical". If even half the situations documented in the book are factual, I'm surprised that PanAm did not fail sooner than it did. Typical "I was right and everyone else was wrong" mentality.

The start was a bit slow, but once it got going, was great, lots of crazy stories.