Time in Africa - Price, David

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Résumé :
Time in Africa: Flying and Fun from 1963 to 1983 covers 20 amazing years of David Price's life as a pilot, working primarily in Africa. Although filled with personal adventures and humorous anecdotes, Time in Africa is much more than an autobiography. It is also an amazing glimpse of a time in aviation before computerized flight controls and when some older planes were still made of plywood and canvas. Having flown planes such as a DC3, Dove, Comet 4, Viscount, B737 and B707, the author shares stories of near disaster, having to make mechanical repairs and adjustments while flying-including once with a fire ax, and landing and taking off in the desert without a runway. Adding further interest to these stories is the setting: Libya, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, Zambia, Guinea, and Nigeria in their early days of independence post colonization. A natural storyteller, David portrays what life was like in Africa-both for the privileged Whites and the native Blacks-along with providing insight into the politics and attitudes of the time. From starting an airplane with car batteries strapped to a baggage trolley to having to put out a charcoal fire started in the aisle of a plane to brew a cup of tea, it is clear that there were few dull moments during David's time as a pilot in Africa. It is also evident that he enjoyed every minute there, as will his readers as he takes them back to an amazing place in an interesting time.

Biographie:
David Price was born in Scotland of Irish parents and became a pilot after two years at the College of Air Training in the South of England. At the tender age of 20, he set off for his first job as a pilot-flying for oil companies throughout the Libyan desert. After two decades of flying, which included several international routes, he became a flight operations director for many years. In 1983, David moved his family to Vancouver, B.C., where he worked as a project manager. Today David and his wife, Jennifer (Jiff), still live in their family home in Richmond, B.C., and are in the process of planning their fiftieth wedding anniversary. They have four grown children and four grandchildren. When not writing or telling stories, David enjoys woodcarving and tennis.