Fifty Years of Flying Fun

From the Royal Air Force to award-winning display flying to flight instruction, a memoir of a half century in the sky. Includes photos.

Fifty Years of Flying Fun covers, in a roughly chronological order, over fifty continuous years of flying. This ranges from joining the RAF in 1962, through the author’s intriguing first operational tour on Hunters in Aden, the early days of the Jaguar in Germany and, finally in the RAF, an almost outrageous two years flying the Jaguar and Hunter with the Sultan of Oman’s Air Force. His subsequent civil flying has been exclusively in the General Aviation and flying display fields as a flying instructor and well known display pilot, including being involved in many varied and interesting display-related episodes. With in excess of 7,000 flying hours on 59 different types—and only one aircraft (Spencer Flack’s Mustang) with a working autopilot—Rod Dean gives a clear, and largely humorous, insight into the operation of a cross section of piston and jet engine vintage aircraft and his undoubted fifty years of fun since the first solo on March 19, 1963.

Fifty Years of Flying Fun is not just a book for the aviation enthusiast, but for anyone wanting to learn about flying history through the memoir of a man who flew through a half century of it.