I've always been an amazed flier. And the bigger the flying machine, the better. This book hits all the spots. The author is a 747 pilot and a poetic soul. He's endlessly wonder-struck by the magic of flight, the beast that is the aircraft, and all the little strangenesses of international pilot life. He'll tell you how you start an aircraft at the beginning of the working day, of all the systems that must wake up. The oddness before that moment of the machine completely dormant. He'll tell you how big a country is in terms of the hours it takes to fly over them - or, in the case of Switzerland, the minutes. He'll tell you that you'll take off from London Heathrow and you won't have reached proper cruising altitude until you're well over Scotland. He'll tell you about taking off in London, stopping in Libya for lunch on the tarmac (sandwiches made in his London home), then getting back in the cockpit and bringing the plane all the way back again in time for tea. Sometimes I had the feeling that it needed a tiny bit more editing. I felt I read a little too often about the plane's weight, length, speed. Some of the chapters felt padded. But that's a tiny quibble. I was - and remain - beguiled.

A must-read for any airline passenger! Skyfaring is a full-flaps insight to flying commercial airlines through the detailed eyes and life of a pilot. Particularly fascinating is how Mark explains place-lag, and the other many life experiences that pilots are challenged with away from the cockpit office. The insight of mechanics in all the stages of flight is explained gently through the chapters that has you wish you were actually riding onboard the plane itself! ...which I actually did for the final chapter: the return.

I enjoyed this book. It is written by a pilot about the joy of flying. It is very simple and is a beautiful description of all the scientific, travel, personal and geographic aspects of this work. The book reflects his love of flying and would interest anyone in flight, travel or planes in general. Easy to read and full of heartfelt emotion that makes the book easy to relate to.

Got it for self-confessed nerd of a husband who used to be a frequent flyer and enjoyed the technical details, emotions and memories.