Stranger to the Ground

by Richard. Bach

A man alone in the sky has a chance to touch the stars. But as Richard Bach, flying a lone jet across Europe, reaches for the eternal, he must also confront the fear and danger that shadow the unknown.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060101806
• ISBN13: 9780060101800
• Release Date: January 1972
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Haunting allegory

This book is a very haunting allegory about Richard Bach's ordeal with his own mortality. Deals with facing death, the great unknown, and all the fears and anxieties that go along with topics we prefer not to think about. Reading it will open your heart and touch your soul, and stay with you long after the book is finished.Arlene Millmanauthor of BOOMERANG - A MIRACLE TRILOGY

I was there and discovered Jonothan in the night flight

In 1961 the world was about to go to war over a simple, but deadly game of nuclear bluff. The Russians were about to sign a seperate peace treaty with East Germany. So? Well, since the U.S., Brits, France and the Russians were all allies aftrer WWII, they could not unilaterally do that! In the new cold war era however, the Russians, trying to secure their idiological communist empire, perhaps as a buffer to any future invasions from the West, had taken their sector of Berlin...and East Germany, and made it their own...and to prove it they were going to sign a seperate peace without their allies. So, we called their bluff...and within 24 days of notification in the late summer of 1961, thousands of Guardsmen and allied military were activated and put muzzle to muzzle with the Russians and other Easter Block countries with a deadline of January 1, 1962 for the Russians to blink or unleash the dogs of war. Luckily for all of us, they blinked. I was with the 113th TFS from Indiana that flew the Atlantic in F-84Fs and opened Chambley Field in France. We flew the same skies, missions, and aircraft and lousey weather as Richard. We had mixed emotions about the opportunity to fly and test our aircraft for real, but apprehension about leaving our civilian jobs, homes and families to face an potential enemy that only a few years before had been our ally. We all worried through the cold winter night before the deadline, with a one way flight plan and realization that there would be no field left for us to return to if the baloon went up...and, perhaps no world as we knew it either. I think the world learned a lesson from that experience...more need to read about it...and we must never forget. Richard's detailed and flowing discription of the aircraft, arena, bases, missions, and joy of flight stimulating and nostalgic. Whenever I want to relive that little known and appreciated bookmark in history and the personal feeling of the experience, I reread Stranger...it is like an old friend...it also introduced me to a life of adventure, philosophy, mysticism and awe as a fan of this unique writer...he was, and still is an inspiration for my continuing journey of understanding of life, relationships, self examination and love of aviation. He is every-airman, but relates life better than any-man. Bravo Bach!

Bach's first and best book

Richard Bach's first book came to my attention when it was reviewed in the WALL STREET JOURNAL at first publication. I re-read it often. As a pilot with time in current fighters, I was stunned by the clarity and power of his depictions of flight. But one need not be a pilot to enjoy this work because it always remains 'grounded' (in the sense of structure and ideas, not literally).STRANGER got me for a core reason not often discussed with respect to flying; the book meets this criterion resoundingly: it is totally honest. Why does this matter? Because flying, especially complex modern airplanes (the F-84F is not an easy airplane), is fundamentally an honest trade. Make a mistake or be unlucky and you may die suddenly.

A classic book about flight

If the only Bach you know is "Jonathan Livingston Seagull", forget what you think you think you know about the author. This book, Bach's first, is something entirely different. It's a classic in the tradition of great flight books like "Fate is the Hunter" and "Night Flight"Written when Bach was an Air National Guard pilot, "Stranger to the Ground" takes you along for what is in essence a very humdrum and ordinary flight as he ferries an F86 from Germany to England. It's fairly uneventful; he passes through a storm, but he's well equipped to handle it. He even claims that the F86 is so easy to fly, anyone could handle it in level flight.What makes it special is Bach's narration- how he conveys the wonder of it all, and finds the magic in the simple act of flying, and the excitement of those small moments, like finding the coast, sighting the airfield and landing the plane.If you're not one who finds wonder in the simple act of flight, you may wonder why anyone would read this book. But if you're the type who looks up whenever an aircraft passes overhead, or who always takes the window seat on an airliner, or you're a pilot yourself, this is one of the finest books ever written on what it means to fly.