Higher than a Kite: Reminiscences of a retired globetrotting Air Traffic Controller during war, peace, revolution and riot

By Bob Allison

Higher Than a Kite takes the reader from immediate pre-war Britain into the 21st Century. It weaves through political and aviation events paralleling periods in Bob's colourful life. From his childhood memories of wartime England, schooldays in Norfolk where his love of all things aeroplane took root.The book has a strong aviation flavour, covering his career in military and civil Air Traffic Control at airports across the world. It takes us through his national service in the RAF, past a harrowing but mercifully short period as a railway clerk to a lucky break into air traffic control at London's Heathrow Airport. From there it takes a serpentine route from the US Air Force to civil ATC in a variety of countries. It highlights the effects of such a globe-trotting career on a young family and gives an insight to their development in these circumstances.Bob's dry humour permeates the book and his scathing view of bureaucracy is not lost on the reader. His readers uninterested in comprehensive descriptions of air traffic control functions are invited to gloss over them. An entire chapter is devoted to his enthusiasm for gliding and will entertain those with only a passing interest in flying.Higher Than a Kite was written at the suggestion of many colleagues and friends who listened to Bob's amusing after-dinner stories and accounts of his travels. It all makes for an interesting read.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 171987428X
• ISBN13: 9781719874281
• Release Date: September 2018
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 441 Pages
• Weight: 1.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.0"