One Chance for Glory

Book excerpt: The book is about Clyde Pangborn, a Washington-born early aviator who accomplished feats far exceeding those of persons such as Charles Lindberg but got nearly zero recognition for is deeds. The book, One Chance for Glory is a historical fiction book about Pangborn being the first to fly the 4500 miles nonstop across the Pacific in 1931. To do this, he had to jettison his landing gear into the ocean shortly after takeoff from Japan, do an in-flight repair job outside the airplane at 17,000 feet at night in frigid October weather, put the airplane into a terrifying dive down to 1400 feet over the Bering Sea to restart the engine, divert the flight path to avoid collision with Mt Rainer upon arrival in the US, and belly-land (crash land) the airplane on a landing strip cut out of the sage brush above Wenatchee, Washington.