PILOTS: CANADIAN STORIES FROM THE COCKPIT - FROM FIRST FLIGHT TO THE JET AGE John Melady Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1989. 269pp, cloth, $24.95 ISBN 0-7710-5863-2. CIP Grades 10 and up/Ages 15 and up Reviewed by Neil V. Payne. Volume 18 Number 1 1990 January Pilots is a collection of stories about the Canadians who have led the way in the development of aviation in Canada. It is written with a sense of wonder that people actually do fly. Using short, fast-paced anecdotes, Melady introduces Canada's fliers, from Alexander Graham Bell and his team of visionaries prepar­ing the Silver Dart for Canada's first flight at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, in 1909 to the jet pilots flying today's F-18 jet fighter planes. Pilots includes the pioneers, the barn­stormers, the bush pilots who made the remote areas of our country accessible and made possible the air ambulance, search and rescue, and emergency supplying of remote areas, the flying heroes of two world wars and the Korean and Vietnam wars. There is a chapter on the many spectacular crashes that have been part of the cost of the development of aviation in Canada. This is not a history book, but it pro­vides an understanding of the develop­ment of flying in Canada that probably could not be accomplished by an orderly historical treatment. However, there is a good index, a lengthy bibliog­raphy, and nineteen pages of illustra­tions. For most readers, this will be an exciting collection of true stories of death-defying bravery, heroic missions of mercy, determination to conquer the skies, and the will to challenge the limits of both human and machine. Highly recommended. Neil V. Payne, Kingston Collegiate V.I., Kingston, Ont.