Gunther Rall, known as the third most successful fighter ace in history. His first combat was during the Battle of France and scored his first victory on May 18, 1940 with a Curtiss Hawk Fighter. From then on, numerous victories were won by this Lieutenant-General, amounting to 272 on the Eastern Front (241 of which were against Soviet Fighters)

Despite this numerous winnings, very little is known about Gunther Rall. My Log Book is his narration of the life he lived from his youth in Nazi Germany to the gory battles of air combat over France and England.

Discover the hardships and priceless experiences he had in this tale of his legendary life. The wonderful autobiography of Gunther Rall, My Log Book will not just show the reality of combats but will also bring back the memory of the history that will inspire you to the very core meaning of fighting, surviving, and dying for a cause.

The top 5 aviation movies have been voted by over 10,000 visitors of AirVenture.

Here are aviation movies that made it to the Top 5:
1. Top Gun [1986]
2. Twelve O’Clock High [1949]
3. Memphis Belle [1990]
4. Battle of Britain [1969]
5. Spirit of St. Louis [1957]

The champion is “Top Gun,” the 1986 blockbuster that starred Tom Cruise (an EAA member), Kelly McGillis, Tom Skerritt, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards and several other stars in a drama based at the U.S. Navy’s “Top Gun” fighter training school. The movie which was the biggest grossing film in the U.S. that year, will be shown during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2007 at the event’s Fly-In Theater, presented by Ford Motor Company and Eclipse Aviation.

The finalists were the 10 most-nominated films by EAA members earlier this year, who submitted more than 140 aviation movies. Others in the final poll included “Battle of Britain” (1969) with 11.8 percent; “Spirit of St. Louis” (1957) and “The Great Waldo Pepper” (1975), each with 8.6 percent; “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines” (1965) 7.1 percent; “The Flight of the Phoenix” (1965) 5.2 percent; and “The High and the Mighty” (1954) with 4.0 percent.

Perhaps the most notable of all the shipwreck stories would be the Titanic tragedy.  The root cause of the wreck was still a debatable issue; was it just purely caused by accident or was caused by recklessness?  It was really an irony that such a ship which was once considered as “the ship of dreams” and “the unsinkable” would end up as a dreadful nightmare and would be infamously known as the “world’s most famous shipwreck.” 

Way back on April 10, 1912 in Southampton, England, after four days of hiring crew members, loading supplies and making the final inspections, passengers started to went onboard the Titanic.  The Titanic proceeds to Cherbourg, France and then to Queenstown, Ireland, picking up additional passengers and crews. 

The ship performs beautifully, found to be extremely stable.  Congratulations poured in by radio from other ships, often with warnings of icebergs ahead.  In the next three days, the weather was beautiful and the sea was calm.  Ice warnings continue to come in on the radio.  On April 14, at 6 pm, the course of the Titanic is shifted slightly south and the speed continues to increase.  All through the evening, ice warnings come in on the radio, but many are not relayed to the Captain. 

At 10 pm, the Californian was stopped in heavy ice and sends out warnings.  The radioman on the Titanic tells the Californian wireless officer to “Keep Out!  Shut Up!  You’re jamming my signal.”  Thus, the Californian shuts down its radio for the night. At 11:30 pm, lookouts see a slight haze ahead and ten minutes later, signaled the bridge: “Large iceberg dead ahead.”  The First Officer orders “Hard-a-starboard.”  All engines were stopped and then ordered full reverse.  The watertight doors are also ordered closed. 

Titanic veers to port, but it was too late.  An underwater spar rips a 300-foot hole, opening five forward compartments to the sea.  A quick inspection reveals the unthinkable: Titanic is sinking.  The distress call was sent out. Shortly after the midnight, the lifeboats are ordered uncovered, but there was only room for 1,178 people if the boats are filled to capacity.  Signal rockets were fired. 

Several ships hear the distress call and change course for help.  The closest was the Carpathian, which was 58 miles away.  The Californian was actually within sight of the signal rockets, but with the radio off for the night assumes the ship in the distance is a tramp steamer and continues on. Wallace Hartley and his band played lively ragtime tunes in the first class lounge almost to the very end.  They were last heard playing “Nearer, My God, To Thee”, a song Hartley had always said he would choose for his own funeral. 

At 2:17 AM, the stern began to lift clear of the water.  One minute later, a huge roar was heard and everything crashed toward the bow of the ship.  The lights blinked once and went out.  At 2:20 am, the Titanic silently slid to the ocean floor 13,000 feet below.  Two hours later, the Carpathian picked up the first lifeboat.  At 5:30 am, the Californian finally hears of the disaster and moves to help, but arrives just as the last boat is pulled from the water. At 8:50 am, the Carpathia sets sail for New York with 705 survivors, leaving the search for additional survivors to the other ships. 

It was stated in the story that the radioman didn’t heed the Californian officer’s warning that there was heavy ice in the vicinity that evening and the warning wasn’t relayed to the Captain.  Due to poor communication and recklessness, Titanic, the once so-called as the “unsinkable” sank, resulting to a serious loss of many lives.   

With the coming of the 2008 United States presidential election in November, all eyes are on the candidates. John Sidney McCain III, Senior United States Senator from Arizona, is a candidate for the Republican Party nomination. However, the following will not be a discussion of his political positions and whatnot, rather, a brief look back at his military career.

Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, who were both United States Navy admirals, McCain entered the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He graduated in 1958, upon which he was commissioned an ensign, and spent two and a half years as a naval aviator in training at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, flying A-1 Skyraiders. He graduated from flight school in 1960 and became a naval pilot of attack aircraft. In the 1960s he served as a flight instructor at Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi, but eventually grew tired of his training role and requested a combat assignment. In December 1966 he was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, flying A-4 Skyhawks.

In 1967 Forrestal was assigned to join Operation Rolling Thunder, the bombing campaign against North Vietnam as part of the Vietnam War. McCain’s first five attack missions over the country went without a hitch, and he earned the reputation of a serious aviator. On July 29, 1967, he was almost killed in action as a Lieutenant Commander while serving on Forrestal, operating at Yankee Station. A Zuni rocket from an F-4 Phantom was accidentally fired across the carrier’s deck while the crew was preparing to launch attacks, and it struck McCain’s A-4E Skyhawk as the jet was preparing for launch. McCain was able to escape from his jet but was struck in the legs and chest by shrapnel.

On October 26, 1967, McCain was flying as part of a 20-plane attack against a thermal power plant in central Hanoi when his A-4 Skyhawk was shot down during its approach run by an SA-2 anti-aircraft missile. McCain fractured both arms and a leg, and he nearly drowned after parachuting into Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi. He was transported to the city’s main prison, and although badly wounded, his captors refused to put him in the hospital. Only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral did they give him medical attention and announce his capture. McCain was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for a total of five and a half years.

McCain became a celebrity upon his return to the United States, appearing in publications and participating in several parades and personal appearances. He underwent treatment for his injuries, and attended the National War College in Fort McNair in Washington, DC from 1973 to 1974. Few doubted his capability to fly again, but by late 1974 he had recuperated just enough to pass his flight physical and have his flight status reinstated. He became Executive Officer and then Commanding Officer of the VA-174 Hellrazors, the East Coast A-7 Corsair II Navy training squadron stationed at Naval Air Station Cecil Field outside Jacksonville, Florida, and the largest attack squadron in the Navy. McCain is credited for improving its aircraft readiness and pilot safety metrics, and winning the squadron its first Meritorious Unit Commendation.