glennklein.com
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LUCK & TIMING, by Glenn Klein Chapter One: Trusting Your Luck Luck and Timing The Great Depression The Barnstormers The Crosley Car Contracting Polio I will Not Live to the Age of Twenty-five Chapter Two: World War II Effects December 7, 1941 The War Effort The Movie "Pearl Harbor" Moving to California Defense Jobs Trying to Enlist for Military Service Buying Our First Airplane, a Piper Cub Buying a Ryan PT-22 Turning Eighteen and Being Drafted Into Service Japan Surrenders Chapter Three: Additional Flight Training Basic Training Furthering My Flight Training My First Furlough Sent Overseas Discharged From Service Back to Civilian Airplanes and Flying Night Flight Training Mr. Cornell The Commercial Pilot Cross-Country Flight Requirement Chapter Four: Learning From Students Restoring a 1941 Model Aeronca Chief Working for the Flight Instructor Rating My First Student Pilot Learning From Other Student Pilots Indecision with Age Chapter Five: Beware the Front Weather Must Be Considered When Flying Cross-Country Filing Flight Plans Flying into Trouble A Cold Front Chapter Six: Alaskan Adventures Operating a Small Business Deciding to Fly to Alaska Learning about Fairbanks Alaska How to Become an Experienced Bush Pilot in One Day Flying Float Airplanes Circle Hot Springs Gold Mining Bush Flying in General Meeting Bob Elliott Art Sawatzky Chapter Seven: Flight Illusions G-Forces Scud Running VS Instrument Flying Earning the Instrument Flight Rating Going to Work for the Airlines Making Use of Instrument Flight Training How High Will iI Go? The Effects of Hypoxia Chapter Eight: Density Altitude Take Offs at High Density Airports Stupidity at Albuquerque Chapter Nine: Aerobatic Flight, Air Races and Air Shows Aerobatic Flight Looping a Cub Flying a Stearman Wanting Something to Happen Aerobatics in a P-51 Mustang Fighter Getting Flipped Without Warning Air Races and Air Shows Ken Starts Restoring Waco UPF-7's Meeting Jim Franklin, John Kazian, Eliot Cross, and Lee Oman Sean D. Tucker Wayne Handley Bob Hoover Patty Wagstaff Art Scholl Chapter Ten: Unusual and Challenging Airports Palo Alto California Airport Bass Lake California Airport Boulder Creek California Airport Santa Clara Valley California Airport Nut Tree California Airport Santa Catalina Island California Airport Palomar California Airport Tennant California Airport Capitola Califonia Airport Chapter Eleven: Flying a Variety of Airplanes Beechcraft Bonanza Mooney Mite Ercoupe Stinson Voyager Cessna 140 Cessna 182 The Piper Cherokee Six The Waco, The Italian Version Cessna 172 and the Cessna Aerobat The Navion The Canadian Fleet Canuck The Bellanca Super Decathlon The Beechcraft T-34 The Piper Cub J3C-65 Chapter Twelve: South of the Border and South American Adventure South Of the Border The Noontime Solar Eclipse of July 1991 South American Adventure Chapter Thirteen: Doolittle Commemorative Flight A Fantastic Weekend of War Bird Flying Chapter Fourteen: Short Stories Parachutes and Airplanes Flying to Hollywood Newhall Air Races The Dog Fight Taken for a Ride Hiller Helicopters Is it One of Ours? Engines Sometimes Fail My Boy Hung on To One President Nixon Those Close Mid-Air's Selling a Cherokee and Losing Two Friends It Could Have Been Your House Flight Following Where Are All The Airports? Spacey Things Bad Luck and Bad Timing Front Seat Flyer Chapter Fifteen: Bad Days and Good Days in Aviation FACETING HISTORY: CUTTING DIAMONDS & COLORED STONES, by Glenn Klein Acknowledgments Contents Chapter One: An Introduction to Faceting A Definition of Faceting Lapidary Defined Cabochon and Faceted Stone Differences GIA’s Description of a Gemstone The Work of a Faceter Is Needed Chapter Two: Early Man's Stone Appreciation First Written Words Man Settles Down in a Home Man Values Stones Early Stone Improvement First Gemstones Brought to Europe Gem Legends Confusion of Gem Names Gemstone Myths Time of the Roman Empire Gemstones Mounted in Jewelry First Faceted Gemstones Jewelry-arts Expansion Royalty Collects Gemstones Jean Baptiste Tavernier, the Famous World Traveler Chapter Three: Diamond-Fashioning Procedure and Equipment Introduction to Diamond Fashioning History Louis de Berquem Diamond Characteristics Crystallography Planning Cleaving Sawing Bruting, Girdling, Rounding Dopping Mechanical Dops Wooden Vice, Tang Diamond Bort Scaife, Wheel, Mill, Disc, Lap Blocker, Grinding First Few Principal Facets, Cross Cutter, Cross Worker Brillianteering, Placing the Remaining Facets, Polishing Modern-day Mass Production, Diamond-cutting Centers, Guilds and Unions Famous Contributors to Diamond Fashioning Chapter Four: Colored-stone Faceting Procedure and Equipment General Faceting Procedure Early Colored-stone Faceting and Equipment Mohs’ Scale of Hardness Jamb Peg Faceting Heads Preforming and Saws Proportion and Shape Laps Abrasives and Polishing Light, Crystal Structure, Dichroism Reflection Refraction Double Refraction and Birefringence Dispersion and Fire Critical Angle Color Absorption Idar-Oberstein Chapter Five: The Evolution of Cut Designs Early History of Cut Designs Point Cut Three Brothers Table Cut, Mirror Cut, Tablet Cut Step Cut, Trap Cut Emerald Cut Rose Cut Double Rose, Rosette Cardinal Mazarin, Peruzzi, Round Brilliant Cut Marcel Tolkowsky Present-day Cut Designs Chapter Six: Famous and Historic Gemstones Introduction The Koh-i-Noor Charles the Wise Charles the Bold Agnes Sorel The Great Mogul The French Blue, the Hope Diamond The Regent Marie Antoinette The Orloff The Cullinan Chapter Seven: Sources of Diamond and Colored-stone Rough Diamond Rough Material Diamond Sources in India Diamond Sources in Brazil Diamond Sources in Africa Other Sources of Diamond Colored-stone Rough Material Rubies Sapphires Emeralds Chapter Eight: Advances in Faceting over the Past One Hundred Years Mud Saws Diamond-impregnated Saw Blades Jamb Peg Machines Modern Faceting Heads The Early Mineral Clubs The Great Depression Years A Colored Stone Faceter in 1946 A Diamond Cutter in 1946 Professional Faceters Amateur Faceters Rock Hounds in the Western United States Australian Faceters’ Organizations World-Class Faceting Competition Formation of the United States Faceters’ Guild Future Faceting Museum and Hall of Fame BOOK REVIEWS OF "FACETING HISTORY" "Marion remarked the other day that it was the first time in years that I had taken a book to read in bed. Once started, I couldn't leave FACETING HISTORY alone. For many years I have been interested in the history of diamond cutting...where we came from and how it all started. Your style of writing is easy to read and I can now trace our foot prints from where we came." Basil Watermeyer...........of Johannesburg, South Africa, originator of the Barion series of outstanding cut designs and author of the excellent book, "Diamond Cutting." "I was impressed by the attention to detail and quality of the book. I was thoroughly impressed with the obvious depth of Glenn's research and his outstanding presentation regarding not just the history of gemstones, but also the equipment and work methods employed through the centuries. It is a book you will study and refer to from time to time, and use to look up those little-known facts we like to know periodically, but often forget. It is also fascinating and informative. I will keep this book as a valued addition to my personal library. I would recommend this book to any Rockhound, lapidary, jeweler, student, or anyone else interested in gems and jewelry." JIM PERKINS..........of Medina, Ohio, accomplished facetor, author of many cut design patterns, and author of numerous faceting articles that have appeared in National magazines. "You have a very fine book. You are an excellent writer and did a great job." HUBERT RACKETS..........of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, award winning facetor. "The scholarly text is well supplemented by facet diagrams and historical photos and illustrations." STUART OVERLIN.......Gems & Gemology Spring 2007, GIA, Gemological Institute of America. |
BOOK REVIEWS OF "LUCK & TIMING"
Book Review By Wayman Dunlap, Editor Of Pacific Flyer Aviation Newspaper---June 2007
Try Navigating Cross Country With A Bad Compass And A Slow Watch
What It Was Like Back In The Day
Luck & Timing
By Glenn Klein
Xlibris, $33/$23
After reading Glenn Klein's 387 page hardback (there's a cheaper $23 sofcover version), we told him he could
have subtitled it: "Or, 90% Luck & 10% Timing" because of the numerous hair-raising brushes with disaster he
encountered during his 50+ years of flying.
He began his official lessons on Feb. 27, 1945 (although he and his brother had been unofficially practicing in a J-3
Cub before the war ended) and soloed on April 4, 1945 with less than eight hours logged. Of course, there were
no radios to worry about, no complicated navigation instruments and weather forecasting in those days wasn't quite
as complex as it is today. Which is the meat of the story, really. What it was like to fly around the country in a
variety of simple airplanes -- Cubs, Aeronca Champs, Ercoupes -- when the best you could hope for was a tailwind
(he seldom got one, he said) and clear skies. Klein went on to earn his Commercial license and CFI ratings before
eventually getting his instrument (not necessary in those days) and began teaching, then started flying in Alaska,
where it was really rugged.
He even has photos (135 of them) he's saved from those long-ago days when just getting the airplane to start was
an accomplishment, as most had to be hand-propped. He had his share of turbulence, bad weather, uncertain
instruments, periods of lostness and some true aviation adventures. He does a yeoman's job of bringing the
reader along with him and doesn't worry if he doesn't remember someone's full name or even the airplane's.
Like most of us, he has some vivid memories and some not quite so clear but he's 80 now, although you'd never
know it from talking to him, and we asked him his motivation in writing the book.
"The short version," he said, "would be that I came to realize that I had experienced many events that could have
seriously hurt or killed me, and most of the events have been connected to airplanes or aviation in some way."
He's not exactly sure how he managed to survive this long, given the adventures he relates, but something was at
work in his favor, either "good luck, good timing, or the will of God."
We asked him if he thought today's students, with access to GPS navigation, real time weather and much more
reliable, electric start airplanes -- plus the FAA's distaste for teaching spin training -- are better or worse than those
of his early days. "Today's pilots are good at doing what they have to be good at now," he said, but he doesn't
think they are better. "Many, if not most changes, seem to me to be changes for something worse than what was in
place before." "However, I would call the flying of years ago to be truly flying the airplane," he added. "Today's
pilots are more jugglers of gauges, radios and indicators to be managed so that they indicate what flying is
supposed to be."
Having owned or flown many of the same planes that Klein flew, we can sympathize, particularly when planning a
cross country in a J-3 Cub or Ercoupe. Neither he nor us (many years ago) had VOR's, GPS's or radios and our
only advantage was better sectionals. We learned to navigate by landmarks, watching which way the cows were
standing (cows always stand upwind, and how the smoke was blowing. The wet compass was more a trend
indicator than a true navigation device. If you happen to be a modern day pilot (say, someone who learned to fly in
the last 15 years or so), "Luck & Timing" will give you a true appreciation of what it was like to aviate when there
were very few rules, a lot more airports, and pilots were thought of as heroes. In some ways, they truly were, and
this is one hero's story of surviving everything that primitive flying could throw at him.
Author Klein Recounts Colorful Life in Aviation in Luck & Timing
By S. Mark Rhodes In Flight USA July 2007 Aviation Newspaper
Glenn Klein's new memoir, Luck and Timing (Xlibris.com), is the chronicle of a life well-lived (much of it in the air).
Klein is a photographer, a gemologist, wood worker, ham radio aficionado, and interior decorator. He is also a
commercial pilot and Luck and Timing revolves around his 61 eventful years in aviation. In Flight spoke to Klein
recently as he waxed about his life - past, present, and future.
In Flight USA: What made you decide to write the book? Was it something you thought about for a long time?
Why now?
Klein: After experiencing so many self caused episodes and those that I was faced with by the conditions that
were present as I flew, I came to realize that I was indeed lucky to still be alive. I had experienced a lot of good
luck and good timing of events.
I truly did not think I would live to the age of 25 because I had experienced Polio (called Infantile Paralysis in those
days) at age nine, and my high school years were during the World War II years. The year 1942 was a whole
year of the public hearing nothing but retreat, giving up men, equipment, and bases in the Pacific. Then the
words from radio and magazines kept us informed that we had a determined enemy, and it would be a long fight
for us to win. Those in the military and the common citizens - everyone, and I do mean everyone, had to make
lots of concessions. They had their life drastically changed. The last full year of the war was a very hard struggle
between our military forces and the ready - to - die Japanese military and citizens. I only weighed about 100-110
pounds, and did not want to be fighting Japs with a rifle and bayonet. After the war, I got into more flying where
we considered the airplanes to be expendable. Just go get another one if you needed to! And so, I did man;y
reckless things with airplanes...just like the other pilots of the day. We threw caution to the wind. We felt we might
as well live it up while we could. So sickness, war conditions, my being drafted into service as soon as I reached
the age of 18, after I was turned down three times (when I tried to enlist at age seventeen), and flying airplanes
the way that I wanted to, not necessarily the way I should have, all of this brought me to the conclusion that I
would have a short life span. But finally I reached the age of 25 and decided that I might as well forget all about
my age and start working towards old age. So I got Married.
All through life I thought about starting a book about my life-threatening experiences, which were usually
connected to aviation in some way. Over the past 10 years I have been writing about what is in the book and
have been collecting the material. Over the past two to three years I have been editing the events and arranging
them in some sort of order. I wanted to get the book out while I was still alive - I am 80 - so that I could hear what
other people thought about my philosophy that all of the events in our life come about by our individual set of
good luck and good timing.
IFUSA: How did you come up with the title for the book? Was it your only choice?
Klein: Coming up with the title for my book was easy because my life has proved to me that I have had fantastic
luck and the events were experienced at a good time. I checked the Barnes & Noble, Borders Books, etc., to see
if there already was a book with that title. I could not find any. I wanted the title to be short, not seven or eight
words, etc. I put the Navion with its nose in the dirt on the cover to further catch a reader's eye. And also, that
Navion story in the book truly shows that I was very lucky through too many dumb events that I myself caused.
Why did the nose gear decide to fall off when it did? I did not think of other book titles because years ago I
figured that if I was going to write a book it would have to have this title to express what I have experienced and
what my conclusions were from it all.
IFUSA: In reviewing the events of your life did you find yourself remembering things you had forgotten? Was
this a painful process?
Klein: My mind seems to be working overtime all of the time. Sometimes I say I wish it would shut up for awhile
so that I could get a break. I have many hobbies and am always ready for another one. I throw my full attention
to excel in each one; I give it my all...just to prove to myself that I can do it if I really try. I have a pretty good mind
for remembering things from the age of five or so. I operated a drapery interiors retail shop for most of my life. I
could give you details of the customer's room a year or more after the job was completed...but I would not know
her name. Names go in one ear and out the other with me. Remembering things was not a painful process. I am
always thinking about events that happened years ago.
IFUSA: What has flying meant to you? Is it one of many passions you have? Is it your main interest?
Klein: My brother and I were always interested in airplanes since as far back as I can remember. If I do not
include my wife and two children, I can truthfully say that airplanes, flying them, and airports have always been my
love... I love airplanes and flying them. That is the way it has always been. Read the last paragraph on the last
page of my book.
IFUSA:Is there any challenge in flying that you have not done? If so, do you think you might still give this a shot?
Klein: I always have wanted to make a parachute jump under good conditions. I used to say that I was going to
do that by the time I was 55. That birthday came and went, so I said my goal is now 65. And 65 came and went,
so now I do not make the prediction anymore. But I still would like to make a jump with one of the modern-day
controllable parachutes.