Book info

• Title Hazard Spectrum
• Author Nathan Gray
• Year 2023
• Genre Memoir

On 5 December 2002, trainee pilot Nathan Gray walked away from an 'unsurvivable' crash at RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire. His instructor, seated behind him, was killed instantly. Despite the physical pain and mental scars, he found the strength and resilience to continue his flying career. Today Commander Nathan Gray is one of the UK's elite test pilots - the best of the best. Hazard Spectrum allows us to share Nathan's dizzying journey to the top of the Fleet Air Arm. With over 140 combat missions to his name, he is among the most decorated pilots in the British armed forces - our very own Maverick. In an exhilarating first-person narrative, Nathan takes us inside the cockpit as he holds Taliban fighters at bay in Afghanistan, and leads a top-secret mission to seek out Osama Bin Laden in the mountains of the Hindu Kush. In 2018, Nathan was chosen to complete the first take-off and landing of the world's most advanced fighter aircraft - the F35 stealth jet - on the flight deck of the flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth. A television audience of millions held its collective breath as he geared up for the task. This is the inspiring and unforgettable story of a man with a supreme ability to fly the most sophisticated and deadly planes ever created, who overcomes his personal demons to push the hazard spectrum to the limit - and beyond.

Thoughts

I always love living vicariously through books, seeing into the lives of people who do jobs or have attempted challenges that ultimately boggle my mind. This book is one of those - firstly because Gray charts the course of his career in the military, getting a position flying the planes of his dreams, and then working through the ups and downs of war and various placements around the world and ultimately a test pilot position full of firsts. But secondly, because he does it all after a terrifying and tragic crash so early in his career that really informs the rest of his flying experiences. Well told and an enlightening story.

Rating: 3 / 5