Showing results by narrator "Thomas Block" in All Categories

When the China Clipper shattered aviation records on its maiden six-day flight from California to the Orient in 1935, the flying boat became an instant celebrity. This lively history by Robert Gandt traces the development of the great flying boats as both a triumph of technology and a stirring human drama. He examines the political, military, and economic forces that drove its development and explains the aeronautical advances that made the aircraft possible.

Author, airline captain, and popular blogger Eric Auxier brings Alaska bush flying to life in his second novel, The Last Bush Pilots. Exhilarating flying, tall tales, and larger-than-life characters abound in a wild land that truly is America's Last Frontier. Two young pilots, Daniel "D.C." Alva and Allen David Foley, take on the world's most dangerous flying: the Alaska bush. But Mother Nature - and a sexy Native Alaskan - stand in their way.

Hurricane Harvey lashed North Padre Island National Seashore exposing tons of silver coins lost since three Spanish Galleons sank in 1554. News about the coins, located in a Park Service archaeological protection area, goes viral on internet treasure hunting sites.

Originally published by Wm. Morrow, in 1995, Skygods is the saga of America's most glamorous airline - from its meteoric ascent to its plunge to extinction. Pan Am blazed the way across the world's oceans with its magnificent Clipper ships, launched the first international jet service, was the first to fly the behemoth 747, was the lead customer for America's SST and the Concorde, and was even taking reservations for the first commercial flights to the moon.

Americans are fascinated by the undeniable mystique of the elite world of Navy fighter pilots. In Bogeys and Bandits, Robert Gandt takes listeners on a thrilling ride in the FA-18 Hornet, one of the fastest, sleekest, and deadliest aircraft in the world. Gandt lived and worked with several pilots learning to fly the Hornet: the identical twins from Middle America; the computer nerd with a penchant for speed; the grandson of a Tuskegee Airman, trying to live up to a proud legacy; and two women dealing with the post-Tailhook world of the Navy.

This is the story of the first airline pilot ever arrested and sent to prison for flying under the influence. He was fired by his airline, stripped of his FAA licenses, tried, convicted, and sent to federal prison. Lyle Prouse came from a WWII housing project in Kansas and a family where both parents died as a result of alcoholism. He rose through the ranks of the United States Marine Corps from private to captain, from an infantryman to a fighter pilot. He made his way to the pinnacle of commercial aviation, airline captain, and then lost it all.

It is the end of June, and President Jordan Fletcher has just negotiated a historical treaty with Cuba, and its signing will be held at the end of October in Miami. Because of Fletcher's past relationship with him in the Benjamin Matthews matter, he has asked Jake Sullivan to coordinate the treaty-signing ceremony.

Doug Fletcher’s Thanksgiving vacation is interrupted by a phone call from his Texas U.S. Park Service superintendent. A Wyoming coroner determines that a climber’s fall from Devils Tower isn’t the accident it first appeared to be. Doug is thrown into an investigation where he peels back the layers of rumors and lies provided by colorful Black Hills residents to find a murderer in a region where the deer hunting season is winding down and everyone has a gun in their pickup truck.

When a retired United States Senator's passion for deep-sea treasure hunting off the coast of Palm Beach leads to murder, Jake Sullivan, chief prosecutor for the Justice Department in Miami, thinks he has an open and shut case: the DNA of the man pulled out of the warm waters near the ill-fated yacht matches blood found on the deck. But life is never so simple for Jake. In a rush of political maneuvering, Jake's suspect is whisked away by the State Department under a claim of diplomatic immunity. The mystery man is no simple treasure thief; he is a covert operator for the Mossad.

On the evening of December 4, 1978, Rocky Mountain Airways Flight 217 departed Steamboat Springs, Colorado bound for Denver with 22 souls on board. Less than an hour later, the flight was forced down on Buffalo Pass at an altitude of 10,500 feet when it encountered severe icing conditions and downdrafts created by the winds of a mountain wave. The tragic accident triggered one of the most intense search and rescue efforts in Rocky Mountain history.

Arrested for the murder of a prominent businessman, Jake Sullivan finds himself the object of a conspiracy to take away everything he has as one piece of evidence after another builds the case against him. Jake's best friend, Mike Lang, comes to his aid and his investigation reveals that Jake is to be transferred to an island prison from which there will be no return. Mike arranges an escape with the help of some island characters found only in the southern latitudes.

Park Service Investigator Doug Fletcher moves to Padre Island National Seashore to investigate hazardous waste dumping during the Hurricane Harvey clean up. While orienting himself to Texas and the waste dumping investigation, Doug and his rookie partner recover a body from the surf. After they identify John Doe, they coordinate kidnapping and murder investigations with the Corpus Christi Police. Doug’s search for the waste dumpers takes an unexpected twist, putting him at odds with the local police, his boss, and the FBI.

The hunters noticed the circling birds against the rose-tinted sky above the rim rock and saw where the flat rays of the early morning sun glinted on something that didn't belong there, and the three of them walked that way. What they find sends FBI agent Zack Tolliver and his friend Eagle Feather in pursuit of a dangerous and powerful killer.

In late 1941, President Roosevelt agonized over the rapid advances of the Japanese forces in Asia. They seemed unstoppable. He foresaw their intentions of taking India and linking up with the two other Axis powers, Germany and Italy, in an attempt to conquer the Eastern Hemisphere. US naval forces had been severely surprised and diminished in Pearl Harbor, and the army was outnumbered and ill prepared to take on the invading hoards.

It's the summer of 1958, and Meyer Lansky, the mob's accountant, is barely a warm breeze away from seeing the crown jewel of his gambling empire sparkling on the ocean: Havana, the Monte Carlo of the Caribbean. Then, Castro came down from the mountains, armed and on a mission. Batista's days were numbered and so was his patronage of Lansky and his cronies. It is said that Lansky moved hundreds of millions of dollars out of Cuba. But, when he died in 1983, his estate was reported to be worth only 60,000 dollars in cash. What happened to the money?

Doug Fletcher, a retired Minnesota detective, relocates to Arizona and a quiet life as a part-time National Park Service ranger. His plans change abruptly when a suspicious fall at a national monument plunges him into the world of stolen antiquities, ruthless drug smugglers, and shady antiques dealers. Working with Jamie Ballard of the Navajo Nation Police, Doug finds their investigation complicated by the demands of his visiting family, a new boss, an overly friendly neighbor, the FBI, and his new environment.

A Park Service backpacking trip turns deadly when hikers are caught in a steep canyon during a flash flood. Three hikers are swept away, but a rescue team recovers four bodies. Park Service Investigator Doug Fletcher teams up with rangers Jill Rickowski and Liz Carpenter, and Navajo Nation Policeman Jamie Ballard. They hike river bottoms and arroyos searching for the origin of the fourth body, leaning on each other to overcome their fears, cultural differences, and emotional baggage. In the process they forge bonds that will last past the end of the investigation.

The South Beach Sadist is dead.... Jake had seen to that. But in two weeks, Miami has two new victims, each butchered and their bodies marked with the sign of the Sadist...a sign never revealed to the public. As cryptic clues, and the promise of a third victim, begin to arrive in his office, Jake Sullivan, chief prosecutor for the Justice Department in Miami, and Mike Lang, his investigator and best friend, are once again hunting a madman. As the trail leads to a rogue DEA agent, Jake and Mike close in on the killer, not realizing that saving victim three means saving one of their own.

In the early 1900s a courageous young woman challenges the prejudices of the times, becomes an attorney, and fights for the disenfranchised. She tangles with the powerful to free a Native American, to defend a man accused of killing an ex-governor, and free the son of her best friend who is accused of murder.

Jake Sullivan had everything - his dream job as the chief prosecuting attorney in the Miami Office of the Justice Department, a loving family, and good friends. Many would describe him as a bulldog of a man with a strong moral streak. No one would have predicted what was about to come. When Jake Sullivan takes on a high-profile case, he naturally anticipates both a moral and a professional victory.