23: 747 Pilot Mark Vanhoenacker on How Flying Inspires Him to Write

Mark Vanhoenacker is a Senior First Officer for British Airways who flies cross-continental routes on 747s.  He writes about flying for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Slate, and other publications.

He’s the author of the recent book, Skyfaring: A Journey With a Pilot, which was published by Knopf. The book has received glowing reviews from The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Conde Nast Traveler, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal and many more.

I enjoyed the book for the beautiful, poetic descriptions of flying and aircraft, and for how the author takes very complex concepts from the world of aviation and translates them for lay readers like you and me.

I fly quite a lot each year for my job as a communications professional, and I have to admit the experience of flying has lost a lot of its cache over the years. I don’t enjoy many aspects of flying, especially what I have to go through on the ground before and after I’m on the plane.

But this book has renewed my fascination and appreciation for flying. And for me, it’s an example of beautifully crafted nonfiction writing that can inspire and educate at the same time.

In this episode, I talk to Mark about the story of how he went from PhD student to management consultant to 747 pilot; how he started his side career as a writer by publishing in top-tier newspapers and online publications; what inspires his poetic writing style, and the process he went through to write and publish his new book.

And at the end of our conversation Mark reads two passages from his book, which I hope you’ll stick around long enough to listen to.

As always, you can find the show notes to this episode with links to Mark’s book and website at writewithimpact.com/episode23. There you can pick up a free ebook I put together with some of my writing tips and inspiring quotes from great authors. 

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