Flying from Shangri-La
What is was really like in the “Worst Place to be a Pilot”
Extract from Flying from Shangri-La by Matt DeardenI cancelled the reverse thrust and breathed out. I had been holding my breath since we started sliding down the airstrip.
‘F*** me!’ I said out loud to no one.
The engine was still running, the wheels all seemed to be attached and the aircraft wasn’t embedded on a wooden post or buried in a bunch of trees.
‘F*** me!’ I repeated to myself.
“Who knew paradise would be this dangerous?”
Stuck in a boring office job, Matt wasn’t happy. Suffering with debilitating anxiety issues, he could feel his life wasting away. Something had to change. One flying lesson was all it took to set him on a journey to escape the mundane and embark on an adventure to a land unknown…
Matt’s life went from answering emails to flying the most dangerous routes in one of the world’s last frontiers: Papua. Plane crashes, tropical diseases, tribal villages and jagged, jungle covered mountains were the new normal.
If you enjoyed the hit Channel 4 TV series, Worst Place to be a Pilot, then you need to read Flying from Shangri-La. It’s informative, funny, tragic and proof that real adventure still exists.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to leave your normal life behind and risk everything to fulfil a dream?
Almost exactly three years since leaving the UK, I was about to fulfil a dream of flying one of the world’s best bush planes in the most extreme and challenging environments this planet can offer. Papua was where all the best flying happened and the most crazy stories were told. The last three years had been a warm up, and I was just getting started.
Extract from Flying from Shangri-La by Matt Dearden
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Cant wait for this to be released Matt!!
Do i feature in this? 😜
Matt, I’m your big fan from Dubai.
Any giveaways? 😁
I might start putting a few out once it comes back from editing in January 😉
Living vicariously through you! I’m currently doing my PPL and this is a dream! My Auntie Sallie told me to check your website out, can’t wait for the release
Cannot wait Matt, many many congratulations on getting it done. Put me down for a copy as soon as its out.
Congratulations on your survival….I flew the Hawker Avro 748 lease demonstrator out of East Jarva and around Eastern Indonesia airstrips in 1971.
I can appreciate what you went through….