Flying from Shangri-La
What it was really like in the “Worst Place to be a Pilot”
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?
Official release date, 28th September 2024
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I 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.
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….
Very much looking forward to read this Matt!! Awesome to see your ever continued aviation-drive. Fondly remember our dreamy talks of them high powered taildraggers, and especially the part where you sparkled with the go-getter-goal of flying the Susi Porter operations!
Congratulations on publishing this book Capt. Dearden.
Absolutely love your posts!
I am a Swiss expatriate living in Indonesia since 1990. I grew up admiring the aviatic capabilities of “The Porter” since its dramatically staged introduction back in 1958.
Dramatically staged you ask?
Imagine Swiss TV, still transmitting in black and white.
A hangar door slowly opens. At Stans, Switzerland, situated on Lake Lucerne. But rather than facing the wide-open space over the lake, the hangar door is facing the steep cliff of the the foot of the “Stanserhorn”, a peak adjacent to the iconic mount Pilatus.
Now imagine the distant roar of a (still avgas, carburetor induced) aircraft engine. Still nothing. When the aircraft finally appeared, it was half way in the air thru the hangar gate, pulling up facing the mountain cliff, then fly up against it in a move that appeared more like a mountain goat racing up the cliff rather than an aircraft flying along it.
To us “blasé” Swiss kids back then this was nothing more than a clever stunt the “Central Swiss” would pull. Little would we know that shortly after this public stunt Pilatus would introduce a “new generation” power unit from the US called “Turbo prop”, dramatically improving the Porters mounting climbing abilities. In that version, the “Porter” would achieve global recognition and admiration.
Pilatus stopped producing this little gem years ago, mostly due to cheaper versions in aviation. Most recently unmanned drones. Yet it lives on as an unmatched “veteran”.
A “veteran” myself, it is on the top of my bucket list to one day fly in it. I wish to thank enormously devoted “Pilatus” enthusiasts, pilots and accomplished entrepreneurs such as Susi Pudjastuti and Matt Dearden for keeping this icon aloft and and alive!