About How to Hotwire an Airplane:
5.0 out of 5 stars Strap in for a gritty, white-knuckle flight of your life!
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2025
Jump into the cockpit of a shaky Cessna 172 and strap in for a gritty, white-knuckle flight with Hiram Bleeker, a Vietnam War veteran pilot, as he navigates treacherous West Texas landscapes and moral predicaments. For years, Hiram has sought to bury his wartime past by flying dog rescue missions in which he encounters shady clients in the most isolated, desert locations in places not big enough to call a town. However, an unexpected encounter pushes him into the dangerous world of smuggling immigrants across the Texas border into the United States and evading high-tech Border Patrol agents. A romantic interlude with a mysterious woman complicates Hiram’s life, as she always seems to be two steps ahead of him.
In How to Hot Wire an Airplane, retired Navy submarine Commander and experienced pilot, Henry Rausch has written an aviation political thriller that is not only fast paced, but edgy and believable. This adventure is full of plot twists and course turns, not unlike flying through turbulent weather that pitches your stomach into your mouth. You won’t be reading another typical cliched airplane story set in a fighter jet chasing bogies at Mach 2 or a commercial passenger jet hijacked by wild-eyed terrorists over the ocean. Instead, Rausch sets this novel in a beat-up plane, held together by duct tape and coat hangers, and tells it with a certain authenticity that only an author skilled with planes in challenging conditions could describe.
I enjoy how the author brings out the danger and excitement of flights below the radar in planes most readers would never dare enter. Rausch’s care and skill in telling this story matches how Tom Clancy’s novels make both the technology of flying and the humanity of the characters approachable. Readers will want to turn the pages as fast as the propellor spins to see how Hiram either evades a relentless Border Patrol or fixes another failing part of his plane in the service of his clients. In that regard, both his dog and immigrant passengers share one quality: the desire to escape to a safer home and life.
Without divulging any of the satisfying plot twists — including a harrowing evasion of the authorities — I can report, after having read it twice, that the novel unspools smoothly and how easily it reads. Readers will appreciate how well researched this story is, the clear storyline, and the immersive descriptions of the Texas landscapes. It doesn’t get bogged down with too much commentary about the current state of our politics. But rather, it shows the importance of how helping others can lead to self-healing and redemption.
“How to Hotwire an Airplane” Kindle edition is normally $4.99 but is offered for free on 6/28 and 6/29.
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Author Bio:
Henry Rausch graduated from Stanford and was one of seven, out of a graduating class of 1500, to join the military. He served as a submarine officer on fast attack submarines, conducting classified missions of vital importance to the nation. Later in his career he served in NATO as a submarine controller, retiring as a Commander. He wrote a best-selling memoir of his experiences, “Submerged: Life on a Fast Attack Submarine in the Last Days of the Cold War.” He lives in Harpers Ferry, WV, with his wife and enjoys outdoor activities and flying. He is an accomplished pilot with 3900 hours experience as pilot in command, and “How to Hotwire an Airplane” is based on his exploits.
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