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Nice post, Chock.
I'm not sure I agree with the idea the "If you go totally authentic, then you would risk it being boring". The author doesn't have to dwell on the more mundane non-scoring flights and washed out crappy-weather days. He controls the pacing and can simply write "Four days later..." to bring the reader to the next "good bit". Yeates of course doesn't do much of that; he drags the reader right along with the day to day grind, through the routine and through the action. In Yeate's case, the effect is almost hypnotic.
I recently read a couple of the "Bandy" novels. Fantastic! They are tremendous fun and have an awful lot going for them; strong characters, terrific action sequences, plot twists, humor, romance... all that. Author Donald Jack sits somewhere between Derek Robinson and Joseph Heller and with maybe a touch of Helmet Kirst; that exploitation of the "absurdity of war" theme with a cast of flawed, very human characters. I like it!
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