The RAF Association Puzzle Book

An aircraft- and flight-themed puzzle book compiled by Dr Gareth Moore, author of the bestselling Mindfulness Puzzle Books among many others, done with the support of The RAF Association, a membership organisation and registered charity that has been providing welfare support to the RAF family for over 90 years. Their membership of 74,000 includes serving RAF personnel, veterans and members of the public.

Pilots need to be able to think quickly and react immediately to unexpected, complex situations. This book consists of puzzles that test a wide range of skills that might be expected of a pilot.

The book’s five chapters cover:
Cognitive challengesPuzzles which require the reader to solve logic puzzles of a range of types, testing many different types of reasoning skill. Just as pilots have to do, the puzzles require readers to focus on both the big picture – what they are trying to achieve – and the small picture of each individual deduction or decision.
Survival skillsThe challenges in this section are all about speed. No complex logic is required, but all of the puzzles must be solved as quickly as possible – though without making any mistakes. This reflects a pilot’s need to make quick, accurate decisions while flying.
Visual abilitiesThe puzzles in this part of the book test 3D manipulation and other visual transformation skills, mirroring a pilot’s need to be able to understand the world around them as more than just a flat picture.
Memory testsDespite the advanced abilities of modern devices, it’s still important to be able to maintain a ready awareness of the current situation and active goals, and so in this section the reader is helped to practise and improve their memorization and recall skills with a series of simple games.
Knowledge trainingIn this section a reader’s knowledge of the real-world aircraft and situations that the RAF and other air forces has handled is tested, with a range of quiz-related questions that are sometimes solved by cracking codes so that readers aren’t required to have any specialist knowledge to take part. This section also includes specific tasks such as navigation.