I saw this movie on TV and liked it. As a pilot of some experience I was more interested in the aircraft and flying than rest of the story. The portrayal of early air mail operations is a good one, even to the pilot's notes. Jeppeson charts had not yet been published and each pilot had his own notes, which were shared with other pilots. It's easy to forgive the film makers for using a 1930's Stearman airplane instead of a 1920's DH4. I'm not familiar with the air mail route numbers but CAM 5 (which appears on the side of the plane) might well have been correct for that route. The crash itself was the correct choice: don't stretch the glide and go between the tees to shear off the wings. Aviation movies are almost never this accurate. The only thing about the movie that didn't ring true, aviation wise, was that before leaving Boise, he didn't perform a pre-flight inspection of the aircraft. Not doing this after work had been done on the plane was very serious pilot error. He would have seen the oil leak and avoided the crash.

Watching Christopher Reeve play totally against type. After years of playing a mild mannered, hero type, He decides to play the anti-hero. The Reeves and Arquette are an unlikely pairing. At first, her character appears to have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Reeves does a good job playing the irritated grownup with a spoiled brat.This looks like a good TV movie, made for the small screen. However, the movie has some heart felt moments. And, it is worth watching, if for no other reason, to watch Reeve not play Superman. This is one of Reeve's best "non Superman" performances; if only it could have been in a better picture. But, This movie does have some pretty good moments.

The making of a pilot is not such a shoe-in after all as we are to learn first hand.Christopher Reeve is the second instructor assigned to this young student who has shown courage and aptitude in all other areas of flying except getting the plane on the ground,that is landing.However he lands the plane rather shakily They discuss the possibility, The student and the flying instructor of washing out with but perhaps lets make this work and up they go again,this time the student is given the complete control of the landing as you would to indicate a complete confidence and though driven not by aptitude nor belief panics and as a result there is a very serious accident which not only the student losses his life but the instructor is as well very seriously hurt.This could be said to be blamed on pilot error but in truth there was an inexperienced student who panicked and was the direct cause as to not only his own death but the sufferings of both the instructor and the school where this occurred.We move now to where as a rough and rugged pilot Christopher Reeve is involved with this nations early days of AirMail.A oil line problem in a plane about to be used by Reeve to carry mail some four hundred miles is not serviced as it should be and it ruptures during flight causing a near death experience for two occupants.The second occupant is Rosanna Arquette who in a very rebellious spirit given her 17 years of age was being sent to live with a relative because she was to much for her father to handle.It is even a bit dis-concerting to here this bickering going on but go on it does.The hurtful aspect to this side of the aging problem is that young people are terribly mean and there is a mean spirit that is as well conveyed by the participants Sam Wanamaker and Christopher Reeve.It is not an all there presentation that this film provides for with the unenviable task of allowing a AirMail plane to now have a passenger in Rosanna Arquette.It is interesting to note that Arquette is being given this ride because her father and his bank underwrote the very fortunes of this Airmail airline and felt it was a rather safe bet.The accident this time is even more hard to see how anyone would of survived but they both survive.The antics of this seventeen year old in actuality are a bit much to take.She causes almost singlehandedly both of there deaths,first;she is given a severe admonishment for trying to smoke while sitting on fresh fuel all around the downed aircraft and then like so many of them do say oops when after dark she really does light up and tosses the burning match like some reckless crap onto a piece of cloth and the whole place goes up in smoke.There shelter,whatever survival items the plane may have contained everything goes up in smoke.It really gets bad when in order to find food Reeve uses his handgun while not venturing very far from the wreckage manages to kill a Rabbit.A very short time later, while on the way back to the site a pack of wolves surrounds him and in a moments notice not only his catch but his very life are at stake as the wolves attack.His hand gun discharges and though they are fighting,the wolves scatter.He,Reeve though has been badly hurt with a gash on his left arm,She Arquette helps and uses a sewing needle to actually stitch the wound closed.This gets even more so when it is realized by Reeve that maybe they better get out of there and walk back to civilization.During the walk though they are making presumably good time there is a plane that appears to be searching and in there excitement to contact the plane,Arquette takes a nasty fall and seriously injures herself.Reeve,rigs something up whereby you carry supplies on but instead Arquette is brought in tow and they continue to move however slowly.They arrive at something of a clearing when Reeve notices that there are telephone lines and rushes to locate first the telephone pole and then some perhaps indications of life.He is on his way back to where Arquette is however he does not know that Arquette shot at a Wolf and that the wolf has circled the area and comes back around and attacks Reeve.This time he has no gun and in the best tradition of Annie Oakely,Arquette shoots the wolf dead at 50 yards.To make a long story short they get rescued by the guy who did not do such a good fix-it on the oil line and Arquette gets to kiss Christopher Reeve.The purport of this unbelievable film is that we have a very spoiled youth who in there own right have caused a very near disaster.When that youngster crashed and lost his life at the beginning of the film,he would not of crashed had he been given a virtual right of way,that is no more for now unless you say so.He crashed because he wanted his way.Rosanna Arquette though may appear to be a little different but no alas the difference is she was after bigger game though she is just as spoiled as any rebellious teenager.The attempt to place heroic attributes around this characterization is pitiful and nothing but a lie.The kind of lies that youngsters are influenced by as they grow up in this world.It is not a believable film and even more so it is meant to damage credibility.This is a poor excuse for entertainment.These ridiculous films are really a virtual perversion and there is probably no greater an injustice than to provide any importance to such exploitation as is witnessed by this dribble.

Chris Reeves's legacy will always be Superman, but he proves here that he was a fine actor who could really nail his character. He does a great job as an introverted, bitter pilot. The other reviewer is correct that Rosanna Arquette is annoying; however, she's not at all the worst part of the movie. If anything is annoying, it's the painfully inaccurate portrayal of wolves. Look, filmmakers, wolves do not stalk people through the woods and attack them out of the blue. This is real life, not "The Howling." Other than those small complaints, though, this simple survival story is fun and engaging, and definitely worth noting for Reeves. 8/10 stars.