This will post automatically as we are climbing into the sky over Santa Monica and starting our eastward journey with a last pass over the Los Angeles basin. Dexter has a performance (Shakespeare at the Theatricum Botanicum) at 10:30am, and directly afterwards we will race to the airport, throw our...

I should have made a rule at the beginning of my flying that I had to write up the best flights within a week of landing. Now there are some memories which have faded. It's fine to just have the experience, but now that Rudy is close to heading off for college, and Dexter is thinking about learning...

This post is part of the five pieces that make up 2013’s How To Fly Across. Okay, so you are generally planned (“I’ve got to fly from KSMO to KHTO...”), you know your big problem (“getting past the Rockies is my challenge”) and how fortunate you are. You have made some basic rules for your flight,...

This post is part of the five pieces that make up 2013’s How To Fly Across. When I did my first really long flight in the little plane (up to Friday Harbor) I made a mistake on the return flight. We flew from KFHR to KEUG and then on to KAPC and home. We had left Friday Harbor pretty early in the...

This post is part of the five pieces that make up 2013’s How To Fly Across. I read the comments on AirNav sometimes and I am shocked. Pilots complain about a thirty cent per gallon difference in price for fuel, when we are offered a crew car to drive into town to lunch, free WiFi, complimentary...

This post is part of the five pieces that make up 2013’s How To Fly Across. For us, the most daunting portion of the cross-continental journey is getting past the Rockies. It is always summer time and the combination of high altitude and high temperature makes for really high density altitudes. (If...

This post is part of the five pieces that make up 2013’s How To Fly Across. I made a very detailed post about the items we packed into the plane on the first flight across. The list has not changed that much, but I understand a few things better now. We are not going to be aloft for days at a time...

As I mentioned in the previous post about having to repair the blog I was surprised to bump into one of this blog’s readers in Souix Falls, South Dakota. Apparently he was going to fly from Camarillo, California up into Michigan and when he was talking with his instructor this blog was mentioned as...

I believe the risks I take are justified by the sheer love of the life I lead. ― Charles A. Lindbergh When I talk to people about flying in the little plane, or suggest we go somewhere in it, they often ask "Is that safe?" The short answer is no. Nothing is really safe. We are all going to die,...

I am embarrassed how long it took us to find it, but there is a delightful little two mile hike around the airport out on Catalina. Above is the Runkeeper track of the last time I hiked it, with Dexter and his friend Alex (at the right in the small photo). I try to make it out there with either the...