In this page, I will present stories about the more notable (or memorable) cross-country flights that I’ve made.
1965 – Flying Home for Lunch
- First “free solo” cross country, home for lunch. After my supervised solo cross country as a student pilot, I proposed to fly -home- to have lunch with my parents. With the approval of my instructor I flew the T-34 from USAFA to Hoxie, KS early one Sunday morning. Departure was a bit later than planned due to fog and low clouds reported over eastern Colorado. By mid-morning the fog had cleared and I enjoyed a smooth flight using strictly pilotage navigation (the only kind available in those days) – that was easy since I was familiar with the route, the highways and towns along the way. Nonetheless, I had a complete flight card and tracked time-and-distance the whole way (checkpoints typically 15-20 miles apart) – I really enjoy that type of navigation.
- I landed on Hoxie’s buffalo grass runway 1, a runway I had played on as a kid. I had never experienced such a soft touchdown (landing at USAFA’s Pine Valley strip was rough – gravel and grass clumps, etc.). I parked the T-34 under a tree at the south end of the runway, just two blocks from home. I walked to the house and waited for the parents to return from church and we enjoyed a very pleasant lunch. I stopped at Goodland for gas and returned to USAFA; someone else was flying the airplane by mid-afternoon. I was hooked on cross-country flying.
1965, Isla Grande, San Juan PR to Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas VI
- Flying “International”. In my first assignment, I joined a project exploring microwave communications between aircraft and to the ground. The right kind of atmospheric conditions existed only in the subtropics; testing was being conducted out of San Juan, PR. During my 6 weeks TDY I had time for some extracurricular activities – why not go flying? I rented a plane at the Isla Grande airport and invited three of my fellow crewmembers to fly over to Saint Thomas.
- This would be an easy, almost straight-line flight, due east along the northeast shoreline of Puerto Rico, past the island of Culebra (then the site of target practice for the Navy’s big guns) and to the Cyril E. King airport at Charlotte Amalie, VI. Take off, climb to a couple of thousand feet, fly a couple miles offshore of Puerto Rico; could see Culebra and in the distance St Thomas. Funny thing happened: as the eastern tip of Puerto Rico passed behind the starboard wing, the engine seemed to start running rough. Going through the Emergency Checklist (carburetor heat: ON; mixture: RICH; fuel selecter: BOTH; magnetos: CHECK; oil pressure: CHECK), nothing appeared to be amiss. Conclusion: psychological – we’re over -only- open water.
- The King airport is interesting: one end of the runway stops -at the shore- of the island; for the other end, the runway slopes uphill – towards a saddle between the mountain ridge of the main island on the left and a tall hill extending to the right. After visiting downtown Charlotte Amalie and collecting souvenirs, back at the airplane I was faced with a dilemma: take off into the wind which was uphill towards the saddle with higher terrain left and right, or down hill with a bit of tailwind but -no- elevation to climb over (only ‘sea level’). Because we were at near max weight for the C-172, I chose downwind – we got off the ground before the beach and enjoyed a nice flight back to Isla Grande.
1966, Wright Field to Flushing Meadows New York
- 1964 Worlds Fair.
1966, Wright Field to Muscle Shoals, AL
- Spontaneous trip on Mother’s Day. My housemate and I awoke to a nice day for flying. On a whim, we decided to fly from Wright Field to Muscle Shoals, AL to enjoy Mother’s Day lunch with his mother. A T-34 was available at the Wright-Patterson Aero Club, so off we went. The flight down was uneventful (__ miles, __ hours). We enjoyed a really nice lunch with her.
- Come mid-afternoon, we headed to the Flight Service Station (FSS for you younger folks) to get weather information and file a flight plan. We filed our Flight Plan for the western route of two that I had laid out. There was some weather reported en-route – the usual cumulus clouds with a few rain showers. As we were leaving the FSS, the briefer called to us to advise that thunderstorms had been observed along that route; we could avoid them by taking the other route. And weather at our destination was clear and forecast to stay that way.
- We changed our flight plan and headed out. The clouds were reported as scattered to broken, so I climbed above the clouds heading on course. Initially the tops were some 8,000 feet altitude, but as we proceeded north, the tops were higher; we climbed to 12,500 ft altitude to get above them. And enjoyed a smooth ride back to Wright Field (__ hours).
1968, Wright Field to Eglin AFB, then to Topeka, Hoxie and Denver, and return to Wright Field
1979, Edwards AFB to Hoxie, then to Eglin AFB, and return to Edwards
- This was a trip with the family, my wife and two kids.
2004, Langley AFB to Muleshoe Tx, Albuquerque, Hoxie/Oakley, Colorado Springs, and return to Langley
2006, Langley AFB to Baraboo WI, and on to Oakland CA, and return to Langley
- This trip has a page of its own, the first simple version here.
Other Trips
Some other memorable trips that I’ve taken, in no particular order:
- The ’90s – Visiting the McDaniels in Massachusetts. I made several trips from Langley AFB to Northampton MA to visit Pat’s parents. Some favorite memories:
- On one flight in a Piper Arrow to meet Pat who was already in Amherst, I flew -above- the Class B airspace around New York city (as always, with Flight Following). It was special to look down upon that huge city.
- On another visit – during the winter – we had to deal with very cold temperatures and frost on the airplane. The folks at the Northampton airport were most helpful in getting the C-172 ready to fly.
- On another visit, we took Pat’s parents for a tour of Massachusetts, flying over places that were familiar to them on the ground, including New Bedford where Pat was born. We stopped at an airport along the way to have breakfast.
- Summer 1965 – Flying an Aeronca Champ. While attending Kansas State University (for a break after graduating from USAFA), I got checked out in an Aeronca Champ and received my Tailwheel Endorsement.
- One afternoon I went joy-flying with my housemate Jerry Wilbeck. We flew north from the Junction City, KS airport, then headed back, flying over the middle of the large Tuttle Creek Reservoir. At maybe 1500 feet AGL, cruising along at the Champ’s 70 knots, what should catch our eyes but — an Army helicopter joining up with us, maybe 30 yards off our port wing. The Champ came from the Fort Riley Aero Club – we suspected they were waving to someone of their buddies. We were a bit nervous, not knowing their intentions but trusting they didn’t wish to get tangled with us any more than we with them. As they accelerated to pull ahead of us (and I’m thinking creating some bad air), Jerry sighs relief – that he won’t be experiencing a water landing.
- With the Champ at my disposal, and relishing thoughts of cross country flying, I embarked on a trip to Hoxie, KS to visit the parents. With my girlfriend in the back seat, we headed west following Interstate 70. This was summertime, the Champ is -not- overpowered-, we were close to max weight – the Champ would not climb above 4,500 ft altitude. Terrain in the western part of the state is below 3,000 ft so that wasn’t a consideration, but we could not climb above the more turbulent air as I had been accustomed to doing in the T-34. We landed at Hays to get fuel – I flew the classic pattern, landed smartly at the end of the runway into a 10-15 kn breeze – then had to taxi the better part of a mile to the FBO at the other end of the airport. In hindsight, I might have flown that distance; since landing roll was only a couple of hundred feet. The remainder of the trip was uneventful – a nice visit and greater appreciation for the T-34 and faster airplanes.
- 1978, TDY from Edwards AFB, CA to Hill AFB, UT. On one of many trips to meetings at Hill AFB (Ogden, UT), I took the Aero Club’s C-152. The morning trip up was easy and uneventful. But the trip home wasn’t so.
- Fuel was not available at Hill AFB, so I planned on fueling up south of Salt Lake City. The first airport where I landed I discovered did not have fuel service. The next airport south was Delta, UT – I had enough to get there but with little extra.
- It’s become mid-afternoon and the winds are increasing, I know now typical for that territory. They were blowing -very- strong at Delta – in fact I chose to land on a taxiway aligned -with the wind-, the taxi -carefully- to parking. The wind was so strong that I had to shield the neck of the fuel tank to prevent the wind from sucking fuel out.
- I waited for a couple of hours, having been assured by the folks at the FBO, that the wind would subside. Sure enough, about 4 o’clock it had dropped enough for me to get on my way. But .. I was fighting a headwind that reduced my speed (and endurance on fuel) such that I couldn’t even make Nellis AFB at Las Vegas. So I diverted to St George, UT to spend the night. The flight approaching St George provided some of the most impressive scenery – a wide canyon with tall, colorful cliffs of the Red Mountains on the left.
- Landing at St George – the airport was in those days on the top of a mesa. That made for a new experience, somewhat like it must be landing on an aircraft carrier. After a night in a motel I had an uneventful flight past Nellis AFB and back to Edwards, having learned – in the Mountain West, do your flying before noon.
Mar 18,2019: More to come