There was an op-ed piece in the New York Times not too long ago that bemoaned the advent of GPS technology for cars, because it was going to spoil all the fun of wandering around and getting lost on road trips. The man should have talked to me. I could have assured him with great confidence that it is possible to still get quite turned around or lost with not only a working GPS, but even with a radio, map, and an eye-in-the-sky perspective at your disposal. It just takes a little more talent, that’s all.
Take, for example, the flight I took with my buddy Jeff the other day. It was almost Los Angeles-grade hazy and, even though we waited until mid-afternoon, fog was still blocking the entire central valley and North Bay. So we just headed southeast from Palo Alto to a small, uncontrolled field south of San Jose, where I practiced landings until the sun began to sink into the hazy layers of dusk.
