Cross-Country Flights

Skies, Skills, and Scores: The Aerial Arena of SAFECON 2023

Back in the early ‘90s, Honda ran an ad for its redesigned Prelude. It showed a bright red model against a city skyline with the caption “You’ll never have your pizza delivered again.” The implication was that with a fun enough vehicle, we will look for any excuse to get out and enjoy it. As […]

Many years ago, a friend landed and left his Cessna 172 in Louisville, Kentucky, because of weather, an hour and half away from our home-base airport in Madisonville. He was far too busy in his business to go back and fly it home anytime soon. As a newly minted 17-year-old private pilot, I jumped at […]

Just when it seemed like the threat from the coronavirus was subsiding, fall turned to winter, and many of us were forced back inside. We soon got sick and tired of being cooped up. Our national mood seemed to be: enough already with the distancing, masks, 6-feet-apart thing. It soon became clear that people interpreted […]

I became a private pilot 20 years ago, not long after my 19th birthday. Like every new pilot, I couldn’t wait to take my first passenger for a ride. The day after the check ride, I called one of my best college friends and invited him to the airport for a sightseeing flight in a […]

When the text blipped across my iPhone screen, I couldn’t help but grin. My friend—and JetBlue captain—Mike Strauss and his wife, Christa, were inviting my wife and I to his newly purchased home in Colorado. One of the attractive aspects of the invitation was that the trip out west would be flown in his Cessna […]

I have been hearing about the $100 hamburger since long before I had a pilot certificate. The phrase itself is meant to conjure up the absurdity/passion surrounding aviation, but it always made perfect sense to me. The dream of becoming a pilot was not about access to remote and exotic locations, but rather to visit […]

After a weekend with friends at Kentucky’s Lake Cumberland, my niece and her husband were packing up for the drive home. Somebody tossing garbage bags into a dumpster spied a bundle of discarded Playboy magazines in pristine condition all from the 1980s. “Any of you guys interested in old Playboy magazines?” My psychologist nephew-in-law, Jim, […]

The flight is almost over now. You’re on that early portion of the downwind, that time when the power is pulled back, and the airplane is slowing in preparation for landing. The air is like a glass-topped coffee table: smooth and clear. This gliding feeling reminds you of ice sliding on a smooth surface. Through […]