Many people summarize their exciting trips in their Christmas letters, others present slides in their clubs, schools or church socials. Some people quietly go back to work and tell their friends in bits and pieces about their experiences or rethink their trips in solitude.

            Travel stories and nice pictures always interest me. Therefore I wanted to write about my experiences and share them with other pilots. My travels were not firsts, Lindberg long ago flew to Paris, and continents were crossed by many means. Yet the yachters and cross-country pilots can all recount interesting trips. In fact it is during these trips that such persons really live. How often do we read about a farmer or merchant who sold his earthly goods in order to take up a cruise around the world or similar trips in his older days?

            People long to get out of the rat race and do what they really like to do. It is therapeutic, and therefore not all the costs should be considered a waste. Travelers continually learn. Often they make mistakes which they try hard to avoid next time and are anxious to communicate with friends so they don’t fall into the same traps.

            Chains of mistakes or errors in flying and boating can be fatal, and it behooves us to learn from each other and always prepare ourselves well for any trip.

            I like to read travelogues with a map in hand to better follow the adventures discussed. Some books are really encyclopedias on museums, special vistas, best restaurants or best entertainments. They may require the author to spend much time in strange places, but even so may leave out the best places.

            What follows are my own experiences. I record what I have seen and what happened to me. Having been educated in Switzerland, I value broad education. Therefore my interests are varied and include geography, history, languages, and biology. Several stops were made just to see specific plants and study the local vegetation because botany is my teaching field.

            I just can’t remember when I saw my first airplane. My father used to talk about Oscar Bieder, one of the pioneer Swiss aviators from my native canton Baselland. I read exciting articles about Mittelholzer, Ackermann and other early pilots who first flew over the Alps and pioneered in other places of Europe and Africa. Some of their efforts eventually led to the formation of Swissair.

            In Frauenfeld I once visited my uncle Emil who took me in his sidecar motorcycle to a very large grass field. There I saw a big winch and a sailplane being launched. Once I remember a gyrocopter or autogiro flying in my valley, and several times we kids went outside the house to watch the Zeppelin or the Hindenburg slowly fly by.

            When I was in the Swiss antiaircraft artillery I got a bit closer to airplanes and a ride in a Junkers 52 when we had to observe if our cannons were properly camouflaged and (nearly) invisible from the air. My first ride, though, was in a Bucher Jungman. My pilot had to make steep dives and turns to train my colleagues in pointing their antiaircraft guns. The feeling was not really pleasant, and I lost sense of vertical and horizontal directions several times. Once I saw a training fighter plane land on its belly. Anyway, I thought becoming a pilot might be fun but that I’d be too nervous to handle both flying and shooting and never applied for military pilot school.

            In early 1951, I migrated to the United States and wound up studying and later working in Oregon. Occasionally I drove by an airfield and dreamed the impossible that perhaps I could learn to fly. Cost and risks, though, held me back. But one Sunday in September of 1956 I took heart walked around the Salem airport and even talked with some of the characters that were hanging around. One reassuring elder guy, Ted, gently talked to me, and soon I was up with him in a 1947 Taylorcraft. It was a pleasant experience. Ted did not have too much trouble talking me into joining the Salem Pilots Association. My flying instructions started the following weekend and proceeded over several months. The club bought an Aeronca in which I also had instructions, and later I moved to the sister club which owned a Cessna 140 and a Cessna 171. In due time I soloed, which was a great event, and later earned my private pilot’s license. Some people learn faster than me especially if the training can be concentrated into a short period. With my limited finances and aptitude it took me until January of 1958 to get my license and be allowed to take passengers.

            At this time I started to make cross-country trips in the 140 and the 171 or 172 after my club made a trade. Two memorable trips were taken in the 172 and they are described below. But solo, with family or friends I made several trips within the state and even took my parents to San Francisco (including Sacramento to see Suters Fort) and to Idaho when they came for a visit in 1959.

            After nearly 10 years in Oregon, I got a job offer from Texas and very sadly had to drop out of the Salem Pilots Association. I also gave up flying, thinking this is like a disease or addiction that I could not afford. My few attempts to use flying on business did not go over well with my supervisors in Oregon. In Texas I once got a ride in a Comanche on a cross-country trip. Of course a number of times I used commercial airliners on my trips to meetings or back to Switzerland to visit relatives.

            I did no more flying for 16 years. By this time I was a botany professor in Tallahassee, Florida. To an outsider it might have appeared that my life was well in order, but I had a lot of job-related worries. So my oldest son and my wife suggested I take up flying again and think of other things. After a normal period of resistance, indecision, and procrastination, I contacted an instructor with a Tallahassee base operator. We went up in a Cessna 150, and surprisingly I still managed pretty well. After two or three more lessons I was signed off and allowed to rent a 150 to fly to Macon, Georgia, solo. I rented the same plane a few more times but found things different each time. If only I could join a club or buy an airplane of my own, but I could not locate a club similar to the one in Oregon. My airplane lessor said he had a 1975 Cessna Skyhawk with low hours and everything looked very good. I got my banker to fly with me to check out the investment, and he gave me a loan for four years to be paid monthly. He checked the title and made me take out insurance. Then the plane was mine to do with as I pleased. At this writing I have flown this 172 for more than five years; we know each other, and the airplane gets good treatment.

            Maintenance consists of changing oil every 20 hours, or 50 hours if an oil filter is installed. Annual inspections are required by law, and whenever something is not quite perfect, I feel it is safest to have it repaired right away. This includes alternator, magnetos, vacuum pump, regulator, sparkplugs, radios, etc. Costs are rather high; in the hundreds of dollars and sometimes over a thousand. Having a good reliable partner would help in reducing costs. Minor jobs, like changing oil, washing, vacuuming, I do myself. I even changed sparkplugs once, but usually I try to combine this with other jobs the mechanic has to do. When safety is concerned, a miserly attitude may be harmful to ones health. Keeping the airplane in good condition may be the least expensive way -short of quitting! My airplane is parked outside and tied down. A hangar would be better but costs considerably more. But outside parking with heat shields made of silver and red or blue material really has not affected the flying ability of my plane adversely. Also it does not have “hangar rash”, that is scratches and dents so easily picked up when several airplanes share the same hangar. In rain or shine the Skyhawk is outside, but should a hurricane come this way, I expect to fly it to a safe place.

            Airplane owners always buy lots of accessories for their planes. So I added a transponder, an ADF (automatic direction finder), and a Narco 142 with ILS and glideslope. Other gadgets, like a DME, an autopilot and a second radio, would be highly desirable. As it is, the Cessna 172 is able to fly under instrument conditions (IFR). A new paint job may also help to preserve the life of the bird.

            After my plane was instrument-equipped I wanted to get an instrument ticket and had to take some training. It was very difficult, and I went through several instructors before I was certified for the flight test. I had to fly under the hood and be superprecise not just let the airplane fly me through the sky. It still seems to me that under actual instrument conditions it is easier to hold altitude and headings except in very turbulent conditions. In order to pass the instrument written test, I took a weekend course in Orlando and the next day passed. Frankly I was not a high scorer, but one only needs 70 to pass, everything over that is gravy.

            Sometime later I also took the written commercial test and passed it. Actually I took it twice because I was unable to complete the flight test within two years. The flight training was difficult for me because of the steep turns, chandelles and lazy eights which had to be flown with great precision. Steep turns made my head spin, and I soon disliked them a great deal. However, I would not give up and after two more instructors, hard work and concentration; I was able to get my commercial license. I really don’t need a commercial, but it was an ego trip or a sign of improved proficiency.

            There are many more ratings, like instructor, multi-engine, ATP etc, but since I am just a weekend pilot of a Skyhawk, I don’t really need them.

            A pilot usually has a lot of paper at his home. I have a number of books of a technical nature, like instrument flying, night flying, maintenance, FARs. Then several books are of an entertaining nature about travels, history, etc. Three or four magazines arrive each month as per subscription. An airplane owner also gets lots of promotional literature from numerous companies. Some of this is interesting, others not. Several papers are filled with airplanes for sale; new airplanes are several times more expensive than my 1975 Skyhawk, so I hang on to what I have.

            My chest of drawer is full with maps used on previous trips. Some maps are for instrument flying and show just blue lines, while Sectional and World Aeronautic charts show the terrain, cities, rivers, lakes, mountains with elevations and all the airports. As instrument pilot I subscribe to approach charts for Florida and order others for specific areas as needed. FARs require that one uses up-to-date maps.

            The luggage and weight is always a problem. This is why I prefer to take only two adults with me rather than have all four seats taken up by heavy-weights, which would not leave enough poundage for luggage and gasoline. So I always ask my passengers what they weigh and even take along my bathroom scale to weigh them and their luggage. Some people may feel I exaggerate by asking them to get along with less clothes and buy less souvenirs than they like.

            I like to pack clothes for three days or so, a bathing suit, toothbrush, something against the rain, and of course lots of maps. Most of these items I bring back home and sometimes wonder what customs thinks of all my dirty clothes.

            Survival equipment should be considered. This may be something to eat, a jug of water; and a flashlight should certainly be in the airplane. For Canada there are specific requirements for flying into the bush. Over water, like to the Bahamas, I wear a lifesaver vest, and for flights to the Caribbeans one also needs a regular raft which, unfortunately, is very expensive. Signaling devices, fishing rods etc. are also recommended.

            Now, the most important thing is money. One figures out how much one needs for food, lodging, gasoline and some repair, then doubles the amount and adds a bit extra. Credit cards like Master Card and Visa are useful, even abroad. A Shell International, Exxon, Texaco, Gulf etc. are useful gasoline cards, but be prepared to have to pay in cold cash abroad. This may be in American dollars or in local currency. To get this, one may have to go to a bank which has peculiar opening hours. On weekends, life can be very hard without cash. Foreign travel may not always require a passport, but I find it is best. Birth certificates, and rarely driver’s licenses may be all that is needed in some countries. Passengers must be advised of all this.

            After everything is loaded into the plane one checks the weather and files a flight plan. Of course careful plans have been made weeks before; one doesn’t “just fly somewhere” but always has a fixed destination.

            People often ask me how long and how far I can fly. For my flight-plans I use five and one half hours under “fuel on board” and I have flown non-stop for nearly as long, although reserves must be included. Most of my passengers, however prefer two hour-legs so they can stretch their limbs and go to the bathroom. Women, I find, have more of a problem than men, and drinking coffee also makes rest-stops more necessary. These are important facts which are not mentioned in the books I read.

            Besides survival equipment, I always carry some food for snacks. Before a big flight I usually eat very little, but after reaching altitude and the correct heading, I like to grab a sandwich.

            Now we are off and will look at my 10 most exciting flights.