There I was with entire Mexican Air Force on my Six...

It's been a while since I've been inspired to write in this space... When I first started flying the RV-8 almost everything I did in it seemed new and exciting and I wanted to pass along those experiences to my friends and the blog seemed like the way to do it. And gradually as the years have rolled by my bar for what was worthwhile to write up here has become higher and higher...

Interesting flight experiences end up becoming more and more rare. Flying the plane is still a blast for me. I get supreme satisfaction buzzing around in a plane that I built but I don't feel compelled to write about it very often.

I've flown all over the west coast in the past year but not much has reached the level of interesting enough to sit in front of a keyboard and bang out my impression of the experience to share with the world.

My wife and I took a year to travel, and that yielded many experiences that warranted writing about but this blog is for flying and letting the rest of the world know what flying a little homebuilt plane is like and my flying experiences, most of them, while great, for the past three years haven't seemed worthwhile writing about. Sure the eclipse was great, Oshkosh was great, fly in camping in the Idaho back country was great but I couldn't bring myself to write up another post over those things.

Parked in the back country of Idaho

As an example, since moving west I've made dozens of trips to Mexico, but never really felt compelled to write about much beyond the first trip and then a trip that ended up being a colossal waste of time. I mean, the most interesting thing I've written about over the past few years was about how the central valley of California was a cesspool (meteorologically speaking).

Every year, except for last year, I try to make a trip to La Paz, Mexico to kitesurf in La Ventana. It's four hours from San Diego. The airport there is international which means you can fly direct. They have rental cars on the field and then it's only a 40 minute drive to get on the water. MLK weekend, I can wake up early on a Friday, and be on the water in La Ventana by 1 PM, kitesurf three more days, then on Tuesday drive over to La Paz, swim with the whale sharks and be home by 5 PM. Every single time I've gone on MLK weekend there has been epic wind. Two days off work, for four days of kitesurfing and whale sharks just because. This is just how things have been going for me. Life is good. For 2018 I had the same plan.

My usual partner in crime for this kitesurfing trip couldn't make it, so I found another all-too-willing victim, and just to make sure he knew what he was getting into I took him for a ride the weekend before.

I do all the paper work drills that you have to do to cross the border: Mexican and US advanced passenger notifications, flight plans, customs sticker, copies of all my documents, letter of understanding from the Mexican government on insurance and the status of Experimental "home built" airplanes in Mexico. Lots of stuff.

So when the departure time rolls around I'm pretty nonchalant about the whole thing and I tell my passenger that once we get south of the border we would not see any planes for hours on end, like nearly all four hours of the flight...

The flight runs like clockwork, Gillespie tower opens my flight plan, clears me for take off and gives me an early hand off to SoCal Approach. I get a transponder code, (you have to have one of those to cross the border), and five minutes later I'm hearing Tijuana Control respond to my radio calls with the familiar and amusing Mexican way of acknowledging me: "Royer", their way of saying "Roger."

Twenty miles or so south of the border, Tijuana Control cuts me loose and I'm instructed to contact Loreto tower when abeam their station. For the kids following along at home on the map, Loreto is around 2.5 hrs away. In other words I'm on my own, not talking to anyone for the next 2.5 hrs.

On most of the trips I take to Baja I fly directly past a mountain, Picacho del Diablo that pokes just above 10,000 feet. I'm flying at 9500 and passing on the east side of this mountain when it's bathed in the soft morning sun. It's a pretty nice way to go. If you fly close enough it makes for nice selfies and with the autopilot flying we don't have much else going on.

Obligatory mountain background selfie

As we're approaching this mountain I notice a plane flying well above and in front of me. Moving reasonably fast but not jet speeds, in the opposite direction. It fits the profile of a P-51 but a P-51 in Mexico makes as much sense as air brakes on your moms station wagon...

I continue motoring on and the plane is still overhead, behind us, but appears to be circling back for another look.

Yep, for sure it's circling back... then doing S turns behind us, then it joins up on our right. Join in this context is formation flying lingo for the in flight creation of a formation flight. Formation flying is dangerous business and the US rules expressly prohibit it unless the pilots in command BOTH agree to the formation flight.

So here I am, in a foreign country and another pilot is doing something that is expressly forbidden in my country. At this point things are getting interesting...

I knock off the autopilot and rock my wings. No response. At this point I can see that the plane is a Beech T-6 II  military trainer. In other words it is unarmed. Those things on the wings are fuel, not missiles or guns.

For any country the military can pretty much do what they want... so here I am flying in formation with a military plane from another country. I've done my homework and I'm confident that I'm operating within the bounds of their law. flight plans, transponder code, communications. I'm doing everything I'm required to do but it sure feels like I should be doing something else...

So I punch up the emergency frequency or "guard", 121.5, and make a call something to the effect of "aircraft operating near San Felipe that has intercepted yellow and blue aircraft please state your intentions".

I get no response from the aircraft, but I do get a response from the pilot of Alaska 203 flying high above me in pressurized comfort. He asks if I'm doing all the right stuff, flight plan, transponder, communication. I affirm that I am doing all of that and he then asks if the aircraft rocked their wings.

You never want to see this from an military aircraft, this is a signal that you are being intercepted, you are to follow them, when they get to an airport they put their gear down and you are to land. They may not ask twice... But they haven't rocked their wings at me. So we're not there yet...

While all this chit chat with Alaska 203 has transpired, the T-6 has come to about 175 feet off my right side and I can see that he's got his speed brake down... nothing like adding insult to injury. They are so close now that I signal with my fingers ONE TWO ONE FIVE pause and then repeat, trying to get the plane to come up on the guard frequency. No joy, but I can see that they are taking pictures. While I do appreciate that they like the looks of my plane, if they wanted pictures of my plane they could have just emailed me.

By now, we're 30 minutes in to this thing and the plane has broken off from me and is doing S turns behind us again and I'm back on autopilot. Coast is all clear right?

No... another identical plane shows up, he joins on with the first aircraft and then they both join up on me on the left side. By this time I've even called Mazatlan Center and asked the controllers there if they had any info about what these jokers were up to. They've got no information either.

So the two T-6s rode off my wing for another thirty minutes before gently breaking off and disappearing. You can judge for yourself the quality of this formation flying.

On one hand I can say that wow, this was really cool to see these planes up close and personal, and for sure I've got a good story to tell over beers but the truth is that...

This sort of activity is, as the Alaska 203 pilot put it, unprofessional... This is an understatement. I'm a civil pilot in every sense of the word. I fly civilians around and I treat other pilots and aircraft with respect, putting unnecessary stress on a pilot endangers safety. Why did these two pilots see fit to endanger the safety of me and my passenger? If their commanders think this is appropriate then I would like to know what end they think this is serving.

Simply communicating on the guard frequency would have been plenty to allay any concerns that they were a threat. Fair winds and following seas until the next adventure...

Catalina Redux, Upping Our Game: 15.3 miles

Date: October 3, 2015

Time: 11:00 AM
Place: KAVX

Intrepid athletes from 2014 

All the same thinking applies this year as did for last: put a date on the calendar for something that will require training. Set a goal, work toward the goal and then see how you measure up to your goal. This is an excellent motivator, invite your friends to keep you accountable.

While there are plenty of fly outs where pilots meet up at a restaurant with horrible food that tastes great this isn't one of those. This is the fly out that will keep you among the healthy and making renewing that medical a bit easier.

This time we'll check out the opposite end of Catalina Island.

The plan is to run to Two Harbors, check it out, rest, snack and then finish the run to Little Harbor Campground where there is fresh water and toilets.

Total distance is ~15.3 and has a few ups and downs.

The bus, like singular, only bus departure there is, leaves Little Harbor at 5 PM for a ~30 min ride to the airport, putting you back on the mainland by sunset.

The run is longer than last year but there are plenty of opportunities for an exit strategy: you can skip the excursion to Two Harbors and shave off some miles, or buy your way out of a hole and take the bus from Two Harbors to the airport. 11 AM start time.

Who is with me?

Same disclaimer as before:

This is an unsponsored, unsupported, no host event. I'm providing nothing but encouragement and expecting nothing but your best effort. Any takers of this challenge should expect to offer up the same. If you need water, gatorade, chocolate, caffeine, morphine or anything else you should bring that with you. There will be no water stations, no sag wagon, and no trophies provided.

Running is tough, and flying is a mentally and physically demanding activity. If you don't currently run this sort of distance with relative ease and want to do this I suggest consulting your doctor and doing one ofHal Higdon's fantastic training schedules. Running and flying are dangerous, be responsible, do not participate if you are going to put yourself or your passengers in any danger whatsoever.

Leveraging the (meteorological) Cesspool that is the Central Valley

So I "had" to get to Redding, CA from home base in San Diego on Monday December 29. The winds aloft forecast depending on the source and altitude varied from 30 to 60 knots nearly straight on the nose. Turning what would normally be a 3:15 flight into something close to 5 hrs... at 5 hrs I might as well get a car right? Below are the winds at 6000, even down low at 6000 there are areas enroute with 25-30 knots winds:

All was not lost, after some informed decisions with altitudes we made the trip in 3:36 despite the headwinds. Why? Because the Central Valley of California is a meteorological cesspool. I make no commentary on the CV otherwise but with towering mountains in nearly every direction air tends to get trapped and there isn't much wind, usually. This was the case on Monday afternoon and I was able to take advantage of the stagnant low level air in the CV to get to my destination faster.

My usual wisdom for the RV-8 is that higher is better, even if that means dealing with a strong headwind. The air is thinner and for the same fuel burn the plane will go faster. This flight was an exception.

The first part of the flight I had to get over the LA airspace and that forces you to either follow preplanned routes through their airspace or go over at 10,000 feet or higher. I opted to go higher which gave me a headwind of around 30 knots. After I crossed the Tehachapi Mountains I was able to descent into the CV where the headwind turned into a tailwind at times.

The amazing thing is that there was a Cessna 210 that flying the same direction as me. The normally aspirated C-210 has about the same cruise speed as my RV-8 but this driver decided not to descend into the CV and I left him in the dust. Below is an annotated plan and profile view of the flight:

Also noteworthy in the first part of this flight I traversed an area with mountain wave. There are plenty of other places that cover what wave is but for this conversation I'll just say that downwind of a mountain, mountain range or ridge, above the level of the ridge, sometimes you find areas of air that are rising(lift) and falling(sink). These areas are situated in bands perpendicular to the wind direction(parallel to the producing ridge). Think of the air "bouncing" as is goes down wind. So in this case I encountered mountain wave created by the Tehachapi Mountains. The autopilot(or manual pilot) response to this is usually to hold altitude. Holding altitude in this situation results in speeding up in lift and slowing down in sink. If you are trying to go from point A to B through a wave area this might be the worst possible strategy. You go slow in the falling air spending the most time trying to out climb the sink and then you dive quickly through the rising are. In this case I was seeing variations of 60 knots true airspeed. Another approach to get your power plane through a wave area faster is to intelligently allow altitude to vary rather than trying to maintain altitude. The glider pilots might call this "porpoising", flying the "McCready Speed" or maintaining the Speed to fly. Generally, the idea for a glider is to spend more time in rising air and as little as possible in stagnant or falling air. For a given set of conditions there is an ideal speed to fly a glider, generally fast in sink and slow in lift but you can get very technical and figure out exactly what the optimal speed is. You don't need to take it to that extreme but if you allow the plane to rise when you encounter an area of lift and then descend in the sink you will end up with a higher overall speed through the wave area. Depending upon your desired direction of travel relative to wind you may be able to alter your course left or right a few miles and pick lots of extra airspeed. 

Beware though, I didn't mention that under the crest of each wave, at about the altitude of the producing ridge you will find truly horrendous, potentially life threatening, potentially airplane breaking, very much so "spouse will never fly with you again" turbulence called the rotor. Also, even if you're above the the rotor you may not be able to out climb the sink, sometimes the air will sink at 5000 feet per minute! You've been warned!

All of this high level flow was a precursor to a winter storm coming and I forgot to mention that we "had" to make our way back the next morning... So here is what the prog chart looked like in the morning:

That cold front passed Norcal overnight and it along with the low pressure system was also kicking up some serious winds in Redding: gusting to 39 knots when we took off at 7AM. The outside air temp at 6500 feet was a balmy 17 F(-8 C). You'll notice that the cold front is located right at the southern end of the cesspool, I mean Central Valley. Cold fronts are masses of cold air moving in the direction of those blue pointy things. Cold fronts travel along the ground because cold air descends so it consequently lifts the warmer air ahead of it. Meanwhile at temps below 20 F(-7) my RV-8 becomes uncomfortably cold. Keep those things in mind.

Here is the wind situation at 12000:

So going home I can pick up a huge tailwind if I can just get up to 12000 and stay a little west of the direct route but it might be really cold up there... What to do?

Well, firstly always have an out. The central valley had good weather because the cold front passage cleared the cesspool out. The weather at the actual cold front, as expected was bad, ice, low clouds, rain. Once we got to the area of the cold front we were forced to either bag it or climb over. The unknowns here are how high, how cold and for how long? 

Flight service tells us that all the stations from the front south are reporting overcast skies so that means that if we can't go on instruments to descend into our destination then we must turn around and land in the CV. We(pilot and plane) are instrument rated so we go for it, climb over the cold front and find out that it is clear above 10000 and even better, just as advertised in the meteo books, the cold front lifted the warm air ahead of it, so after freezing my tokus off at 6500 in 17 F(-8C) I'm up at 11500 in 39 F(4C) basking in the warm sunshine. This is exactly the opposite of a usual temp profile during a climb: all things being equal every 1000 feet climbed should reduce the temperature by roughly 3 degrees but cheerfully there are exceptions and this was one of them.

We(PAX, Pilot and Plane) shot the instrument approach back in to home base and we(wife and I) made it to work by 11 AM. 

Not a bad 22 hr trip.

Run to Avalon

Get in Shape! 

Date: November 8, 2014
Time: 11:00 AM
Place: KAVX

Does this look familiar? Then, do something About it! 

Big Thanks to Randy Martinez for the image!

I challenge any and all GA pilots and passengers to meet me at 11:00 AM on November 8 at Catalina airport to run or jog down ~10 miles to Avalon, swim in the ocean a little bit, and grab a bite to eat with me and anyone else who shows up. The route looks like this. Note: There is about a 1500 ft drop in elevation on this route, there is a bus from the town to get back to the airport.

It will be interesting to see how big the intersection is between runners and pilots. I'm not a fast runner by any means but I'm going to give it my best.

Why?

Setting a date for a long run and inviting everyone I know will force me to train, keep the weight off, stay healthy, and fly another year. I think this is something any of us can benefit from. Most flying activities we do aren't very active or healthy in nature... like flying for a hour, eating a second breakfast, with a second helping of bacon, and flying an hour home... Here is an opportunity to fly and do something good for your body.

Disclaimer:
This is an unsponsored, unsupported, no host event. I'm providing nothing but encouragement and expecting nothing but your best effort. Any takers of this challenge should expect to offer up the same. If you need water, gatorade, chocolate, caffeine, morphine or anything else you should bring that with you. There will be no water stops, no sag wagon, and no trophies provided.

Running is tough, and flying is a mentally and physically demanding activity. If you don't currently run this sort of distance with relative ease and want to do this I suggest consulting your doctor and doing one of Hal Higdon's fantastic training schedules. Running and flying are dangerous, be responsible, do not participate if you are going to put yourself or your passengers in any danger whatsoever.

See you there!

Hypothetically Speaking...

Someone, or some people, from Seaford High School in Seaford, Delaware, presumably in the graduating class of '94, surreptitiously painted a giant "94" on the roof of the high school. Aerial photos of the giant rooftop "94" were published in the local newspaper, but the culprits were never punished. 20 years later, I'd like to postulate how, hypothetically, this could have been done.

You can't do this during the day. It must be done at night and you'd need three nights to complete it. The job is too big for one person reasonably, so it would require two malefactors.

First, measurements of the roof would need to be made. 1994 predates widespread use of the internet so Google Earth/Satellite-based measurements would be out. Sneaking satellite maps out of some secret agency would have been far riskier than a mission to measure the roof. If you wanted to get on the roof, the easiest way to do so would be to climb on top of the freezer outside the cafeteria and then make your way to the roof top. Trivial. Looking at Google maps I'd estimate the dimensions to be about 35x75 feet. Tools needed for the first night: tape measure. This would be a two person job for one hour, maybe less.

The measurements could then be laid out on graph paper, (computer aided design would have been beyond the dastardly miscreants' reach in 1994) and then reasonable dimensions could be made for the characters. The geometry of the roof would dictate that the characters be almost square rather than rectangular, so making it look "good" would be challenging. Geometry and trig would come in handy for scaling from graph paper and drawing a giant "4". The "9" presents a more difficult challenge, the round part is an ellipse, so you'd have to do a bit more algebra to calculate the foci of the inner and outer ellipses making up the "9" with the intent of using the "pins and string" method of drawing a 35 foot wide ellipse. I imagine making constant the ~7 foot width of the line making up the ellipse of the "9" would be challenging, skills that the perpetrator(s) may have picked up from Mrs. R.R or Mr. D.G in that very same building. Not a bad final exam given that so many school days were missed in the harsh winter that final exams were canceled for seniors that year.

After developing a reasonable layout on graph paper, measurements could be scaled up, and markings could be made on the roof using something like an upside down marking spray paint along with the "strings and pins" method of drawing an ellipse and using the same line for a giant straight edge. Tools needed for the second night: tape measure, spray paint, rope. This would be a two person job for two hours.

Finally, the criminals would have to figure out how to actually paint the "94" and paint rollers might come to mind. They might even have tried rollers and found that they get bogged down in the stones on the roof. From there they'd have to return to "Crime Central" and borrow something like an airless paint sprayer and extension cord from a now complicit parent who may have caught them returning to regroup. They would need a means to power the sprayer. They could take apart one of the ventilation fans and then access the power with a homemade version of something like this alligator clip to AC outlet converter. From there, painting inside the lines would have been a task probably picked up in kindergarten for at least one of the perps, maybe not both. Tools needed for the third night: airless paint sprayer, paint, alligator to AC outlet converter. This would take approximately eight hours, nearly all night during that time of year.

The rope used for the ellipse and straight lines could have been used to take supplies on and off the roof. Regrettably, it may have broken bringing down the only unused can of paint, leading to something less than a gallon of paint splattering on the grass outside of the back of the school by the tennis courts.

Shortly thereafter the offenders would probably have rented a skydiving plane with the door removed to get pictures of the giant "94" on film, that would then have to be developed and submitted on paper, by hand, to the Seaford Leader which doesn't even exist any more. My how times have changed.

All in all a lot of effort for a prank that hardly anyone saw directly and that in this day and age could have easily been faked by a 12 year old. It was also mildly audacious or perhaps foolhardy given that the police station was across the street. At the time the prank was heralded as anything from genius to heinous but the overall impact was minimal at most, but as Mr. B.D. said just before the class of 1994 shuffled out to get their diplomas we "put the 94 where Mr. Baltz could see it." I sure miss Mr. Baltz.

Sometimes Airplanes are Stinky...

So after traveling to Mexico three times to see the whales, twice to go kitesurfing and once scuba diving I decided I had this sort of thing dialed in and that I could easily knock out the whales trip in a day. Previously I had always planned at least a weekend, and everything went off without a hitch. The whole idea of having an airplane is to squeeze more from your life right? A few weeks ago the plan was to take a 6-passenger plane, a Cherokee Six, loaded to the gills with friends and check out the whales in Guerrero Negro rather than Laguna San Ignacio as I have done in the past.

All indications were that the whale watching in Guerrero Negro was just as good as Laguna San Ignacio but the Guerrero Negro routing would be short enough to only have to stop for fuel in San Felipe where as the Laguna San Ignacio route  with the Cherokee Six would have to stop in Loreto to get fuel in addition to San Felipe. Nothing like going 110 miles further than you wanted to go just for lack of fuel.

Flying in Baja is dominated by worries about getting fuel. In an attempt to squash the drug trade the Mexican government decided to tightly control where you can get fuel. Generally the only places that sell fuel are international airports. If flying has not forced you to become a logistician, then flying in Baja will. Luckily the RV-8 has a fantastic range so I haven't had to stop at Loreto for fuel, but even still, careful planning will let you avoid getting stuck somewhere with no fuel and not enough fuel to get to where there is fuel. That is a harsh place to be.

Well, the weekend where I had lined up the Cherokee Six approached and then entered the horizon of the 10 day forecast. That forecast was also accompanied by fanfare of some relief in the drought that the west has been experiencing... So small airplanes and weather can mix but this mix must be done carefully, throw in 5 passengers and crossing the mountains a few times and you've got something really interesting on your hands. At this point I had spent significant time and money getting prepped to confidently take 5 passengers to go see the whales in Mexico... so I really wanted this trip to work. When the time came to go the forecast was just ugly, if the flight were to happen at all it would have been very turbulent but what really killed the flight was the potential for icing. Ice can bring down any plane, in a little plane with no icing protection to speak of it's a non starter. So I called the flight off, I should have called it off earlier, the other plane that was planning on doing the same itinerary call it off on Friday, wishful thinking pushed me through till Saturday AM.

So we canceled, and my wife and I resolved to give it another try in 2 weeks along with the other plane. The friends I had initially lined up to fill all the seats of the Cherokee had other commitments so we decided to just take the RV-8. A few days before the trip the other plane's pilot ended up with the flu so they canceled.

Now it was just us going to see the whales, my plane is a bit faster than the other that was planning on going so... back to my earlier idea of squeezing more from life, we decided to make a day trip out of it rather than stay overnight in Guerrero Negro. The plan wasn't too onerous, if we woke up at 6 AM we could easily be at Guerrero Negro by 10 AM, 1 hr before the tour starts.

30 minutes out of Gillespie, and well into Mexico now, my wife starts to complain of nausea from the turbulence and asks if we can turn back, at this point I don't think I can with out rankling some feathers with US customs. I do my best to work our way out of the turbulence and we land 30 minutes later at San Felipe. Even though I planned for a hour on the ground 30 minutes and one "turbulence can't hurt you" pep talk later and we are on our way to Guerrero Negro. The flight isn't too bad, we fly high, and for the most part it's a smooth flight.

After landing we find the taxi we ordered isn't there so we call and by 10 AM we are at the tour operators rendezvous point and restaurant. Once there the man I pay for the tour mentions something about the Minister of Tourism being in town, some roads being blocked and potential delays. I do some quick calculations and we can tolerate about 3 hrs of delays before we have to start worrying about getting stuck at San Felipe because Mexico looks suspiciously at flying after the sun goes down.

So we wait and have a wonderful breakfast in the amazingly authentic restaurant attached to the tour operator.

2 hrs pass and I finally talk to a woman tour guide on the phone and she tells me that they, along with all the guests from the morning tour, are trapped in the area where they put the boats in the water, the security folks won't let them go past a certain gate, and they have no idea when they will get out.

So that was it, we grabbed a taxi and went back to the airport, flew to San Felipe to clear customs out of Mexico, flew to Brown Field to clear US customs and then we were back home sipping margaritas by 5:30 PM wondering what we should have done differently...

In retrospect if we got off the ground at Guerrero Negro before Sunset would could have flown back to Ensenada and filed an instrument flight back to Brown, maybe anyhow... we also could have been stuck somewhere along the line.

We saw amazing beaches and beautiful mountains but that has all become a bit old hat... All along there were obstacles to doing this trip, we overcame all of the ones in our control, some might say that they were all signals that we should have just bagged it right there. Although if the trip yesterday, or 2 weeks ago, actually happened as planned then those obstacles would have just been thrown in the category of character building and the normal frustrations of getting anything done in life. Nothing worth doing in life is a sure thing and nothing fulfilling in life comes easy. My perspective is we were just unlucky... but I also don't know when I want to try to do this trip again...

Why Little Airplane?

The past year has been a spectacular one for flying. Around 145 hrs logged and probably a few more before the end of the year. My wife and I have managed to cross the country west to east and twice north to south, round trips in all cases. We also managed a trip to Mexico, a couple of Canadian overflights, a few trips to Mammoth, and a trip to Bryce Canyon. Good fun. We flew past the NYC skyline, we crossed the Grand Canyon and the Great Lakes more than once. The list goes on and on.

2012's flying adventures: still more more to see

We've seen friends and relatives that we probably would not have seen otherwise. We've been able to come and go at our whim and see places of the world that some never will see.

We also had a few flights that might have been uncomfortable. There was strong turbulence over western Pennsylvania that gave anything I had seen in the West a run for its money. There was a crosswind when landing in Mexico that made me glad that I verified that my insurance was valid there. A few times we didn't make it where we wanted to but for the most part we were never much worse for the wear than we would have been if we'd flown commercially.

Cost-wise, all told, the flights we could have made commercially were competitive with what the airlines were offering. The plane gets around 25 miles per gallon going 185 miles per hour. This speed and economy is tough for the airlines to beat unless it's a very highly traveled route.

The comparison isn't fair though, many of these trips just can't be done commercially. There are no commercial flights to Laguna San Ignacio to pet the whales, nor to Bryce Canyon, UT for hiking among the hoodoos, nor to Sun River, OR for skiing Mt Bachelor in June, nor to Hood River, OR for kitesurfing or an endless list of other places don't have commercial service.

Capital investment-wise, the 6 year old plane is worth just about what I paid to build it so no real loss there. The other costs are just the costs of having an airplane, the same ones that so many pilots pay anyway just to have an airplane that they don't travel in.

Americans are very fortunate that they live in a country that permits any citizen this freedom of movement. For whatever sad reasons, I am among the small minority of pilots that ever fly themselves for anything other that short local flights. Why have a Little Airplane? Why not!