Pilotage

During day three of five, I enjoyed the rare gift of a tailwind on a 600-mile westbound leg. That's when I began to believe the trip might work out as ambitiously planned.

The itinerary was optimistic: five appointments, five Midwestern states, five days. The box-like route traversed nine states for a total distance of 1,400 nm. The asterisk at the end of the plan meant that sunny skies were mandatory at three of the five stops because of scheduled photo missions.

The trip originated with a positioning airline flight to Kansas City, Missouri, where Doug, my partner, was enjoying his time with our airplane. Our unusual joint-custody arrangement calls for him to keep the airplane in Kansas City during the summer, while I get it in South Florida over the winter. However, the partner-not-in-possession can borrow the airplane for an important trip. I was exercising that option for this Midwest round robin.

As planned, the trip would be a textbook example of what a marketer would label "the general aviation advantage." My schedule called for taking the airline to Kansas City on Monday and departing immediately in the Piper Twin Comanche for overnight stops in the Indianapolis area; Smyrna, Tennessee, south of Nashville; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Wichita, Kansas; and, finally, Kansas City in order to return the airplane to Doug and catch the last flight of the day to Florida. Timing was critical if I was to make all of the stops and do all of my business. Plus, I had to arrive back in Kansas City by midafternoon on Friday because Doug and his family planned to leave immediately on a weekend flight to Texas.

It might have been possible to accomplish the trip on the airlines, but I needed the flexibility of changing the itinerary at the last minute to chase good weather. Also, I couldn't be constrained by a rigid flight schedule. The photo shoots were planned for early morning, followed by interviews. It's impossible to predict how long those sessions will run. My departure times had to be dictated by when I finished my business at each stop. When you fly the airlines, it works exactly the opposite — you are a slave to the airline's schedule.

The flight to Indianapolis buoyed my confidence because it went so smoothly. A few drops of rain from high stratus clouds splattered the windshield as I climbed away from Kansas City Downtown Airport, and a feeble southeasterly headwind scrubbed off a bit of groundspeed, but it was visual meteorological conditions (VMC) all the way. The air was hazily translucent over Missouri, but in Illinois it looked like it had passed through a filter — the milky veil dissipated to reveal neatly sectioned farm fields that stretched to the horizon.

The next day, I concluded my Indy appointment by midafternoon, and filed a flight plan for the trip to Smyrna. Following an initial westbound vector to keep me out of Indianapolis International (IND) traffic, the controller cleared me direct to the destination. This held until approaching Nashville, where controllers swung me out to the east of the Nashville International (BNA) Class C airspace. I couldn't figure out why such overly generous avoidance of BNA was necessary, but then we pilots aren't always aware of every factor that controllers must weigh when making constant quick decisions.

In fact, I filed for and was cleared direct from the departure airport to the destination airport on every leg of the trip. The only off-route vectors I received were around IND and BNA, and a brief southerly vector when westbound to Oklahoma City to avoid an active military operations area (MOA) that quickly went cold. The wide-open airspace of the Midwest relative to congested areas of the East and West coasts, the cooperative attitude of Midwestern controllers, and the relatively flat terrain in the middle of the country make for effortless cross-country flying. My major challenges during 10 hours of flying in five days were steering around isolated late-afternoon buildups that punched up through my 10,000- to 12,000-foot cruising altitudes, and striving for textbook landings.

Thanks to a reliable airplane and great weather, I made all my appointments and accomplished 100 percent of my objectives. The final landing at Kansas City Downtown Airport was two minutes behind the flight plan. Following a Southwest Airlines-style quick turnaround, Doug and his family were on their way to Texas.

The only hitches in the tight schedule occurred while flying the airlines. On the very first leg, Florida to St. Louis, the crew diverted to Atlanta because of a passenger medcal emergency. Fortunately, the passenger would be OK; but it caused everyone to miss their connections in St. Louis. I was able to get on the next flight and made it into Kansas City a couple of hours behind the original schedule.

The only other problem occurred on the very last leg of the trip, St. Louis to Florida. The gate agent reported that the air conditioner in the MD-80 was blow-ing hot air, and the flight attendants — one of whom was pregnant — refused to fly on it. So we switched air-planes, which delayed our departure for 45 minutes. We made up some of the time en route, but my wife still had to wait a half-hour curbside before I showed up.

Well, you know how it is. Time to spare? Go by air — carrier.