Why We Fly

Celebration spans five states in five days

Promises are very important things to keep, especially the ones you make to yourself. That's why Bob Jordan decided that to celebrate his sixty-eighth birthday, he was going to treat himself to a very special gift: to fly his pristine 1974 Cessna 150L around five states in five days. "It was something I always wanted to do," he said.

Jordan approached the preflight preparation with a level of detail and research that would make any NASA mission planner proud. "I planned this over three months," he explained. "What I did was accumulate sectional charts and road maps. I called the various states in advance to get copies of their aeronautical maps of their states. I noted MOAs [military operations areas] and TFRs [temporary flight restrictions] in advance and then rechecked them daily."

To make it easy to find the appropriate sectional, Jordan cut them up and glued the sections that pertained to his route on 10 separate pieces of 8.5- by 11-inch cardboard. He then numbered the cards in sequence so all he had to do was flip from one to the next. "I have a new GPS but I'm not real familiar with using it yet. So I made this whole trip using the VOR system, which is a bit unusual these days. I had the charts as backups to the VORs in case I had to revert to pilotage," he said. Jordan didn't forsake all modern technology. He had the weather forecast for each of his destinations on his computer.

Mr. Jordan's great adventure covered 1,000 air miles in 16 hours of flight time and took him to 20 small airports in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas. "I landed at every small airport I possibly could," he said. "I'd just visit each one a few minutes, maybe refuel and talk. I got to know lots of very interesting people. They were all so kind. They offered me courtesy cars. Gave me ball caps and invited me back." He also got someone at each airport to sign a book--just to prove he'd been there.

While he came home with a lifetime of memories, one stands out. He had spent the night visiting a friend in Jackson, Louisiana. The airport there is located on the grounds of the state prison. "I got prior permission to land there," he said. "I think I'm about the only person who still uses it." When he took off the next morning, he flew over about 100 inmates working off to the side of the 3,000-foot runway. "As I flew over them at 200 feet, I looked down at about 100 or so people all dressed in orange. They had all stopped working and were just looking up at me. I knew what they all were thinking...they wished they could be in that airplane."

Upon returning to his home airport in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Jordan's trusty 150L was put back to work in his land development business. "I fly about 10 hours a month on business. What I do is locate a piece of land and then fly over it low to check it out. You can see low spots, ponds, wetlands, creeks--that sort of stuff--from the air," he said. "You get a good perspective from the air. Then I'll land at a local airport and walk the property with a survey map. It has really been helpful to me."

Jordan said he's already planning his next adventure, to Griffin, Georgia. But he's not waiting until his sixty-ninth birthday to do it. "If there's something you want to do, you have to do it now," he said. "You never know what tomorrow is going to bring."

Dale Smith is an aviation journalist living in Jacksonville, Florida. A private pilot, he has been flying since 1975.