Preflight

100 hours, or one hour 100 times?

Oh, the places you'll go. As we send the final pages for this issue to our printer, Christmas is a week away, and my kids just finished Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas for the umpteenth time. Desperate for a break, I flipped open Oh, The Places You'll Go and began to read.

I was amazed at how many of Seuss' words seem applicable to aviation. He even goes on to discuss slumps-those plateaus we all experience at some point in our flight training, when we feel we're not progressing or, worse, making one step forward and two steps back. "And when you're in a Slump, you're not in for much fun," Seuss writes. "Un-slumping yourself is not easily done." There's no indication that Theodor Geisel-Dr. Seuss-was a pilot, but if he was, I bet he would have been a 100-hour pilot. I can sense that from his writing.

What do I mean by that? There are pilots with as few as 100 flight hours who have already flown to varied and interesting destinations. These aviators have expanded their horizons by going places and, in the process, developed their skills. On the other hand, there are pilots whose logbooks indicate the same amount of flight experience-but they've accumulated that time by flying the same hour, over and over. Perhaps they just stay in the traffic pattern flight after flight, hour after hour. Not a bad thing, if that's what you really want to do, and it is good to be proficient in traffic pattern operations and landings. Regardless, these pilots are not maximizing their returns on the investment they've made in a pilot certificate, and they're not broadening their horizons as aviators.

Sometimes it's helpful to remember that a long cross-country is nothing more than several short flights arranged end to end. Take Dennis Flood, for example. He flew from Venice, Florida, to South Haven, Michigan, and return in his Cessna 172 (see "Preflight: One Man's Odyssey," September 2008 AOPA Flight Training). He was weary of making the drive, and realized he could fly his airplane for about the same cost. Flood attended his fortieth high school reunion and his classmates were surprised to learn that he'd flown himself from Florida to the event. "Some of them said, 'That's gutsy.' 'Gutsy' was the big word," he said.

Flood, who navigated primarily by VOR (see "Before the Magenta Line"), said he learned a trip like that could be done without GPS. Between poring over sectional charts as he planned his trip and looking for checkpoints as he flew, Flood also learned a lot about the United States. "We have a really beautiful country," he observed.

Chris Hildreth of Durham, North Carolina, and Dan Douglas of Columbia, South Carolina, decided to head west across the country (see "Chris and Dan's Excellent Adventure"). Except for a coastal storm that kept them from heading east to begin their epic from First Flight Airport on North Carolina's Outer Banks-where the Wright brothers conducted their successful first powered flight in 1903-they enjoyed perfect weather all the way to California's Catalina Island. They even had tailwinds both ways. I don't know about you, but that never happens to me.

It appears that Hildreth may have had an ulterior motive in advancing their trip. Douglas, whom Hildreth had mentored as a student pilot, never got truly comfortable with the abilities his private pilot certificate conferred. Their experience reinforced Douglas' confidence, and he reaffirmed his commitment to flying. Additional adventures are planned, and the duo may be on their way to the Bahamas by the time you read this.

Whenever I hear about trips like these flown by Flood, and Hildreth and Douglas and others, like those found on the Let's Go Flying Web site, I want to hop in an airplane and go. I find these kinds of journeys to be very inspirational, and I know from your feedback that many of you do, too. Where have you gone to expand your aviation horizons-or where would you like to go?

Today is the day to go, according to Dr. Seuss' Oh, The Places You'll Go-or at least the day to start planning: "Congratulations! Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off and away!"

E-mail Mike Collins, editor of AOPA Flight Training.