On Oct 28, 10:14 am, Big John wrote:
Jay

Be sure and remind him that the fence lines run N-S and E-W in Iowa.
Great help in navigation.

Big John

Reminds me of when ...

My first USAF assignment was Wright Field (Dayton). During my checkout
at the Aero Club, I got thoroughly disoriented because the roads and
field boundaries went every which way. The only order I could discern
was 'spokes of a wheel' converging on one town or another.

With my girlfriend and my family in Kansas, and two T-34s in the Aero
Club, I made many trips to visit home. I soon noticed that somewhere
west of Dayton the pattern on the ground returned to normal. (I learned
to fly at USAFA, so 'normal' to me was the grid pattern of N-S and E-W
roads and fence lines across eastern Colorado and Kansas.)

From this experience, I've advanced this theory: During the great
migration westward, it was at about the Ohio-Indiana border where the
land surveyors caught up with and passed the settlers.

Jay - congratulations to your son for his accomplishment, and thank you
for sharing it with us. Such stories bring back great memories, and
give promise that our world of general aviation will live on.

george