5 Flights to Make Before You Die

Jay Honeck wrote:

1. Grand Canyon. ... There's nothing else like it.

Agree with your #1. I look forward to a trip to Marble Canyon someday.

2. Mackinac Island/Mackinac Bridge.

3. Barrier Islands/Ocracoke/Hatteras

Agree with this one too; at least once a year as long as we live in
Virginia.

4. Great Salt Lake.

4a. Ah, yes, but the getting to Salt Lake from 'back east' makes a
fantastic package: the plains of South Dakota (stop at Wall), Mount
Rushmore from 10,000 feet, over the Wasatch Range into Ogden.

4b. And then onward to the west - to Bonneville Salt Flats and overnight
at Wendover, the next day across the Sierra Nevada - Mt Lassen on the
right, Lake Tahoe on the left, then downhill into Sacramento, and
finally - the goal of the trip - the first glimpse of the towers of the
Golden Gate Bridge as we top the hills east of Oakland - coast-to-coast
in a C-172 (we begian our trip from Langley AFB, VA).

5. Oshkosh!

Someday.

george

Jay Honeck wrote:
We've flown coast to coast, Canada to Mexico, for the last 12 years,
and we have seen a lot of beautiful sights. There are way more than
five flights to make before you die -- but these are my Top 5. Can
you add yours?

1. Grand Canyon.

DONE. Yea.. it was a commercial sightseeing tour, but yea...pretty grand.


2. Mackinac Island/Mackinac Bridge.

Not seen yet.


3. Barrier Islands/Ocracoke/Hatteras Just a few weeks ago we made
this flight, from Kill Devil Hills, NC to Beaufort, NC,

FYI.. Beaufort is in SC.. I have family in Charleston and have made the
hop from Charleston to Savannah. I love that whole part of the country.

4. Great Salt Lake. This one may surprise you, but we flew over it
(and the surrounding salt flats)

I got my tailwheel endorsement out there in a C-180 with a good friend
who does the airline thing there in SLC. Did fullstop landings on a
gravel strip on Promentory Point, flew down LOW over the lake, as well
as over some private strips on the islands in the middle of the lake.
And for good measure, the Wasatch Mountains are beautiful in contrast,
with lush alpine forest on the windward side of the range. Beautiful.
Still snowcapped in late October from the previous year.


5. Oshkosh! DUH. And I met you for the first (and only, so far) time there, in 2002.

Great list Jay, and I am fortunate to have been to 4 of 5 of your must
see places.

Dave

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
We've flown coast to coast, Canada to Mexico, for the last 12 years,
and we have seen a lot of beautiful sights. There are way more than
five flights to make before you die -- but these are my Top 5. Can
you add yours?
snip...

To view a Sunrise or Sunset from above 40,000'.


Al G

2. Mackinac Island/Mackinac Bridge.

Not seen yet.

It's stunning. Every bit as beautiful as the Golden Gate, but in a
completely rural area that is prone to some of the most severe winter
weather on the planet. The museum about how they built it across that
strait is worth the trouble to find. (It's small, but very complete,
and fascinating.)

3. Barrier Islands/Ocracoke/Hatteras Just a few weeks ago we made
this flight, from Kill Devil Hills, NC to Beaufort, NC,
FYI.. Beaufort is in SC.. I have family in Charleston and have made the
hop from Charleston to Savannah. I love that whole part of the country.

Oops. I knew that. That's one problem with a flying trip, though --
they don't paint the state boundaries on the ground. (My kids were
disappointed to discover this, many years ago...)

We loved that area, too, and plan to return.

5. Oshkosh! DUH. And I met you for the first (and only, so far) time there, in 2002.

Yep, that was a good year. Hell, they're all good.

Quite frankly, I am always surprised by the pilots we meet at the
hotel who have never flown into OSH. Most of them speak longingly of
going, but they never quite put it together, due to any number of
reasons.

I don't know how else to say this any more clearly -- OSH is the ONE
place every pilot must visit before they die. There is simply nothing
else like it, anywhere, damn the horror stories about arrivals and the
weather. And, with the way things are going in GA and EAA, who knows
how many more Airventures there will be?

If there is a heaven, when I die, I pray it looks just like Wittman
Field during the last week of July...
---
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article ,
Al G wrote:

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
roups.com...
We've flown coast to coast, Canada to Mexico, for the last 12 years,
and we have seen a lot of beautiful sights. There are way more than
five flights to make before you die -- but these are my Top 5. Can
you add yours?
snip...

To view a Sunrise or Sunset from above 40,000'.

The view from 4000ft can be pretty good too.

http://www.clear-prop.org/images/sunset.jpg
(taken just north of Santa Cruz, CA)

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

Jay Honeck wrote:
We've flown coast to coast, Canada to Mexico, for the last 12 years,
and we have seen a lot of beautiful sights. There are way more than
five flights to make before you die -- but these are my Top 5. Can
you add yours?

1. Grand Canyon. Flying over the Grand Canyon is an awesome, almost
religious experience that words simply cannot express. We spent
nearly 2 hours over the canyon, the four of us gaping in awe, in
almost complete silence. There's nothing else like it.

2. Mackinac Island/Mackinac Bridge. At the top of the Great Lakes
sits scenic Mackinac Island. Quaint, with no motor vehicles allowed
(it's either horses or bikes, your choice), this throwback to another
era ("Lost in Time", with Christopher Reeves, was filmed at the Grand
Hotel on Mackinac Island) is always a great place to visit, and an
absolutely gorgeous flight. The beautiful Mackinac Bridge (which does
NOT go to the island, BTW) is one of the largest suspension bridges in
the world, and is truly a wondrous sight to see as well.

3. Barrier Islands/Ocracoke/Hatteras Just a few weeks ago we made
this flight, from Kill Devil Hills, NC to Beaufort, NC, flying
straight down the barrier islands. With the vast Atlantic to our
left, open water to our right (the mainland is often barely visible),
and a thin spit of land beneath us, we made this beautiful flight on a
picture-perfect day.

4. Great Salt Lake. This one may surprise you, but we flew over it
(and the surrounding salt flats) on our way to the Reno Air Races a
few years ago, and I will never forget the stark beauty and utter
desolation of this flight. If you ever want to fly over an alien
planet, check this area out.

5. Oshkosh! This one is pretty obvious, and is the ultimate flight
goal of almost every pilot I've ever met. There is simply no place on
earth like Oshkosh, and to fly into the show is a thrill that is hard
to describe to someone who hasn't done it. More importantly is to
wake up on the field at OSH -- it's a feeling like none other. No
matter what, you MUST make this flight at least once before you die.

Alas, we have had so many great flights, it's hard to whittle it down
to just five. Niagara Falls, Meigs Field, First Flight Airfield, and
a host of others would round out my Top Ten list -- but let's keep it
the Best of the Best, and stick to five for now.

Where would YOU choose to fly before you die?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

1. Sedona, AZ
2. Big Sur coast, Carmel, MRY
3. Around and around Mt. McKinley on a clear day
4. Getting to 3 via inland and coast routes
5. Seeing "The Glory", sun at your back and low over a smooth stratus layer
6. Down the Hudson corridor, Manhattan on your wing tip

When were you out on the Left Coast? Reno doesn't count; you are at least
200 miles away from salt water.

Jim



Jay Honeck wrote:
We've flown coast to coast, Canada to Mexico, for the last 12 years

On 2007-04-08, Jay Honeck wrote:
We've flown coast to coast, Canada to Mexico, for the last 12 years,
and we have seen a lot of beautiful sights. There are way more than
five flights to make before you die -- but these are my Top 5. Can
you add yours?

Well, by definition, you have to do them before you die, so the 'before
you die' bit is kind of redundant :-)

Your list is a worthy list - Oshkosh should definitely be done at least
once (if only to experience that kind of traffic density, and how the
rules on what constitute VFR tend to get moderately flexed).

But I'd substitute the coastal flying with flying in the mountains - get
some mountain flying training, and go to airstrips *in* the mountains.
The video doesn't do it justice, but I did just that in August 2005:

http://www.alioth.net/Video/BackCountry.mp4 (use VideoLAN Client, which
is free at http://www.videolan.org if your media player isn't up to date
enough to play MP4 video)

We got up at 5 in the morning, and flew the Cessna 180 up to Idaho from
my friend's local airfield in Salt Lake City so as to get there before
the day started really heating up. Flying into Lower Loon was quite an
interesting experience, but not as interesting as flying out of it again
:-) (860 feet of usable runway at about 5000 ft above mean sea level,
surrounded by mountains - you really don't want to be there if it's even
slightly windy!)

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

But I'd substitute the coastal flying with flying in the mountains - get
some mountain flying training, and go to airstrips *in* the mountains.
The video doesn't do it justice, but I did just that in August 2005:

Mary and I have flown in the mountains on two legs (to, and from,
Reno, Nevada), and I have co-piloted (sorta) Jim Burns' Aztec to
Vegas. Of course, we didn't land on any cool back-country strips,
but just flying over and through the mountains was stunning.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
But I'd substitute the coastal flying with flying in the mountains - get
some mountain flying training, and go to airstrips *in* the mountains.
The video doesn't do it justice, but I did just that in August 2005:

Mary and I have flown in the mountains on two legs (to, and from,
Reno, Nevada), and I have co-piloted (sorta) Jim Burns' Aztec to
Vegas. Of course, we didn't land on any cool back-country strips,
but just flying over and through the mountains was stunning.

Done Missoula Mt to Medford Or, via Lewiston and Crater Lake, absolutely
stunning,

Grand Canyon to Sedona at sunset even better

Sedona to Telluride a real blast

and Niagara Falls twice.