Hello - and thanks for joining me and Dennis Long as we set out on our flight around the perimeter of the continental U.S. I've been wanting to make this circumnavigation flight for years, and finally thought - "If not now, when?" Some people may think that my "when" has already passed; that at almost 80, I should only be flying the pattern around my airport. I was invited to join the auxiliary of the UFOs: the United Flying Octogenarians. (Since I'm six months short of 80, I can't become a full member until my birthday in December.) When I read the posts of these flying folks, often well into their 80's, it gives me hope for my future!

For the past week I've been pouring over sectionals, road maps, TACs and Chart Supplements, plotting a tentative flight route. 

Yes, it's an old-fashioned way to plan, yet it works for me better than with SkyVector or other computer-based tools. Dennis and I will look it over together; we're joint decision-makers on this flight.

Dennis arrived yesterday afternoon at my airport in Sandy (03S) in his Aeroprakt A-32. 

He flew in from his home in Arkansas, after making an overnight stop in Louisiana for a crab boil. It only took him two days to get here!!! Of course, he was in the air for 12 hours the first day and 9-10 hours the second day! He said that tail winds moved him along, sometimes reaching 130 mph over the ground. He did say that we'll be taking it easy as we fly together, probably flying only two, three-hour legs a day,  

We're going to head south along the Oregon coast, with our first stop at Illinois Valley Airport (3S4) in Cave Junction, OR to see our good friend and fellow Aeroprakt owner Wolf Emonds.  (For those of you who know the Oregon coast, we'll head east at Brookings to get to Wolf's.)

After leaving Wolf's we'll head back to the coast, and follow it south to about Santa Paula,CA, then head southeast toward Blythe, CA (KBLH). I don't want to fly through L.A.'s airspace, although we are willing to try the VFR corridor through San Francisco. As we head east we'll stay as close to the Mexican border as is safely possible, generally parallel to I-10. Every night we'll look at the route for the next day, and make changes as needed. 

We're all packed and ready to leave tomorrow, weather permitting, of course. The weather outlook for tomorrow isn't great: mostly MVFR along our route. So we'll have some decisions to make.