A reading recommendation, please...

With all the GA-related travel experience that resides here, it seems like a good place to come for a book recommendation. Here's the help I would appreciate receiving:

In the course of living in 53 countries over the last 11 years, we've made some very close friendships with folks we don't normally have access to. Two of them are a British couple we'll be spending some weeks with again this summer. After that visit, our 'next plan' is to invite the husband back to the USA again (wife doesn't like big jets, let alone little planes...) so he and I can go Walkabout a bit in the USA. I imagine the travels will be a mix of different regions with unique destinations while both camping and motel'ing. He has had almost no GA exposure (tho' he's excited about this prospect) and only traveled within the USA by Long Silver Tube between major cities and the Florida tourist sites. What I'd like to do is whet his appetite for what cross-country 'cruising' in a light aircraft can be like.

I thought a good way to do that is to take some reading materials to him when we visit this summer. I've got a few periodicals in mind (including a Pilot Getaways magazine) but wonder if there's a somewhat current book someone might recommend that captures the fun & especially the diversity that's available from touring the USA by air. Remember: He hasn't had much exposure to the diversity of the USA nor to flying in a little plane...so a good read that introduces both of those would be especially appreciated.

Many thanks for helping me make a happy Brit happier.

Jack
Jacksonville, FL

Book recommendation

Jack, Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck is a good read. Its a true story about 2 young men who bought and restored a Cub and then made a cross country flight. I'd highly recommend it.

My experience

I have subscribed to Pilot Getaways since the first issue and I think I still have them all (I did a major purge a few years ago and got rid of more than I thought). I don't need them any more so I could package them up and send them to you if you like - just give me an address. I subscribed to every magazine of that type when they came out but none survived like Pilot Getaways. I think I got one travel idea or more from every one of them but it is like reading a book through a pin hole with things missing from a perspective of trying to find the best places to go in the United states is concerned. My wife Jeanine and I traveled to every state except Alaska, around 40 countries on 5 continents (not Australia or Anartica, which we were planning to visit when cancer brought a stop to it all) so we LOVED to travel.

I can offer a couple of other ideas. The first is how we did it througout our USA travels whether flying or driving. We get a Rand Mcnally Road Atlas that shows the whole country in the front, followed by the individual states. This is a big picture view to any trip. We picked a city or other destination for a trip based on just anything we had heard about in our life time that seemed attractive to us. We almost never visited the same place twice. After we shrunk down the posibilities for a new trip we would go to the local AAA (Auto Club) and get their TourBooks for the states of interest. These are 3/4" to 1" or more thick books and they are the most complete and well organized books for the USA traveler I have ever seen. The organization of the TourBooks is, general information about using the Tour Book in the front followed by the information for each state covered in a particular TourBook. Each state is broken down in the following order:

Historical Timeline
Fast Facts
Temperature Chart
(GEM) Great Experience for Members
Recreational Areas Chart
Points of Interest (comprehensive, with individual descriptions)
Lodgings & Restaurants (individually rated and prices are listed)

The TourBooks are updated regularly - we flew our RV-6A down to Brunswick Georgia last year and the TourBook I just pulled out of our closet where we keep them is entitled "Georgia, North Carolina & South Carolina TourBook 2011 Edition" and it is 1 1/8" thick. We kept them for trip planning in the future after we obtained them but we always got the latest if possible before the final trip planning stage. You must be a AAA member to get these books but they are free to members. I could send you my old ones but it would cost and there are memories in them for me - better to join if you are not a member.

The second I have less experience with but what I had was excellent. In 1991 my coworkers at JPL gave me a book for some reason that I don't recall (I just saw a note that Jeanine wrote inside about it) "The Smithsonian Guide to Historic America, The Pacific States, California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii". The quality of this book, including the photographs, has to be seen to be appreciated. Based on this book I planned a fly-in for our SNA based flying club to Hood River Oregon (supplemented by the AAA TourBook). The section on the Columbia River Gorge with the beautiful photograph of Multnomah Falls compelled me to go there (it's not too far from Van's Aircraft if you decide to go there). It was my favorite fly-in of the many we organized I believe. This book has a price of $18.95 when it was published in 1989. It is a paperback but the paper quality is the best I have seen. ISBN 1-55670-106-3. On the second and third pages there is a map of the USA with roman numeraled regions and on the right side at the bottom the numerals are decoded:

I Virgina and the Capital Region
II Southern New England
III The Mid-Atlantic States
IV Northern New England
V The Deep South
VI The Great Lakes States
VII The Pacific States
VIII The Rocky Mountain States
IX The Carolinas and the Appalatian States
X The Desert States
XI Texas abd the Arkansas River Valley
XII The Plains States

I assume this is a series and I assume they are available from the Smithsonian Institution but the publisher is listed as Stewart, Tabori & Chang, Inc., 740 Broadway, New York, NY10003. For just reading about the trip to the USA and imagining what it will be like I think this series would be a very good source.

Bob Axsom

I second

Rinker Buck's Flight of Passage. Great read.

In that vein ...

Brent Colvin said:

Rinker Buck's Flight of Passage. Great read.

Click to expand...

I had a different idea of what you were looking for but if you are interested in that I would also recommend:

Stephen Coonts' book - The Cannibal Queen - An Areal Odyssey Across America

or:

Michael Parfit's book - Chasing the Glory - Travels Across America

perhaps even:

Frank Kingston Smith's book - Weekend Wings - The Complete Adventures of the Original Weekend Pilot

Bob Axsom

I genuinely appreciate the replies so far, including Bob's rich memories & suggestions. Obviously, books on travel and about flying touch us, and good books especially so.

Jack

You know, flying cross-country in a small airplane can be so inspiring, it is surprising there are not more books along these lines. I would add "Zero 3 Bravo" by Mariana Gosnell to the suggestions above. "Flight of Passage" is perhaps the best of the bunch, and the books by Gosnell and Coonts are runner-ups.