I’m very excited to announce that during the month of August we’ll be publishing a 4-post series, packed with pictures, tips and lessons learned by our own Tom Nery, detailing his longest journey. During the summer of 2013, Tom made an EPIC flight from Mansfield, MA in eastern Massachusetts out to Catalina Island in California!

Not many private pilots get to experience long trips, flying across regions of the country, let alone the entire continent… Usually this type of trip is reserved for pilots attending a major event (Sun’N’Fun, Oshkosh, etc…). Other pilots make extended flights when they purchase or even sell an aircraft… Of course, there are a variety of other reasons too.

My longest trip was from Mansfield, MA out to St. Louis in 2009 for the National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA) SAFECON, or said another way, the national flight team championships. At a prior time I attempted another long distance flight from Clarksville, TN (sorry if we have any readers from Clarksville, but after my visit I can see why the Monkeys sang a song about how the last train has already gone to Clarksville…). In any event, my long distance flight was foiled when the aircraft I was supposed to pick up and fly back to Massachusetts was not only out of annual, but was literally unairworthy beyond the last of an annual sign off! To top it off, the plane really wasn’t even close to being fly-able, despite what I had been told before embarking on my trip to retrieve the aircraft…

Tom’s flight from Massachusetts to California & back had its share of ups & downs (literally he took off and landed a bunch of times…)! He flew VFR & IFR, had a mechanical issue impact his plan but in the end he made the full journey, very successfully, might I add.

This series first ran in the KING Aviation-Mansfield “KING’s Wings” monthly newsletter (which if you don’t read, you really should!) and I’m very happy that Tom has agreed to share it here as well… Each Wednesday throughout August you can expect a new post from Tom outlining a portion of his trip. I know you’ll enjoy the series as well as our other posts during August!

-Fly Safe, @MTElia1B9