Interesting flying vacation

Diana

Diana

Final Approach
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Diana
A friend of ours has an interesting way to fly for his vacation. He gets ready to go, and then just flies whichever direction the wind is blowing. It would be hard for me to be that flexible, but he said he enjoyed doing that. Could you be flexible enough to enjoy doing that?
 
Could I enjoy it, yup.

Do I have the flexibility...NOPE.
 
I suppose...I've never really tried it - at least not since my college days. Could turn out to be more expensive than planning things in advance.
 
That would certainly be a pleasant change, it seems I never fly ANYWHERE without a headwind.....
 
Diana said:
A friend of ours has an interesting way to fly for his vacation. He gets ready to go, and then just flies whichever direction the wind is blowing. It would be hard for me to be that flexible, but he said he enjoyed doing that. Could you be flexible enough to enjoy doing that?
Click to expand...

Well for me that would mean always flying east and never getting home.:D
 
Unless there is a nor'easter blowing, next stop after Long Island is Ireland...

I suppose a couple of coin tosses would do, though. But, no, we always want to head west to the kids and parents.

Great concept.
 
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Only works until you get to the coast!

Sounds interesting although I think I like having an objective.
 
Diana said:
Could you be flexible enough to enjoy doing that?
Click to expand...
When I was younger I would take car trips that way although I didn't care which way the wind was blowing...
 
That is what Cathy and I hope to do this spring. No destination, just go for awhile.

Mark B
 
I always thought that it would be cool to take a couple hundred bucks and a weekend's worth of clothes (both warm and cool-weather) to the airport terminal and start walking between ticket counters to see who had the best deals on their open seats on flights. Let that determine where I went for vacation for a few days. Of course, that was before TSA started ruining the fun of flying.

I've never thought of doing it GA, though. It would be GREAT to have that much flexibility in life.
 
Kinda goes against the FARs about flight planning, but I'd assume a destination is chosen at some point before the engine starts. Maybe I'm too anal retentive to actually do it, but the idea sounds exciting.
 
Not a bad idea. I may try that this summer when I have some time. although I don't think it'll truly be on a whim. I always have some idea in my head of what I want to do.
 
I think I'll be doing a modified version of that when I head west on my diddy-bopping journey. I have 4 places that I have to be during the trip.....visit my brother, visit my sister, pick up Tony, arrive at Gaston's.....but other than that, who knows. I've got lots of ideas, I'm buying lots of charts, will just see where the weather, not the wind, will let me go. (okay so the wind might also play in the equation).
 
Wow, that sounds great! Like mentioned before, I would enjoy it, but I don't have that kind of flexibility.
 
It could work for most folks if there were just a few guidelines- a time frame and a general idea of where one might stop and turn around, not to mention a look at the weather outlook.
I'd like to try it sometime, especially in something good for low and slow flying.
Reminds me of Richard Bach's little barnstorming adventure described in his book Nothing by Chance... he just grabbed a sleeping bag and a map and headed out for a few eeks,looking for places to land his Fleet and give rides to people to earn money for gas and food.

The idea was to see if it was still possible to do it the way the old barnstormers did- puttering along mostly with the wind, looking for a town that looked promising, and taking things as they came.
Mind you, he was already seeing a good income from his writing, didn't have to get back to work any particular time, and it was a long time ago when there was more open airspace and farmers were a little more laid-back, but I'm pretty sure he didn't take longer than he'd planned and didn't spend much more than he earned giving rides (beyond fixed costs for the biplane)... even got friends to help him with repairs for free.
It's a must-read book for anyone who likes that kind of flying... he and his friends seemed to have a great time.
 
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