Saturday May 20, 2006

Saturday May 20, 2006 A very early start. Awoke at 4, wheels up at 5. A smooth flight to Wickenburg (E25) while watching the sunrise. Michael and I refueled and took off for Glendale (GEU), a suburb of Phoenix . About 14 miles from Glendale we ran into light headwinds, and since Michaels range precluded any headwinds if he was going to make it to Glendale, he made the wise decision to find a suitable field and land before being at the mercy of a dead stick landing.

I continued to Glendale and made an unremarkable landing with the exception that my radio went fritzy, and the tower had a very hard time understanding me. It turned out that a wire had frayed and was grounding, screwing up the signal. Once corrected, I tested the radio with the tower and all seems well again.

We'll be in Glendale/Phoenix for a few days, stirring up media interest. On Monday I'm flying home (by commercial airline) for two days to attend my sons college graduation. So there may be a short gap in the Journal.

I'm starting to receive calls from all over the country from people following the trip, offering invitations, and asking what they can do to help. There are two areas where we definitely would appreciate your assistance: The first is by stirring up media interest. Call your local newspapers and TV stations, and tell them about the trip. Send them to http://www.RedBaronCoastToCoast.com and suggest they read it, to get the flavor of the trip. Suggest they cover the trip, do interviews, etc...

The other area, crass as it may be, is monetary support. This project is quite expensive, and we could use all the support we can get. For example, the fuel for the planes and support rig is over $5,000. Ouch!