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Day 5: Monday, October 26th I get up this morning after a decent night at the casino hotel. Parker is right on the Colorado and the hotel has some very pretty views. This is today’s route. The yellow mess on the left is LA and the section in the middle with the magenta trapezoid around it is the Coachella Valley, containing Palm Springs, etc. But what about the strange sudden dogleg to the south? Well, funny you should ask. About 10 years ago, after I got the origina

Day 3-ish: Saturday, October 24 Yesterday I didn’t continue the trip as there was bad weather over the Southwest of the US. I get a vivid demonstration of just how bad, when I arrive at my destination for today - Deming, in New Mexico. The airport manager, who kindly gives me a lift into town, is driving an ex-police car which looks like it’s been in a machine-gun-based gang fight recently. According to the manager, it was pristine just 36 hours earlier, but then a hailstorm

Day 1: Wednesday, October 21 Day 1 dawns, well, early. I’m not an early riser by choice, but I need to get going and so I force myself to wake up and I’m glad I do - this is the Alabama morning. And very pretty it is. Alabama dawn I get to the airport in good time and when I set off the air is glassy smooth - always much appreciated by pilots. I fly west along the shoreline from Gulf Shores to Mississippi. Bizarrely, when I land at a little airport, the guy leaning on a

October, 2026 For over 30 years, ever since I first came to the USA to learn how to fly, I have wanted to fly a small aircraft across the whole country. When you grow up somewhere like the UK, where you can cross the country in a day by car, the USA is just so large it’s hard to grasp. I never had any interest in driving across it - too boring - but flying a light aircraft seemed like a great way to experience the vastness of the country that is now my home. In 2026, I finall

Ten years ago, when I was learning all about Magni gyroplanes and learning to fly one, I read an article in a flying magazine by someone who had traveled to Italy to build one at their factory. I thought that was such a cool idea - you would be getting a brand-new aircraft, get to build it yourself so you would know all about it, but getting to do it with the craftsmen and engineers of Magni looking over your shoulder; helping, and ensuring everything is done perfectly. Ideal

So you're thinking about acquiring a gyroplane but are unsure what the costs are? You've come to the right place. Let me break it down into its constituent components; these are the cost of acquiring one, the annual costs you can expect, and the variable cost you'll see per flying hour. Purchasing costs: New. Gyros come in three main configurations, all of which are two-seaters. These are: Open-cockpit tandem (one seat in front, one behind) - most intense experience Closed-

A gyroplane looks like this. At first glance it may look like a helicopter but actually it works and flies more like a normal plane....

Why do people learn to fly? Often it’s because they want to be able to travel from A to B, ideally quickly and in air-conditioned comfort with luggage. If this is what you‘re looking for, then gyroplanes are not for you. With a maximum speed of around 110mph, gyroplanes are comparatively slow, and they can either hold two people with very limited baggage or one person with a bit more. So a family of four with luggage is not going to go somewhere in a gyro. But another major r

Most students go into flight training with the expectation that they will fly in gyros afterwards. But how do you do that? Many people...

So you've learned to fly a gyroplane and are thinking about acquiring one. But now you're wondering, "What could I do with one"? Anyone in aviation will tell you there’s no such thing as the perfect aircraft. It's like the old adage about most products and services: "Do you want it Fast, Cheap, or Good - pick any two". In aviation, there are more variables than that but there's no single craft that’s perfect in all aspects: an aircraft that can take you from A to B fast, with