I mapped out the final route and laid out the maps on the floor of my apartment so I could see the entire trip. Then I filmed it with my N95.

If you’re at this web site then you already know that I’m going to be documenting the entire trip online. But… it’s the how and why that I think is interesting.

The How…
I’ll be using my Nokia N95.

The Why…
The J-3 Cub doesn’t offer much room, even if I end up doing the trip on my own. This is going to be a five to seven day journey and I need all the space I can get for holding extra oil, clothes, water, and a hand full of small electronic devices.

The N95 has everything I need to blog in a small package. I have communication, navigation, and the ability to document the trip. I can take 30 frame per second video and 5 megapixel images, and I can upload to the web without a separate computer. I can do all of this in less room that it takes to put an iPhone in my pocket.

The trip starts in 14 days.

Cheers
Paul

I’ve starting planning and plotting my route. I can’t take credit for the route though, that credit belongs to Erik Presten who was nice enough to spend time with me last weekend showing me a route that he has taken many times.

I showed up at the airport with my maps and my GPS ready to sit down for a gruelling session of poking around for airports that were all within a hundred miles of each other, out of the way of mountains, and at altitudes that were suitable for a cub. Surprisingly, none of that was needed. Erik had it all in his head. He literally handed me a piece of paper and said start writing. I guess he’s done the trip once or twice.

Here’s the route Eric worked out. I’ll map this out using Google Earth or Google maps later so you can see it on a map but for now here’s the list of airports.

• Denton TX
• Breckenridge TX
• Sweetwater TX
• Pecos TX
• El Paso South
  I was warned to watch out for DEA helicopters here. Apparently if you don’t smell like kerosene (your not a corporate jet) they assume you’re running drugs. Getting forced to the ground by a DEA helicopter would make a nice blog post huh?
• Teresa New Mexico
  Going to visit a big aviation museum here.
• Deming New Mexico
  There’s some weird stuff in the air here. I was told that the military does a lot of of drone testing and training here.
• Lordsberg New Mexico
• Wilcox Arizona
• Merana Airport NW of Tucson Arizona
  I hope to stop here and meet a bunch of Aerobatics performers here.
• Buckeye Arizona
• Blythe
• Twentynine Palms
• Apple Valley
• Bakersfield
• Harris Ranch
  I may put in for the night and get a nice steak here.
• Los Banos
• Tracey
• Air Park
  And this will be the new home for my plane.

More on the route later.

We’re currently trying to plan what to take in on the trip. At the moment we are trying to decide what clothes we’ll need. So far the thinking is this…

• 1 pair of shorts
• 1 pair of jeans
• 4 pair of socks
• 4 pair of undies
• 1 short sleeve shirt
• 1 long sleeve shirt
• Perhaps a fleece or jacket in case it gets cold

That’s got to last us for a week and a half to two weeks. It’s not much and I think we’ll end up at the laundry mat every night.

I’ll post a picture of our “cargo hold” soon and you’ll see exactly why we have to plan as if we were taking a trip to the moon. There’s not a whole lot of space.

Next… we decide what electronics and gadgets we need in order to blog along the way.