How cool is that? Our little project got coverage on one of the blogs of aviationweek.com!
This shows how such actions can have impact on wider audience and help promote General Aviation. If you’re a blogger and want to write something about our project, please contact us. We’ll be very happy to answer your questions and send you some material. Whatever your audience, just like for donations, every post, every link counts.
Click here to read what aviationweek.com published about Flying Across America.
And continue to buy miles using the yellow buttons in the right hand column, we need your financial support more than ever.
myTransponder.com is a social network for pilots, and one of our earliest partners. In other words a kind of aviation-oriented facebook where pilots and aviation enthusiasts can connect, share information, and exchange about aviation.
We had a group there from the begining of the project, and we now created a dedicated account: FlyingAcrossAmerica. If you’re already a myTransponder user, we’d love you to friend us. If you’re not a member, you should join today. This is a great place to connect with fellow pilots and make aviation more social.
Later on this week, we will publish our scheduled filghts there, making it the tool of choice for following our trip. See you there.
In one month and one day, Vincent will fly across the Atlantic ocean to meet Jason and finally start the flight across America to promote General Aviation. This seems very close now and it’s exciting, but there is still a lot of uncertainty in this project.
The biggest uncertainty factor so far is the funding. It is not ensured yet and we’re working hard to find more patrons and sponsors. We also prepare some surprises like giveaways that will take place during or shortly after the flight. We do all what we can to keep the flight route as planned. Approximately 50% of the money available at this time is our own, the rest coming from patrons and sponsors. Please help us and buy miles now using the yellow buttons on the right hand side of this page.
If you have an aviation product that you want to promote, please contact us. We’re looking for sponsors and possible giveaways.
The organization of the logistics at our stops is progressing as well. We found great fans at many of the stops that are really helpful. Having them is not only a great support but also a serious motivation to make this project a success. At this moment, we miss local supporters at Sweetwater (25th to 27th of June), Roswell (8th to 9th of July) and Pensacola (13th to 14th of July). If you are in the area and can help us with finding cheap accommodation and media contacts, this would be great.
Despite all this uncertain factors, we remain optimistic and don’t want to modify (read shorten) the plan at this point is time. Aviation is a vector of solidarity and we already experienced it many times so far, and we believe that it will continue and make this project a success. We count on you!
The goal of our project is to show to the wider possible audience how good General Aviation is for our community and that it is accessible to anybody. If you like this idea you can help us in many ways:
- Buy miles using the yellow buttons on the right hand part of this page to support us financially
- Talk about us in your local flying community and help spreading the word
- Come to meet us at one of our stops and help us get in touch with the locals and get media coverage there
- Buy t-shirts, sweaters, mouse pads or drink-ware from our online shop
- Follow us as @FlyingAcrossUSA on Twitter, and like our Facebook Fan Page
We need you support now - Help us promote General Aviation!
As time approaches, we refine our flight plan. It’s now stable enough to be revealed, so here we go:
- 21st of June: Dunnellon -> Daytona Beach -> Destin
- 22nd of June: Destin -> Baton Rouge
- 23rd of June: Baton-Rouge -> Houston
- 25th of June: Houston -> Sweetwater
- 27th of June: Sweetwater -> El-Paso
- 29th of June: El-Paso -> Prescott
- 1st of July: Prescott -> Catalina
- 3rd of July: Catalina -> Santa-Maria
- 5th of July: Santa-Maria -> Las Vegas
- 6th of July: Las Vegas -> Sedona
- 8th of July: Sedona -> Roswell
- 9th of July: Roswell - Austin
- 11th of July: Austin -> Lafayette
- 13th of July: Lafayette -> Pensacola
- 14th of July: Pensacola -> Daytona Beach
We’ll soon post more here about the activities planned at each stop. There will be giveaways, introductory flights, visits of local aviation points of interests, and much more. And if you feel like just having a drink and shaking hands with us while talking about flying, this sounds great to us.
As we work on the organization, we’d like if you can let us know if you feel like meeting us at one of our stops and join the party. You can get in touch via our contact form. We’ll keep you updated.
Today marks 3 months until the start of our flight! I’m pleased to announce Cessna has just signed on as a sponsor of our trip! To help us raise money they’ve donated an entire Cessna Private Pilot Course on DVD and the internet! Complete with logbook, E6B, everything! A great way to get you or someone you know started off right with their flying!
We’ll soon be launching a raffle for this item so stay tuned to the website and grab a hold of our RSS Feed for updates.
Or better yet jump on the official Flying Across America Newsletter for updates on our flight along with our promotional give-a-ways like the Cessna kit.
If you’re new to this blog and to our project, let me summarize it in a few words for you: we’re two pilots and will fly from Florida to California and back in a Cessna 150, to promote General Aviation and raise funds with the goal of making a donation to an aviation oriented charity when the flight will be completed. Check the links on top of this page to learn more about our project.
The flight will start on the 19th or 20th of June 2010 - some details are still to be defined - and will last for approximately one month. We want to meet as many aviation fans as possible on our route and preach for the values associated to General Aviation: friendship and solidarity, self-development, service to the community and fun.
As our departure date is approaching, we’re more actively looking for supporters and fans, along our route and in the whole country. We’re seeking for local support, help to spread the word, and financial support. Click here to find the best way for you to support us.
We believe this project is a great way to promote General Aviation and we want to associate other aviation fans to it. If you live anywhere close to our route and want to meet us, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Your help is required to make this project a success ! Get involved right now and become part of the adventure.
Vincent had the luck to visit the Airbus site in Toulouse, and came back with some goodies for you, so… It’s giveaway time again!
The rule is simple: any miles purchase between now and the 13th of February at 1900 UTC qualifies for a random selection of winners. We’ve a red Airbus A380 “Remove before flight” keyring, a black Airbus A350 XWB lanyard and a blue Airbus A380 lanyard to give away.
Take a chance, even buying a single $3.75 mile qualifies you! Use the yellow buttons on the right-hand side of this page to buy miles now, and don’t forget to mention which one you’d like to receive if you win.
Good luck to all, and don’t forget this is to support General Aviation.
Good news relating to General Aviation are not exactly filling up newspapers these days - this is also why we organize our flight - so when positive things happens it’s good to spread the word about it…
Recently, the post 9/11 security restrictions dramatically impacting General Aviation activities at Reagan National airport have been eased. The activity there was reduced from 10 to 12 GA movements per hour down to 1 or 2 per day.
The Sun Gazette published a long article about that on Sunday, and I could not resist to republish some parts of it here:
“To the extent airports are suffering, it reduces our revenue stream,” Hynes said. “Airports are important to the local economy. They don’t take our bucks, they give us bucks.”
…
According to COG’s most recent report, Dulles and Reagan National airports in 2005 employed 28,570 people, who were paid a total of about $1.28 billion. The airports took in about $6.5 billion in revenue and paid $326 million in state and local taxes and $547 million in federal taxes.
…
“Sometimes there is pressure to rezone property,” Bennett said. “The last thing we want is non-compatible land use around the airport.”
Reading that is just so good… The discussion in comments on the Sun Gazette article is quite animated, and hopefully some pro-GA users corrected some wrong things that were said by less educated ones.
As Jason recently changed homebase, our flight will no longer start from Ocala, but from nearby Dunnellon airport. The rest of the route is unchanged, we still plan to fly first to Daytona Beach and then all the way to Santa Catalina Island, and back.
Now that my flight out of Frankfurt is booked, we’ll soon work on a more detailed planning and possible events. If you live anywhere close to our route and want to meet us or possibly support us at a stop, contact us ! What we want before all is to meet locals, be they pilots or not.
From the financial point of view, Vincent’s flight ticket from Frankfurt is now booked, and a quarter of the required costs are already covered. Half of the funding comes from our own budget, the rest being your generous donations, from the sales of tee-shirts, mousepads and drinkware sales. The price of each item contains a 2 Miles donation.
We need your support more than ever to show that General Aviation is a great community and to help spread the word about it. If you have a blog, please link to our site and post about it. Facebook users can join our group or become fan of our project. You can also follow us on Twitter as @FlyingAcrossUSA.