St. Barth - Saba / Cessna 182RG Skylane (N7126H) / VFR

This flight ended in tragedy, I'm afraid.

All went well until it was time to land on Saba's tiny 1300-foot runway. On the first pass, I was just going too fast, so I went around. On the second pass, I was still a bit fast, and I took too long to touch down. I braked hard, but I was still going a few miles per hour as I rolled off the runway and over the edge of the cliff. The aircraft hit some rocks and was a write-off. I managed to survive.

I quickly recovered and had a new Cessna teleported to the island, with the same registration number. Ain't virtual reality grand?

I'll charitably assume that I nearly killed myself on this flight because it's so hard to land at Saba, and I got a bit overconfident (and I was rusty).

Saba - Sint Maarten - St. Barth / Cessna 182RG Skylane (N7126H) / VFR

These were just short flights among the various islands in the vicinity of Princess Juliana airport on Sint Maarten. All were carried out uneventfully. Landing at Juliana was a lot easier than landing at Saba, that's for sure. By the time I got to St. Barth, though, it was getting dark, so I stopped there for now.

St. Bart's - Saba / Cessna 182RG Skyland (N7126H) / VFR

In so-so weather, I decided to make a short but fairly challenging flight from St. Bart's to Saba, home of the world's shortest commercial airport runway. It's only about a 20-mile trip. The one runway of the airport at Saba is officially closed, but I got my virtual waiver to use it, anyway (normally only aircraft of the government-owned airline Windward Air—Winair—are allowed to use it).

The flight was mostly easy. I flew only about 1500 feet over the water so I didn't worry about my altitude too much. I do have survival gear on board but since I'm surrounded by inhabited islands at close range, hopefully I'd be rescued promptly if I went down.

The challenging part was at Saba. The tiny runway at this nominally international airport is only 1312 feet long, and ends in steep cliffs that drop to jagged rocks at either end.

Prior to making the “real” flight, I had “simulated a simulation” to practice at the airport. I had survived all of my practice take-offs and landings, including one go around that I was constrained to do after I was unable to stop on the runway and rolled off the cliff (by immediately selecting full throttle I was able to pick up enough speed to avoid a crash). So by the time I made this “simulated real” flight, I was reasonably ready.

The key was simply to go slowly and touchdown as early as possible. The wind was pretty strong and gusting from the south, although visibility was good. I touched down over the numbers at about 60 knots and braked as strongly as I could, and came to a stop just beyond the (only) turnoff to the tiny terminal. With this airstrip you feel as though you should have an arresting hook hanging from the airframe.

All went well and I taxied over to the terminal. The FlyTampa scenery for this island is a dead ringer for the real airport; the resemblance is astonishing and it's hard to tell the two apart (I looked for some YouTube videos of real landings and I had to watch each of them for a bit in order to make sure it was truly a real aircraft and not just a simulation with FlyTampa scenery).

The aircraft was also a pleasure to fly; Carenado's Cessna 182 is great.

Redlands - Santa Paula / Cessna 182RG Skylane (N7049S) / VFR

I'm pleased to say that this was a textbook-perfect flight to Santa Paula. Always at the right altitude, always right on course, everything under control … and I never used the (primitive) autopilot on the aircraft. Landing was very smooth, despite the less-than-ideal circumstances of Santa Paula. There was some traffic around, including some other GA traffic in my vicinity around Van Nuys, but I had no problems. I conducted the entire flight well clear of Class B, C, and D airspace, so no contact with ATC was necessary (both REI and SZP are uncontrolled).

Santa Paula - Redlands / Cessna 182RG Skyland (N7049S) / VFR

A routine little flight from the small Santa Paula airport to the small Redlands airport, which took about 45 minutes. I flew entirely by hand, and held my altitude and course pretty well. However, after crossing VNY, I made a mistake and tried to follow the 095 radial to POM, when I should have been following the 095 radial out of VNY. I noticed that I was drifting over the mountains and the needle still wasn't lining up, and finally I figured out what was wrong and returned to my correct course.

Landing was very smooth at Redlands. It was just starting to get a bit foggy so I suppose I landed just in time. And I left Santa Paula at dusk, which I interpret as meeting the restriction of no night operations at that airport.

Big Bear City - Santa Paula / Beechcraft Baron 58 (N3862S) / VFR

This is a flight I know well, and I completed it without any problems. It was VFR and I didn't ask for flight following, but I did monitor ATC all the way, since the SoCal airspace is crowded.

I'm a bit rusty on the Baron but I did okay. I bounced slightly on landing. Landing at Santa Paula is difficult. But I got down okay. Weather was good, except for a bit of mistiness right near my destination that I had to avoid.

Flagstaff - Valle / Beechcraft Bonanza A36 (N3759W) / VFR

I was inspired to make this short flight by the discovery that Bedrock City, a Flintstones-themed amusement park of sorts, still exists in Valle, a tiny town on the highway that leads from the Grand Canyon to parts south. I visited this park ages ago, as a small child, and it looked to be hanging by a shoestring back then, and yet it's still in business today. And, at least when viewed from a satellite, it looks like it's still hanging by a shoestring. But I decided to fly over to Valle to make a (virtual) visit to the place.

The flight was VFR under excellent weather conditions. I had a route planned but ended up just following highways up to Valle, making a turn at Clark (KCMR) in Williams. It was quite a short flight. Bedrock City is very close to the airport and easy to spot from the air on the way in.