Sedona - Pilot's Rest - Seligman / Cessna 182RG II (N7049S) / VFR

Tremendous Internet problems caused by France Télécom have made it extremely difficult to fly for a month now. For example, since December 18, I've had a decent Internet connection only for a few hours; the rest of the time it either doesn't work at all or “works” at around 5 kbps (1600 times slower than the speed that FT advertises for the line, and ten times slower than an old-fashioned dial-up modem).

I need the Internet connection to look up charts, to check weather and airport data, and of course to connect to VATSIM if I plan to fly online. All of this requires something a lot faster and more reliable than a dial-up modem from the 1980s.

I managed to fly from Sedona to Pilot's Rest, and then to Seligman, in my crusty little Cessna. The weather was good. I just hopped onto a radial to the Drake VOR, veering north a bit to avoid the mountains around Jerome, and then turned north to Pilot's Rest, a tiny little gravel strip that I find endearing because of its charming name. After sitting there for a while (there are no services available at this private airstrip), I started back up again and flew to Seligman, about 43 miles north of DRK. I had never been to Seligman before. I discovered that I had not been missing anything.

That's all I could manage. I have some free days for flying coming up because of holidays (which is very rare), and unless FT gets its act together, I'm worried that they will be wasted due to the negligence of this ISP.