Blog

When Hitchhiking is Okay

• September 2008
• Fly

Un Ciel Pour Le Soleil–Charles Dube
[audio:https://stephdavis.co/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/03-un-ciel-pour-le-soleil-1.mp3]

I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, and properly terrified of hitchhiking. I was taught from an early age that hitchhiking leads to being imprisoned in a basement for several decades. Or worse. Since I grew up to be someone who spent massive amounts of time traveling across the country alone, I firmly stuck to a no-hitchhiking policy. I mean, as far as I could see, nothing really good could come of it, whether hitchhiker or hitchhikee (?), and the potential consequences are definitely impressive and not cool. A clear case of risk far outweighing reward. And it sure is nice when anything is that simple, if you ask me, what with everything else in life always being so confusing and situational….

As usual, when you start to put small airplanes in the mix, all the rules turn upside down. Forgive me if I digress, but it’s amazing how expensive little planes are, and how much tending they require. It’s kind of like horses, but not as odorous. I’m pretty tight with the Skydive Moab operation, a massive team of 4. This means I am privy to the constant and interesting episodes of the behind the scenes shenanigans of what it takes to keep a Cessna in the air, to meet the steady demand for tandem skydive jumps…..

For the last month or so, due to the original Cessna flipping in a wind storm, they were using a rental plane, which had to be fetched from Arizona and flown over to Moab. It was a nice little Cessna, but had a pretty weak engine for skydiving needs, and couldn’t go as high as the old one. Fine for tandem customers, but not as sweet for the local wingsuit flyers, i.e., me. But until a new, improved Cessna could be located and purchased, the rental plane kept the jumps going, which was good.

So I admit, I was not totally thrilled about the rental Cessna, until it broke and needed to be fixed. It was not completely broken, and was still flyable over to the Grand Junction airport, where it could be tended. The main problem was this little part.

It’s about six inches long, made out of a piece of pipe, and costs $455.32. I’m not sure if that includes the two hose clamps. Somehow the whole repair job came to a thousand or two dollars, in the end. How can that be? Airplanes!

Happily for me, none of this was my responsibility, and I just took advantage of the situation to hitchhike on the plane from Grand Junction to Moab, a flight path which goes over Grand Junction,

Colorado National Monument,

and the Fisher Towers.

At sunset….

This may not completely qualify as hitchhiking. The ride I caught to Grand Junction was, I admit, in a car with people I know: Mario, the pilot and Paul, the tandem master.

And I was at least partially invited to fly back with Mario. But since this is as close as I get to actual hitchhiking, it made me reflect a little on risk and reward. I think it’s okay to do dangerous stuff, as long as you are smart about it.

And you know, hitchhiking is probably fine, as long as you are fully prepared to jump out….just don’t forget your parachute 🙂