Among the many writers of motorcycle and automobile literature, the name Peter Egan stands among the top, thanks to his numerous articles in Cycle World and Road & Track magazines since the early 1980s. His chops as a rider, driver, and writer are well-known. Perhaps less well-known is his status as a pilot. It is that part of Peter Egan that comes to light in his latest book, Landings in America: Two People, One Summer, and a Piper Cub, out next month from Octane Press.
The book is the true story of an airborne odyssey that Egan and his wife, Barbara, embarked on in June 1987 from Flabob Airport in Riverside, California, aboard their 1945 single-engine J-3 Piper Cub. Though the story is about their remarkable six-week-long “low and slow” 7,000+ mile flight around America, the range of the story is greater than what can be measured in distance.
The influence of all the facets of Egan’s talent and background shows up in this new book, including his self-effacing sense of humor, as evidenced by his recollection of the results of the pilot’s ground school he and Barb took together:
When the course was over, Barb and I took our official FAA written exams and passed. She got a ninety-four, while I scored a ninety-three. Barb has occasionally reminded me of this. She apparently knows one more thing than I do, and both of us are six or seven cards short of a full deck when it comes to perfect flying. I often wonder what it is we don’t know. Probably nothing important…
His many years in the saddles of motorcycles, including road racing motorcycles and cars, enrich the story, as well. He shared a sad memory he had as he peered down from the cockpit of his Piper Cub at the old Riverside Raceway:
This was a track I had raced on regularly for the past seven years, with both cars and motorcycles. From the Cub, with its panoramic open door and side window, I could see the elevated sweep of Turn Seven, a sight that made me cringe slightly. This was the spot where I’d crashed my Kawasaki race bike during an AFM motorcycle race in 1983.
I’d been trying to pass two riders on the outside of the turn when I lost traction and low-sided. I smacked my helmet face-down into the pavement and slid off the track in a shower of sparks and a cloud of dust but was completely unhurt. Thank you, Bell Helmets and Bates Leathers.
About thirty seconds later, two riders who’d been just ahead of me collided in the sweeping turn before the front straight. One was pronounced dead and the other broke his neck and was said to be paralyzed. I retired from motorcycle racing at the end of the season and decided to stick with racing cars and their stout frames of steel tubing.
Landings in America is much more than a travelogue, though Egan’s narrative is vivid, entertaining, and educational. His flying memoir is a tribute to friends from his past, including his days serving in the Army in Vietnam, whom he visited on this journey and hoped to see again, but never did.
Unlike his series of Leanings books, which drew on his Cycle World columns of the same title, this book is all-new. It is a story built around a once-in-a-lifetime flight in a Piper Cub, that’s true, but it also touches aspects of Egan’s life that make it autobiographical.
His flight plan included a route of remembrance, recalling how events and people in the early days of his youth helped shape his life at the time and in years to come.
There was the recollection of former Continental Airlines pilot Ken Morgan, whom Egan had met down in Texas and visited again on the flight. He learned it may have been Morgan who flew the plane that took him to Vietnam in 1969, and back home again in 1970. After reconnecting with Morgan on the way through Texas, Egan mused of that flight home, “Ken Morgan may have ushered in one of the best days of my life. And, I’d like to believe he did.”
Florida brought back memories of his father, feeding seagulls on the beach where his parents had moved later in life from Egan’s boyhood home in Elroy, Wisconsin, and of the night he passed away in a memory care home back in Wisconsin:
He was eighty-four years old when he died, on the Fourth of July in 2000. The night we drove home from the nursing home, the sky was filled with fireworks.
The story documents the ups and downs of taking an ancient, tiny, fabric-skinned aircraft on such a long trip. Navigation was by VFR (visual flight rules) with a broken compass. He addresses the challenges of finding lodging, food, and fuel while literally on the wing. The flights were vulnerable to the weather, as they had to contend with the mechanical limitations and problems that an old plane can encounter, all while operating with very limited cargo capacity. It all figures into a range of challenges along the way. Sixty-two full-color images help tell the story.
Going home is an underlying theme in the book. Egan’s warm memories of the various places he has called home, be it Elroy, Madison, near Stoughton, Wisconsin, or Costa Mesa, California, show that life can be good most anywhere you make it. However, there is always a special place and time in your life that is your true home, your point of origin. For both Peter and Barb, that place was in Wisconsin.
Peter Egan is not only among the very best motorcycle journalists, but also one of the best all-around writers. He brings wit, poignancy, and insight to everything he writes. This story is told with a mix of laugh-out-loud humor, moving personal remembrance, and an unending feeling of the fun this adventure was. In Landings in America, you will read one of Egan’s best works.
Landings in America: Two People, One Summer, and a Piper Cub will be released on August 12. It can be ordered now at a $5 discount directly from Octane Press. While you’re waiting for the book to arrive, you can watch an interview with Egan by Octane Press CEO and Publisher Lee Klancher on YouTube.
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