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Gannon: After flying his own plane to 155 countries, feeling more like a global citizen.
Photo by David Brooks/San Diego Union-Tribune
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In September 2000, Bob Gannon (OPM 16, 1990) took off from El Cajon, California, in an aging single-engine Cessna named Lucky Lady Too. Ten years later, this past January, he landed at the same airport after visiting all fifty U.S. states and 155 countries, logging 2,200 hours of flight time, and traveling some 300,000 miles, the equivalent of a trip to the moon and halfway back, said SignOnSanDiego.com (January 8, 2011). The epic voyage also earned Gannon’s Lady the distinction of going to more places in the world than any other aircraft.
“I think the trip probably made me more of a global citizen,” Gannon told San Diego’s KSWB-TV (January 8, 2011). “I got to see my own country and my own people through the eyes of other people and other countries.” As for special moments, he cited flying medical supplies into Iraq and returning to Vietnam, where he had served as a medic.
Asked how he managed to fly his longest leg, eighteen hours from California to Hawaii, without an autopilot, Gannon replied with a grin, “If I fell asleep, I’d die.”
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