Book excerpt: Flying a small plane to Alaska is an adventure many pilots only dream of. In 2008, the author, a student pilot, and his brother, a flight instructor, embarked on this adventure in an airplane old enough to be their mother. On their journey, they examined how to fit twelve feet eight inches worth of grown men into one of the smallest cockpits on earth--for as many as eight hours a day. They visited places they had planned on going, to see friends and relatives, and made unintended stops in places they hadn’t ever heard of. They waited out weather, waited on maintenance, and wrapped the whirlwind of learning to fly into one of the grandest cross-country trips imaginable. In the end, they covered in two weeks what takes commercial air carriers only a few hours to accomplish--but they had a lot more fun--and a much better view.