TRANSPORTATION: A Desert Tale

For a man in a light aircraft, there is no more pleasant flight than the 299-mile run from San Diego to Phoenix. Soaring high above the saffron badlands and khaki peaks that bake beneath a searing sun, skirting the Mexican border, a man can make it easily in four hours.

With five hours' fuel aboard, Navy Ordnanceman Bill Falls, 22, took off one fine day last month from San Diego's La Mesa Airport in a Taylorcraft borrowed from his best friend, Parachute Rigger Charles Schrieber. A good amateur pilot, Bill had a 24-hour liberty and planned to spend it in Phoenix...

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