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NORTHAMPTON - Some people travel a few hundred miles for their summer vacation.

Barry Field and his young son Sidney flew more than 6,000 - in their own single-engine aircraft.

This summer, the father and son flew across the country in Barry Field's four-seat 1952 Cessna 170B airplane, all the way to the West Coast and back.

"It's a fantastic way to see the country," Barry Field said. "There's just nothing like it."

The Fields, of Shutesbury, departed from Northampton in the last week of June, taking six days to head across the Midwest and western states to Seattle.

"Frankly, when we started, we didn't know how long it was going to take us," Barry Field said. "That was something that we had to feel out, because it was the first time we had done this kind of thing."

The Fields parked their Cessna at Paine Field in Everett, Wash., and flew back commercially to the East Coast for a few weeks.

Then they returned to pick up their plane, and flew south for two days to San Francisco.

The Fields spent nine days traveling back home, heading north through Canada over the Great Lakes, and finally returning to Massachusetts on Thursday.

Ben Foster, a commercial pilot who works at Northampton Aeronautics, said the Fields' journey was a considerable feat.

"It's definitely a very ambitious undertaking," Foster said. "Flying cross- country is one of those things that a lot of pilots want to do, for the scenery, for the challenge."

Barry Field has been flying for half a century.

Field, 73, is a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts. He became interested in airplanes in the 1950s as a student at Cornell University, and has been flying ever since.

A life of flying

As a young man, he once flew a Cessna 170 across the country in two days, alone.

"It's very hard to do it," Field said. "Taking off in the dark, landing in the dark, nobody to talk to."

Sidney Field, 12, will be an eighth-grader at Amherst Regional Middle School this year.

He had flown with his father on short trips before this one, including one flight to Maine that lasted two or three days.

"It was good preparation, but nothing like this," Barry Field said of flying with his son. "This is the first huge trip that he and I have ever taken."

On the cross-country journey, the Fields worked as a team. Sidney helped navigate, his father said.

"Basically, he dealt with navigation and the GPS, and I flew the aircraft," Barry Field said.

On an average day, the Fields would fly about 400 to 500 miles, landing as necessary along the way.

"It's not like being locked in a sailboat for 24 hours," Field said. "We were only flying two-hour legs, max."

Typically, they would wake up early and take off at around 7 a.m., fly for one hour, then stop for breakfast.

After breakfast, the two would fly for a few more hours before stopping to refuel the plane and eat lunch.

Afterwards they would fly for another two to three hours before calling it a day and finding lodging for the night.

On the last night of the trip, they camped out, since they could not find a motel.

Barry Field said that he and his son encountered many colorful characters during their journey.

"At some of these smaller airports, you run into these older fellows who have been flying for 60, 70 years, who have tons of tales about flying," Barry Field said.

"Up in Tobermory, Ontario, we ran into a group of people who are trying to build the first human-powered aircraft in Canada."

On the way home, the Fields stopped in Leadville, Colo., which has the highest airport in North America.

Another notable stopover was Stanley, Idaho, a tiny community in the Sawtooth Mountains, which is often the coldest place in the country.

The two Fields identified their own favorite stops along the route.

"I was very impressed by San Francisco," Sidney Field said. "It's a nice city."

"My favorite was Stanley, Idaho," Barry Field said. "A little dirt strip, with a small ring of mountains around it. Great little place."

Barry Field flies often, storing his plane in a hangar at Northampton Airport on Old Ferry Road.

Field said that the airport is close to the UMass campus, where he works.

"On a good day, lunchtime comes, and I can actually come down here and fly for a half hour," Barry Field said.

Sidney Field said he is interested in flying solo, once he grows older and can obtain a pilot's license.

His father is still passionate about flying after 50 years.

"You get a feel for the country that you don't get on the ground," Barry Field said. "I much prefer flying my own aircraft than I do flying commercially. You have control over your own destiny when you fly yourself."

Used with permission from the Daily Hampshire Gazette.