Rains Interrupt Flight Re-Creation

James Robert Lloyd, his open-cockpit biplane grounded by weather, said Friday he is falling behind schedule in an attempt to re-create the first flight across the United States.

Lloyd and his plane Vin Fiz spent Thursday night and Friday at a small airport in this Chicago suburb, while heavy rains again drenched the area.

“In this weather, you wouldn’t fly a Cessna,” Lloyd said. “You certainly wouldn’t fly my plane.”

Lloyd, who hopes to complete the flight on Oct. 31 in Long Beach, Calif., said he is “four or five days off schedule.”