I learned that success starts with logistics. Most smugglers didn't have backup plans. I wouldn't pick one place to land our plane. I'd pick three or four so we'd have alternates. I'd give radios to my crew so they could all communicate.

If I needed one radio, I brought three in case the first two had heart attacks. If all the radios died, the people on my ground crew had flashlights and knew basic morse code so they could still communicate. I picked my crew from friends who worked at repair garages and tire shops and the black motorcycle club. They were all solid individuals. One of my biker friends liked to fish. I put my prime landing fields by canals. I'd send him out on a bass boat with a pole and a cooler of beer plus a radio and binoculars so he could watch the access roads and keep an eye out for the competition (e.g. authorities).

I'd do everything possible with my planes to increase their capacity for distance, speed, and payload. I'd crank up the horsepower. When you do that your propellers will cavitate, which is like your car spinning it's wheels. You can mitigate against cavitation with a longer propeller but if we put big propellers on little planes, it might make the competition suspicious. To make the propellers look smaller, I installed tri-blades made for turbo props. You couldn't tell they were turbo-props and then my planes appeared to have the right proportions.

To increase my range, I found a company that made rubber fuel tanks for racing cars. They were like waterbeds. You could fold them up, put them inside the plane and fill them when you needed to. Fuel is key. You run out of gas in the sky, you can't put down your kickstand and park on a cloud.