Lunch in Greenville

The next weekend, my coworker was ready to go on another flying adventure. While looking up interesting places to fly to in the area, I stumbled across Greenville Downtown airport (KGMU) and their Runway Cafe (http://www.runwaycafegmu.com/). As Greenville is Class D airspace, this would be my first time flying into a towered field in ... well ... quite a while.

The first twenty minutes or so of the flight were just over pine trees, pine trees, and more pine trees. Trying to keep my passenger interested in the landscape, I diverted a bit to fly over a nice lake I saw off to our right. It was beautiful, and there was a nice private strip near it.

Lake on the way to Greenville, SC

The airspace around Greenville is crowded. Greenville Downtown lies under the outer ring of Greenville-Spartanburg's Class C airspace. Greenville Downtown is Class D. Approach to Greenville Downtown from the south is blocked by Donaldson's Class D. As I approached, I decided not to mess with it. I flew around Donaldson to the west and called Greenville Downtown to enter their airspace.

The airspace around Greenville, SC

As I was approaching the airport on the tower frequency I heard a strange radio exchange between the controller and an unknown aircraft (I don't remember the N number, so I'll just use N123 here):

CT: N123, you are probably used to it by now, but we saw a steady stream of smoke coming out of your number 4 engine. We did get some pictures.

N123: Thank you tower, but it is fine.

At this point I was extremely confused. What kind of aircraft was in the pattern there that 1) had four engines and 2) was not concerned about a steady stream of smoke coming out of one of them? I mean, I guess I would be less concerned about a smoking engine too if I had three others, but still...

I continued approaching the airport and was sequenced in behind an RV. As I approached and had the field in site, I realized what kind of airplane that must have been. Part of the field looked like a WWII base! What a nice surprise!

On my initial call, I had told the controllers I was coming in for some lunch. When I touched down on the runway, they gave me taxi directions to the parking on the grass right by the restaurant. The controllers could not have been friendlier or more helpful.

Parked in the grass

I parked the plane and walked over to see what was going on. The Collings Foundation (http://www.collingsfoundation.org/) was there with their B-17, B-24, B-25 and P-51D! They also had several period vehicles, and the Military History Center of the Carolinas (http://www.milhcc.org/) had set up a display of SC Military Aviation History. The only downside was that the restaurant was packed, but there was so much to see we didn't mind the short wait!

B-17

P-51D and support van

Period vehicles

I am very old! Please keep off.

Part of the display by the Military History Center of the Carolinas

After taking a look around, we went to the cafe for lunch. This is a great little fly-in destination. There are ample windows and a large patio area so you can watch the planes taking off and landing while you eat. The food was good as was the service. As a bonus, while we were eating on the patio we got to see the P-51D start-up almost right in front of us, taxi out and take off! What a treat!

The Runway Cafe

The flight home was uneventful. We made a quick stop in Greenwood (KGRD) for fuel on the way back due to lack of fuel at my temporary base. It is a big airport with a friendly staff and multiple runways, but it was practically deserted when we went there.

All in all, it was a great day of flying with some unexpected, but very welcome surprises!