Somerset, PA Father's Day Fly-In

This past Father's Day, the morning dawned bright, beautiful, and perfect for flying. The only question was "Where to?". After a quick search online of aviation events, I happened upon an inconspicuous listing for the Somerset, PA (2G9) Father's Day Fly-in Drive-in Breakfast. It was a good find. Not only did the flight there and back turn out to be beautiful, but the fly-in itself is a little gem. Due to my late decision to go and the distance (just over 100 NM) I arrived fairly late. Several planes were already leaving, but there was still plenty happening!

Rudolph on the ramp at Somerset

In the pattern, the first thing I noticed was the C-123 parked on the ramp (it was pretty difficult to miss). This fine aircraft was piloted by Porky Pig, and drew a large crowd of admirers. Other military aircraft in attendance were a pair of Beechcraft T-34s with Navy markings. Parked on the ramp, there was also a beautiful RV-8, an RV-6 and Rudolph's side-by-side cousin, an Aeronca Chief.

C-123 parked on the ramp

Pilot Porky Pig gazes down at the large crowd of admirers around the C-123

Pair of Navy T-34s

Now, for the food - this was the most professional pancake breakfast I have been to. Pancakes, eggs, sausages, fruit toppings, coffee, milk and juice are all served from a huge building stocked as a professional kitchen. The line is very organized, the volunteers move you through with ease, quickly filling your plate with all sorts of goodies. An announcer for the event said at about 11 am that approximately 1400 people had been served - and that was still with an hour to go! Proceeds went to the local Aero club's scholarship fund.

The chow hall

 What I found to be most intriguing about this fly-in though, was the turnout. Though there weren't a large number of planes there, a large number of people were milling around. As I left the ramp, I discovered why. It looked like the whole town was there! In addition to the fly-in, there was a motorcycle rally and antique car show. The atmosphere was like a fair! Around the antique cars, there were even some booths set up, including a local radio station and several vendors. Whole families were there, providing a great opportunity for the general public to see general aviation. I stood by Rudolph for a while answering questions and letting kids sit in the plane. As I was beginning to think about leaving, I met a sweet old man and his daughter (who is pretty awesome and drives a huge dump truck). He began talking about his life long love of aviation, from which he has been held back by health concerns. I took him for a flight over his house and the surrounding area. He had a blast, with his face and camera pressed to the windows the whole time.

Motorcycles parked in front of the FBO building

 We need more opportunities like this to introduce our passion to the general public, foster good will in the communities surrounding our airports, and hopefully create some future aviators! If you're not busy next year on Father's Day, head on over to Somerset!

Horn Point Antique Aircraft Fly-in

On May 28th, I ditched Allen and went to the Horn Point (MD18) Antique Fly-in with my non-pilot friend. This necessitated a trip around the SFRA and Dahlgren's restricted airspace and over the Chesapeake Bay. The weather was perfect and the air was smooth. Heading south along the Potomac River, we briefly joined up with a fellow flier - a bald eagle. He seemed unperturbed as we passed him rather slowly (Rudolph is a Champ, after all). The winds were not even unfavorable...until we turned to the east and headed out over water. Then, it felt like we hit a wall as a 15 mph headwind impeded our progress towards the other shore. The large number of boats out on the bay eased our minds some, but our worry was unnecessary.

Upon arriving at Horn Point, we grabbed some lunch and met up with friends from Warrenton, Culpeper and Petersburg, VA. We sat around, talked and enjoyed the sunshine for a bit. Of course, we also checked out the other airplanes there. Of note was a Bird, Beechcraft Staggerwing, Starduster Too, PT23, Cessna T-50 ('Bamboo Bomber') and Carbon Cub.

Picture at the fly-in. All photo credits go to my friend. I forgot my camera.

On the way back to Warrenton, we decided to stop off with our friends at a private strip on the Virginia side of the Potomac, where we continued socializing for a bit before heading to our home bases. All in all, it was a great day. This was the first event of the type that my non-pilot friend had been to and she had a great time (or so she tells me).

Update

It has been over a year and a half since we brought the Champ ("Rudolph") back from California. I noticed that people are still finding and reading this blog, so I figured I would post an update.

We have made multiple flights to both Rochester, NY and Tazewell, VA to visit family. We flew up to Pennsylvania for a wing rib building workshop (Pottstown Limerick - PTW) and a wedding (Smoketown - S37). Both were memorable airports for different reasons. The Pottstown Limerick airport is right by a nuclear power plant. And when I say 'right by', I mean that when you're in the pattern you pass so close to the cooling towers that you can see the water frothing at the base and you wonder if you're supposed to be there. Smoketown on the other hand would be a fantastic airport for a weekend getaway. There are a few restaurants right on the field, including a pizza place we frequented. There is also motel/B&B on the field which was quite comfortable. The airport has courtesy cars and are very generous with how long they'll let you take them out for (we drove one to the wedding and were told we could keep it overnight).

From the most recent flight to Rochester, NY.

There was one memorable trip to Knoxville, TN where I actually used Rudolph for transportation to work! Fortunately, Allen did not accompany me on this trip so I had plenty of payload left for baggage for the month long trip. On the way to Tennessee, I diverted around some weather and ended up stopping in Harlan, KY (I35). This turned out to be a beautiful but deserted airport on a small plateau nestled in the hills. The scenery was stunning. I also stopped at Middlesboro, KY (1A6) where Glacier Girl was restored. Unfortunately, the plane was moved long before I arrived, but I still encountered the friendly local airport bums who were very welcoming. Once I finally arrived in Tennessee, Rudolph was based out of a beautiful grass strip (TN08) for the next month. True to the 'southern hospitality' stereotype, everyone at the airport was friendly and welcoming. There were some hidden gems at the airport - both people and airplanes. This included a twin v-tail Bonanza, an L-4 (unfortunately converted back to look like an ordinary yellow cub after the war) and a sweet lady with a beautiful 150 who has competed in more Air Race Classics than I can count.

All in all it has been a great time. As we go to more fun fly-ins, I will attempt to keep this blog up to date.

Back in Warrenton!

Saturday was a rest day for us. We stayed with Allen's mom. In the morning we headed up to the airport, where we got fuel for the plane and gave rides to Allen's mom and friends as well as seeing the sights from the air.

Sunday, we had a relaxed morning and did some hiking. After lunch we headed out. Our first stop was in Hot Springs, VA at Ingalls Field (HSP). This is the highest airport east of the Mississippi River, with an elevation of  3793 ft. A Citation jet took off just after we landed and another arrived while we were getting ready to go. This is a small, but busy airport. From Ingalls, we headed straight for the Warrenton Airpark, to show off the new plane. Then we flew by the Flying Circus Aerodrome before heading over to the Warrenton County Airport (HWY) where the plane will be based for now. 

All in all, it was a fun trip and we accomplished almost everything we planned to (we missed out on Death Valley), but we had some other unplanned adventures. Both of us are happy about the way the trip turned out. And there's always next year for Death Valley and the other things we couldn't fit into this trip!

Burke's Garden near Tazewell, VA:

Ingalls Field:

Unpacking at the hangar in Warrenton:

Back in Virginia!

(Post from 10/15 - we didn't have internet Friday or Saturday, and I was too tired/lazy on Sunday)

We made it back into Tazewell, VA today! In the morning we made it out of Conway, and flew to Caruthersville, MO. The flight was mainly over farmers' fields with little excitement aside from a couple of fields being burned until we reached the Mississippi River. This was quite a sight with a lot of barge traffic up and down the river. We saw several huge barges being pushed around by tug boats. The Caruthersville Airport (M05) was a nice place. We asked about a place to eat and the man at the FBO gave us directions to several places and use of the airport courtesy car. We ended up going to a nice little barbecue joint about 2 miles from the airport. Then it was on to Kentucky! Heading northeast, we passed by the Kentucky Dam at the end of Kentucky Lake on our way to the Muhlenburg Airport (M21). We then proceeded east past Mammoth Cave National Park (not much to see from the air) and Lake Cumberland to Lake Cumberland Airport (SME) near Sommerset, KY. After refueling, we headed direct for Tazewell, VA (JFZ) for a beautiful evening flight over the mountains of eastern Kentucky and western Virginia. We made it into Tazewell just in time and were greeted by a welcoming committee (JP, the awesome guy who works at the FBO and Allen's mom). We had a good dinner and went to sleep.

The White River in Arkansas:

Barges on the Mississippi: 

 Kentucky Lake:

 The hills of eastern Kentucky:

Palo Duro Canyon (TX), Oklahoma and Arkansas

We made some good headway today. We grabbed a quick breakfast in the morning and caught the shuttle back to the airport. When we took off, we headed south and flew down through the Palo Duro Canyon. This is quite a beautiful canyon. Parts of it look like a miniature version of the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, we didn't get many pictures since we ran out of batteries for the camera.

Start of the Palo Duro Canyon:

After flying through the canyon we turned northwest and headed to Hobart Regional Airport (HBR) in Oklahoma, and then on to Seminole, OK (SRE). This part of the trip was relatively boring. The terrain was mostly farmland, broken up by little interesting terrain. There were some rivers which cut some small canyons in the land, but for the most part we headed straight east, following the long straight roads. Our next flight was from SRE to Sallisaw, OK (JSV). This flight was more interesting. We crossed a beautiful lake and reservoir with impressive bridges over it and numerous small islands. From JSV, we continued on to Cantrell Airport (CWS) in Conway, Arkansas. Most of this flight was along the Arkansas River and past the Ozarks, so there was more beautiful scenery. We are spending the night in Conway, near the airport and are hoping to get an early start tomorrow, so if the weather holds we will make Tazewell, VA tomorrow night.

Finally Getting Somewhere

Today was our first real travel day. We woke up at the hotel in Aztec, got breakfast and walked back to the airport (less than a mile). We took off and headed southeast towards Albuquerque, NM to meet back up with I-40. Skirting mountains, we landed at Sandia East Airpark (1N1) on the east side of Albuquerque. From there we took off and headed due east along I-40 to Tucumcari (TCC). Coming in to land, we saw three Marine helicopters lined up on the ramp. As we were fueling up, the helicopters began spooling up their engines and taking off. The first two hovered in place just over the ramp until the third joined them in formation. Then all three lifted off and were gone. From Tucumcari, we went to Tradewind (TDW) just outside the inner ring of the class C airspace around Amarillo, TX. This seems to be a fairly busy training airport. A man met us on the ramp and called the Holiday Inn Shuttle to come pick us up. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant. The service was extraordinarily slow despite the place being almost empty and when the food came it was only so-so. O well. We have another ground covering day ahead of us tomorrow!

The Mountains Around Albuquerque: 

On the way to Tucumcari: 

Just West of Amarillo, TX: 

Lake Powell, Monument Valley and Four Corners

 It was a beautiful morning when we awoke in Page. The first thing we did was go to the restaurant next door for a good hearty breakfast. Classic Air at Page Airport came and picked us up. Then we took off for a beautiful flight over Lake Powell. Following Lake Powell past Navajo Mountain, we entered into the canyon lands of Utah.

Over Lake Powell:

A side canyon:

We landed at Cal Black Memorial Airport (U96) for gas. It is a nice quiet airport in the middle of nowhere. The guy working there was very friendly. We were the only airplane at the airport. The guy there recommended the restaurant in Monument Valley, and since we were getting hungry, we decided to go. We called for permission to land and were told to come on over.

On the way to Monument Valley:

Monument Valley Airport is privately owned by a company which runs a lodge, campground and restaurant. It looks like they do aerial tours as well, since when we pulled up there was a large fleet of Caravans and Twin Otters there. It is a very neat airport - one end of the runway ends just short of a large cliff face. As we pulled up in the tie down area in Monument Valley, a van pulled up to take us to the restaurant just up the hill from the airport. We had a good lunch there with amazing views of Monument Valley. As we ate, we saw the entire fleet of airplanes taking off. One Twin Otter returned to pick up a bus load of tourists as we were finishing up lunch. We walked back to the airport and took off for a tour of Monument Valley.

The plane at Monument Valley Airport:

Monument Valley: 

After Monument Valley, we headed off towards Four Corners, and flew through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah in about a minute! We then headed off towards Aztec, New Mexico (N19). The airport is located on top of a mesa. The man working there drove us down to a motel in town, less than a mile from the airport at the bottom of the mesa. We'll spend the night here and hopefully start seriously covering some ground in the morning.

Four Corners:

Grand Canyon Caverns and the Grand Canyon

Today was a big day as far as sightseeing goes. We started off the day with a good hot breakfast at the motel, then we went on a tour of the Grand Canyon Caverns. Though the entrance to the caverns is miles (~30) away from the Grand Canyon, the system of caverns extends all the way to the wall of the Grand Canyon. It is a dry cavern, so the formations are no longer forming and everything in there is very well preserved. There were some beautiful formations!

Inside Grand Canyon Caverns:

After the tour, we packed up, checked out and headed off towards Valle airport (40G), which was to be the staging point for our touring of the Grand Canyon. We headed up onto the Colorado Plateau, which offered some beautiful views of cliffs and a sudden change in the elevation of the surrounding terrain. Valle is a quiet little airport with a lot of neat stuff. Inside the FBO building are a lot of old cars and motorcycles (from the 20's and 30's), all beautifully restored and in working condition. The guy at the FBO was very friendly and brought us to one of the hangars in which there were several antique airplanes, all beautifully restored and airworthy. Valle is also home to a flying Ford Tri-motor, though right now the plane is at Page airport (our next destination) for engine work.

Once we had fueled up at Valle, we were off to begin our tour of the Grand Canyon. Climbing up to 10,000 ft we headed off along the southern rim of the canyon. The views were absolutely stunning.

The Grand Canyon (we have lots more pictures):

We then headed back to Valle for some more fuel before leaving for Page (PGA). This initially involved climbing up to 11,500 ft to fly through the Zuni corridor over the Grand Canyon. This corridor gave us fantastic views of the Bright Angel area of the canyon as the sun began to sink towards the horizon. After crossing through the corridor, we began a slow descent into Page, on the shore of Lake Powell. We arrived just as the sun was starting to set. All of the rocks were a stunning red color. We were met at the edge of the runway by a man from the FBO who showed us where to park and brought us into town for dinner and a place to stay.

Lake Powell:

On to Arizona!

We met a great group of pilots last night at Apple Valley's Midfield Aviation. The FBO/Flight School there held a barbecue for the night flying gathering. We booked a hotel in town, and were offered a ride to it by one of the pilots there. We ended up staying at the Econolodge in Hesperia. It was nothing fancy, but it was a place to stay for the night. In the morning we took a cab back to the airport. An RV-8 was stuck in the ditch at the airport. Apparently he had a break lock up upon landing after 4 hours of it being flown since completed! After chatting with the people at the FBO and filling up on fuel we were on our way. We got a fairly late start. We turned and headed east over the mountains direct to Laughlin/Bullhead airport (IFP) on the recommendation of a man at the FBO. The flight was beautiful over some very desolate stretches of desert with no people in sight. After about two hours, we crossed over a final ridge and descended into the Colorado River valley where Laughlin/Bullhead is located. The valley is right at the southern point of Nevada, where it meets Arizona and Colorado. We landed at the airport (in Arizona) and the woman at Landmark Aviation called Riverside Casino and they sent us a shuttle to take us to the casino for lunch.

Laughlin seems to be a strip of Casinos along the river (on the Nevada side). The river there is beautiful, clear and lined with trees. Riverside was the closest casino to the bridge over the river. We ate at a restaurant with a great view of the river. The food was...edible. We caught a shuttle back, fueled up and took off into a strong headwind, climbing like we were in an elevator. We easily made it over the ~4500 foot mountain pass on the east side of the valley and were on our way towards Grand Canyon Caverns. Once there, we found ourselves at a gravel strip a little over one mile above sea level. The strip itself is in relatively good condition, but the tiedown area is rather sparse and the brush on the sides of the taxiway would hit the wings of a low wing plane. We were the only airplane there, although a man at the motel said there were two on friday. The staff is very friendly and willing to help. We walked out to the back of the motel at night, and since the motel really is out in the middle of nowhere, on the longest remaining stretch of historic Route 66, the stars were absolutely stunning. The milky way was bright and there were a few shooting stars. Tomorrow, we'll tour the Grand Canyon!

On the way to Laughlin/Bullhead:

Laughlin/Bullhead along the Colorado River:

The Grand Canyon off in the distance on the way to Grand Canyon Caverns:

At Grand Canyon Caverns: