Where do you find places to fly?

[Jay Honeck]

Here we sit, with a scheduled afternoon off, an airplane full of gas
-- and no plans.

It's gonna be hotter than blazes, so we don't want to do our "Schmooze
the FBO and have a picnic in the grass" thing (that we do when we want
to spread the Good Word about our aviation-themed hotel to an airport
that doesn't have a restaurant) -- we're gonna need food, preferably
in airconditioned comfort.

I've used http://www.funplacestofly.com/ in the past to find cool
stuff to do, and our state website does SOME of this kind of stuff --
but what do you use to find fun places to fly?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Travis Marlatte]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
ups.com...

> but what do you use to find fun places to fly?
> --
> Jay Honeck


I wait for you to post about your trips...
-------------------------------
Travis
Lake N3094P
PWK

[Matt Barrow[_4_]]

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Here we sit, with a scheduled afternoon off, an airplane full of gas
> -- and no plans.
>
> It's gonna be hotter than blazes, so we don't want to do our "Schmooze
> the FBO and have a picnic in the grass" thing (that we do when we want
> to spread the Good Word about our aviation-themed hotel to an airport
> that doesn't have a restaurant) -- we're gonna need food, preferably
> in airconditioned comfort.
>
> I've used http://www.funplacestofly.com/ in the past to find cool
> stuff to do, and our state website does SOME of this kind of stuff --
> but what do you use to find fun places to fly?

Whereever the RE market takes me.

And having A/C now makes it more than tolerable. :~)


--
Matt Barrow
Performance Homes, LLC.
Cheyenne, WY

[kontiki]

Jay Honeck wrote:
> Here we sit, with a scheduled afternoon off, an airplane full of gas
> -- and no plans.
>
We just got back from a weekend in Nashville. Nice having an airplane
in order to make a trip from Savannah to Nashville a simple weekend
trip (2.5 hours there, 2.3 on the way back). Had to file IFR though,
and go up to 11,000 to get over some big weather activity but the
weather in Nashville was outstanding.

Nashville is a great town, we plan to go back and spend more time in
the fall. It takes more than a weekend to do everything there is to be
done.

[Jim Burns]

Which airport did you use at Nashville?
Last time we were there, we used Smyrna, TN, thinking that BNA would be a
madhouse.
Jim


"kontiki" > wrote in message
...
> Jay Honeck wrote:
>> Here we sit, with a scheduled afternoon off, an airplane full of gas
>> -- and no plans.
>>
> We just got back from a weekend in Nashville. Nice having an airplane
> in order to make a trip from Savannah to Nashville a simple weekend
> trip (2.5 hours there, 2.3 on the way back). Had to file IFR though,
> and go up to 11,000 to get over some big weather activity but the
> weather in Nashville was outstanding.
>
> Nashville is a great town, we plan to go back and spend more time in
> the fall. It takes more than a weekend to do everything there is to be
> done.

[Jack Allison]

Travis Marlatte wrote:

> I wait for you to post about your trips...

Yeah...I wish Jay would do more flying out here on the Left Coast so he
could scout out some good spots! :-)

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

"Travis Marlatte" > wrote in message
et...
> "Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
> ups.com...
>
>> but what do you use to find fun places to fly?
>> --
>> Jay Honeck
>
>
> I wait for you to post about your trips...


Funny...

But, why do you have to GO somewhere? I used to just go up and dink around -
I could spend an hour in the pattern just perfecting spot landings or
whatever I felt like that day. Now that you have a student in the family -
why not let him show you what he has been learning? He won't break the
airplane - trust me.

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

[Frank Ch. Eigler]

"Jim Burns" > writes:

> Which airport did you use at Nashville? Last time we were there, we
> used Smyrna, TN, thinking that BNA would be a madhouse.

KBNA just fine last time I visited in summer 2006 (evening rush hour
arriving, early morning departure, IFR).

- FChE

[Dave[_5_]]

Try this one:

http://www.brakesoff.com/by_state.php

No guarantees - the site is kind of new, but is improving. Add your
own comments about airports you have knowledge of.

David Johnson

[Jay Honeck]

> Yeah...I wish Jay would do more flying out here on the Left Coast so he
> could scout out some good spots! :-)

Well, no Left Coast -- but we DID end up flying to Quincy, Illinois
today. (Yep, the same airport where the airliner and commuter met at
intersecting runways a few years ago, with disastrous results.)

Why Quincy? Two reasons:

a. Lower wind velocity. With temps in the upper 90s, the wind really
kicked up today, and we were taking a first-timer with us. (Joe's away
at wrestling camp.) The TAFs for Quincy showed no gusts predicted --
and they were right.

b. FOOD. The on-field restaurant is under new ownership, and we
wanted to try it out.

Our passenger (a friend of our daughters) had never, EVER flown
before. Not just never in a small plane -- never, period.

In my experience, this is dicey with anyone over age ten, especially
on a hot, sticky, windy day. Needless to say, Mary and I were
extremely careful in flight, and I made sure to place BIG plastic bags
in the seat backs, for easy access.

No worries -- she was a real natural. She gave out a little whoop
when we took off, looked out the window for a few minutes -- and then
started playing "Go Fish" with my daughter! I was actually kinda
disappointed at her blase reaction, but I guess this is better than
getting sick in the plane...

It was a beautiful flight. Once at altitude, the temps were quite
comfortable, and -- despite the wind and heat -- it was surprisingly
smooth. Our passenger got a kick out of seeing the Mississippi
River, and was surprised when she couldn't see cars on the freeway.
I don't think she quite grasped that we were over a mile high, but
that's probably okay.

The new restaurant on the field is nice (called "Tailwinds"), and the
food was awesome. Quite affordable too -- but just don't be in too
much of a hurry. We waited 45 minutes for (what we thought was)
pretty basic sandwiches.

And the mysterious Russian jet fighters are still sitting on the ramp
in Quincy. We haven't been there in a several years, and they are
still sitting there, waiting for...a buyer? Who knows?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jay Honeck]

> http://www.brakesoff.com/by_state.php
>
> No guarantees - the site is kind of new, but is improving. Add your
> own comments about airports you have knowledge of.

Thanks! It's pretty sparse right now, but shows promise. I added some
info about our place in Iowa City -- we'll see how long it takes to
show up...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[[email protected]]

On Jul 8, 4:26 pm, Jay Honeck > wrote:
> Here we sit, with a scheduled afternoon off, an airplane full of gas
> -- and no plans.
>
> It's gonna be hotter than blazes, so we don't want to do our "Schmooze
> the FBO and have a picnic in the grass" thing (that we do when we want
> to spread the Good Word about our aviation-themed hotel to an airport
> that doesn't have a restaurant) -- we're gonna need food, preferably
> in airconditioned comfort.
>
> I've usedhttp://www.funplacestofly.com/in the past to find cool
> stuff to do, and our state website does SOME of this kind of stuff --
> but what do you use to find fun places to fly?
> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"

A map on the wall and a dart.

-Kees

[kontiki]

Jim Burns wrote:
> Which airport did you use at Nashville?
> Last time we were there, we used Smyrna, TN, thinking that BNA would be a
> madhouse.
> Jim
John Tune JWN Very nice place, fuel not too cheap though.

[Matt Barrow[_4_]]

On Jul 8, 4:26 pm, Jay Honeck > wrote:
> Here we sit, with a scheduled afternoon off, an airplane full of gas
> -- and no plans.

Step 1) Procure large sheet of cork board
Step 2) Procure large wall map
Step 3) Affix map to cork board
Step 4) Throw dart at map
Step 5) Go there

Some of the most interesting places I've been were due to diversions (ie,
not planned).

The most interesting one was a few years ago in Goodland, KS. Stopped to
take on fuel and wait out some turbulence.

Met an OLD fellow hanging around the FBO.

I mean REALLY OLD! Like well into his 90's.

Struck up a conversation while wife and daughter hit the "powder room", and
found he'd learned to fly in the late 1920's. Had been a crop duster in the
1950's after flying cargo in WW2 and then again in Korea. Knew Jimmy
Doolittle, Hap Arnold, Eisenhower and a bunch of other historical aviation
folks.

Four hours and a couple dozen stories later, it was getting onto dark and we
had to 'git.

I have no idea when the weather had cleared because that was not the focus
of my attention.

One of the best things about the way we run our business is that, almost
exclusively, we stay out of the big metro areas (too much competition). The
boondocks, though, have all sorts of intersting stories.


--
Matt Barrow
Performance Homes, LLC.
Cheyenne, WY

[Andrew Gideon]

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:35:54 -0700, Matt Barrow wrote:

> And having A/C now makes it more than tolerable. :~)

On a day like this, I'm *very* envious.

How frustrating to be sweating when I've done nothing stupid to cause it
<laugh>.

- Andrew

[Matt Barrow[_4_]]

"Andrew Gideon" > wrote in message
...
> On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:35:54 -0700, Matt Barrow wrote:
>
>> And having A/C now makes it more than tolerable. :~)
>
> On a day like this, I'm *very* envious.
>
> How frustrating to be sweating when I've done nothing stupid to cause it
> <laugh>.
>
> - Andrew
Well you need to take the GREEN PLEDGE


I will (check items that apply):

?? Increase personal use of ethanol derived from grape biomass and
various grains and cereals

?? Use more solar energy by taking longer beach vacations

?? Only work Saturday and Sunday, making all other days weekend to
reduce driving

?? Open canned sodas slower to reduce rate of CO2 emissions

?? Gain weight - fat people are composed of more carbon than skinny
people, thus keeping more carbon out of the environment

?? Reduce CO2-emissions by doing as little exercise as possible

?? Reduce global methane emissions by eating more farm animals

?? Avoid spicy foods to reduce personal emissions

?? Campaign to sequester Congress and the U.N.

?? Recycle environmentalists into biofuels

?? Lobby Congress to fund flying carpet research to replace jet travel

?? Help promote greater fuel efficiency by lobbying Congress to repeal
the Law of Gravity

Will YOU take the pledge?







Downloaded from www.JunkScience.com © 2007

[bdl]

On Jul 8, 11:01 pm, Jay Honeck > wrote:
> Why Quincy? Two reasons:
>

> The new restaurant on the field is nice (called "Tailwinds"), and the
> food was awesome. Quite affordable too -- but just don't be in too
> much of a hurry. We waited 45 minutes for (what we thought was)
> pretty basic sandwiches.

I'm pretty sure its been called Tailwinds for a long time. At least
for the last year since I was up there last.... Let's see.. digging in
my log book... UIN, UIN, UIN.. oh my has it been that long? Ok, wow
it has been a long time since I went to UIN, lets see over 2 whole
years!

> And the mysterious Russian jet fighters are still sitting on the ramp
> in Quincy. We haven't been there in a several years, and they are
> still sitting there, waiting for...a buyer? Who knows?

I thought they were "owned?" as part of that maintenance shop right
across the ramp from them. The one that usually has an L-39 sitting
out front decked out to the 9's.

There's a husband and wife that had a huge challenger jet nearby as
well. Story I heard from the FBO was that he had his hangar door
wired into a garage door opener so he could open it up and taxi in
from the cockpit.

Brian

[Andrew Rowley]

Jack Allison > wrote:

>Travis Marlatte wrote:
>
>> I wait for you to post about your trips...
>
>Yeah...I wish Jay would do more flying out here on the Left Coast so he
>could scout out some good spots! :-)

It occurred to me that a wiki might be good to collect information
about places to fly (similar to Wikipedia). I have been working on and
off on setting it up. You can try it out at

http://www.aviawiki.com

Jay was kind enough to give me permission to use the information he
collected about fly in museums, so most of them are now in there.

Using a wiki means that anybody can add and edit pages - so if
information is incorrect, incomplete etc. you can simply click "Edit"
and change it.

My general idea was to encourage people to get out and go flying by
providing ideas for interesting places to go. Entries are welcome
about:

- Airports
- Flying stories and photos
- Aviation museums
- Any kind of fly in destination

Entries can have latitude/longitude information, which means you can
search for other entries within a certain radius.

Businesses are welcome to set up a page about their business, as long
as they are pilot friendly e.g. Alexis Park Inn & Suites. They should
be located at or near an airport, and provide information about how to
get there from the airport when arriving by air i.e. no car.

A wiki has a few benefits compared to other websites:

- Anybody can add or edit information, so if you see something that is
incorrect or out of date you can simply click on the Edit tab and
change it. A history of each page is kept, so vandalism can be easily
removed.
- It is very easy to create links to new or existing pages. All you do
is surround text with [[ ]] to make it a link. There is a "What links
here" function, so from an airport entry you can find other articles
eg. trip stories that link to an airport.

The website is free. You don't need to register to access it, add or
edit content.

You do need to register to upload photos, but that is also free and
only requires choosing a userid and password. You only need to provide
an email address if you want to be able to retrieve your password.

Registered users have their own page where they can upload pictures of
themselves and their aircraft etc. if they wish.

[Montblack]

("Andrew Rowley" wrote)
> It occurred to me that a wiki might be good to collect information about
> places to fly (similar to Wikipedia). I have been working on and off on
> setting it up. You can try it out at...


http://www.aviawiki.com

Very cool....!!!

If it remains clutter-free this site will spread like wildfire.


Paul-Mont

[Andrew Rowley]

"Montblack" > wrote:

>http://www.aviawiki.com
>
>Very cool....!!!
>
>If it remains clutter-free this site will spread like wildfire.

I hope so. There are various features implemented to try to stop
"wikispam", time will tell how effective they are. One of the nice
things about using the same software as Wikipedia is most problems
will have already been encountered by Wikipedia (particularly problems
of scale, spam etc.)
--
Andrew Rowley