Yesterday seemed like such a nice day, with high pressure dominating
here, that I thought I'd take a flight up to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,
walk around the battlefield, and reflect. I flew from my home base in
the good old ADIZ at Gaithersburg, Maryland to Gettysburg Travel
Center, W05. It's pretty close to the monument, a 3,100 X 60' strip
(but with a threshold displaced 542' due to houses having been built
just about at the end of the runway (!).

When I landed someone came on the CTAF and directed me to a tiedown.
The guiding voice came from a guy who I assumed worked at the FBO, and
who pulled up in a car and offered to give us a ride into town. A
flight of two Top Cubs on amphibious floats came in behind me, and he
drove down to them and told them he would give them a ride after he got
back from taking us. (Sidenote: the Top Cubs had come from Washington
State and were en route to New York!)

Anyway, on the way into town I learned that the guy driving me in fact
did not work at the airport. He was just a local pilot helping out
other pilots! He informed me that the guy who owned the airport wasn't
around much, and that the airport was up for sale. He said folks were
hoping the regional airport authority would buy it.

This gentleman bid us goodbye at the monument, gave me the name of the
local transportation company (Ace transportation) and, in case we
needed it, his cell number. We called Ace immediately to arrange a
ride back, got a recording, left a message, and never heard from them.
After touring the historic site, and not wanting to bother the guy who
was nice enough to drive us in, we started walking back to the airport.
On the way we asked a local for directions to the airport. "Airport?"
she said, "that's not there anymore, it closed." News to me since I
had just landed there a few hours ago... "Anyway," she continued upon
being informed of this, "it's up for sale."

On the way back, the guy who dropped us off passed us along the road.
He was headed back into town for dinner with his wife, recognized us,
turned around, and gave us a lift back to the airport. Gotta love the
comraderie among pilots! We took off in dead calm, clear blue skies,
picked up a slight tailwind, and prepared for the waiting game of
circling outside the ADIZ waiting for our unique transponder code from
Potomac allowing us to enter the ADIZ and go home.

It would be a real shame to lose a GA airport next to an historic
attraction like this. I hope someone buys it and keeps it going. In
the meantime, if you are looking for a daytrip in the area, I recommend
you check it out.

Cheers,
Wiz