Weekend Flying Destinations

On Friday, Dianne and I flew to the greater Portsmouth airport for lunch at the Skyline restaurant on the field. For Cincinnati folks, it's not a chili parlor. That's just the name of the restaurant. It's just a simple, old sit down spot in the terminal building. It's about a 45 minute flight and it was a beautiful, warm day. Dianne took a picture of me in front of the Tiger with the cell phone -- I forgot the big camera. On the way we flew over the Kenwood mall and the Eastgate mall areas and both were packed with cars. I was glad we were in the air and not looking for parking and dealing with the holiday shoppers.

The airport has a captured Iraqi personnel carrier on the field as a veterans memorial. You can read more about it (sort of) in this picture of the stone near the apc. You can see Dianne (just barely) behind the Iraqi personnel carrier.

On Sunday, I flew south to Middlesboro, KY. It was another beautiful day to fly. The winds were light and the few clouds in the Cincinnati area were very high. I think this is the first airport I've ever flown to that doesn't have an instrument approach. The reason for that is the Middlesboro airport is located in a roughly bowl shaped valley in the low Appalachian mountains near the Tennessee border. Some of the mountains are about 2000 feet above the airport and are only a few miles away. You have to make a steep, non-standard approach to land at the airport. It was the first time I've flown into an airport in the mountains. It was good experience since the winds were light. You can see some of the mountains in the background of this picture of the Tiger on the ramp at Middlesboro.

The reason I flew there is the airport is the home to the Lost Squadron museum. The museum was established to display the Glacier Girl -- a P-38 the group recovered from the icecap in Greenland. Read more about the history and the recovery story at their website. They removed the plane in pieces through a tunnel in the ice, brought it back here, and restored it to flying condition. Unfortunately, the plane wasn't at the museum today! The Glacier Girl made a trip to Nellis AFB in Las Vegas for the air show and is spending the winter in California. That was disappointing. She should be back for a couple weeks in May or June before recreating the flight to England that it never completed in 1942. Even though I didn't see the lightning, it was a nice trip to Middlesboro. Your can see the set of pictures I took at the field and in the museum.

Grumman Gathering at KBMI

On Saturday I flew to Bloomington/Normal, IL, for a Grumman Gatherers event at Arnie's restaurant in the old terminal building on the field. The airport is also home to the Prairie Aviation Museum. It was an open house day at the museum and their DC-3 was giving rides around the city. I didn't tour the museum since I needed to head home. The airport is very nice, but there is construction taking place on some taxiways and access roads. One of the runways is closed and is being used as a taxiway.

I had a strong tailwind on the way to KBMI. Made it in just over 2 hours. My ground speed ranged from 125 to 142 knots! I flew VFR since it was a clear day. The way home took a little longer (~2 1/4 hours) due to the headwind. I flew a little lower on the way home and the headwind wasn't quite as strong. Nevertheless, it was a little bit bumpy. Not unusual with the afternoon heating over the green and brown fields. This is a picture of Tony and some of the other Gatherer aircraft in front of the old terminal building at Bloomington/Normal that is now the general aviation area. Click on the photo to see a larger view.

It was a good turnout -- approximately 20 people and I'm not sure how many planes. I took a few pictures of some of the Gatherer aircraft and also snapped a couple pictures of some airports I passed along the way. The service and food at Arnie's was very good. This review was on target. If you're in the neighborhood, it's worth stopping.

Saturday Flying

On Saturday, Dianne and I went to an AYA fly-in at the Muncie airport. It was a beautiful day and there were 17 Grumman planes that flew in for lunch. Here is a picture of our Tiger, Tony, on the ramp at Muncie with the control tower in the background.

Weekend Flying

This weekend the weather was nice and I was able to take the Tiger for a couple flights. On Saturday I did a local flight to check out the plane after the work that was done on the cylinder head temperature gauge. Everything looked good, the engine was fine, and it handled great. Here is a picture after I had landed back at KISZ.

On Sunday I took a short cross country trip to KMQJ in the Indianapolis area. Again, everything was fine with the Tiger. Surprisingly, it was a little bumpy even at 5500 feet. It was such a beautiful day, a lot of people were out flying. There was parachute activity at a couple airports along the way. Just west of Middletown (KMWO) I saw a group of 3 gliders circling (likely trying to catch some thermals). It was unusual to see gliders in that area. Usually they are over by Waynesville and the Caesar's Creek.

Now I just need to get my instrument flying skills back in shape and we should be ready for some trips.