June 22, 2011 - Day 1 - Essex Skypark to Boonville, Missouri |
| Well, today was
the big day. I would be starting my journey to the west coast via
the Santa Fe Trail.
The weather forecast looked promising as far as making it to the
Mississippi. There was a big system to the north and another
to the south, but right up the middle looked good. I got an early
start and was out to the airport by 7AM. I loaded up the plane and
was in the air before 8AM. I had to make a quick stop at
Carroll County airport (KDMW) to top off with fuel, and then I was on my
way. |
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The obligatory shot of Baltimore as I
head west. The sky was misty -- typical East Coast
summer weather. |
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| SugarLoaf mountain pokes
through the broken layer left of center. |
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The layer was almost gone by the time
I reached the mountains. This mist had burned
off as well. |
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| Lots of windmills
on this ridge. |
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| This isn't really
what I wanted to see; the wind is directly from the west
and I'm heading straight into it.
Not unexpected through. The wind usually blows from west to east. |
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| My first glimpse
of the Ohio River. Soon after this the scattered cloud layer turned
into a broken layer and then turned into an overcast -- solid --
layer. I have onboard weather via XM Satellite displayed on my
496 GPS which I used to check the current weather at my planned fuel
stop. Cynthiana, Kentucky was showing an overcast layer so I knew I
had to descend below the layer, which I did. I flew under the layer
for the remainder of
the let to Cynthiana. |
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On last year's Lewis & Clark
flight, I stopped at this airport
- Cynthiana - because they had the lowest fuel prices around. I liked it
so much that I stopped again on this trip. This time I borrowed the
courtesy car and went into town for breakfast. The airport
attendant recommended Biekes, a 100+ year old restaurant downtown, which
was excellent. |
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I continued on and had to stay about 1000 feet above ground
level for a 100 miles or so until the overcast broke
up into blue sky.
On both the Oregon Trail and Lewis &
Clark flights I had tried to make it to Creve Coeur airport, on the
west side of St. Louis but couldn't because of weather. Third
time was a charm.
And then there it was: the St. Louis skyline and the big
Arch. |
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The city itself pretty much falls
under Class B airspace so I circled around to the north to get to Creve Coeur. Here
is the beginning of the Missouri River, branching off to the west
from the Mississippi River. |
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| Creve Coeur airport.
The paved runway runs from left to right across the center.
All the hangars look like one big building, just left of center. I
landed into the wind on the grass runway that bisects the paved
runway. |
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| Parked in front of
the fuel pumps and FBO building. |
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The main reason for coming to this famous airport was
to check out its Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum. For $10
I got a private tour of the 75+ antique airplanes. One of the
FBO employees took me around and explained the story on each
airplane. |
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The museum aircraft are contained in these three big
hangars. They are building a fourth hangar because the collection has
gotten too large for the three. |
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Unfortunately my new camera lens is just not
suited for taking pictures of airplanes up close so I didn't take many
pictures of the collection. I should have brought a small pocket
camera for the close-in stuff. I wouldn't have remembered the story
on all the differentt airplanes anyways. It was interesting, through, and well worth a trip if you are
in the area and like airplanes.
I know the guy who built this Ryan mailplane replica -- from scratch. Awesome
workmanship.
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The Museum has the world's most
extensive collection of Wacos and Monocoupes.
After touring the museum, I
walked through all the hangar rows getting a feel for the
airport. It would be neat to be based here. |
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| Leaving Creve
Coeur, I flew around St. Louis and approached the Arch from
the south. I had to be careful to stay out of controlled airspace in
this area. But I was able to get this good shot. |
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| I turned back to
the west and linked up
with the Missouri River. |
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| My planned
destination was Viertel Airport (VER) in Booneville, Missouri. While
at Creve Couer, I had called ahead and confirmed that the courtesy car was
available. |
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And there it was -- the all important courtesy
car.
I spent the night in the luxurious
Super8 motel and dined in the Subway next to it. The trip is off to
a great start so
far! |
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