Learning to Fly, Part 4
Show Me State
KLVS might have been a disappointment, but the scenery approaching and departing were not.
It’s easy to gripe about ground facilities. The general aviation infrastructure in the US is uneven. Even though the FAA provides a lot of federal dollars for improvements at small airports, the uptake is state and even county specific. States that devote attention to general aviation – the ones that have active, competent aviation commissions – are able to promote GA airports as business hubs and incubators of local entrepreneurship. I’ve flown all over the US and the two states that stand out to me are Virginia and Tennessee. Both have invested their resources intelligently. They have well-appointed county airports that provide both freight and passenger access below airliner scale. They have on-field aviation museums that generate tourism dollars and provide educational benefits. They allow organic growth of aviation-adjacent businesses that surround the airport.
My home state, Maryland, really lags in this regard. We are home to the oldest continuously operating private airport in the world – College Park. The Wright Brothers flew demonstration and instructional flights for the US Army there in 1909. Hundreds of young pilots soloed in J3 Cubs there in the 1950s and 60s. Yet the first impulse after 9/11 was to shutter College Park because its proximity to downtown DC made it a security threat. Luckily that did not happen, but what should now be a general aviation jewel – an airport where private pilots could fly in, park, and walk across the street to take the Metro to downtown DC – languishes under the draconian rules required to fly in the Flight Restricted Zone. It’s all explained here. (If you only click one link in this stack, click that one. It’s hilarious.)
But there is no reason to worry about any of that today. I’m in the free and easy skies between New Mexico and Missouri.
After our fuel stop, we climbed back up to 11.5K for a few reasons:
It was just easier. At 11.5K not only were we way above any terrain, the only real mountains were already behind us.
We could fly directly over Class Charlies and Bravos without talking to ATC.
All the restricted airspace ahead of us was lower than that.
It is interesting that at the exact moment you cross the New Mexico/Texas line, irrigation is discovered. Could there be some state-level government incentives at play? Differences in water rights law? A topic for another day.
We had been flying for a couple hours now and needed to think about the next stop. About an hour away would be good; at our current ground speed that’s about 135 nautical miles. Not a big busy airport that it’s hard to get in and out of; something with self-serve fuel. A snack bar or cafe would be nice, but unlikely; you eat a lot of beef jerky and granola bars in this line of work.
KEGT (Wellington, KS) was a nice enough airport that I actually don’t remember very much about. We stayed long enough to decide where we’d stop for the night – ideally, within striking distance of home. The weather was benign, we still had significant tailwinds, and you need to pack light on these trips. I’d been wearing these pants since I left Maryland and only had one more change of underwear.
We needed a field close to a not horrible hotel. That means either a town large enough to have Uber/Lyft or an airport that is trusting enough to let you borrow a crew car overnight. My sweet spot for this is: a town outside a major urban area whose economy is dominated by a university with a competitive sports team. They usually have both a beautiful airport and nice hotels -- all of which are under-used when it’s not sportsball season.
I cannot say enough positive things about the airport, the town, the hotel…this was the epitome of downhome Midwestern nice. We landed at about 8PM CST – the outer edge of twilight. We had called ahead to make sure the FBO would still be open when we landed, and when we turned off onto the taxiway we saw the line guys waving us in. I went in to handle the paperwork while Jack arranged where the plane would spend the night. When we told them we just needed to crash for the night and would be leaving first thing in the morning the desk girl gave me directions to a hotel and the keys to an SUV.
Yep. Just handed me the keys to a $30K vehicle and said “See you in the morning.”
Of course, they did have a $140K plane tied down as collateral. But this is part of the GA ethos. I’ve landed at a remote field in Nebraska and borrowed a clapped-out Ford F-150 with the key taped to the sun visor overnight, no questions asked. We got stranded at Hermiston, OR when my plane cracked a cylinder on takeoff and the airport manager found us a hotel, wheeled my plane into a temporary hangar, loaned us a car for three days, and drove us to Portland to take a commercial flight home. And was there to help when we came back four weeks later with all the parts and tools to get airborne again.
The American sense of community was fracturing even before COVID. My sense now is that in large swathes of society, no one knows how to go back to having ordinary relationships in meatspace.
I didn’t get a pilot’s license because I wanted a tribe. At least not consciously. But that’s what I got and I’m damn glad I did.