(Smith Field, as seen through Evan's dirty Plexi...)
Father's Day Weekend, 2004
(Seven Airports in Seven Hours)
Article and Pictures by Evan Wright
(Smith Field, as seen through Evan's dirty Plexi...)
I made it out to Geneseo for the first time this year. Every previous year
something had come up, but this year fate smiled on me.
The previous day, I had flown Brenda to Smith Field in Fort Wayne, Indiana after
the FVFC picnic. Brenda normally visits her father every father’s day, but I
promised her if she came to the picnic, I would fly her there in time for
dinner. The flight to Fort Wayne via Valparaiso was smooth, and with the
help of a tailwind, we had a ground speed of 140 mph. Not too shabby for a
Cessna 152! When we arrived at Smith Field, an antique biplane, with the Slogan
“Waldo Wright’s Flying Circus” was selling rides. Although the plane was about
the size of a Stearman, it had a passenger compartment which could seat five!
The return flight was smooth, except that I
was flying into the sun the whole time. But when the sun went below the
horizon, it was suddenly so clear that I could see the steam rising from the
nuclear cooling stacks near Rockford all the way from the Indiana border.
It was one of those sights that made me feel really lucky to be a pilot.
After getting home around 11:00pm, I didn't wake up as early as I wanted to on
Sunday. I had ambitiously set my alarm for 6:00am on Sunday morning, but
when it went off, I knew I was way too tired to fly. I hit the snooze bar,
and woke up again around 8:00.
I had a scenic, but bumpy flight out to Geneseo. Several times I had to back off
on the throttle to get the plane below vNO. I had no problems finding the
airport with just a sectional. It was right next to the railroad tracks
between the highway and the Henepin canal. Unfortunately due to my
tardiness, I wasn't able to catch up to the ultralights as I had hoped. In
fact, as I was landing in Geneseo, I heard Phil Bolinbaugh on the radio on final
at Erie. There were still a fair number of antique planes when I was
there, and an AT-6 and a Stearman were flying side-by-side low passes over the
field for the amusement of the onlookers. It was really fun to watch but,
since the fly-in was winding down, I departed for Kewanee to top off the tanks
and head back. I had never been to Kewanee before, and was surprised by
what a nice airport it was. They even had sundae cones for sale in their
refrigerator for 75 cents. After I had topped off the tanks, I departed for
Cushing.
I landed about 45 minutes later and found that Larry, and Patti and Paul
Syverson, were heading down to Prairie Lakes, so Andrew Kellogg and I decided to
join them. After a pleasant lunch at the clubhouse, we took off and flew
some ground reference maneuvers, stalls, and steep turns. Then we flew over to
Morris for a landing because it has the cheapest 100LL around:
$2.40/gallon. I topped off the tanks again before we headed back to
Cushing. By this time I was starting to feel guilty, knowing the dogs were
stuck inside on such a nice, day. So, after dropping Andrew off at
Cushing, I figured it was time to pack it in. When I filled in my logbook,
I realized that over the course of two days, I had spent over 7 hours flying,
had been to 7 airports, and had been from the eastern edge of Indiana to the
western edge of Illinois. Not a bad way to spend a weekend!
Where To Now?
200 Miles for No Reason in Particular
De Kalb, Illinois: Land of RVs
Father's Day Fly-In to Gen Air Park and Erie
The T2 at the Illinois Aviation Museum at Bolingbrook