1 post tagged “skyhawk”

Greta and I signed up for the ConUS Challenge, which is for pilots around the country visit all of the public US airports in one year. We had planned to bag five this weekend but only managed to visit three. This picture is of our Skyhawk (courtesy of the North Texas Flying Club) on the ramp at Terrell Municipal Airport (KTRL). That was our first stop of the day.

To prove that you visited an airport for the Challenge you take a picture of something distinctive that can identify that airport along with a sign that says "Go Fly America". The Challenge website has a handy printout you can use for the sign. I added my name and the date to mine as well. As it turns out, it can sometimes be really hard to find something distinctive that identifies an airport.

We flew a leisurely pace from McKinney down to Terrell where we were lucky to find some folks out on the ramp. I had read that Terrell used to be a training base for British aircrews during WWII. There is a small museum on the field somewhere but I didn't see it when we were wondering around. A woman working at the FBO was kind enough to point us to a good sign where we could take our picture. We also came across a great bumpersticker that said "Don't tell mom I'm a pilot. She thinks I play piano in a whore house." lol

Despite the beautiful skies it was actually quite bumpy up there. That's mostly to do with all the sun's heat warming the earth and creating "thermals" ... or areas of rising warm air. Those are great for glider pilots because it gives them lift. But for G and I it just means "thank goodness for seat belts".

When the thermals are causing turbulence you're only escape is to go higher. But when you're visiting airports that are only 10 to 15 minutes apart from each other there's no time to go higher. So G and I rocked and rolled from Terrell over to Wills Point Airport (76F).

Now this one was a challenge. There were no signs that identified the airport. Just a few hangars and a couple of houses. And hardly any signs of life ... we did see a small kid riding a tricycle around one of the hangars. We didn't stay for long.

Next stop was Canton-Hackney Airport (7F5) just outside Canton, TX. Canton's claim to fame is the Canton Flea Market ... or First Monday's at Canton. People come from miles and miles around to buy and sell things there. These days there are Flea Markets popping up everywhere but Canton was one of the firsts. At least, in North Texas that is.

So we were hoping that the airport in Canton would be a nice one, with maybe a crew car that one could borrow to head out to the fair. But no ... not even close. This poor airport looks like it might not exist much longer. No buildings. No hangars. No airplanes. Just one runway and a weed-overridden ramp area next to a road. One one side of the runway are houses and on the other side is a golf course. At least we gave the golfers something to watch besides their balls.

The only thing we could find to take a picture of was a blue trash barrel that had "Canton" stenciled on the side.

From here we were suppose to go to Mineola-Wisener and Mineola-Wood County airports but after taking off again Greta and I decided we were getting hungry. Plus I was worried that the battery wasn't going to turn the starter motor too many more times. That starter takes a lot out of the battery and we hadn't been flying for long between stops to give it a chance to recharge.

So we turned back to McKinney (well, the scenic route) and after an hour we touched down in between a couple of students doing touch-and-goes and a couple of business jets stopping for fuel. We also got to sit and watch a guy take off in a Vari-Eze. Now that's something you don't get to see every day.

I think for the next flight we need to go on a real cross-country. Maybe to Austin to visit Mom.