Any pilots or aviation geeks out there?

[blw2]

jgg..... fond memories.  I learned to fly there and flew out of there from about 1990-1994

I was recently talking to my old CFII and he was saying that he felt like it was the hey day back in those days...in terms of being an active and fun airport, good crowd, busy resteraunt, etc....  I know that as I moved around to various places with job changes in the passing years, I have never found a place like it for an airport bum.

 

[PopPop51]

That's good to hear.
HGR was such a place in the 1980s and 90s. An active, welcoming pilot community and an equally active, welcoming EAA chapter. That's as it was when I moved away in 2001. I'm not sure how it is there now. I know that the fences are higher, there's a big new FBO, and P-40 is more intrusive. I hope the culture has survived.
JGG had a great sandwich shop that made its own, delicious bread. It alone made the trip there worthwhile. I wonder if it's still there?

 

[blw2]

I thought I remembered seeing mention of it a while back online someplace, so I did a quick search...
http://williamsburgairport.com/restaurant/

I remember when it started..... well honestly my memory is a bit fuzzy.  There might have been a little food stand of some sort before but I'm pretty sure I remember when it closed for a while, then a guy re-branded and opened it up as Charley's
Yes, it was good food, and a great place for lunch and to watch a few takeoffs and landings from ramp side....
good sandwiches... i think they had a chicken salad sandwich, a good bisque soup, and I remember folks raving about their french onion soup

 

[flyer05]

Currently flying for one of the majors. Captain A320.

 

[OC Metal Man]

Private single instrument. Owned a C-177, Bonanza G35 and Bonanza A36.  Will be looking for a 182 once I get thru the new BasicMed process for commuting to/from Southern CA and our house in AZ. SI for bypass surgery 4 years ago made the annual visit to the AME quite an ordeal. 

 

[ip076]

Hey all!

ATP/CFI AMEL and COMM/CFI ASEL/S here.  Currently flying professionally and about to embark on a full time RV adventure for a couple of years. 

Anyone got any suggestions for decent back country airports with truck/rv access?  Thinking around the northeast as I have friends with airplanes I could meet up with, but really anywhere might do. 

 

[blw2]

.....
Anyone got any suggestions for decent back country airports with truck/rv access?  Thinking around the northeast as I have friends with airplanes I could meet up with, but really anywhere might do.

Hi ip076
great question.
I have often wondered about smaller GA airports as a spot for pilots to boondock enroute on RV trips.  I know they wouldn't want to make it open like walmart and the like....but I'd like it otherwise....

 

[HappyWanderer]

Anyone got any suggestions for decent back country airports with truck/rv access?  Thinking around the northeast as I have friends with airplanes I could meet up with, but really anywhere might do.

I know a campground in Maine that's floatplane friendly.

 

[Jeff]

I've seen a couple of small airports with no based aircraft that would probably let you stay but in Illinois for instance the State supplied funds to fence in airports including gates with security cards even though GA airports don't normally fall under direct supervision of TSA.


I have a feeling most will resist boondocking on security grounds.

 

[ip076]

I know a campground in Maine that's floatplane friendly.

That could be fun just to visit?  Where's it at?  I'm hoping to make it to the Northeast this summer/fall.

I've seen a couple of small airports with no based aircraft that would probably let you stay but in Illinois for instance the State supplied funds to fence in airports including gates with security cards even though GA airports don't normally fall under direct supervision of TSA.

Well, having grown up in Illinois I'm not surprised.  After all, they didn't do much when a certain mayor took bulldozers to a runway and permanently shut down the airport for "security" concerns.

Are there any full time RV'ers here who work professionally as a pilot?

 

[SkateBoard]

Any way of finding out where my old plane is now and if it's in service? N5191W

 

[ip076]

Any way of finding out where my old plane is now and if it's in service? N5191W

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=N5191W

Looks like it's on hold right now, someone reserved that N-Number. 

 

[SkateBoard]

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=N5191W

Looks like it's on hold right now, someone reserved that N-Number.

I'm wondering if that means it's in the junk yard now?

 

[PopPop51]

Appears to have been deregistered in 2012, there are no other registrations of of a Piper with that serial number under another N-number, and the deregistration record says not exported (at least as part of the deregistration).
So it's a good bet that if it was not destroyed, it was scrapped and/or parted out.

One of my primary trainers, N19102, was destroyed in an accident (not by me!) and it's records look just like N5191Ws

 

[ip076]

You could check the NTSB database, see if it's in there.  Should be able to find it at NTSB.gov.

 

[HappyWanderer]

That could be fun just to visit?  Where's it at?  I'm hoping to make it to the Northeast this summer.

Sebasticook Lake Campground in Newport, Maine. Picture any postcard you've seen of a Maine lake, and you'll have a good idea of how pretty this place is. I don't know exactly how frequently you'll see floatplanes, but they're around.

 

[malexander]

I like to "follow" the 150, N8700G, that we owned, and I got my PPL in in 1977. We still own the '69 172 that My dad bought, with 3 other guys in 1971, it had 50 hrs TT on it then. Within about 4-6 years he had bought them all out. It has 2400 TT now and has been hangared all it's life.

Anybody going to OSH in July?

 

[SkateBoard]

I got my license in the early 70's through the Boy Scouts. $10 an hour is all I  had to pay. BS picked up the rest. Had my pilots license before my drivers license. Learned on a 1946 Tripacer Colt with a WWII instructor smoking a big fat cigar. He was big on spin recovery. Today, just let go of the wheel.

 

[Oldgator73]

Not a pilot-math deficient. Four degrees, one math class. But, when I was stationed at King Salmon AB, AK I worked part time at the "airport" as a baggage handler for Mark Air. Loaded many bear skins, moose and caribou racks and boxes of salmon into the bellies of commercial planes. I did fly an F-15 at RAF Lakenheath----simulator. If I recall correctly the Captain with me said I was the worst he had ever seen.

 

[captcosmic]

Not a pilot, but I fly a lot in the back of the bus. Been keeping the coast safe from hurricanes since 2008. Can't even tell the storms apart anymore. Any related hurricane questions feel free to ask. Not a meteorologist, but sit next to them on the WP-3Ds and G-IV. Also get the cool equipment on the planes that measure the snow across the midwest to predict flooding in the Mississippi valley. Not your everyday ordinary engineering job.