Wow.....

I just got off the phone with Bill (Bushwheel Bill for those of you that don't know)and he was pulling through Panaco, NV yesterday on the way back from the Copperstate Fly in and was going to stop and rest a bit. He saw the Lincoln County Airport (1L1), as soon as he pulled in (there were two campers there already) two people promptly came over and told him that he could not stay and had to leave. He tried to explain that he was airplane folk, he was a pilot, that we take care of an airport in Joseph, that he just needed a place to stop and rest, he'd been driving all day on his way home. That they'd be gone at daylight. But NO, the people insisted that he could not stay there under any circumstance.

So off down the road he went, FINALLY, after fighting wild game and darkness, around 9:30 they found a place off the side of the road that had been graded enough that the Bushwheel Mobile would fit.

So for those passing through, I would not plan on making this little airport a place to stop and visit. I looked it up and right at the top it says 'public use'. It's a small airport, 2 airplanes based there, 1000 or less yearly operations, etc. Very UNWELCOMING.

If you know anyone in the local vicinity let them know how disappointed a passing through pilot is.

Interesting you mention something like this Wup.

About the same thing happened to me a couple years ago while I was traveling in my pick up from Ca to Florida to pick up a camper trailer.

I had a bunch of stuff in the back of my pick up bed and didn't want to stop at a hotel. I was passing through Houston and stopped at Houston Executive (KTME) and parked kind of close to the FBO. I got in late (around 1-2am) and all was good till about 5am. An airport employee ran me off saying the airport was PRIVATE!! Well, I said it might be privately owned, but it my GPS it says it's open to the public and I kindly said I just wanted a safe place to get a few hours sleep and that I was a pilot. The employee didn't care and ran me off.

Since a lot of pilots use http://www.Airnav.com for fuel and flight planning. You can write a note in the comments section for that airport about Bills experience.

Sounds like we should organize a fly in to 1l1. Could be fun and fit wright into the red neck thread...

I have told people to call the Police. At any rate I won't go spend any money there. There may be a story we don't know too. Possible problems from campers in the past??

But darn a pilot is the best security guard you can get.

RB

Good thing Bill left. We should have a poll on how many understand the banjo kid reference.

Tim

qmdv wrote:Good thing Bill left. We should have a poll on how many understand the banjo kid reference.

Tim

I would worry about the ones who didnt get it.............

mr scout wrote:

qmdv wrote:Good thing Bill left. We should have a poll on how many understand the banjo kid reference.

Tim

I would worry about the ones who didnt get it.............

Oh we got it, we got it alright.

Squeal like a pig........

Middle of nowhere airport at a 'look the other way' small town?
They may have had a plane load of 'product' that they needed to off load that night......
Might be a good thing to have 'moved on'......

Many possibilities....
lc

Ya know, I can see rousting a broke down meth mobile from the airport, lest they siphon all the gas and strip the pilot lounge bare... They have no business there.

But dang, if it's anything aviation related, seems any small airport should have it's welcome sign out and the porch light on.

Gump

Sometimes ya give a person a little power, an a "Hitler" results... Sorry guys, not all of Nevada's like that.. Your welcome any damn time here in Austin .... for as long as you damn well please...

That doesn't sound right at all.

I've flown in and out of there over the last ten years and they have been BEYOND welcoming.

Maybe something bad happened to the caretaker or something -- that's not the Panaca I know at all.

GumpAir wrote:Ya know, I can see rousting a broke down meth mobile from the airport, lest they siphon all the gas and strip the pilot lounge bare... They have no business there.

But dang, if it's anything aviation related, seems any small airport should have it's welcome sign out and the porch light on.

Gump

So I just thought of this. Since I carry my pilot license with me every where I go. And if I drive up to an airport and want to walk around the ramp to look at parked airplanes, is that OK?? I know the answer would be no at a lot of the commercial airports, but would it be OK at small non-commercial airports? After all, whats the difference if I fly in or drive in??

58Skylane wrote:So I just thought of this. Since I carry my pilot license with me every where I go. And if I drive up to an airport and want to walk around the ramp to look at parked airplanes, is that OK???

Isn't that what airports are for?

Gump

GumpAir wrote:

58Skylane wrote:So I just thought of this. Since I carry my pilot license with me every where I go. And if I drive up to an airport and want to walk around the ramp to look at parked airplanes, is that OK???

Isn't that what airports are for?

Gump

Well, that's what I'm thinking too!
So heck.....next time I'm driving cross country, I'm going to stop at all the FBO's I have time for and get me some of them free cookies and popcorn!! And use the crew rest area and showers too while I'm at it!

since there living is made off the pilots at airports maybe they should have offered them a few bucks to stay there? doug

tempdoug wrote:since there living is made off the pilots at airports maybe they should have offered them a few bucks to stay there? doug

Who is "them" and how do we know "them" belong there either?

[b]PUMPKIN DROP @1L1!!!

I'm a little confused, did you guys go to a airport/FBO with your aircraft or car?

I would prefer airports to take the paranoid approach if a "pilot" shows up in a pickup and wants to rest or eat the cookies.

Letting some guy in a car play around all night at a airport is how peoples planes go missing. Besides to just show up at a random airport in a car and use the facilities is kinda like going to a nice bistro eating the bread and leaving.

Now if I LANDED at a airport and was tired and someone asked me to leave I would have to politely decline.