Diana wrote:...I am thinking about writing an article about this trip, including photos of people and their airstrips.

Far beyond an article, this journey has the makings of a very interesting book.

BTW I just finished the book, "Flying South", by a gal who circumnavigated all of Latin America in her 206.
I'd recommend it to any adventure minded pilot.
Enjoy, Berk

skywagon88h wrote:Diana:

There is a list of grass strips on the web somewhere. I spent a few minutes trying to find it, but you might try some Google searches. It may have been on the EAA site???

I ran across it several years ago, but because it was strips mostly in the midwest and I do my flying the west, didn't pay much attention to it.

Sorry I couldn't provide you the exact site, but I know I did see it.

www.shortfield.com

Is this the one that you are speaking of?

-Low

No, that wasn't it, but you just showed me a site I hadn't seen before!!

Thanks!

I think with a little bit of work this weekend, I can locate it. As I remember, it was just someone's blog of strips that he had accumulated and had on a personal website. I found it because it was linked from another website.

I will let you know.

Here is another grass strip site to try. http://www.vintageaircraft.org/news/Alp ... %20PDF.pdf

Berk wrote:BTW I just finished the book, "Flying South", by a gal who circumnavigated all of Latin America in her 206.

That's a great book. Very good narrative.

skywagon88h wrote: ...................
You also should get the "Cannibal Queen" which is a story of a guy's trip around the US (hit all 50 states) in a Stearman. ............

The author is Stephen Coonts, he was a naval aviator (A6's) and also wrote the novel Flight of the Intruder. Crummy movie, I thought, but a great book. He went on to write a whole series of novels with the same character (Jake Grafton), who started out a Captain in the Vietnam war and ends up an admiral in post-9/11 days. Any of them is a good read. He also writes for AOPA magazine.

Eric

Awesome itinerary you have lined up. You already have the ones I would recommend on your list, but I'll offer these thoughts as well:

Van Sant is a must see anytime, but most fun on the weekends when all the cool planes there are out flying.

Campbell Field (9VG) is a beautiful little field and well worth visiting, but it tends to see little activity except when Soup-On-Sunday is being held. See www.campbellfieldairport.com to confirm it is on for the week. Unfortunately there is no fuel available, but you can get some just up the road at Ackamack.

Andover-Aeroflex is one of the gems of the northeast and a personal favorite of mine since NJ is my homestate and Andover is tucked away in the little-known NJ countryside. I also did my tailwheel signoff with Damian there and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I'll add .02 on the book recommendations:

Zero Three Bravo by Mariana Gosnell (around the country in a Luscombe) &
Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck (two brothers cross the country in a Cub)

Both great reads about exploring the grass roots GA infrastructure our country is lucky enough to have - and that is sadly disappearing. It would be interesting if whatever level of write-up you do included a commentary on the status of that infrastructure and what effect people think the proposed user fees will have on it.

On a side note, I just got back from a flight from NC to MN to deliver a 182 and bring back a Stinson. It was disheartening that in that whole flight I only saw one other GA aircraft in flight. No doubt there were others, but overall there appeared to be very little activity.

Enjoy your travels!

Wow, thanks everyone for all of your suggestions! I've been researching the links and airports you've mentioned. I love "Flying South" and have read the other books you all have touched on. My stop at St. Francis, KS is partly due to Stephen Coonts' mention of that airport in his book. I actually flew in there last spring to check it out. Quite an interesting little town and airport...just my kind of place.

Judging from the broad knowledge base and accumulative experience here on this forum, I can see that I should have posted my request for information here much earlier!

You all have provided some great information and I'm most appreciative. You've also planted some seeds as to ideas for an article/book. I had fun writing a few articles for Sport Aerobatics, and it might be even more fun to write about this trip, and the airfields and people (and their airplanes!) that I will have the good fortune to experience along the way.

Thanks again!

Steve:

That was the list I was thinking of. However, it has expanded since I last looked at it.

Thanks!!

Larry

I can't wait to hear all the details at Gastons in June. How exciting for you it will be the trip of a lifetime, until you decide to do the western part to make it complete. Bob

Hello,
I fly with the gang at 8I3 and would like to know when you will be planning on stopping by. I think you have talked to Laura about the stop so give us a heads up so we can all come out to say hi.

Diana:

Are you already gone? Where in southwest MO. did you start from? Sounds like an awesome trip. I'm from the KC area, been to several of the local strips (midwest) that you mentioned. Have an awesome time. I would tag along locally for a couple of days if you are close.

Pat

trock wrote:Hello,
I fly with the gang at 8I3 and would like to know when you will be planning on stopping by. I think you have talked to Laura about the stop so give us a heads up so we can all come out to say hi.

Well, weather permitting, and if the creek don't rise, I hope to fly in there tomorrow late morning or early afternoon. I'm in southeast Michigan right now. Landed at a nice grass strip called Shamrock at Brooklyn, MI. I got a ride to a B&B.

cublite wrote: Where in southwest MO. did you start from?

Our airfield is just south of Lamar, MO. 08MO

cublite wrote:I'm from the KC area, been to several of the local strips (midwest) that you mentioned.
Pat

Where in KC are you based?

Diana, will you let us know the progress of your flight on this forum? Thanks. Happy Landings! Mike

mikemike wrote:Diana, will you let us know the progress of your flight on this forum? Thanks. Happy Landings! Mike

Yes, please do! Sounds like such a cool trip.

Diana:

I've got a strip on my farm about 25 knots straight south of Kansas City downtown airport, my identifier is 8KS7. I've been into Lamar a couple of times...you got a private strip just south of there?

Pat

Hi guys! Sorry to not get back to you here! I was posting on three other forums and got bogged down at the time. The trip was a blast! There were the usual obstacles and ups and downs (like illness and bad weather and unexpected personalities), but it was overall a fun and adventure. The trip was a reminder of what a beautiful country we have and what a privilege it is to be able to fly like this.

A BIG thanks to John Graham who was an incredible host and tour guide.

Christina, I made it to Freeport and Grimes...wonderful airfields with interesting people.

The Citabria guys back east organized a grass strip tour of Pennsylvania in my honor and here are some of the pictures from that day:

http://www.pilotbill.com/Citabria/Diana ... May07.html

I made a little video with pictures from the trip...included are several pictures of the beautiful day in Ohio flying with John:

http://www.areeda.com/flying/dr/TheTrip.wmv

Here is my final map and info:

http://www.goflyamerica.org/diana_map.asp

And a write-up on some of the public strips that I visited:

http://www.goflyamerica.org/pilot_detail.asp?p=3

Because of the stormy May weather, I got stuck in Louisiana for several days and didn't get to complete my planned route, but, that's how it goes when you fly like I did.

I've started writing the book about my trip. Although, it's more fun to work on planning for the next trip. My sweetie and I are planning on flying the Citabria low and slow from Missouri out to California in May.

Thanks again to all of you for your suggestions!

cublite wrote:Diana:
I've got a strip on my farm about 25 knots straight south of Kansas City downtown airport, my identifier is 8KS7. I've been into Lamar a couple of times...you got a private strip just south of there?
Pat

Hi Pat! Sorry to be so late in responding to you.

Our strip is near Highway 71 just south of Lamar. Here is the info from AirNav:

http://www.airnav.com/airport/08MO

We got hit pretty hard by the ice storm and we're still cleaning up. Some of the tree limbs blocked our path to our runways, but some of our Citabria friends showed up with chain saws and helped us with that.

Diane:

No problem! Looks like you had a great trip. See that you are only 82 knots away. Might drop in sometime. Have been really busy doing a ground up restortation on a C-90 powered '46 J-3 Cub, but do get out in the C-180 from time to time. Frost coming out of the ground here today-in the 60's, lots of mud thrown by the 8.50's on landing tonight.

Pat