For all you guys that like to fly small airplanes hang out and shoot the **** around a pot of coffee in the local hanger. Where would you say the best GA area of the country is? Does anybody know how to do a survey on these forums?

I am looking into a move and want some input that i have not been able to trak down on the web anywhere.

 

Midwest- not that many people flying, but almost every FBO you can find old timers shooting the S. Great conversations especially on Sundays.

 

Florida... so many small airports, relatively cheap gas, lots of airports have great restaurants on them... and the scenic flying is par none... Caribbean, Bahamas only 45 minutes away, FL Keys, Gulf Coast (which has a beauty all its own), and a lot of great airports along the east coast of FL... and lots of no-pay courtesy cars ...and lots of wildlife to see if you want to get down low: manatees (they look like potatoes under the water) all along the st. johns, and lots of gators of the everglades... even see sharks, manta rays, and dolphins regularly.

my second favorite would be Montana for scenic reasons.

 

If you are going to fly a light airplane, off grass strips, I agree on Florida, but down in the cetral part, not the pan handle. Loads of old military training fields and crop duster grass strips still in operation, and if you ever lose your motor and can't find a cow field to drop into, there are lots of long, straight, dirt roads you can put down on safely. And there is the coast, both sides, and the Keys, and the weather is almost always VFR if you get up early and fly before the thunderstorms grow.

Hey Chris, I've also flown the Technam, out of SEF, if you've been there, but I had a J3 there for awhile and loved flying that much more.

 

ya, its hard to beat a cub in FL... and I agree... there are a ton of old grass strips and unused military fields... makes for some fun flying. I've not been to SEF before, but I've been all around there. How did you like the Tecnam?

 

I liked it a lot better than that other LSA thing over there, that fiberglass one that looks like a pollywog! (can't recall the name of it).

I flew both the high wing and low wing Technams (92T and Siera?) about 4 years ago out of SEF, over to Sun N Fun. I prefer the high wing for croswind landings, and shade in the hot sun, and for looking down at the countryside, but the buble canopy of the Siera is nice too, hot, but great visability above, not so much below. Having grown up in a Cub, I guess I'm partial to the high wings.

The Rotax is reliable, quiet, and the ability to burn auto fuel is good, avgas is getting nutz. The older I get, the more I want to fly ultralights, on floats, so I must be getting senile! The prices of some of those new LSA's is way out of my range, over $100,000.

I may just re-build the Cub, put it on floats, although I've always wanted a Pitts S1...but I think I'm getting too old for that stuff.

BARNSTORMERS.COM

 

For the mid-south region, I wish I had more time to sit around the restaurant next to the FBO at David Wayne Hooks (KDWH) airport just north of Houston. I've only been there a few times, but around lunch it seems to be a popular hang out for some of the old-timer local pilots. I wish I had even 30 minutes to sit round after lunch and bend their ear for a good story or two.

Also - the airport restaurant at Walnut Ridge, AR (KARG) has an enjoyable all-you-can-eat fried catfish buffet (on a certain day which I can not remember off the top of my head). The restaurant is situated in the body of an old SWA 737. Across the street is an Army Flying School museum. A good 30 minutes of history about the flight training that went on there during WWII. It is sobering to see the list of fatalities though from those years in the memorial at the front door. So many fatal mishaps in such a short period of time. Those volunteers will certainly have stories to share as well if you have the time.

USMCFLYR

 

If you haven't read "The Wild Blue" by Stephen Ambrose yet, get it. It's about B24 pilots in WW2. A whole lot more pilots were killed in training accidents (something like 25%!) than in combat.

Hendricks Field, in Sebring, FL was built as a B17 training base. Hendricks Field, Sebring , FL (1941_1946)

There was another training base in Arcadia, FL, where the Brits sent kids to learn to fly in the Steamans. They even have an entire section in the Arcadia town cemetary just for all the Brits, killed in traing accidents there. I saw it when I went to my Wife's Grandmother's funeral.

Another great book, which discusses what it was like to live (barely) and fly back then, is Jimmy Doolittle's auto-bio, "I could never be so lucky again".

He crashed so many airplanes in training and 'exploring the envelope', how he lived through all that is just amazing, but I guess it was either learn to fly...or be a grunt, in the trenches of WW2, so, chose your poison.

Oh, and I just remembered the name of 'that polywog looking thing' from my earlier post, it's a CTSW.

http://www.flightdesign.com/


I flew it a couple times but never liked it. They do seem to sell a lot of them though, so somebody likes it!

 

Good posts guys, I would have to agree about florida great place to fly. If ya want to check out ultralights on water check out the FIB flying inflatable boats

F.I.B. - Polaris Motor

affordable and fun

 

Yea the Tecnam is about as cheap as it gets for a twin. 10gph (thats with both engines running) in cruise. Problem is, where to find an airport that carries MOGAS or has a pump that is certified to pump MOGAS into an airplane. Not very many of them, thats for sure. And I've even seen MOGAS be more expensive than 100LL at one airport in S. Carolina.

And yea, the price of owning even an experimental of LSA aircraft has gone through the roof. It sucks because it is making it totally unaffordable for the weekend warrior to own an airplane and enjoy what we do. And that sucks. The only people I know that own aircraft have deals to lease-back the aircraft to a school or a rental company. Only way they can afford it.