Iola Does Italian

The way this picture looks, you'd think no one else was around, but nope - optical illusion. Decent weather and a special menu item meant a good turnout for the Friday lunch at Iola.

I made my first Friday lunch flight of the year with Jim in 15X today. Dandelions are blooming, trees are budding, and grass runways are turning green, so summer must be on the way. "Head chef" Bill had a rare day off today. Some Central County Flyers prepared a delicious pasta lunch. With the aroma of steaming pots of noodles, simmering homemade spaghetti sauce, Italian sausage, meatballs, and freshly baked garlic bread filling the hangar, it was hard to wait patiently in line!

Left: Hey, that Beech Travel Air looks familiar. Jim realized it was the same one recently featured on the cover of Trade-A-Plane.


Below: What's the commotion? The gawkers are swarming Tony, who brought his "new" Ercoupe to Iola lunch for the first time.

Billings and Back

In my February 16th blog post, I wrote about retracing part of a route I took with an Ercoupe in 2006. Well now I got an extended version of deja vu as I flew to Billings, Montana and back today in the Cessna 340.

Back in 2006, my friend Julie and I were trying to end up in at least the Billings area with the Ercoupe but fell short. The Ercoupe's buyer drove us from Hysham down I-94 and I-90 to Bozeman overnight, making a little side trip up to the top of the plateau where Billings Logan International sits, just to show me. I remember seeing the lights of the city spread out below. Today I saw it during the day. There is quite a panoramic view of the prairies and the city from that airport! The FBO is just a few steps away from the cliff above the city.

 Way up in the flight levels in the middle of nowhere on the way back:

The same little lakes or ponds or puddles or whatever Julie and I saw:

In 2006, Julie and I stopped in Aberdeen, South Dakota for an overnight stay. We arrived around sunset and parked at Aberdeen Flying Service. Today, the same place, about the same time.