Must see places between Wisconsin and New Mexico?

mowog

mowog

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Oct 23, 2024
Messages
17
Display Name
Stewart
Home Airfield
KOXR
Bought a pa 12 today and will be flying it home in the next few weeks weather permitting. Any good suggestions of places to go or grass strips close to the line from kmsn to ksxu or from there to KOXR? No transponder so no Kansas City bbq or stl bbq sadly.
 
I did almost exactly that flight, in reverse, after HSF in October. There is a whole lotta nothing along that flight path! Be sure to download a bunch of podcasts.
 
Field of Dreams, Dryersville, Iowa. It's 7.5 nm north off your flight line. At the very least it deserves a flyover.
If you do, take a photo and post it.
 
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Some great ideas thank you
 
Blakesburg IA 27 is OK, but not worth an awful lot of deviation. It's probably pretty dead right now. No fuel. Would be nice for the PA12.
KGFZ Greenfield museum southwest of Des Moines is quite nice. Better call ahead there. I think the museum is quiet in the winter. I recommend it if you have the time and it's open. Nothing to eat, if I remember right, and I don't know about a courtesy car. Worth looking into.
en.wikipedia.org

Iowa Aviation Museum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
SAC Aerospace Museum at Ashland, NE, southwest of Omaha. KMLE, Millard is probably the closest airport. You'd want to plan a longer day there, maybe not what you wish to do on a ferry trip.
 
Hays, Kansas airport (KHYS) is just north of the direct route and the Rans aircraft factory is there. I had a good tour of the factory ages ago on a motorcycle trip and found it worthwhile. Everybody working there was proud of their part in the business and wanted to show what they were working on. Since you'll be in a PA 12, the Me-Own (1NM0) airstrip in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness of the Black Range Mountains in SE New Mexico is well worth a stop. It is marked as private, but it is in the Recreational Aviation Foundation Airfield Guide and it is open to the public after reading the safety info. You could fly over the Plains of St Augustin (where the Very Large Array radio telescope is located) on the way there. That is breathtakingly beautiful country, but it is VERY remote, so pack good survival gear and a satellite communicator would be a good item to have with you (something like the In-Reach Mini by Garmin). Or you could fly well north and zip over Canyon de Chelly National Monument just NE of Chinle Muni. The Meteor Crater is also worth a fly over. That's just west of Winslow, AZ. It's a BIG country. You need to fly over it multiple times to catch all the worthwhile sights.
 
The Salton Sea dirt strip (KSAS) doesn't have any facilities, but you could say you landed at -84' MSL. That has to be worth something!
 
mowog said:
Bought a pa 12 today and will be flying it home in the next few weeks weather permitting. Any good suggestions of places to go or grass strips close to the line from kmsn to ksxu or from there to KOXR? No transponder so no Kansas City bbq or stl bbq sadly.
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Hmmmm.

C11 Amana Colonies is along the way. That's potentially worth a stop, for food if nothing else. https://amanacolonies.com/places-to-eat-drink/

Dunno if there's anything worth leaving the airport for, but KGBD Great Bend, KS gave me excellent service and cheap fuel on a cross country stop a while back. It's an old Army Air Corps field and was one of the first B-29 Superfortress bases. Some of the historic buildings are preserved there, and the pavement from all three runways still exists even though they're not all in use any more.

I overnighted once at KDUX Moore County in Texas, which also had cheap fuel and excellent service, and courtesy car keys sitting on the counter waiting to be taken after hours. Hotel had Texas-shaped Belgian waffles for breakfast too. :rofl:

A must-stop right along your way is KSEZ Sedona, AZ. Every aviator should have a landing at the "USS Sedona" on their bucket list. It's very scenic and there's a great restaurant on the field.

Ed Haywood said:
Gotta be a world's largest ball of twine somewhere along there.
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Yup. It's in Cawker City, KS, between K61 and K75, and not far off the route.

Of course, there's also Cassoday, KS, the Prairie Chicken Capital of the World. :rofl:

My mom loves to talk about a "scenic overlook" she encountered in Kansas, that overlooked - A feed pen.

Kansas, you need something to do.
 

Must see places between Wisconsin and New Mexico?​


There are none:D:oops: Take plenty of fuel o_O
 
Well I’ve started the trip home. 14 hours in and another 10 to 12 to go. Unfortunately with the winds I ended up having to go south through Iowa Illinois and Missouri. First night was in Joplin mo. Today made it to Santa Rosa nm before running out of light. Planes running great. Definitely going to Sedona most likely on Sunday as the winds will make Saturday a short one.
Thanks for all the suggestions hopefully next time I can go to some of them.

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Flying over "Sky City", Acoma Pueblo in Central New Mexico before continuing on to Sedona would be fun. Sky city is a Native American pueblo "city" located on top of a mesa. There is only 1 trail up the side of the mesa, so it was easy to defend against invaders of all types. Supposely, this is the oldest, continuously inhabited "city" in the US. The Spanish finally made some inroads with the pueblo, and were permitted to build an adobe Mission Church on the mesa top. The priest managed to anger the residents and was thrown off the mesa top to his death below. Tours are offered, but there is no landing strip nearby
 
Beautiful PA-12! What did she cruise at? I've been eyeing PA-12s and PA-14s for the last few years. Cool airplanes.
 
Jason Gould said:
Beautiful PA-12! What did she cruise at? I've been eyeing PA-12s and PA-14s for the last few years. Cool airplanes.
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Right around 90 knots at 2400 rpm and 6ish gph.
 
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