Category Archives: Trips

Trip Home from Chicago to Tampa (States 24 & 25)

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Finished work early… Now time to go home from Chicago… I just couldn’t resist taking a slight detour to land in 2 new states.
The route is show below and includes a quick lunch in Iowa and an even quicker stop in Missouri.
But this makes state # 25!!!
Weather was CAVU after getting above the cloud deck… (But quite bumpy below that)
I expected the midwest to have lots of farmland… But didn’t expect all the windmills… Who knew how green
IL would be!!
The mighty Mississippi River really didn’t look that grand in Iowa.  (Way cooler in  Louisiana)
Burlington, IA was an awesome find… Great little airport, multiple instrument approaches and
even a really cool local restaurant walking distance from the airport… (Hearty lunch of
Iowa corn-fed beef really hits the spot)
Beleive it or not, Burlington is a commercial airport.  The airport terminal was incredibly small! … Notice the baggage claim area that serves all 4 commercial
flights that arrive here daily from Chicago and St Louis.
Onward to the next stop (next state) Hannibal, Missouri (STATE # 25!!!)
On the way to Hannibal, Mo, a really cool bridge crossing the Mississippi.
No matter state you land in, always some cool planes to see… This was the towplane used by the
local flight school to for sailplane lessons.
OK enough detours… Really, really time to go home now… Cruising @ 17500 FT… With oxygen and a really nice tailwind!  Almost Home!!!

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Trip To Lexington (State #23)

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In my ongoing quest to land in all 50 states, today I landed in state # 23!!
My routing, as shown below, was nearly direct… (other than a little maneuvering around a couple MOAs)

It has been ~ 3 weeks since my last IFR X-Country.  Fortunately, today’s trip was rather
uneventful.  The weather was near perfect (just a couple a broken cloud deck below me)

ATC congestion was very light for most of the trip, which gave me plenty of time to take pix.
Here is really cool airport just northeast of Atlanta (KMLJ), which looked very cool from the air…
NOTE TO SELF: Need to come back and land here… Looks like an island or an aircraft carrier.
After Atlanta, time to cross to some small mountains (ok maybe hills)… But scenic either way!

Another cool airport (KRHP) in a valley between two ridges.  Looks like it could be quite challenging
to land there in weather.
As I got close to Lexington, it became surprisingly crowded and didn’t really have time to take pix.
I found out later that it was due to a horse show in town this week.

The inside of the FBO was really first class including both decor and service.

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Trip To Meridian, MS

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Like most of my flights that head NW bound, this flight was up to Cross City then direct destination.
The Crystal River Nuclear Power plant… (Rather cool site in an otherwise empty part of the state)
Aerial view of the Crystal River airport. (Did lots of landing practice there as a student pilot years ago)
Found a gr8 parking spot @ MEI next to some military trainers. (Notice the Navy and Marines use the same training fleet) 
Close up of Capt Keith Taylor’s NAVY trainer (Thanks Keith!!)
Capt Taylor graciously allowed me to climb Up to the cockpit of his bird. 

(Wow! Do I appreciate my Cirrus cockpit with A/C and R9 even more after seeing that!!)
Thanks for following along…
Cheers,
== T.J.==