Smokey's 68-Airport Tour of South Carolina

[ronschreck]

Two down and forty-eight to go! I think I may have started something that will haunt me for the rest of my days. Seems like a silly exercise, landing at all 68 public use airports in South Carolina. But, I?m having fun doing it and lots of people seem to enjoy watching me have fun! Go figure?

The 109-airport tour of North Carolina that I did last year was more impressive than the 68 airports in South Carolina, but I?m getting older, so I?m told I can slow down some. I?ll tell you right now, I have no intention of landing at the 392 public use airports in Texas, so one of you young bucks can take on the Lone Star state with no opposition from me.

I didn?t even have to launch before sunrise this year and completed the 1052 nautical mile trip in only ten hours and fifty-four minutes. I was on the ground for an hour and twenty-two minutes to refuel and defuel (me). I landed at a different airport, on average, every eight and a half minutes.

One of my fuel stops was Barnwell Regional Airport (KBNL). Mr. Timothy Freer drew the short straw and was minding the FBO on the 4th of July holiday. He helped me with the fueling even though it was a self-serve pump, offered me a free soda and kept me company while I basked in the air conditioning. You should have seen the look on his face when I showed him my flight plan with 68 waypoints! You meet the nicest folks at GA airports! He gave me his card, so he?s now on my email list. Thanks, Tim. Hope to see you again some day.

Ever been to Clio Crop Care Airport (9W9)? Me neither, until yesterday. Sounds like a crop duster base, and I guess that?s the main user, but the AOPA directory also says it is an ultralight base. I doubt that ultralights have landed there in some time, as the grass was almost a foot tall. I slowed ?Miss Izzy? way down and just touched the tailwheel on the turf. Didn?t want to risk ripping the main wheel pants off in the high grass. I tried to save the tire tread as much as possible and usually did one-wheel touch-and-go?s on the hard surface runways.

I landed back home at Gold Hill Airpark (NC25) in time to join our neighborhood Independence Day picnic. Rain forced the picnic to the shelter of George and Becky Orndorff?s house. A beer and a burger and I was ready for the hangar myself.

My thanks to all of you who followed my progress on the airport tour. I heard some of you on the radio, saw a few waving as I went by (OK, I missed Lee Logan at Ridgeland. Wear a red shirt next time!), read text messages in flight, and Kathy collected your email and phone messages throughout the day. Thank you all.

[RVRC]

Smokey,

I didn't even know you were going to do SC yesterday until someone had a post on the List Serve. When we got to KCUB, Lurch, Hotlips and Chatterbox told us we had missed you by 30 mins. We did follow your progress on the laptop while continuing to build on Moonpie. Come back sometime when you can "stay longer"

[8CW]

Congratulations Ron! I hope to be able to do that myself someday.

[mikehoover]

When we got to KCUB, Lurch, Hotlips and Chatterbox told us we had missed you by 30 mins.

Was this tracked using APRS? Also, wonder about the story behind the names! LOL

[Radomir]

Ron used SPOT... which worked pretty well.. we were able to see his progress along the way..

[DeltaRomeo]

Congratulations, Ron! I kept getting emails from your family/friends throughout the day and followed along in my head with envy. You have set the bar very, very high!!!!

Way to go!

b,
dr