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500 airports.

jbDC9

jbDC9

Well Known Member
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I'll admit it; I'm a geek.

Over the last 15 years and 1875 hours of flying my RV-8, I've been on a sort of unofficial quest to cover the Lower 48 states of the US and to land at as many different airports as I can. After puttering around N Texas and a bit of Oklahoma yesterday, my RV airport count hit 500... not that it's a big milestone or anything, but I thought it to be kinda cool. As far as my 48 state quest, I've missed Nevada completely and I still need to get down to southern Florida just to fill out the map, but, I have 47 states in the bag. Alaska? Someday, perhaps... Russia? Nah!!

I'm thinking I need to do another west coast trip sometime this year and I can finally bag a Nevada landing, then a run up the CA coast and hit the PNW again. There are just so many funky and cool airports to see out there... and the big Class B/C airports? Nah, that's just miles and miles of concrete, there's just no challenge to it.

Anyone else keeping track? Let's see what you got! My map is posted below; strictly RV landings. If I included all my flying over the last 36 years I'm somewhere north of 800 airports, but the RV stuff is just more fun.

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Great idea John to count places thanks! Did you count only paved fields or unimproved/off airport RV landings as well? What map do you use to compile them?
 
I think we need a pool

Maybe a buck a piece with half going to Doug Rreves.

Now that Vlad is about to check in I’m going for 1745. Who else wants in the vansairforce pool for total airports Vlad has. I’m counting all airports and if Vlad landed there it must be an airport.
 
I’m impressed. One of my goals when I bought my RV-8 in 2019 was to land at all the airports in my home state of Mississippi. I figured that would be a great way to practice for longer cross country flights and different types of airports (okay, none are more than 400 or so feet MSL). I’ve made it to about 60 so far with 19 or so to go. I’m having knee surgery next week so it will be a few months before I can start on those remaining airports, but I still plan to fly to each one. Of course, the flight to and from AirVenture 2021 was a lot of fun, even with the four week delay on the return trip due to mag issues.

Thanks for sharing your trips.
 
Only 452 total all types. Looks like you're ahead of me in Texas too. I've hit 143 of the 392 public use airports in Texas. I've got to get out more once I get flying again.
 

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Vlad said:
Great idea John to count places thanks! Did you count only paved fields or unimproved/off airport RV landings as well? What map do you use to compile them?
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It’s just “push pins” on a Google map, no logbook data dumps, just zoom in to an airport and drop a pin; the map keeps a count of how many total pins so you don’t even have to count ‘em up. I’ve only done actual runways, whether paved, grass or gravel, but in your case with cow trails or roads in front of truck stops, it all counts! I’m thinking you’d put the rest of us to shame.

I’ve seen on another forum a pilot from the UK has bagged somewhere around 1400 strips around the world in his 182… I’m not worthy!

gyoung said:
Only 452 total all types. Looks like you're ahead of me in Texas too. I've hit 143 of the 392 public use airports in Texas. I've got to get out more once I get flying again.
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Crazy thing about Texas; it’s a huge state with a ton of airports! I’ve hit a bunch of them, but 392 public use? Man, I still have a ways to go…
 
Map

I’m with Vlad, what map source did you use? I’ve tried a bunch that I couldn’t make work. Please help us out.
 
Great post John! I'm on a quest for the lower 48 too, but never thought about tracking each airport. Since I'm a geek too, that's now on my list of "things to do".
 
texdog said:
I’m with Vlad, what map source did you use? I’ve tried a bunch that I couldn’t make work. Please help us out.
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It’s just a Google Map overlay; if you have a Google account, log in and go to Google Maps, then look for “My Maps” to get started. You’ll have to manually scroll and zoom to drop and label the pins/markers; it takes some time to do a bunch of airports, but it’s pretty easy to do.

One sorta sad thing I’ve noticed is that of my 500 airports, there are at least 8 that are shut down and gone for good, three in the Houston area alone. Bummer.

Ironflight said:
Well heck John, we’re in Nevada…… ;)
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I’ll drop in some day and raid your hangar beer fridge… a good excuse to bag a Nevada landing! :D
 
1+ Year - 92 Airports

Having received my PPL just over a year ago, I've had the chance to log 92 airports in 22 states. Hoping to add many more and meet fellow RV'ers.
 

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Updating my post from almost 3 years ago... and yep, I'm still a geek! I'm up to 592 airports now in my RV-8 and have bagged 49 states; all fifty states just ain't happening since Hawaii is just a wee bit too far! I mean, maybe Hermann, Dan 57 or Vlad could pull it off, but not me.

Since last summer I was able to do a bucket list trip to Alaska/Arctic Circle along with some more mundane stuff like out to Mesquite, NV to finally bag a Nevada landing plus down to the Florida Keys, so now for the Lower 48 I've been to the four corners... and I realize that these are just points on a map and don't mean anything, but hey, did I mention I'm a geek for this stuff? And I wanna go back to Alaska again some day...

Maps attached plus a coupla pics of Colorado aspens 2-3 weeks ago near Creede, CO. They almost match my wing tip color!RV_2024_travelsB.jpgRV_2024_travelsA.jpgIMG_6585.jpgIMG_6596.jpg
 
Can we also have a competition for the least number of airports visited in an RV? I've had the RV for 3 months and got 18. :D


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Myflightbook has Visited Airports page and will build the map, and allows to apply filters by type, tail, timeframe, etc.
 
After 60 years, landing in all US states and several foreign countries, I tried but the task is daunting. Maybe when I retire from flying I can do it. This is over 16,000 hours in everything from a Pitts Special to a DC-10.
 
Being much more a local flier, I guess I could say I have accomplished my goal of covering every square inch of my local area. This map is just of the first 6 months of this year. I have similar looking maps for the last 5 years. Definitely an exercise in randomness.
 

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plehrke said:
Being much more a local flier, I guess I could say I have accomplished my goal of covering every square inch of my local area.
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Oh yeah, same here! I have 15 years worth of GPS tracks overlaid on a Google Earth map, my local Houston area looks like a plate of multicolored spaghetti, I've covered every inch of it. Actually it's most of SE/SC Texas from IAH-SAT-DFW that looks like that...
 
So I made it back to Alaska a coupla weeks ago, wheeee! Fun trip! Got to hang and fly a bit with Hermann, plus bagged a bunch more landings through BC and AK; my RV airport count is up to 625-ish. After spending 12 days puttering through the magnificent scenery of the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, Yukon, Alaska and Idaho, what a letdown it was to come back to flat, boring, hot n humid SE Texas.

Locations that stand out; Kotzebue was cold and windy… even in the summer, bring a jacket! Seldovia had a nice gravel strip and looked to be a neat little village… perhaps I need to fly back there and stay a day or two. Cordova was similar but included an 1800’ gravel strip right on the water, cross a roadway to get to parking. Interesting. Kenai was a great night stop to do laundry after camping at Fairbanks; there are a coupla hotels, a pub, laundromat, grocery store, Home Depot and an O’Reilly Auto (everything an RVer needs!) all within walking distance from the airport. Skagway was beautiful, a nice little airport down in a valley right at a river/bay inlet. No fuel, but a short walk to hotels/food in town. As I meandered my way back south towards Johnson Creek I did a night stop on Vancouver Island, BC at Courtenay Airpark; what a great find! A nice little 1800’ paved strip located mere yards away from both a hotel and a brewpub. From mixture cutoff to IPA was a mere 38 minutes, a new personal record! And that included checking into the hotel to drop my bags…

Anyhoo, a coupla pics just for fun;
Seldovia, AK.
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Cordova, AK.
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Skagway, AK.
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Courtenay Airpark.
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jbDC9 said:
I’ll drop in some day and raid your hangar beer fridge… a good excuse to bag a Nevada landing! :D
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And on the way, you could dog leg over to Short Stop (8TA5). You probably need some short field practice anyway.
 
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I see you havn't come to Norhern Minnesota. Fly to NW MN, land at Pinecreek. You get two for one: Another airport and a landing in Canada. Runway straddles the border.
 
Mel said:
…you could dog leg over to Short Stop (8TA5). You probably need some short field practice anyway.
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1500’ by 20’ paved… I could do that! But, why’d ya make it so wide? 😆

FuturPilot said:
I see you havn't come to Northern Minnesota. Fly to NW MN, land at Pinecreek. You get two for one: Another airport and a landing in Canada. Runway straddles the border.
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Pinecreek was on my “to-do” list, but, it’s closed! NOTAMed closed a few months back, possibly permanent from what I’ve read. Boooo.
 
I'm impressed.. I own a Piper Arrow but at least half of my buddies fly experimental (mostly RVs).. I consider myself a frequent flier and my wife loves X country flying, which is good because my 1973 heading hold flies figure 8's so she's the autopilot. Few of my RV buddies fly xcountry blaming the limited baggage area. Glad to hear your adventures, no matter what you fly
 
Ironflight said:
Just glad that you didn’t try to count Las Vegas as Nevada…. We’re happy to accept the tax revenue generated by the place….but it has nothing to do with the “real” Nevada…. 😉
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HEY!! I take great offense to that.... haha, just kidding. Vegas is not really a bad place to live, but its definitely getting crowded. The airspace and especially KVGT is getting silly busy everyday with all the student training.

NV is one of the best places to fly imho. Usually great WX year round and very varied scenery.... From sand dune desert to alpine forests in the high mountains.

I've been wanting to do a Lower 48 quest myself and this post just got my juices flowing to get on it soon. I'm going to try the google map thing and see how many airports I've done so far.
 
jbDC9 said:
1500’ by 20’ paved… I could do that! But, why’d ya make it so wide? 😆


Pinecreek was on my “to-do” list, but, it’s closed! NOTAMed closed a few months back, possibly permanent from what I’ve read. Boooo.
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Looks like I'll have to take a "roadtrip". see what's up. Short drive for me.
 
jbDC9 said:
1500’ by 20’ paved… I could do that! But, why’d ya make it so wide? 😆
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Simply because the asphalt machine does 10' at a pass and I thought 10' might be marginal for some.

I just felt like splurging! Ironflight has been in here so I thought you should be able to make it.
 
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