Off the beaten path

[Mr.Maximus]

Love corporate flying. Overnighted last night in LUK and today went from LUK - VPZ - FMY and back home to FXE. Had about 3-1/2 hours to kill in VPZ and at first I was thinking how boring and it was going to totally suck. Little non-towered airport in the middle of some cornfields - yup sounds like a real hoot. Well, with foot in my mouth, I have to admit the non-controlled middle of a cornfield airport was awesome!!!

First off, a wonderful 7,000' runway that fortunately had an ILS into it. Ceilings were low with heavy rain going in. Excellent FBO with incredibly nice people. We were hungry and they suggested a buffet restaurant in town, threw some keys to an ex cop car at us and said enjoy. The restaurant's buffet had to be one of the best I've ever been to, and I rolled out of there having gotten my $$$'s worth.

Getting back to the FBO, the rain had ended and they suggested if we had the time to check out their on-field aviation museum. Still had a couple of hours - so what the heck. Well, we drive around to the hanger area and go over to a very large hanger. As we're walking up to it, the large doors started opening. I see the nose of an aircraft and immediately recognize it as a P-51D. As the doors opened, next to the Mustang was an F4U Corsair. Next to that was a T-28, a Waco, a Stinson, a Meteor, and a couple of other aircraft. They had a Packard Merlin in its original crate and a Wasp 2800 that you could poke and prod. They also had an incredible room filled with a ton of amazing memoribilia - and all of it the real McCoy. Aside from the amazing aircraft and memoribilia, they had some old-timers there that were an absolute joy to shoot the breeze with. All of the aircraft were flown regularily, and they were all owned by one guy. Don't know who he is, but what an amazing collection.

So the moral I've learned on this story - you never know what you'll find at a given airport. What I thought would be a total bore, ended up being an absolute blast - I wish I had more time to spend there and hope to go back sometime to revisit this aviation goldmine. If you are ever around VPZ, do yourself a favor and check it out.

Cheers,

Max

[t-cart]

Aint aviation great Nice writeup Thanks FLY SAFE T.C.

[ricecakecm]

Some of my favorite FBO's are the smaller, mom-n-pop operations found at small, uncontrolled airports.

Lyddon at LBL is great. Centerline at GUY is awesome. I'm sitting at UNU right now and while it's in the middle of nowhere, it's a great FBO.

You can have Signature and all the places at the big TEB, give me a small, friendly FBO in the middle of nowhere.

[wanabe]

I grew up in Valparaiso and was there for a weekend in May and I decided to go checkout the airport. As I am driving through the terminal parking lot I hear and see the Mustang taxi by. Wow! That was about the airplane I ever expected to see at VPZ.

BTW, they offer rides in every airplane in the museum if you have some extra $$$.

[n57flyguy]

Originally Posted by ricecakecm

Some of my favorite FBO's are the smaller, mom-n-pop operations found at small, uncontrolled airports.

Lyddon at LBL is great. Centerline at GUY is awesome. I'm sitting at UNU right now and while it's in the middle of nowhere, it's a great FBO.

You can have Signature and all the places at the big TEB, give me a small, friendly FBO in the middle of nowhere.

Swing by N57 one of these days.

[Jason]

Next time you're in Cincy let me know.

Lunken is an interesting airport in and of itsself - ALOT of history there that most people aren't aware of, no musuems or anything though.

Jason

[Pilatapus]

Sounds like Rexburg, ID KREX. Bob Hoovers yellow P-51, P-63King Cobra, a Douglas Skyraider all reside at www.legacyflightmuseum.com. Potato farming= mega $$$$$$. Idaho has other small town airports with other WWII iron stored away in hangers.