Dates are firm. Our plan:
- Hotel is the Radisson next to the airport. I’m awaiting a link for easy group reservations from our contact Heather. Group name “Cessna 180/185 Club”, rate $129 breakfast included. 1645 N. Newport Road, 80916, 719-597-7000.
- Friday arrivals, dinner somewhere downtown.
- FBO: please see the two paragraphs below for more detail.
- The airport is kCOS - Colorado Springs or “Pete Field”. The airport is Class C airspace, don’t let that bother you it’s very straightforward: just come up on Approach 124.0 about 25 miles out. The airport is joint-use with the Peterson Space Force Base … and not too many airliners.
- Dinner - maybe Paravacini’s?
- Breakfast fly-out Saturday morning, we will attend the monthly breakfast organized by club member Orlo Ellison. It’s at CO18 Chaparral, and it’s always a great breakfast. REMINDER: rwy 17/35 WEST patterns, rwy 11/29 NORTH patterns - regardless of what Foreflight/Airnav say. Frequency 122.9 at Chaparral.
- We will visit the museum (worldwariiaviation.org if you’d like a preview) on Saturday afternoon. It’s on the airport, in the northwest corner.
- Those who don’t wish to visit the museum, please let me know, so that if needed we can rent a group van. Folks can visit downtown, Garden of the Gods, US Air Force Academy, Trolley museum, etc.
- Dinner Saturday (May 2, 6pm, “Steven”, 10 people for now) at Steve Kanatzar’s Airplane Restaurant (a genuine KC-97 is on campus).
- Sunday morning departures and thanks for coming!
- Again, the Fly-in hotel is the Radisson right next to the airport, and it’s right next to the Airplane Restaurant and a (kinda long) walk from the FBO. A link for reservations coming very soon.
FBO: Cutter Aviation is our FBO, with the caveat below. 719-591-2065 or ARINC 131.0, you can give them a call 20 minutes out if you like. They’ve been very nice to us recently so I thought I’d give them a try over JetCenter next door. Names who know we’re coming are Teryn, Anthony and Calvin. Fuel is $6.99 on 02 March. You also can land at kFLY on the way back from Breakfast, $4.93 fuel 3/02 at kFLY. Cutter has a shuttle over to the Radisson, rental cars from Go Rental also available. Hangar $85/night.
Caveat on FBO TIE DOWNS: On initial callup, I was assured they had enough tie down spots. However they wanted me to talk to Calvin, and that took a couple days to get in touch with him. Calvin informs me that we can probably use only 5 or 6 of their tie downs, as they just don't have very many. On the other hand, they have a fair amount of grass, so … BRING YOUR TIE DOWN KITS. I will go look at the grass area asap to be sure it’s acceptable. Our backup plan remains JetCenter, which has many more tie down spots. So this FBO thing is a bit in flux but I think Cutter will work out here with their good service.
MUSEUM: you will find the museum truly impressive. Your spouse will be interested in all the history we display, if not the aircraft themselves. 29 aircraft at last count, most are flying and of WWII vintage. We have the one and only Brewster built Corsair left intact on the planet, it’s an F3A-1, and we fly it. We have a recently completed Curtiss SB2C-1 Helldiver. We’re rebuilding two P-40s. We have one of the two B-25s that flew off the Ranger while underway in 1992, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid. We have the only remaining Waco JYM, and Lindbergh personally flew ours! Tour will include a first class WWII airplane restoration facility. But wait, there’s more! and there is more, it’s a great facility with great, patriotic aviation people. I’m only a little biased since I am a docent at this museum.
Monetary expectations: There may be a small fee for FBO parking. Museum fee is less than $20/person. I’ll attempt to get a break on fuel at the FBO. At Chaparral breakfast there will be a donation jar. Dinners are “dutch".
Calendar notes: (1) Sun-n-Fun is April 14-19. (2) Tried early April dates for this Museum event, but Easter is April 05.