Lunch at Peachtree Dekalb airport...
November 22, 2005

Bobby Hinson and I set flight for Peachtree Dekalb airport ( more info...). and the Downwind restaurant. We have known of its existence and the other, the 57th Fighter Squadron restaurant, but for some reason or another just kept putting off such a short flight. I have been to both places in the distant past; the 57th Fighter restaurant takes a little walk due to security fences. A few years ago my wife and I did an evening flight over, had dinner and a night flight back. It was a good way to spend a half day.

We departed RYY on a nice but rather very hot summer day. We asked RYY tower to "let us go" as soon as practical because even at 172 speeds PDK is a real short flight. We listened to ATIS on the number two as soon as we broke ground. PDK airport is a very, very busy place, both in the air and on the ground. We found a parking spot "under" the tower and after some very careful taxing had the airplane properly secured. Some nearby pilots helped us with wing tip clearance. The flight line was so busy that no one other than the tower knew we were there. From previous experience, we walked in through the hanger, opened a door and upstairs we went. The restaurant is located next to the tower.

There is a nice air conditioned bar/dinning area "inside", but we elected to sit in the improvised enclosed outside area that had portable air conditioning units, so as to have a better view of the airport and all of its comings and goings. We did not sit outside, where one has an absolutely fantastic view, because of the heat. When the weather is appropriate I would recommend the outside area, if space is available. It is a popular location. The food and the price is what I would call average, but the airport view and surroundings adds a great deal to the pilots perspective. As the sun climbed higher it got a little warm in our area; the little AC units could not keep up with the loss through the plastic walls.

Probably the biggest "negative", for some reason or other, that particular day must have been mom's day out with the children. There must have been ten moms or children watchers with about forty kids. In the old days my squadron had Lockheed C-121s (Connie's) that had four 3350 engines on them with "compound turbo superchargers". These kids made more noise than those four big radials at max power. I would recommend the Downwind as a nearby destination to go for lunch or dinner. When my wife and I went there a few years ago it was quiet and cool. Watching the field go from light to dark with all the comings and goings is really neat. Call the restaurant for times.

After paying our bill we headed back to the plane the same way we came only to find the hanger door locked. We could come in but we could not leave. Putting two great minds together we decided to go back upstairs to the airport office that we saw when we were checking out the hanger. We found out that they had started implementing new security measures, and some time in the near future would be fully operational. From what we gathered, in the future when transients arrived they would have to check in at the "FBO" and obtain a temporary badge that will allow access to various areas, requiring pilots to check in and out, and to return the badge. This could mean that they may charge a parking fee for even for a short stop. I do not know all the details; its just a heads up.

A while back when Bobby and I went in Columbus Georgia for lunch, the lone FBO told us that there was a ramp fee of $15.00 or we had to fill up, even though we would only be there a couple of hours. I do a fair amount of cross country flying and I am finding these fees at even the small airports. Along those lines I have noticed that some of the small airports that were originally run by airplane nuts have been bought by the city or the county, which is a good thing. The alternative is closing the airport. They are in business to make money, so the fees have increased. On a positive note, especially from the wife's point of view, the cities/counties have torn down the old shacks and put up modern air conditioned buildings with spotless facilities and have made numerous upgrades to the airports.

Well the "office" got someone to let us out and we headed back to RYY. I understand that the Fulton County airport has a restaurant on it, so we will make a little trip one of these near days.

Will Walt find the World's Best Hamburger...
October 2, 2005

On September 7, Bobby Hinson and I (Walt Urbanavitch) flew to Scottsboro, Alabama for lunch. Here is that story - it was such a neat experience that I want to get this trip on paper and send it out. For this flight, Bobby finally remembered to bring his camera and we sent the pictures to Gregg.

A short while back Bobby came across an article, 101 places (it may be 100 places, I did not write that detail down) to eat in Alabama before you die. One of the places was Payne's Soda Fountain in Scottsboro, Alabama. Bobby did a little research and noticed that an airport was located at Scottsboro. We obtain information from various places, articles that we come across, the AOPA directory (primarily), word of mouth, and what not. At the present time we are limiting our flights to 100 NM so we do not have to file a flight plan - required by club rules. The other big criterion is a courtesy car, if the restaurant is not located on the field, or at least a real short walk. Courtesy cars are a hit and miss type of situation, as can be expected, there is no guarantee upon landing that the car will be available. So far we have had really good luck in the cc department. Based on Bobby's information and fantastic weather, we headed off in 8LM for Scottsboro 4A6, Al. ( more info...).

Let me digress a little before getting into the trip. Sometimes it is a little difficult to write even simple articles such as this with out making or getting into a little social or political type statement. Bobby and I discussed the "fuel situation", due to the hurricane. It takes gas to get to the airport and naturally, gas to partake in our hobby. This is the first time we gave fuel a thought since the early 70's. Some of you will remember time, and a few may actually remember gas rationing from way back. Anyway, fuel/gas was available and the situation was not even close to critical at the time.

Bobby and I are really enjoying this neat form of flying. Some of these places we are finding turn out to be really neat - a great place to fly with another aviator, friend, spouse, relative, or what not. For a student who can work it out with their instructor (time wise and off the clock for lunch) for the dual cross country flight, it will add to the experience.

The weather was simply fantastic, clear except for a few white little puffy clouds (all clouds are actually white, water vapor) here and there, sort of calm winds, and no storms forecasted in the SE. We did check on the AV gas availability at RYY and found no problems, except for the price.

So off we headed to Alabama. Since we are not going that far we really don't worry about winds aloft, besides we don't go that high on these flights. We did not contact Atlanta - we monitored the appropriate frequencies, which on occasion is interesting in itself, and flew "free as a bird". We actually practiced a little VOR navigation, sometimes I even remember to do a VOR receiver check and log it in the book. It was a great sightseeing flight over and back, the land was green due to all of the recent rains and it looked as though the farmers were doing well. It is neat how fast and enjoyable an hours flight (including ground time) can be.

We arrived at Scottsboro (4A6) and I will have to admit that we had a little trouble actually finding (seeing) the airport. It's located in a little valley, nestled parallel to the near by roads. Runway 03, our runway for the day, has RP (right pattern) traffic to avoid bumping into the ridgeline to the west. A little bit of bad news was received when we called in 10 miles out. We were told, after inquiring, that the courtesy car was gone for awhile.

We were met on the ramp by L. Robert "Sonny" Hodges of Hodges Aviation. We told him that we had plenty of fuel for our return flight and that we always obtain "courtesy fuel" at our stops. However we explained that we didn't want to obtain fuel if he had a fuel supply problem. He said that he had plenty of fuel, so we topped off.

We went into what appeared to be a rather new and impressive airport building. I was impressed at the decor for such an out-of-the-way place. We explained why we were there, and our planned itinerary. He reiterated once again that the courtesy car was away, but added that we could borrow his car. What a great, nice gesture, for which we duly accepted. The only catch was that he had a recommendation/change for our planned itinerary. He said that the old drug store, Payne's Soda Fountain, was indeed a good place to eat, but he recommended a different place that served the greatest hamburger in the country - I think that is the way he put it. He said that the hamburger was "this" thick not including the trimmings, and "this" big around. I could not believe "this" description as he motioned with his arms and hands.

Sonny said that this is what you guy's need to do, go to the Pikeville Store-N-Deli located about five miles from the airport and get a cheeseburger basket and then come back to the town square and stop at Payne's for a milk shake. Payne's was about one mile from the airport. I was a hesitant because I felt a little uncomfortable using Sonny's car for a some what of a long trip. I was out voted two to one. So it was settled that we would go to the deli first. Sonny provided us with a little more information that helped make this little trip more interesting. In talking with Sonny, who is about sixty some years old, he mentioned that when he was a kid, his dad ran a store that was also on the square along with Payne's which was a drug store in the old days with a real live soda fountain. It is still part of the revamped store. Even though his dad had a store on the square, Sonny worked in the drug store as a "soda jerk", and he said that there is a plaque on the wall, a "Soda Jerk Hall of Fame" plaque that lists every soda jerk that worked behind the counter since day one. Now that's interesting I thought. I then asked about the name of the airport, Scottsboro Word. Sonny said that a man named Word originally owned the airport in the real old days and sold it to the city a long time ago, and still retains his name, neat I thought.

Well now, let's get to the meat of this trip. So, off to the Pikeville store per Sonny's instructions. We went to the third traffic light south and made a right turn and were immediately out in the country on a real quiet and quaint country road. It was an enjoyable drive with the speed limit set at 35 mph, farms to the left of us and to the right of us, a relaxing four mile drive. Just as directed at the fork was the Pikeville store (hours of operation we found out, 10:30-3:00, Mon thru Sat, closed Sun, phone 256-259-2681, owned by Dwayne and Connie Wilkerson). We pulled in, parked and entered the store, and except for the modern cash register and some what modern store type coolers that contained the sodas, and other refrigerated items we stepped back in time 50 years. The menu was on the back wall, which included the cheese burger basket, just as Sonny said. The price listed was $3.39, the drink was extra, which we obtained from one of the coolers.

Dwayne took our order at the register and told us to have a seat and that it would be a couple of minutes. I ordered mine with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayonnaise; Bobby had the same but added onion. There was a small type of old "general store" up front with about six small tables and one larger table, located in the back. There were also two picnic type tables outside. We got our drinks and sat down at one of the small tables. There were about eight other people there, no doubt the locals. About six minutes later our meal arrived. This was the best hamburger that either of us has ever had. It was huge, fresh lettuce and tomato - simply fantastic. It just tasted great, even the bun was great, although I don't know where they got such big buns to cover the ingredients. I should have asked. Maybe they made their own buns.

I was able to eat my meal, but Bobby was not able to finish the french fries. We had a great meal in this rustic atmosphere, really enjoyable. Sure enough when we went to the register, Dwayne only charged us $3.39 plus the 69 cents for the drink plus tax. I could not believe it. I told Bobby that there was no way that I could fit in anything else, much less a milkshake, The soda fountain stop was out. This is what is neat about having someone else along, another point of view or idea. Bobby said that we should go to the square and just look at the downtown area, so we headed back to the light, turned right to two more lights, made a left and the neat little town square was right there along with Payne's Soda Fountain.

Well since we were there it was decide that we should just go in and look around. Bobby suggested that maybe they would allow us to "split" a milk shake, half/half. So in we went and sat at the counter, a real old fashion soda fountain. There was a rather large menu of items on the back wall. The article that Bobby read suggested the hot dogs with whatever you wanted on it.

As we sat down one of the ladies behind the counter was fixing three of these things that looked familiar to me from the old days of my youth in NY. I watched as she "stuffed' this glass with ice cream and other ingredients. After delivering the contents to other patrons, I asked her about what she had just made. It was three vanilla ice cream sodas almost like they use to make in the Big Apple. I contained an enormous amount of ice cream, soda water, and vanilla syrup. My recollection as a youth was that a little milk was added along with a topping of real whip cream and a cherry. But this looked close enough. We asked her how much it was and she said two dollars. I could not believe it, this was a borderline real ice cream soda with more ice cream than I ever saw put in a soda.

I told Bobby I was going to have one of those things, and Bobby shook his head approvingly and agreed to have one also. So we both ordered the vanilla ice cream soda. I mean to tell you all that that ice cream was maybe the best ice cream I have ever had. No kidding, that stuff was fantastic. When we were both about half way through, I turn to Bobby and mentioned that we may not be able to get home because we will probably have to do a weight and balance for the return flight. Sure enough, on the wall was a Soda Jerk Hall of Fame plaque with several hundred names on it. There were three ladies sitting just below the plaque so I was not able to look at it in detail and find Sonny's name. OK, so we were able to finish our desert, paid the two dollars plus tax each and headed back to the airport. This trip story is not quite finished - almost but not quite.

On the way out of town, I saw some watermelons being sold along the side of the road, so we stopped. I told Bobby that I was going to get a watermelon, since I could not afford to buy one in the Alpharetta area. I did not know the price but I figured that they would certainly be less than Atlanta prices. A gentleman came out and said to go pick any one, they are all good. I did and he said that that would be two dollars. I thought, two dollars, I can't believe that. So I gave the gent two dollars and walked back to the car and told Bobby the price. I said that we should buy the whole load and sell them when we get back to cover our expenses. He muttered something about the ice cream sodas, weight, and something about a C130. So back to the airport we went after one more stop to put some gas in Sonny's car.

We parked Sonny's car exactly where he had parked it, went in and told him of our adventure. What a neat trip it was by following his advice. We chatted a little and made our preparations for our flight back to the real world. The flight back was just as enjoyable as the flight getting there with the time and scenery slipping by gracefully. Upon securing 8LM we both mentioned that this flight and lunch was the best one so far. I did not eat super that night and only had a little fruit before bedtime.

Aircraft tie-down locations have changed
September 18, 2005

Important---The tie-down locations for our aircraft have changed. Our aircraft are now permanently located east of the control tower and just to the north of taxiway "A". (larger image). This was necessary as Northside plans to build hangers in our former aircraft location.

Walt and his buddy head to a Calhoun buffet...
September 1, 2005

When Dick Pickens asked me to do what we are calling "reportering duties", something to try to provide a little interest for the club, I immediately did what I do best - procrastinate. I had many excuses and probably put this duty off for numerous months. Well, it got to the point that I was feeling guilty - I have know Dick since the early 80's and just felt bad about putting this off. So I finally got going after being provided with the information that the "job" might cover places to fly to for lunch or whatever neat things to see and what not.

My wife likes to fly (with me) but mostly from the aspect of how fast can we get there vs. taking the car. She really likes it when the rental car is pulled right up to the plane, that is, if we are not picked up by family members. She has her own photography business and there is not much time for this type of lunch thing.

I asked Bobby Hinson if he wanted to fly with me, after all, this task didn't sound like much fun doing it myself. Bobby agreed that it sounded like fun to him. We try to get in a flight together every other Wednesday. We are comfortable flying with each other and get along well inside and outside the plane. There is not a flight that goes by that we do not learn something from each other, flying wise, or about our friendship. The "frequent" flights help us keep up our flying skills and certainly helps prevent minimum flight time charges plus, it's getting to be down right a lot of fun.

This summer we both had other commitments that prevented some of the every other Wednesday flights. Some of those commitments were cross country flights (we both took trips), with the wife and/or grandchildren. That's another story in itself; getting our kids to let us take the grandchildren to really cool places by plane. Bobby and I probably get in three out of four flights with the weather being, as normal, the thing that cancels the fourth. The reason I have not written up more of the flights is because the weather or the potential for it, we have decided to stay close to home. That means several times we have been to our "standby" Rome for our lunch flight.

A few weeks ago, Bobby and I flew up to Calhoun/David (more info...). field based on information provided from RJ Schramm. In fact, you may have seen the abbreviated blurb about the restaurant in schedule master. Based on information from RJ, we set flight for Calhoun. We originally intended to go on Wednesday, but Dennis caused us to cancel that particular day. The next day, late Thursday night, Bobby calls and asked if I was free Friday. The weather was supposed to be almost great, and believe it or not 6LM, was available for 4 hours. It only had about 1 1/2 hours on a new engine, what more could a guy ask for! Dennis had cleaned out the atmosphere. For a summer day the visibility was fantastic and the temperature not all that hot - warm but not hot.

The preflight was its usual, smooth task. Starting 6LM was a snap, a little prime, touch the key and off the engine went. I don't think it turned one rev before catching. The plane flew great. Calhoun is not that far away, we were there in almost no time at all - a great little flight.

Plenty of tie down spots right next to the building, a really clean and neat "little" airport. The building is practically brand new and we were met by Ed Thomason, an "old timer", even considering that I am getting to be up there in age. He and his friend (I neglected to get his name) man the airport. I get the feeling that they may get paid very little or may even volunteer their time. I mentioned in a previous article about "courtesy fuel", except in this case, it was clear that Ed did not want to get out of the building and into the heat to fuel the plane. He may have asked us to do that if we requested fuel, so we just had a pleasant chat with him.

His co-worker had the courtesy car and would be back in a few minutes. Sure enough, about four minutes later his friend showed up, and Bobby and I headed off to Mamma's Home Cooking - all you can eat buffet about two miles away. It was a fine place to have lunch. If I recall, the meal was $5.35 with the drink extra. The food was really good with a whole bunch of selections to choose from - numerous meats, vegetables, salads, and deserts and there was no onions in the cole slaw. It is a fantastic menu and you can not beat the price - highly recommended.

We headed back to the airport and stopped to put a couple of gallons of gas in the car. Calhoun is what I call a friendly little airport, a place where one feels comfortable. In my opinion RYY is getting, if not already a big airport. Anyway, up and away, back to RYY with another fine flight and lunch under our belts.

Walt and his buddy head to Pine Mt. for food and fun...
August 1, 2005

I have been procrastinating for a while about writing up the latest installment of "Lunch Places". Bobby and I have taken various trips over the past two months that have interfered with our lunch flights. Bobby went to Charleston for a few days with his wife Gail and I went to Cedar Key Florida with the wife and youngest granddaughter for a few days.

Awhile back, Bobby H and I went to Pine Mountain airport (more info...). Before the trip, it was suggested that we take pictures of our little flights. Well since then, Bobby has forgotten to bring his digital camera on our last two flights - hopefully he will do better the next time.

Several years ago, my wife and I went into Pine Mountain to wait out the weather during a return flight from Florida. In addition, a couple of (club) members mentioned it. Pine Mountain is real close to the Callaway Gardens complex. The airport is unattended Monday thru Thursday. Once again I want to remind everyone that Bobby H and I do these flights during the week when the crowds are rather small. This particular Wednesday, the weather was fantastic - almost clear skies, just a few scattered white little clouds with no forecast of any thunderstorms in the southeast. Off we went in 658LM. As usual Atlanta approach was fantastic providing VFR flight following. We flew down to Pine Mountain at 3000 feet.

The airport has an east west runway - the airport and the entire countryside are forested. Since Bobby and I were not familiar with the airport, we did not actually see the runway until we were 3 miles out even though our map, ATC, and two GPS's told us exactly where we were. From a low altitude, the trees camouflages the airport.

There are plenty of tie downs - we parked the plane and I told Bobby that I would call for a ride while he secured the plane. There is a phone right on the ramp that connects directly to Callaway Gardens. A very friendly and cheerful lady by the name of Bobby answered. I told her where we were, what we wanted, and she said that there will be a van there in 15 minutes. Well I walked back to the plane to help out with post flight duties when a noise in the distance alerted me to the approaching van. It was Charlie from Callaway Gardens, in a brand new van.

Charlie whisked us away to the Country Kitchen, about five minutes away. There are several places to eat, but you want the Country Kitchen. It is located on the top of a ridge line with a great view of the countryside. Our server was Tracy - we both had a "southern" type lunch. The food was good and the prices reasonable. I was maxed out with my lunch, especially after having desert - which I normally do not do. The Country Kitchen has a great gift shop for those into that stuff. It is a neat place to have a meal, the scenery adds to the experience - I highly recommended it.

We paid our bill and asked the cashier to call us transportation back to the airport. We made a trip to the rest room for our pre-departure duties - seeing that the airport was unattended. About four minutes later, Charlie arrived and took us back - driving us right up to the plane. General aviation, even for us little guys, still has access to fantastic services at most airports. We departed Pine Mountain, contacted Atlanta and arrived back at RYY. Great flight, good meal, great weather, great company, great ATC.

Lauren Ellsworth solos
July 8, 2005

Lauren Ellsworth (Skip's daughter) soloed Friday evening at Cartersville (VPC) making 3 perfect landings under the supervision of Truitt Harper. She will wait until next summer when she is 17 to continue her flight training. Meanwhile she needs to practice driving so she can acquire her drivers license later this summer.

Walt checks out Bulldog territory and Chattanooga, TN...
May 9, 2005

Last month Bobby H and I headed for Athens one week and two weeks later we went to Chattanooga. We checked the AOPA directory and found that there was a food court/Blimpies at Chattanooga and when we called Athens we found that there was a courtesy car available.

Off to Athens... (more info...). In today's atmosphere it is probably a good idea to get a briefing even for some local flights. The University of Georgia is in Athens as you all know, we came in from the west (sounds right) expecting the active runway 20. We got the hand-off from Atlanta to the tower and they were nice enough to give us a straight in for 9, so we could practice our cross wind landing. We flew right over the University, great view. If there was a game going on there is no doubt that the tower would not allow us to go that route and I presume ATIS would contain some form of advisory, but it's probably would be helpful to know that there may be a game in progress before getting there. I presume that a briefing for Athens would hopefully contain that information.

Back to the food aspect of this dissertation - Athens has a very nice new building that houses the FBO. We asked the girl for a recommendation and we wound up going to Loco's deli with the courtesy car. We were told that we could have it for an hour, which seemed sufficient and were provided with a little map. Off we went, it was about three miles away and most of the drive was in a busy area in the middle of "hamburger haven" type places, not really a relaxed drive. It was lunch time and the place was busy and to make a long story short, it took about 20 minutes before our sandwiches arrived. The food was OK but I thought the drinks were a little expensive, $1.85 for a soda. The place was also a little noisy because of the lunch crowd.

By the time we got back to the airport it was probably an hour and twenty minutes, we told the girl that we were planning on stopping to put a few dollars in the gas tank but felt pressured to stay as close to the hour as possible and offered her a little money for the kitty. She said absolutely not - they were county cars (the cars did have some kind of official words on the side) and that it was part of the service. Well that was great and we gave her a big thank you.

In case anybody is wondering including Skip, we have been buying gas at most of our stops even though they are some what short flights. There was an article in AOPA awhile back called "courtesy fuel". The point being that a lot of the airports need the revenue and purchasing fuel is the least one can do, after all in most cases we use the facilities. I have found recently that some places will charge you a ten dollar parking fee if you do not purchase fuel. So, overall I would not give high marks to Athens as a lunch stop, even though the airport was great and the FBO employees friendly.

Next stop - Chattanooga. Bobby H flew us up there - straight as the crow flies. It was a great flight up and back and visibility was good. It was my first flight to CHA (more info...). If I recall, we flew at about 3500 feet and the gently rolling hills and quaint looking valleys provided some great scenery. We thoroughly enjoyed the flight. We dialed in ATIS and part of the message said to expect vectors to the airport, which I thought was strange. We picked up the airport about 25 out - even before getting approach. Approach vectored us for a 7 nm wide down wind even though they we talking to one other aircraft. The tower cleared us to land from a 6nm left base. If any one wants to practice tower communications I would recommend a busy airport like McCollum. We asked ground for the closet FBO to the food court and they directed us to the AAC Air ramp, the building with the red strips. When we were leaving we saw another building with the same red stripes at the other side of the terminal? Anyway we parked where directed.

AAC Air was immaculate - I have never seen such clean rest rooms. There was toothpaste available, shaving cream, mouth wash and all kinds of other conveniences. Additionally, there were cookies and coffee in the lounge area of the FBO. We asked the girl (I need to write down their names for these articles) to direct us to a food court. She graciously told us to take a courtesy car and head to some nearby places. We offered to walk the short distance to the food court in the terminal. She indicated that would still require the car because of all of the fencing and road stuff (because of the new security requirements) it would make our walk at hike. She gave us some written directions, all ready printed out, and a recommendation for Ankar's Hoagies. Additionally, she provided the keys to a brand new Ford van. There were three for use at the time, all brand new!

Off we went to Ankar's, a short (mile and a half) pleasant trip. Even though it was in a busy type area, both Bobby and I agreed that the little drive was pleasant. Service was quick, but by the time we sat down, there were a lot of people in line. Luckly, the wait was short and the food. The atmosphere for a sandwich type shop was pleasant.

The van was great, - nice sound system and the AC worked great. We put in a few dollars worth of gas, though I doubt that we used even a half gallon. But at today's prices, filling the tank is probably a thing of the past, we more than paid our way. I would recommend CHA as a lunch stop or just a place to fly to for what ever reason. It was a pleasant surprise. As I keep saying we normally do these trips on a Wednesday morning/afternoon so it is not what one would call prime time.

Walt visits Pell City, Alabama...
March 31, 2005

Here are a couple of more places to fly to for lunch, and in some cases dinner. The first one of interest is Pell City, Alabama, otherwise known as the St. Clair County airport (more info...), PLR, located 87 nm sort of west of RYY just "off" interstate 20. The day Bobby H and I flew there, which was about two months ago and day after a cold front went through, we could see the steam from the Cartersville power plant 65 nm away. The restaurant, Sammies Touch and Go is located on the field at the north-end, sort of out by itself. You can taxi right up to the restaurant - there is a large grassy area in front of the building. Just park and walk, however be careful about parking on the grass if it has recently rained. You can order off the menu or partake in smorgasbord prepared cuisine. We had the smorgasbord - it was really good and lots of different items to choose from. I highly recommend it. The price was great, I was actually surprised that it was rather inexpensive compared to the big city prices. Here are the hours, as best as I retrieved from my notes, Tuesday through Friday lunch 11:00 AM till 2:00 PM (local), Saturday 10:30 AM - 9:30 PM, Sunday 11 - 3, closed Mondays. Phone number 205-338-9500. The area is rather scenic since the airport is just north of the Logan Martin Lake. We sort of took interstate 20 on the way there and you fly over numerous airports. I mentioned, the visibility that day was basically unlimited, and being Wednesday there was, again, basically no one else in the air. Another cool lunch.

Back to a place a little closer to home, a mere 46 nm east of RYY - Winder, WDR (more info...). The Spitfire Deli is located in the "terminal" sort of - an original issued looking building in the middle of the field. Just park right in front and mossy on over. Hours of operation, 10 - 3 Mon through Thur, 10 - 7 on Fridays, 9 - 5 on Saturday, and 11 - 3 on Sunday, phone number 770-867-0086. The Wednesday that we were there the place was almost busy, there are a few businesses on the field. The food was satisfactory; ask for the "little homemade pie", sort of a banana type thing that is good. They have a name for it but I can not recall its technical name.

I mentioned the Rome airport for lunch in a previous write up. I would, once again, for those that want to add a little variety to a flight in lieu of just getting in their time, recommend heading to the Rome airport for lunch. Bobby and I have been there several times because of "weather" at our primary destination for that particular days flight. Rome is close, with the Cartersville airport at the midway point if you want to stop for any reason, the food is good, and the coleslaw the way I like it - no onions. So have a little fun while you are aviating, take the wife, a friend, the kid(s) or whomever and enjoy yourself, having lunch.

Walt reports on neat places to fly
March 25, 2005

I have volunteered to do some club reporting - neat places or things that may be of interest to club members. So for this first installment I would like to discuss the $150/$200 hamburger, previously known as the $100 hamburger. Bobby Hinson and myself have started flying together in the Atlanta-area looking for neat places to fly to, with the primary aspect (but not the only one) of getting lunch. With this in mind, most of these places will revolve around "easy" lunches. With both of us sharing the flying, one of us will fly there and the other one fly back, it some times gets us back to the old fashion $100 dollar hamburger and even less at times.

We have made several fights so far, and for this first installment I want to tell you about two places. The first is Rome, close by and a nice "big" airport (more info...). The restaurant is on the field about 200 feet from the main terminal. You can literally park the plane about 100 feet from the restaurant on the other side of the roped area (terminal side). The food is basic sandwiches and hamburger type stuff and is good and the price is right. There is a C-47 next to the big hanger having new engines installed and if you find the right person you might get a peek inside, as we did. The restaurant is open 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM (could be 3:30 PM) Monday thru Saturday. The time may change a little when the "time changes" in a few weeks.

Next stop, Peach State Airport, GA2, located 28 nm south of the Atlanta VOR (more info...). Cool old time airport, 2800 foot grass strip, "quiet" and a neat restaurant on the field. Before I forget, right pattern runway 13, the airport is surrounded by a bunch of private air strips, so maintain heads up flying at all times. Bobby and I normally do this on a Wednesday morning/early afternoon, the reason I am telling you this is that we got VFR flight following on the way down and on the way back, the controllers were not all that busy, and if I recall, we got only one traffic advisory for the entire trip. The restaurant is quaint, the food good, and the prices good, a really neat place to unwind, phone number for the restaurant, 770 227 8282, Wednesday thru Saturday 9:30 AM - 9:00 PM, and Sunday till 3:00 PM. Although the restaurant is open at night the runway is unlit. I would say that this is a must stop place if you are into "cool" airport places.

Coming up, Columbus Ga., Winder Ga., Pine Mountain/Callaway Gardens Ga., and others.