Shenanigans - Sewanee (KUOS), Tenn.
December 21, 2006

On today's installment of great places to visit, we explore Franklin Co airport (KUOS), the city of Sewanee (map), and the home of The University of the South. We headed out in the Cherokee 180; Bobby was the PIC for this leg and we climbed up to 4500 feet. The visibility was good and what really caught my attention was the fact that the land below us was turning green - it was a neat sight. I enjoy being a passenger, and a navigator, and with the use of the sectionals, I knew what we were flying over, just watching the world go by. As a passenger in a small plane it was a neat and interesting experience.

Just as we were in the vicinity of the Franklin County airport (KUOS), Bobby reaches up and does something with what looks like an old car window handle, located on the ceiling of the Cherokee. A second or two after he touched the crank, the plane started getting bounced and tossed around, lasting until we were on the ground. I thought I was going to get sick. After about two minutes I turned to Bobby and said that I am not sure exactly what happened, but in the future I would appreciate it if you would not fool around with that thing on the ceiling!

After about five minutes of being tossed we turn final. I remarked that the sidewalk in the front of my house is wider than the runway. He said to relax and assured me the runway was fifty feet wide. Both the AFD and AOPA'S Airport Directory indicates sporadic crosswinds. The airport, built in 1952 sits on a plateau and we found out that the runway was laid out due to topography and not the prevailing winds. We had just a small crosswind and it was turbulent all the way down. We taxied up and parked the Cherokee 180 on the ramp.

KUOS is, at least that day, quiet and what I would call a neat little airport. There were six planes in the hanger and one, not including ours, on the ramp. We went into the arrivals building and met up with Rebecca. She gave us the quick local scoop and the provide us a courtesy car. She also mentioned that the line guy had to leave shortly to do some volunteer fire department stuff.

Off we went to Shenanigans, a local restaurant. We arrived at Shenanigans about two minutes later, however it was closed. We were in the central time zone and had to wait on the front porch for about six minutes, until the 11:30 am for the place to open. The building seems to be over 100 years old - there's not a straight piece of anything. It's leaning in every direction at once, nothing is level or square. It would be great to show you a picture but Bobby forgot his camera - again.

I ordered the Shenanigans sub special, and had I known about the size, I would have ordered only one and split it with Bobby. There was enough meat on this thing to clog many arteries. It was a great sub, but more than I could handle, although I did eat the whole thing. Bobby had the cheeseburger, it came on sliced bread and he reported that it was OK but the next time he would get something else. By the time we finished there were lots of people there. It is a real popular local spot, a great place for lunch.

We decided to take a little tour of the The University of the South, after all, Rebecca has a student, the line guy is off doing volunteer fire stuff and there probably will not be another airplane landing at KUOS for the rest of the day. We drove around the university and were impressed by how gorgeous place it was. All the buildings are constructed from sand stone - its awe inspiring. Other buildings on the campus appear to have been private homes that are now part of the campus. Bobby suggested we stop and look at the chapel. We parked and went into this gorgeous building and met up with Cindy, and employee of the University. She said that this was not the chapel, though it looked like one. It was in fact one of the old buildings that I think she said was the gym in the old days. She said that the All Saints' Chapel was right next door and that she could give us a little tour if we wanted.

Cindy took us next door to a gorgeous chapel. It is a sight to see. Cindy said that anybody could get a tour of the University by going to the admin building and making arrangements. I don't have the details but if some one was interested I am sure that information is available over the Internet. My opinion is that it would be worth a day trip to do this. She gave us some of the high points - the Chapel is filled with huge gorgeous stain glass windows, some new and some old. One of the window panels has a little Volkswagen Beetle depicted in one of the scenes. I don't know if it was "snuck" in there by the artist or was by design. We had spent about an hour at the restaurant and an hour at the university, so we figured that we need to get going. We thanked Cindy and headed back to the airport.

Back at the airport, we ran into Catherine Elizabeth Cavagnaro. Catherine teaches aerobatics and upset training in a Cessna 150 Aerobat. She took us out to the hanger to show us her Cherokee 140 and the 150 she uses for training. She was a very pleasant person to talk with and we listen to a few of her stories. She also sky dives and after consulting with her doctor on the matter did a jump when she was seven months pregnant. Can you imagine that?

Now it was time to head back to McCollum. I did the PIC duties on the way back with nothing of any significance to report. We basically followed our footsteps back. Sometimes we take different paths, but not this time.

The Box Office Grill - Fort Payne (4A9), Alabama
December 21, 2006

Here is a great place to take a spouse, friend, or a fellow pilot - Fort Payne Al, Isbell (4A9) and The Box Office Grill. It is located at 215 Gault Avenue North - phone 256-997-0945. As usual, Bobby and I do these flights mainly on a Wednesday, so we usually avoid crowds that may occur on the weekends.

The flight over and back was just fantastic, the gently rolling hills of west Georgia and eastern Alabama made for a scenic flight and our weather that day was simply fantastic. The one interesting thing about the flight was finding the airport. It is nestled in a valley and surrounded by the major roads of the area. At our altitude, it was nearly impossible to see the airport until we cleared the ridge line and could see the valley floor. It is a very scenic setting for an airport.

We got the courtesy car and directions to the local eatery, The Box Office Grill, located in a heart of the old Fort Payne downtown district which is thriving and a picture out of the past. I did not know how long they would have let us have the car - I did not ask. To explore the downtown area could take a couple of hours if one wanted to dig around.

Our eating establishment is located in the old Strand Theater, no longer a theater; it has been converted into this really neat antique store with a small grill including six tables in the center of the store. The menu is strictly sandwich type stuff, burgers, hot dogs, and some salads, nothing over five dollars. I give it a good recommendation. One does not see places like this much anymore; it was a really enjoyable place for lunch. The Grill is also open for breakfast.

I also enjoyed looking at the stuff in the store and I am sure that if our wives would have been with us, they would have bought something. The place has a lot of old posters and cardboard cutouts of Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Humphrey Bogart and others. All in all, a rather cool eating and shopping destination.

Katie's - LaGrange (LGC), Georgia
March 31, 2006

This month, lets talk about two new destinations - starting with Katie's. It is located at:
614 Lincoln Street, LaGrange (LGC), Georgia 30240
phone 706-884-0267 or 800-256-8931
hours M-F 11 am until 2:00 pm, call about the weekends

The brochure that I picked up does not mention Saturday and Sunday.

Katie's gets highly recommended. It is a short drive from the airport located in "old LaGrange", in a cute downtown type setting. They have daily buffet specials and one can order off the menu, the specials, or several different combinations each day, which are great, well prepared and tasty. The atmosphere feels local - a great little place for lunch. In fact this is one of the places that Bobby flew back to with his wife Gail for lunch shortly after this particular trip. As always, all of the places that I write up have some sort of airport transportation.

For the second stop, we headed to Milledgeville, Baldwin Co (MLJ) airport (more info...) On this trip we took a long-time club member, Pitt Pittman. Pitt no longer actively flies himself, so we need to ask him on another flight in the near future. We had a nice time listening to some of Pitts stories from the old days.

On this trip we got Atlanta approach to put us over the ATL VOR at 5500 feet, which is the usual procedure. But what was neat about this particular flight was that there were a few clouds around topping out at about 7000 feet and our heading took us real close to some of them. Since we were in Class B air space under positive radar control we just had to be clear of clouds - which we were. It's one of the times (maybe only time) that a VFR flight can "ignore" the clearance distance (2000 feet) from clouds.

We had lunch at the Corn Bread Cafe, about seven minutes from the airport. It is an "old time looking" restaurant and the food was excellent. It was a nice, enjoyable place to eat.