[Speaker 0] In a world created by Mike Dell, I
[Speaker 0] guess you would call it Mike Dell's world.
[Speaker 1] And this is the aforementioned Mike Dell, and
[Speaker 1] this is episode four thirty for November twenty
[Speaker 1] four twenty twenty five. And, yeah. Well, I
[Speaker 1] didn't create the world. I wouldn't wanna take
[Speaker 1] blame for that. But thanks to Mark there,
[Speaker 1] I have that stinger. Yeah. Anyway, So I
[Speaker 1] I yesterday's episode is all about flight schools
[Speaker 1] and, other schools, aviation related around Traverse City,
[Speaker 1] but there's a lot of other airports, around
[Speaker 1] the area. And in fact, I'm gonna just
[Speaker 1] kinda look here on, a thing called ForeFlight.
[Speaker 1] And what four ForeFlight is is no it's
[Speaker 1] known as a an electronic flight bag. And,
[Speaker 1] you know, used to be pilots would have
[Speaker 1] to carry a a flight bag full of
[Speaker 1] paperwork and maps and things, you know, because,
[Speaker 1] well, we didn't have iPads and iPhones and
[Speaker 1] Android devices and flat screen, glass panels with
[Speaker 1] all the maps and stuff on the airplane
[Speaker 1] I fly. There's you know, all the charts
[Speaker 1] are on the screen. You know? I can
[Speaker 1] split the screen in front of me and
[Speaker 1] have the flight instruments on the one side
[Speaker 1] and the maps on the other and get
[Speaker 1] all the same information. But I also have
[Speaker 1] an iPad that I can carry or I
[Speaker 1] do carry that also has all that information
[Speaker 1] on it. And the program I use is
[Speaker 1] called ForeFlight, and it shows all the airport.
[Speaker 1] It's basically the, you know, VFR sectional, does
[Speaker 1] all the IFR stuff. It, you know, it's
[Speaker 1] it's all the aviation stuff all packed into
[Speaker 1] an iPad. It's pretty cool. But, I'm gonna
[Speaker 1] use that to, talk about all the airports
[Speaker 1] that I've flown to. I I I won't
[Speaker 1] talk about too many other airports around, but,
[Speaker 1] at least the ones I've flown to or
[Speaker 1] flown around or flown near or have some
[Speaker 1] other connection to. So, of course, Traverse City,
[Speaker 1] we talked all about in an episode, about
[Speaker 1] Traverse City's airport. But the first other airport
[Speaker 1] that I flew to, you know, around here,
[Speaker 1] anyway, is, Interim County Airport. It's a little
[Speaker 1] north east of Traverse City. I had to
[Speaker 1] think about that for a second. And it's
[Speaker 1] a a little county airport, near Bel Air,
[Speaker 1] Michigan. And my fore flight just crashed. That's
[Speaker 1] always nice, but I'm using the web version,
[Speaker 1] not the iPad version. But but, yeah, Antrim
[Speaker 1] County is a nice, nice airport. They've got
[Speaker 1] a lot of hangars, a lot of general
[Speaker 1] aviation. It's in Bel Air, Michigan, and a
[Speaker 1] lot of, people have winter or summer houses,
[Speaker 1] I should say, or winter houses because there's
[Speaker 1] a big ski resort nearby. And, they utilize
[Speaker 1] the the Antrim County Airport or KACB for
[Speaker 1] those of you keeping score. And, Antrim, like
[Speaker 1] I said, it's a nice little airports. Note,
[Speaker 1] there's no control tower, so it's class echo
[Speaker 1] airspace, class e, which, you know, when you
[Speaker 1] fly into it, you you announce yourself five
[Speaker 1] miles out and and on the common traffic
[Speaker 1] frequency. And anybody that's flying around there will,
[Speaker 1] acknowledge you or at least know about you.
[Speaker 1] And then you you tell them you get
[Speaker 1] in a little closer. You tell them how
[Speaker 1] you're gonna enter the pattern. You know, usually,
[Speaker 1] it's, like in this case, it's runway zero
[Speaker 1] two and two zero. So depending on the
[Speaker 1] winds, which so say I was coming in
[Speaker 1] from the west or actually from the southwest,
[Speaker 1] I I would be coming in, and I'd
[Speaker 1] call them about five miles out on the
[Speaker 1] common frequency and tell them, hey. This is
[Speaker 1] whoever whoever, you know, your call sign. And
[Speaker 1] I'm gonna enter the left downwind for runway
[Speaker 1] two zero. And I'm gonna cross midway, midfield
[Speaker 1] and enter that, left downwind, and then you
[Speaker 1] follow the pattern around. Every time you make
[Speaker 1] a turn, you call, know, entering the downwind,
[Speaker 1] entering the the base, on final runway two
[Speaker 1] zero. And then when you land and you
[Speaker 1] taxi off the runway, say clear of the
[Speaker 1] air clear of the runway. You know? And
[Speaker 1] you you announce that even if there's nobody
[Speaker 1] else flying around. But if there is somebody
[Speaker 1] else flying around, generally, they'll tell you where
[Speaker 1] they are and what they're doing, and you
[Speaker 1] can just kinda slot yourself into the traffic
[Speaker 1] pattern. I won't explain this on every airport,
[Speaker 1] but in this particular case, this is what
[Speaker 1] I do when I go there. And, you
[Speaker 1] know, sometimes do touch and goes, sometimes do
[Speaker 1] go around, sometimes do a low pass. Low
[Speaker 1] passes are fun, by the way. And this
[Speaker 1] is a five thousand foot runway, and, that's
[Speaker 1] it's a lot of fun, I think. You
[Speaker 1] know, you get down as close to the
[Speaker 1] runway as you can without touching it. And
[Speaker 1] you go down the most of the length
[Speaker 1] of the runway, then you climb out. That's
[Speaker 1] called a low pass, but the the reason
[Speaker 1] for that is, you get to get into
[Speaker 1] ground effect, and that's a lot of fun
[Speaker 1] to, and good practice because, you know, the
[Speaker 1] more you get the feel for ground effect,
[Speaker 1] the more you can control your landings better
[Speaker 1] and, land the way you want to. You
[Speaker 1] know, they're short field or normal landing or
[Speaker 1] a soft field landing, you know, so you're
[Speaker 1] gonna land on grass or mud or snow
[Speaker 1] or whatever. You know, you do the soft
[Speaker 1] field technique. And like I said, getting used
[Speaker 1] to ground effect and experiencing that is a
[Speaker 1] really good way to get that muscle memory.
[Speaker 1] So that's mainly what I've done at, Antrim
[Speaker 1] is, like I said, do touch and goes
[Speaker 1] or do, you know, land land and taxi
[Speaker 1] back, for short field or or, short field
[Speaker 1] or, soft field technique landings and low passes.
[Speaker 1] So, anyway, that's Antrim. Antrim's got a really
[Speaker 1] nice, I guess it's not really an FBO,
[Speaker 1] but, I guess that's kinda what they call
[Speaker 1] it. They sell gas there and and, you've
[Speaker 1] got a nice lounge for you to lounge
[Speaker 1] around in and, bathrooms and whatnot. You know,
[Speaker 1] just a good place to stop off and,
[Speaker 1] and, do your aviation stuff. But that's that's
[Speaker 1] the one that I've been to the most,
[Speaker 1] and that's, you know, literally fifteen minutes, ten
[Speaker 1] minutes away from Traverse City. Gets us out
[Speaker 1] of the class delta at Traverse City where
[Speaker 1] the control tower is. And and, you know,
[Speaker 1] this makes it a little easier when it's
[Speaker 1] not busy at Andrew. If it's busy, you
[Speaker 1] know, in an uncontrolled airport, it's, it's better
[Speaker 1] to go somewhere else. And, well, since we're
[Speaker 1] going that direction, a little further north, and
[Speaker 1] I haven't been to a lot of these
[Speaker 1] airports. There's one in Charlevoix. There's one in,
[Speaker 1] Boyne City. What's that one? Always forget the
[Speaker 1] name of that. Harbor Springs. But the one
[Speaker 1] that I've been to, further north is up
[Speaker 1] by the tip of the, lower peninsula, pretty
[Speaker 1] close to the Mackinac Bridge is Pellston. And
[Speaker 1] Pellston is actually kind of a biggish airport
[Speaker 1] for an uncontrolled field. They actually have airliners
[Speaker 1] flying in there. Delta, I think, has two
[Speaker 1] flights a day in and out of there.
[Speaker 1] I think I've talked about that previously, but,
[Speaker 1] Paulson's kind of a neat little, well, not
[Speaker 1] little airport, but a little, you know, little
[Speaker 1] ish airport. And, one of the runways is
[Speaker 1] six thousand five hundred feet, feet, and another
[Speaker 1] one is five thousand four hundred feet. And
[Speaker 1] they have the distinction of having a restaurant
[Speaker 1] on the field. So a lot of people
[Speaker 1] go up to Charleston, specifically to go to
[Speaker 1] the the restaurant there. And, you know that's
[Speaker 1] kind of the hundred dollar hamburger destination and
[Speaker 1] a hundred dollar hamburger usually costs more than
[Speaker 1] a hundred dollars but it's still pretty cool.
[Speaker 1] Back to Charlevoix which is a little further
[Speaker 1] south of Pellston and along the shoreline. Shoreline
[Speaker 1] or shoreline. Charlevoix has the the distinction of
[Speaker 1] having a little airline there. I don't know
[Speaker 1] if it's an airline, more of a charter
[Speaker 1] thing. But Island Airways, which goes out to
[Speaker 1] Beaver Island, so the Wilkie Airport on Beaver
[Speaker 1] Island. There's actually two airports on Beaver Island,
[Speaker 1] the Beaver Island airport, and then there's Wilkie,
[Speaker 1] which is owned by Paul Wilkie and the
[Speaker 1] guy that runs Island Airways. So I don't
[Speaker 1] know anybody that actually uses the the one,
[Speaker 1] the the the regular Beaver Island airport. I
[Speaker 1] guess, probably, because they do have fuel there,
[Speaker 1] and they they and they are lighted, so
[Speaker 1] is Wilkie. But, you know, the Beaver Island
[Speaker 1] Airport, the the proper airport has three runways,
[Speaker 1] four thousand three hundred feet's the longest one,
[Speaker 1] and then they got two shorter ones that
[Speaker 1] are grass. But their asphalt runway is, like
[Speaker 1] I said, almost forty three hundred feet. And
[Speaker 1] then just a couple miles away or a
[Speaker 1] mile away maybe is Wilkie. And Wilkie has
[Speaker 1] one asphalt runway that's twenty five hundred feet,
[Speaker 1] and a grass runway is thirty five hundred
[Speaker 1] feet. So the grass runway is, is longer.
[Speaker 1] I wonder which one the islanders come in
[Speaker 1] on. Anyway, I've not been to either of
[Speaker 1] those. I have been over Charlevoix Airport. I've
[Speaker 1] have not landed there. Another airport in the
[Speaker 1] area is, the Grayling. No. Gaylord. Sorry. Grayling
[Speaker 1] Airport is an army airport or army Gaylord
[Speaker 1] or Grayling Army Airfield, but I have not
[Speaker 1] landed there. You can you can go there.
[Speaker 1] You know, it's a public use airport, but
[Speaker 1] it's, it's got a class delta, you know,
[Speaker 1] control tower and and all that. So I
[Speaker 1] haven't been there yet. At some point, I
[Speaker 1] might check it out, but it's, it's owned
[Speaker 1] by the, US army, Grayling Army Airfield. And,
[Speaker 1] but, again, it's a public use airport in
[Speaker 1] the town of Grayling, Michigan, not, not on
[Speaker 1] the base, which is south of town. Kind
[Speaker 1] of an interesting setup there, I thought. But
[Speaker 1] the one I've been to is Gaylord Airport.
[Speaker 1] That's, fifteen miles north of Grayling, along I
[Speaker 1] seventy five kind of out in the middle
[Speaker 1] of the state. And it's nice except for
[Speaker 1] there's a restricted area that's pretty close. Although,
[Speaker 1] you have to be up pretty high to
[Speaker 1] get in the restricted area, so it's not
[Speaker 1] really a problem. But, Gaylord Regional Airport, and
[Speaker 1] they have a couple of runways there at
[Speaker 1] both asphalt, a sixty five hundred foot runway,
[Speaker 1] and a forty two hundred foot runway, and
[Speaker 1] both of which are in good condition and
[Speaker 1] paved. And I've actually landed on, both the
[Speaker 1] runways up there, with there with an instructor
[Speaker 1] one time and, you know, just for a
[Speaker 1] place to go land. And then, did it
[Speaker 1] one other time by myself and landed on
[Speaker 1] a different runway. You know, I ran landed
[Speaker 1] on the north south runway when I was
[Speaker 1] by myself and, east west runway with the
[Speaker 1] instructor doing, some cross country training. Cross country,
[Speaker 1] really. Yeah. Around the late twenty eight mile
[Speaker 1] no. It's more than that. Fifty miles, I
[Speaker 1] guess. Forty something. I don't know. Whatever it
[Speaker 1] was, it was just a a thing I
[Speaker 1] had to do. And that was, you know,
[Speaker 1] that that was a cool airport, I thought.
[Speaker 1] One of my favorite airports to play around
[Speaker 1] with. The problem with this airport is if
[Speaker 1] Traverse City's airliners are running on two eight,
[Speaker 1] landing to you know, pointing towards the west
[Speaker 1] when they land, they come awfully close to
[Speaker 1] this airport. It's Kalkaska is the name of
[Speaker 1] the airport. It's Kalkaska City Airport, and, you
[Speaker 1] know, twenty ish miles, east of Traverse City.
[Speaker 1] But, went over there one time, early morning,
[Speaker 1] and I thought, oh, try that out. And,
[Speaker 1] they've got a thirty five hundred foot runway
[Speaker 1] that's only seventy five feet wide, which gives
[Speaker 1] you a whole different perspective than the hundred
[Speaker 1] and fifty foot wide runways at Traverse City
[Speaker 1] or the hundred foot wide runways, Antrim and
[Speaker 1] Pellston. So seventy five is pretty skinny, and
[Speaker 1] it gives you a different sight picture. So
[Speaker 1] the first time I tried to land there,
[Speaker 1] I I was way higher than I thought
[Speaker 1] I was, because of the weird visuals, you
[Speaker 1] know, just being used to a wider runway.
[Speaker 1] And, ended up doing a go around first
[Speaker 1] time and then did, I don't know, four
[Speaker 1] or five touch and goes there and then
[Speaker 1] came back. But it was first thing in
[Speaker 1] the morning and not a lot of airline
[Speaker 1] traffic. And even the airline, that's not really
[Speaker 1] a problem. The airliners usually turn somewhere between
[Speaker 1] Kalkaska and Traverse City. And, you know, you're
[Speaker 1] really not in their way, but, it still
[Speaker 1] makes you a little nervous being around a
[Speaker 1] lot of airliners. Of Course flying out of
[Speaker 1] Traverse City, we're around a lot of airliners
[Speaker 1] anyway, but, you have a control tower there,
[Speaker 1] Kalkaska. You don't. Let's see. One of the
[Speaker 1] other airports that, also yeah. I have this
[Speaker 1] habit. Whenever it's the first time I landed
[Speaker 1] an airport, I would say ninety percent of
[Speaker 1] the time, it's been a go around because
[Speaker 1] I somehow screw up the screw up the
[Speaker 1] approach. Yeah. It's just a a thing of
[Speaker 1] mine, I guess. But another one I did
[Speaker 1] that at was Frankfurt Airport. Frankfurt, Michigan is
[Speaker 1] over on the shoreline, and it's about as
[Speaker 1] far west of Traverse City as Kalkaska is
[Speaker 1] east of Traverse City. Maybe a little further,
[Speaker 1] but it's kind of down in a hole
[Speaker 1] kind of down on a bowl and so
[Speaker 1] the the approach into the airport both direction
[Speaker 1] well actually the south side is not too
[Speaker 1] bad but on the north side it's you're
[Speaker 1] kind of coming over a hill That's kind
[Speaker 1] of the same way in, Antrim, but, Antrim's
[Speaker 1] not quite as bad. But Frankfurt is, and,
[Speaker 1] their runway is is also seventy five feet
[Speaker 1] wide. So that was part of the problem.
[Speaker 1] They got a, you know, four thousand foot
[Speaker 1] long runway, but it's only seventy five feet
[Speaker 1] wide. So it has kind of a weird
[Speaker 1] weird thing going on there. And a bit
[Speaker 1] south of that, is Manistee County Airport, Blacker
[Speaker 1] Airport. And, you know, I've flown in and
[Speaker 1] out of there a few times, both commercially
[Speaker 1] and myself. It's a it's a neat neat
[Speaker 1] little airport, but it has a a little
[Speaker 1] airline. They're, they they keep changing the airline
[Speaker 1] out as part of the essential air service.
[Speaker 1] I think I talked about in the other,
[Speaker 1] the other show I had about aviation. But,
[Speaker 1] yeah, I forget what the new newest one
[Speaker 1] is, but they fly, you know, little regional
[Speaker 1] jets back and forth to Chicago. I think
[Speaker 1] I talked about all that. So we'll just
[Speaker 1] skip that, but they've got, kind of the
[Speaker 1] same runway layout as Traverse City more or
[Speaker 1] less. Ten and two eight, the east west
[Speaker 1] runway, five thousand five hundred feet, long and
[Speaker 1] hundred foot wide. So, you know, that's not
[Speaker 1] too odd. And then they have a a
[Speaker 1] shorter runway, only twenty seven hundred feet, long.
[Speaker 1] It's a north south runway, at one and
[Speaker 1] nineteen. So not quite Traverse City's, three six
[Speaker 1] and one eight, and this is one nine
[Speaker 1] and zero one. It's a little bit different,
[Speaker 1] but, not not too much. Not enough to
[Speaker 1] notice. Still north south. And, yeah, I've never
[Speaker 1] landed on that one. I always land on
[Speaker 1] two eight or I think once I landed
[Speaker 1] on one zero that's, coming from the west
[Speaker 1] going east. But, been in and out of
[Speaker 1] that one a fair number of times. And
[Speaker 1] Cadillac, that's another one, that's south of us.
[Speaker 1] It's about yeah. Like I said, about about
[Speaker 1] an hour drive and, you know, maybe fifteen,
[Speaker 1] twenty minutes by air. And, they've got, well,
[Speaker 1] officially, two runways, but, really, it's just one.
[Speaker 1] It's o seven and two five, which is
[Speaker 1] kind of, you know, it's it's, you know,
[Speaker 1] not east west, not, not north south either,
[Speaker 1] kind of a diagonal. And the weird part
[Speaker 1] about that airport, you know, the runway is
[Speaker 1] a hundred and no. No. I'm yeah. Wexford
[Speaker 1] County. So the, yeah, the runway is a
[Speaker 1] hundred feet wide, so that's pretty standard for
[Speaker 1] a non towered airport. But the weird part
[Speaker 1] is they have this little grass runway that's
[Speaker 1] only nineteen hundred feet and a hundred and
[Speaker 1] fifty feet wide that was used for gliders.
[Speaker 1] They had a big glider outfit there. And,
[Speaker 1] you know, they talked about the schools yesterday.
[Speaker 1] I was gonna mention the glider school, but
[Speaker 1] they ain't there anymore. It was a glider
[Speaker 1] club that also gave instructions, and, they pretty
[Speaker 1] much exclusively use that north south grass runway.
[Speaker 1] Yeah. But, they've since donated all their airplanes
[Speaker 1] to, I think, Western Michigan University's aviation program
[Speaker 1] and and ceased operations in in Cadillac, officially
[Speaker 1] known as the Wexford County Airport. So those
[Speaker 1] are, you know, the main airports around here
[Speaker 1] that I've flown into. I've also flown over
[Speaker 1] a bunch of airports, you know, because going
[Speaker 1] going places. We go up and do the
[Speaker 1] bridge run. There's a I, another airport on
[Speaker 1] Mackinac Island, which I have not landed at.
[Speaker 1] I think next summer, I I wanna do
[Speaker 1] that, land on the island and take a
[Speaker 1] horse drawn taxi cab into town and get
[Speaker 1] some lunch. That'd be kind of fun. But
[Speaker 1] but that airport there is, let's see, the
[Speaker 1] thirty five hundred foot runway asphalt, kind of
[Speaker 1] an east west. And, you know, both both
[Speaker 1] approaches are over water, you know, Lake Huron.
[Speaker 1] It's in northern Lake Huron officially, but it's
[Speaker 1] really the straits which is between Lake Huron,
[Speaker 1] Lake Michigan. And, there's another airport just on
[Speaker 1] the other side of the water across the
[Speaker 1] bridge, Saint Ignace, Michigan. I never landed there
[Speaker 1] either, but we we did, you know, we
[Speaker 1] do the bridge around once a while. It's
[Speaker 1] always fun to fly up there and, you
[Speaker 1] know, you fly, fly up the east side
[Speaker 1] of the bridge and, and then, you know,
[Speaker 1] fly kinda over Saint Ignace and then come
[Speaker 1] back down the west side of the bridge,
[Speaker 1] get all the all the stuff or fly,
[Speaker 1] you know, fly near the island. You know,
[Speaker 1] I usually fly up in between the island
[Speaker 1] and and the UP. But, always like to
[Speaker 1] get a little altitude when I'm flying over
[Speaker 1] that much water. So we're usually up over
[Speaker 1] three thousand, thirty five hundred feet, maybe maybe
[Speaker 1] four thousand, something like that. Just, just so
[Speaker 1] that I got enough glide to get somewhere
[Speaker 1] if something conks out. You know, same thing
[Speaker 1] going over the bridge, you know, or going
[Speaker 1] across the straits near the bridge. You don't
[Speaker 1] fly right over it. I never have anyway.
[Speaker 1] But, so those two airports would be an
[Speaker 1] option if, if need be. It's also another
[Speaker 1] island airport on well, it's it's spelled Boyce
[Speaker 1] Blanc, but everybody calls it Pablo. But, there's
[Speaker 1] an airport there. There's nobody that lives there.
[Speaker 1] So I don't know how used the airport
[Speaker 1] is, but it is paved, and, it's there.
[Speaker 1] So yeah. To go check that one out
[Speaker 1] sometime. Thirty five hundred foot seventy five foot
[Speaker 1] wide runways would be another skinny one. But,
[Speaker 1] you know, that's kind of the the the
[Speaker 1] major airports around here. When I was a
[Speaker 1] kid, we my dad used to fly out
[Speaker 1] of Interlochen Airport or officially known as Green
[Speaker 1] Lake Airport, and that is a really small
[Speaker 1] little airport. I think I did talk about
[Speaker 1] that in in another episode, but, Green Lake,
[Speaker 1] that's the one that has the sports fields
[Speaker 1] on it. So they restrict you to flying
[Speaker 1] out there. But anyway, yeah, I did talk
[Speaker 1] about that. And then there's another airport that
[Speaker 1] I I've driven by a lot flown over
[Speaker 1] it and whatever, but it's, Lake Ann Airway
[Speaker 1] Estates. And, it's got a east west grass
[Speaker 1] runway. Used to have a north south runway.
[Speaker 1] I don't know what happened to that. But,
[Speaker 1] they they're, you know, it's out by Lake
[Speaker 1] Anne. You know? If you guys have been
[Speaker 1] with me since the beginning of podcasting, I
[Speaker 1] used to live in Lake Anne, Michigan. This
[Speaker 1] is kind of out there. It's a little
[Speaker 1] further out of Traverse City than, than the
[Speaker 1] town of Lake Ann, and it's a it's
[Speaker 1] a private airport, but public use. And what's
[Speaker 1] funny is on the chart, it, doesn't say
[Speaker 1] the name of the airport. It says questionable
[Speaker 1] or object object objectionable. That's right. That's what
[Speaker 1] it says over that airport. And I you
[Speaker 1] know, I've I've asked a couple of people,
[Speaker 1] what does that mean? And, usually, this mean
[Speaker 1] the the runway is not maintained well or
[Speaker 1] something. I don't know. But there's some houses
[Speaker 1] on that airport. It's one of those, you
[Speaker 1] know, where you can buy a house there
[Speaker 1] and build a hangar and whatever. I think
[Speaker 1] all the lots are sold now, but it's
[Speaker 1] a it's a it's a cool little airport.
[Speaker 1] There used to be another airport, and it
[Speaker 1] is still there technically, but it's a private
[Speaker 1] airport called, Miller Herald Airport. And that's, used
[Speaker 1] to be part of the Sugar Loaf, ski
[Speaker 1] resort, which is up, north of Cedar, Michigan
[Speaker 1] in Leelanau County. And they, I don't think
[Speaker 1] that that's available for public use anymore. Really,
[Speaker 1] the only thing there is a golf course,
[Speaker 1] so I don't know if, if there's still
[Speaker 1] a thing. It's another kind of a cool
[Speaker 1] airport up in Northport. I've been around it,
[Speaker 1] just not been into it mainly because it's
[Speaker 1] a, you know, grass runway or grass runways,
[Speaker 1] but, that one's got quite a history. At
[Speaker 1] some point, maybe I'll do a quick episode
[Speaker 1] about, Woosley Woosley Airport in Northport, Michigan. That's,
[Speaker 1] right up at the tip of the Leelanau
[Speaker 1] Peninsula. And there's another one that I haven't
[Speaker 1] been to yet, been over it several times,
[Speaker 1] drove by it several times, is Torchport. It's
[Speaker 1] in Torch Lake, Michigan along Highway thirty one.
[Speaker 1] So, you know, and and the runway comes
[Speaker 1] right up to the road or at least
[Speaker 1] the east west runway comes right up to
[Speaker 1] the road. And it was grass up until
[Speaker 1] the beginning of this summer, and they paved
[Speaker 1] it. So now there's a paved runway there,
[Speaker 1] and they're selling lots and houses and stuff
[Speaker 1] on that airport. So it's kind of a
[Speaker 1] airport community, but it is a public use
[Speaker 1] airport. So technically, we can, go in there.
[Speaker 1] Right now on the chart, it still says
[Speaker 1] it's grass, but their east west runway is
[Speaker 1] now paved with asphalt. I know that because,
[Speaker 1] friend of mine, Eric, he, he was, I
[Speaker 1] think, the first personal land there, after the
[Speaker 1] pavement was ready to go. He, landed his
[Speaker 1] Aztec there, which the twin that he had.
[Speaker 1] And he doesn't have the he doesn't have
[Speaker 1] the Aztec anymore. But, anyway, so that kinda
[Speaker 1] oh, one more airport, and I I think
[Speaker 1] I've talked about it, but I wanna talk
[Speaker 1] about it again because, I definitely wanna utilize
[Speaker 1] this airport at some point in the future
[Speaker 1] is the historic Acme Skyport. That's what it's
[Speaker 1] officially called, but that was a airport, you
[Speaker 1] know, back in the, I guess, fifty, sixties,
[Speaker 1] seventies. I know it was in the seventies
[Speaker 1] because dad and I flew in and out
[Speaker 1] of there a few times when they had
[Speaker 1] the north south runway. Now they just have
[Speaker 1] an east west runway that's rather short right
[Speaker 1] now. It's like sixteen hundred feet, which, you
[Speaker 1] know, not bad for you know, you you
[Speaker 1] can do it in a normal small aircraft,
[Speaker 1] but, it is a tad on the short
[Speaker 1] side for, when I'm flying. So although, Eric's
[Speaker 1] taken that those those planes in there no
[Speaker 1] problem, but, you know, Eric's a lot better
[Speaker 1] pilot than I am, and it's his airplanes.
[Speaker 1] So not gonna not gonna question that one.
[Speaker 1] But, it's it's a really neat airport, and,
[Speaker 1] Eric got it reopened here. Hell, I guess,
[Speaker 1] last year officially. It's, it was back on
[Speaker 1] the chart. I also use it as a
[Speaker 1] jump zone for, parachutists, and, he's been fixing
[Speaker 1] up the hangers out there. And, yeah, it's
[Speaker 1] a it's a it's a neat little little
[Speaker 1] thing, and it's, like I said, it's better.
[Speaker 1] It got closed sometime in the nineties and
[Speaker 1] then, like I said, brought back to life
[Speaker 1] here recently. And I look forward to that
[Speaker 1] becoming a little more active, and, I'd like
[Speaker 1] to get an airplane that, would be perfect
[Speaker 1] for that little airport. I think that would
[Speaker 1] be my best bet if I'm gonna own
[Speaker 1] an airplane. I'll own a little one, and
[Speaker 1] that'll be perfect. So that's, that's the story.
[Speaker 1] Let's see. What other airports? Thompsonville, that one's
[Speaker 1] kind of a neat little airport too. That's
[Speaker 1] right by, Crystal Mountain Ski Resort in Thompsonville,
[Speaker 1] Michigan. And my uncle had a a a
[Speaker 1] big part in getting that built up. He
[Speaker 1] built the first hangar out there that, you
[Speaker 1] know, sometime twenty or thirty years ago. I
[Speaker 1] mean, the airport had been there for a
[Speaker 1] long time, and, they got that one paved.
[Speaker 1] I forget which runway. Yeah. They paved a
[Speaker 1] twenty nine hundred foot, seventy five foot wide
[Speaker 1] runway. That's their east west runway, and then
[Speaker 1] they've got a twenty four hundred foot, not
[Speaker 1] quite north south runway that the, that's grass.
[Speaker 1] And, Thompsonville used to also have the, glider
[Speaker 1] club, and so did Frankfurt. So that glider
[Speaker 1] club moved a couple of times before closing
[Speaker 1] down in Cadillac. But Thompsonville, it was has
[Speaker 1] the distinction of the the only place I've
[Speaker 1] ever flown in an ultralight. Guy there had
[Speaker 1] a ultralight, two seater, and this was before
[Speaker 1] the Sport Pilot rule, and, so now there's
[Speaker 1] no such thing as an ultralight two seater.
[Speaker 1] Now now it's a sport pilot plane or
[Speaker 1] a sport light sport aircraft. But, this thing
[Speaker 1] was literally a hang glider with an engine
[Speaker 1] and and, you sat in a seat. It
[Speaker 1] was it reminded me of riding a motorcycle,
[Speaker 1] and it was a ball. I loved it.
[Speaker 1] But, got got to fly out of Thompsonville
[Speaker 1] there. And like I said, my uncle used
[Speaker 1] to keep his plane there and, bunch of
[Speaker 1] the bunch of the guys had, had that
[Speaker 1] had a big community hangar there that, I
[Speaker 1] don't know. They had probably five or six
[Speaker 1] aircraft in there, and it's kind of a
[Speaker 1] neat thing. That's, but, that that's one of
[Speaker 1] one of one of the airports at one
[Speaker 1] at some point I'm gonna go to, and
[Speaker 1] that would be another alternative place for me
[Speaker 1] to keep an airplane if I buy one.
[Speaker 1] But we'll see. Yeah. Might might not, might
[Speaker 1] not buy one. I might, just keep renting
[Speaker 1] for the little bit that I actually fly.
[Speaker 1] That probably be okay too. I don't know.
[Speaker 1] We'll see. Anyway, that's kind of a rundown
[Speaker 1] of the airports up north here. And like
[Speaker 1] I said, there's a lot of other ones.
[Speaker 1] I guess I I wanna I wanna talk
[Speaker 1] about one other one, and I talked about
[Speaker 1] it a little bit in the episode yesterday,
[Speaker 1] but the old, Wertsmith Air Force Base, which
[Speaker 1] is, in Oscoda, Michigan, which is kind of
[Speaker 1] on the East Coast of Michigan on on,
[Speaker 1] like, you know, on Lake Huron pretty much.
[Speaker 1] I mean, they're not right on Lake Huron,
[Speaker 1] but close. Really close. And, Wertz Smith Air
[Speaker 1] Force Base is now called Oscoda Wertz Smith
[Speaker 1] Airport, and they've got a really long east
[Speaker 1] west runway and a really wide one. It's
[Speaker 1] eleven thousand eight hundred and one feet long
[Speaker 1] and two hundred feet wide. And the reason
[Speaker 1] for that is they were a huge b
[Speaker 1] fifty two base. They had a bunch of
[Speaker 1] b fifty twos and k c one thirty
[Speaker 1] five tankers. And, you know, b fifty twos
[Speaker 1] like really long runways. And, you know, that's
[Speaker 1] just a tad over two miles of long
[Speaker 1] runway and two hundred feet wide. I was
[Speaker 1] always joking. If I was ever to go
[Speaker 1] there, I could do two or three touch
[Speaker 1] and goes in one pass, but, always wanted
[Speaker 1] to go to that one. So at some
[Speaker 1] point, I will, I will make the trek
[Speaker 1] over there and check it out. But there's
[Speaker 1] a lot of military airspace. Alpena Airport has
[Speaker 1] a, a fighter contingent there. And, and, of
[Speaker 1] course, there's Camp Grayling and the Grayling Army
[Speaker 1] Airfield and, you know, just a lot of
[Speaker 1] military operating areas, restricted areas. I'm looking at
[Speaker 1] the chart here. There's, you know, one, two,
[Speaker 1] three, four, five military operating areas. And then
[Speaker 1] around Grayling, there's a restricted and a couple
[Speaker 1] other places you're not supposed to fly without
[Speaker 1] permission. You know, not that you can't fly
[Speaker 1] through them. You you know, you you certainly
[Speaker 1] can, especially when they're cold. Meaning, there's not
[Speaker 1] anything going on. But even when they're not
[Speaker 1] cold, you know, as long as you, get
[Speaker 1] permission and kinda let everybody know you're you're
[Speaker 1] coming through, and they're cool with it. But,
[Speaker 1] again, you know, it's a it's a thing
[Speaker 1] you gotta worry about when you're flying. You
[Speaker 1] just can't go everywhere you want to. There's
[Speaker 1] certain air spaces. And, you know, kind of
[Speaker 1] out in the middle of Lake Michigan, couple
[Speaker 1] of there's a restricted area and a, an
[Speaker 1] MOA, which is kind of off the Wisconsin
[Speaker 1] shoreline. You know, what airport is that? Yes.
[Speaker 1] Sheboygan, Wisconsin and Manitowoc, Wisconsin. There's a big
[Speaker 1] restricted area. What's the altitudes on that? It
[Speaker 1] should tell you on the chart. Maybe not.
[Speaker 1] Anyway, I can look it up at some
[Speaker 1] point, but, now what is it? Anyway, so
[Speaker 1] there's a a military operating area and all
[Speaker 1] that. And I I think what they do
[Speaker 1] out there is simulated bomb runs or something.
[Speaker 1] I who knows? But, if you were to
[Speaker 1] cross Lake Michigan, which personally, I will not
[Speaker 1] do in a single engine aircraft. But, you
[Speaker 1] know, some people do. Nothing wrong with that.
[Speaker 1] It's perfectly legal. Although, I just don't like
[Speaker 1] to be over water where, I can't glide
[Speaker 1] to shore. So and not too long ago,
[Speaker 1] off of the off of, Milwaukee, They had
[Speaker 1] a Cirrus, lost an engine. They were coming
[Speaker 1] across Lake Michigan in the southern part of
[Speaker 1] the lake, and and, of course, the Cirrus
[Speaker 1] has a parachute system. So, you know, nobody
[Speaker 1] nobody died, but, they did go swimming. And,
[Speaker 1] the airplane, as far as I know, is
[Speaker 1] still on the bottom of the lake, but,
[Speaker 1] coast guard got to them and no problem
[Speaker 1] there. You know, they were they were wet
[Speaker 1] and lost their airplane, but, they walked away
[Speaker 1] from it. So I guess that's the goal.
[Speaker 1] You know, they always say a good landing
[Speaker 1] is is one you can walk away from,
[Speaker 1] and a really good landing is one that,
[Speaker 1] you can reuse the airplane. And, I always
[Speaker 1] like to go for the really good ones.
[Speaker 1] So and as they say, taking off is
[Speaker 1] optional. Landing is mandatory. Alright. With all that,
[Speaker 1] I think tomorrow what's it I'm gonna do
[Speaker 1] tomorrow? I I know I had something in
[Speaker 1] mind. Got it on my list. Oh, yeah.
[Speaker 1] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So tomorrow, I'm gonna do
[Speaker 1] the blizzard of seventy eight, as I remember
[Speaker 1] it as a newly minted twelve year old.