One of the inspirations for flying early in my life were some articles in Flying Magazine from a guy who just went from airport to airport exploring, camping under the wing of his airplane, waking up in the morning and deciding the direction of the next stop based on the weather. He called it barnstorming. Since then I've had this goal of replicating that experience, waiting until retirement to work on the execution.
Today was a dress rehearsal.
The objective was to visit what looks on a chart like the Orions Belt of airports in central Wisconsin. Less than ten miles apart, they serve the rural, lake oriented communities of Chetek, Rice Lake, and Cumberland. Only about 31 minutes from my home port of South Saint Paul, I started with a landing at Chetek, otherwise know as Y23 by it's FAA identifier.
A town of about 2000 residents, with no discernible industry nearby other than lake resorts, it's not clear why an airport is located there. Like so many small airports, there are a smattering of nicely maintained hangars, some of them quite new, harboring close to 50 aircraft. A nice, small terminal provides restrooms (which I appreciated), a weather computer, microwave and a refrigerator with refreshments on the honor system. Directly across the street are very nice lake homes along Lake Chetek. Next to the terminal are two very old hangars that must date back to the post-war era. My guess is that is when the airport was established, when logging and paper were more prevalent in the area. There's no way to know where all the planes and hangars come from, or what economic activity feeds those assets.
After a quick walk-about along the lake and through Southworth Memorial Park, I returned to the Southworth Municipal Airport. I'm not sure the relevance of the name Southworth, but clearly it has historical significance. Curious questions I hope to spend more time on in coming adventures. Saying my goodbye to the city employee that had arrived at the terminal, I boarded again for the next destination. I was no more than off the ground and I had to prepare for landing, since Carl's Field (don't know who Carl is, either) in Rice Lake was a scant 9.1 miles away. For whatever reason, it has an unusually long runway - 6,700 feet - and a large terminal building housing a full service FBO (fixed base operator). A few jets were parked outside. It's a pretty active regional airport, even though it has fewer home-based aircraft than Chetek, with around 76 aircraft operations per day. I choose not to stop, as it looked more developed and less rural than was to my interested. On to the third in the series, Cumberland.
Arriving mid-day, the thought of lunch occurred to me as I taxied up to a very nice looking terminal building. There I found very nice restroom facilities (are you getting the theme, here?). It also had a pilots lounge with a key pad lock on the door, accessible if you knew the CTAF (Common Traffic Advisory Frequency) code. Inside the lounge was a weather station, lounge chairs, microwave, and a lock box. In the lockbox, once again accessible if you knew the UNICOM frequency - in this case the same as the CTAF frequency - were keys to a courtesy car.
Many airports offer, free of charge, a courtesy car to pilots to use to get into town for whatever reason. All you do is register in a log, and drive off. This one was located in a very nice garage stall in the town maintenance building located next door. Just push the button on the remote attached to the ignition key, and the door opened to what must have been a former city police car. I jumped in and drove into town to find lunch.
Over the years, since I was a kid, we have driven what must have been a hundred times through Cumberland, on the way to Cornucopia and Lake Superior. I can tell you where the Diary Queen is, and the 3M plant just across the street, but little else. I looked in those days, but I didn't see. This visit afforded me the chance to see. See the food processing plant, surrounded by water. See the sign that said, "The Island City". Cumberland, a city of just over 2000, is built on a peninsula that looks like an island, surrounded by water. The food processing plant is its own island, with water all around it, except for the county road in front of it that connects the city to the country. Expansion not possible for that plant - all the land is covered with their buildings.
Cumberland has a nice, old downtown which I toured looking for a place to eat, finding the Our Place Cafe right in the center. The 3M manufacturing plant is a major employer, along with the food plant. Other than that, resorts and tourist industries dominate, which seems to be at the heart of Barron county's lifeblood. So why three cities, just a few miles apart, with three very nice airports with hangars and planes and terminals and courtesy cars? Thanks to the past? What's their formula for the future? I'm anxious to find out the status of other small, rural towns with airports that become part of my barnstorming itinerary.
Today was a dress rehearsal.
The objective was to visit what looks on a chart like the Orions Belt of airports in central Wisconsin. Less than ten miles apart, they serve the rural, lake oriented communities of Chetek, Rice Lake, and Cumberland. Only about 31 minutes from my home port of South Saint Paul, I started with a landing at Chetek, otherwise know as Y23 by it's FAA identifier.
A town of about 2000 residents, with no discernible industry nearby other than lake resorts, it's not clear why an airport is located there. Like so many small airports, there are a smattering of nicely maintained hangars, some of them quite new, harboring close to 50 aircraft. A nice, small terminal provides restrooms (which I appreciated), a weather computer, microwave and a refrigerator with refreshments on the honor system. Directly across the street are very nice lake homes along Lake Chetek. Next to the terminal are two very old hangars that must date back to the post-war era. My guess is that is when the airport was established, when logging and paper were more prevalent in the area. There's no way to know where all the planes and hangars come from, or what economic activity feeds those assets.
Arriving mid-day, the thought of lunch occurred to me as I taxied up to a very nice looking terminal building. There I found very nice restroom facilities (are you getting the theme, here?). It also had a pilots lounge with a key pad lock on the door, accessible if you knew the CTAF (Common Traffic Advisory Frequency) code. Inside the lounge was a weather station, lounge chairs, microwave, and a lock box. In the lockbox, once again accessible if you knew the UNICOM frequency - in this case the same as the CTAF frequency - were keys to a courtesy car.
Many airports offer, free of charge, a courtesy car to pilots to use to get into town for whatever reason. All you do is register in a log, and drive off. This one was located in a very nice garage stall in the town maintenance building located next door. Just push the button on the remote attached to the ignition key, and the door opened to what must have been a former city police car. I jumped in and drove into town to find lunch.
Over the years, since I was a kid, we have driven what must have been a hundred times through Cumberland, on the way to Cornucopia and Lake Superior. I can tell you where the Diary Queen is, and the 3M plant just across the street, but little else. I looked in those days, but I didn't see. This visit afforded me the chance to see. See the food processing plant, surrounded by water. See the sign that said, "The Island City". Cumberland, a city of just over 2000, is built on a peninsula that looks like an island, surrounded by water. The food processing plant is its own island, with water all around it, except for the county road in front of it that connects the city to the country. Expansion not possible for that plant - all the land is covered with their buildings.
Cumberland has a nice, old downtown which I toured looking for a place to eat, finding the Our Place Cafe right in the center. The 3M manufacturing plant is a major employer, along with the food plant. Other than that, resorts and tourist industries dominate, which seems to be at the heart of Barron county's lifeblood. So why three cities, just a few miles apart, with three very nice airports with hangars and planes and terminals and courtesy cars? Thanks to the past? What's their formula for the future? I'm anxious to find out the status of other small, rural towns with airports that become part of my barnstorming itinerary.
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