New Plan -- Going to Kill Devil Hills

Jay, I'm coming into this thread late, so you may have already settled
on your plans. But ... adding to what others have posted (and for
anyone else looking for a place to visit):

Hampton Roads has =lots= to offer (Williamsburg, Newport News, York
County, Hampton, Norfolk and Virginia Beach, among other localities:
-- Touted as the "Historic Triangle"
---- 1-Yorktown Battlefield
------ including some lesser Civil War sites nearby
---- 2-Historic Williamsburg
---- 3-Jamestown Landing, and Jamestown Settlement
------ with recreations of the 3 ships that brought the first settlers
------ and they're celebrating the 300th anniversary of the landing
-- Mariner's Museum, the premier nautical museum in the U.S.
---- opened just this weekend - the Monitor exhibit
------ with artifacts recovered from the wreck site
-- Hampton Air & Space Museum
---- not the Smithsonian or Air Force museum, but some nice exhibits
-- In Norfolk and Virginia Beach
---- Nauticus with oceanography exhibits and the Wisconsin
---- Norfolk Naval Base, the largest Naval Base in the world
------ at least one aircraft carrier in port almost always
---- Virginia Beach itself

Airports?
-- Newport News/Williamsburg (PHF), Rick Aviation provides good service.
Lodging and restaurants nearby. Three miles to Yorktown, 8 miles to
Williamsburg, 16 miles to Jamestown
-- Williamsburg (JGG), nice small airport, in the middle of the Historic
Triangle. Nice daytime restaurant on the field. Two miles to Williamsburg.
-- Others on 'southside' (Norfolk [airlines] plus smaller Chesapeake
(CPK), Hampton Roads (PVG), & Suffolk (SFQ)

Going south?
-- stop at Ocracoke (W95); it's a regular for lunch
---- 1/2 mile walk to food at Howard's Pub
---- I'd expect someone will pick you up for lodging
-- Moorhead City (MRH); nice place to overnight
---- almost 'in town', interesting quaint sourthern coastal city

george
gyoung at (poppa india november november).net

Comfort Inn at Nag's Head, between Manteo and Kitty Hawk, has very
reasonable rates mid-December; don't know about now.

Anything else to see in the area besides the Wright Bros Memorial?

Dare County is named for Virginia Dare, supposedly the first English
child born in the New World. Remember "Powhatan"? So there are
historical sites celebrating the first colonists, including a replica
of a square rigger sailing ship, which I suppose represents the ship
they came on.

The problem is that most of the "touristy" stuff is shut down for the
winter, so I don't know what you'll be able to find open.

The Hatteras National Seashore is "open," of course, but it's not an
ideal time to lie on the beach.

Don't miss the Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola. It's better than
the NASM, Dulles included. Second only to Wright-Pat.

High praise, indeed.

Well, you can tell me later whether or not you agree. As an old Naval
Aviator I may be a bit biased.

In fact, if the "go back to Texas" part of our
plan comes to pass, Pensacola is on my list of places to stop on this
trip -- what's the best GA airport to use around there?

PNS provided good service last time I was there, about four years ago.

vince norris

Airports?
-- Newport News/Williamsburg (PHF), Rick Aviation provides good service.
Lodging and restaurants nearby. Three miles to Yorktown, 8 miles to
Williamsburg, 16 miles to Jamestown
-- Williamsburg (JGG), nice small airport, in the middle of the Historic
Triangle. Nice daytime restaurant on the field. Two miles to Williamsburg.
-- Others on 'southside' (Norfolk [airlines] plus smaller Chesapeake
(CPK), Hampton Roads (PVG), & Suffolk (SFQ)

Going south?
-- stop at Ocracoke (W95); it's a regular for lunch
---- 1/2 mile walk to food at Howard's Pub

Thanks for the tips, George.

We're in Beckley, W.V. as I'm typing this -- nice airport, nice town.
Unfortunately the rental car places at the airport close early on
Sundays, so we had to catch a cab into town -- $35 one way! I thought
I was in Chicago all over again...

Weather is lovely, and the flight was beautiful, 4 hours on the dot.
Had great steaks at a local "Outback" clone, and we're aiming for an
early launch to Kitty Hawk...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
Airports?
-- Newport News/Williamsburg (PHF), Rick Aviation provides good service.
Lodging and restaurants nearby. Three miles to Yorktown, 8 miles to
Williamsburg, 16 miles to Jamestown
-- Williamsburg (JGG), nice small airport, in the middle of the Historic
Triangle. Nice daytime restaurant on the field. Two miles to Williamsburg.
-- Others on 'southside' (Norfolk [airlines] plus smaller Chesapeake
(CPK), Hampton Roads (PVG), & Suffolk (SFQ)

Going south?
-- stop at Ocracoke (W95); it's a regular for lunch
---- 1/2 mile walk to food at Howard's Pub

Thanks for the tips, George.

We're in Beckley, W.V. as I'm typing this -- nice airport, nice town.
Unfortunately the rental car places at the airport close early on
Sundays, so we had to catch a cab into town -- $35 one way! I thought
I was in Chicago all over again...

I just took a look at Beckley's aerial view and it appears that there
was an old airport just a couple of miles due west of the existing one.
Maybe it is just two crossed roads, but it looks suspiciously like two
former runways, one which is now a road and the other appears overgrown.

How do you like those hills? A little bit of a change from Iowa, eh?

Matt

On 2007-03-10, Jay Honeck wrote:
So, we're looking at heading to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina instead.

If the wind's up any when you arrive at First Flight, be prepared for a
fair bit of turbulence on short final and on departure, and rapidly
shifting winds. Last time I was there (2002), the airfield was in a cut
out in the trees, and since it was reasonably windy, it made for an
interesting approach and landing.

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

"Dylan Smith" wrote in message
...
On 2007-03-10, Jay Honeck wrote:
So, we're looking at heading to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina instead.

If the wind's up any when you arrive at First Flight, be prepared for a
fair bit of turbulence on short final and on departure, and rapidly
shifting winds. Last time I was there (2002), the airfield was in a cut
out in the trees, and since it was reasonably windy, it made for an
interesting approach and landing.

Indeed. I forgot about that. The wind is usually strong, with a large
crosswind component. The wind will suddenly stop, nearly, at treetop level.
The trees are a dense stand of pine trees, and let very little wind get past
them.
--
Jim in NC

Yep, that's been my experience, too. Especially true landing on runway
2 and when the wind is out of an easterly direction. And I think may
have been the wind for today - but by now I hope Jay already knows about
all this.

Warner-Robbins has a good aviation museum.

Jerry in Western NC

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
The museum at P-cola is nice, but (IMO) it is the only
reason to visit the
city. For a family, even an aviation family, there may
be better
destinations unless you're gonna be in the area anyway.
For instance, the
Air Force Museum at Warner Robbins, GA (Near Macon) is
2nd only to the Air
Force museum in terms of USAF (and AAC) aircraft on
display. And it is
closer to Charleston and Savannah.

I've always wanted to visit Warner-Robbins, as my parents
were
stationed there for a year during World War II. This was
pre-air
conditioning, and my mom always spoke of the area with
both affection
and repulsion. (My dad, a "90-day-wonder", had little
time to worry
about the weather.)

And, if you go to Warner Robbins, you can turn the trip
back north, visit
the Aircraft Spruce store at Falcon Field near Atlanta,
head NW to the Space
and Rocket museum at Huntsville, Alabama to see the only
erected (IIRC)
Saturn rocket in existance.

Cool! Thanks for the suggestion. We're outta here in
about an
hour...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I just talked with Jay. He took the group's advice to heart and said they
are having a great time in NC & SC. After visiting Kill Devil Hills & Kitty
Hawk, they're now at Myrtle Beach, SC enjoying temps in the 80's, great
seafood, and a great ocean view hotel.

He asked me to thank those who recommended Ocracoke Island and Howard's Pub.
After initial thoughts of their husband/pilot/fearless leader loosing his
mind, he said the family all agreed that Howard's Pub was well worth the
trouble.

Jim

I just talked with Jay. He took the group's advice to heart and said they
are having a great time in NC & SC. After visiting Kill Devil Hills & Kitty
Hawk, they're now at Myrtle Beach, SC enjoying temps in the 80's, great
seafood, and a great ocean view hotel.

Myrtle Beach is awesome! And it's been a great journey, thus far,
living the life of "aviation gypsies"...

Our first night was in Beckley, West Virginia, where we stayed at a
fairly forgettable "Park Inn & Suites" -- chosen because of the hotel
name's similarity to our hotel name. It wasn't a bad place -- and
they DID have free wireless internet -- but the $35 cab rides (each
way) really sucked.

Next morning we launched bright and early for First Flight (Kill Devil
Hills), and, wow, what an experience. To land where it all began,
after a nice, long cross country flight, with that beautiful, immense
monument beside us, to walk the field where the very first powered
flights took place -- it was all very special, and I had chills the
whole time. But not from the cold. (Although it *was* cool, with a
brisk, steady wind off the ocean -- precisely why the Wrights chose
this location...)

Then, after cleaning out their gift shop (for our Wright Brothers
Suite) it was down the long spit of land called the barrier islands to
Ocracoke Island, for a fantastic lunch at Howard's Pub. I had a great
crab cake sandwich, Mary had some fabulous flounder -- and we all
enjoyed their home-made clam chowder. It's a bit of a hike to the
bar (and it seemed longer, with my kids whining all the way), but
everyone agreed it was well worth the effort.

Incidentally, at Ocracoke there was a broken (like, in half!) Cirrus
SR-22 alongside the runway. Dunno what happened, but it had police
tape all around it. No one was around to ask, but the plane was a
complete write off. Musta been a WILD landing.

The barrier islands are stunningly beautiful to follow, and we did,
all the way down the coast to Beaufort, NC for gas. What a great
airport and FBO! We chatted for 30 minutes or so with the airport
manager, and we had a good laugh because we soon discoverd that we
were all fighting the same damned political battles back home in Iowa
regarding airport operations. They've apparently got some real
whiners in their town that have basically made it mandatory not to use
two (of the six) runways, or bear the wrath of several Noise Nazis.
Thank goodness we don't have THAT in Iowa City, at least not to that
degree.

By now, we had flown many hours, and were starting to feel like real
aviation gysies, having NO idea where we were going next. With no
preference one way or the other, we asked them where THEY would go for
the next few days, if they were looking for fun and sun. Everyone in
the FBO agreed that Myrtle Beach, SC was the perfect combination of
beach, sun, and fun things to do -- so, we launched south once again.

Which is where we have been for the last 36 hours. We spent all day
baking on the beach in 80 degree sunshine, oogling the nubile young
Spring Breakers, and we found a hotel suite (at the "BayWatch Resort")
in North Myrtle Beach -- with an 18th-floor ocean view -- for just $93
per night! We're at the airport right now (using their free internet
-- the stupid hotel has TWO computers for 525 room!), checking the
weather, trying to figure out how far we will make it back toward Iowa
tomorrow before hitting the crap weather that is forecast...

We might end up in Nashville, or maybe Chatanooga. We don't really
care, to be honest -- cuz we don't have to be home till Saturday, and
we're having a great time everywhere we go!

Thanks, everyone, for the great recommendations!
--
Jay Honeck
North Myrtle Beach, SC
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"