I got talked into taking a guy up to Indian River, MI  (oh darn). He keeps a C310 there, but it's out of service, so a C172 and I, had to do, today..  

I've flown over this area dozens of times, but never had reason to stop at Y65. It's a tough field to spot... I'd have probably had to fly over it first, if my fare hadn't been with me to guide me in, "aim for that pond, it's a good place to turn final" ..  "keep it high and slow, there are trees on a hill you need to clear"...   HU ??

I won't comment on my landing, other than even a slight wind over hills and tree-lines near the arrival end of a runway will toss a 172 around pretty well. (and there was another surprise in store)..






A closer look..  seems someone decided to race me to the arrival end, from the opposite direction  !


Just as suprising was what we taxied up to. Unless you land on that displaced threshold, that runway is well under 3000 feet long. Obviously it can be done safely, but I'd not want to wrestle a KingAir into Y65  


Here I am, back-taxiing to 28. You can see the hill and trees better.


And here's the lovely climb-out...


I stopped for fuel in Gaylord, MI (KGLR) ... got neat surprise there, too..

Nice shots Brett, nice little airport you found there.


Yesterday was a beautiful day for flying.  Chalked up another 3.5 hrs myself, I'll see if I can get some pictures up sometime.

Yeah, it looks like you guys had a nice sunny day.  We were lucky here, we were under a layer of clouds up at 11,000 ft, so there were no thermals or anything, just a few bumps in the first hundred feet or so from wind friction.  We flew from Middleton, WI to Rockford, IL and back to Middleton around 8:30 AM, and with the GPS we just went direct on the way back, and once we were leveled off and trimmed, we were able to fly for almost a half-hour totally hands off.

In the third picture, was that another airplane on the runway? It looks tiny...

Intersting, to say the least.  I love those little airports..

The thing on the runway was a truck speeding toward the arrival end. I came within 5 seconds of going around 

There was no danger, but ya gotta wonder what goes throug a person's mind, driving up a runway with a plane on short final. I realize it's a remote airport, but I wouldn't go anywhere near a runway in a car without at least a scanner tuned to CTAF.. and wouldn't even PARK near the runway if someone was in the pattern ..

I'm an airport ops guy, and I clear the runway as soon as I know someone's coming.  But at smaller airports you never know what will pull out in front of you. 

As for the King Air, you'd be surprised at the planes you find at small airports.  A nearby airport here isn't much bigger, but has an Astra based there.

Brett_Henderson wrote on Jun 23^rd, 2007 at 10:43am:


Wimp!