Missouri Simulator Tour: Savannah to St. Joseph
Previous Leg: Tarkio to Savannah
Because my real world lessons are starting to include instrument training, my Missouri flight simulator tour continued with another VOR practice flight. This meant that VFR navigational techniques and the GPS were temporarily banned from the cockpit. The only navigational aid used all day was the same St. Joseph VOR that guided me from Tarkio to Savannah. The location of the VOR is clearly visible on the on Foreflight tracklog as the place where all three legs came together.
After taking off from Savannah’s Worth Memorial Airport I headed inbound toward the VOR for 2 NM. Then I turned outbound for an 18 NM flight to Crop Care Airport (4MO7), a private airstrip in Mound City. Mound City, in Holt County, is home of Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge brings $2.6 million annually to the local economy though tourism, bird watching, and hunting in the surrounding area.
Real world Squaw Creek Wildlife Refuge: 1 million snow geese
Tracking Jesse James by VOR
After a brief touch and go at Mound City I turned around and flew back to the St. Joseph VOR. FSX was importing real-world weather into the system and the winds began to pick up on the way back. Tracking the radial proved to be more challenging and the tracklog showed the effect of the cross winds. Fortunately, my deviation from the course was not enough to worry about. I was still able to turn onto the right heading and St. Joseph right where it was supposed to be.
St. Joseph, the seat of Buchanan County, has a surprising place in the history of the Western Frontier. It was the jumping off point of the legendary Pony Express. St. Joseph was also the home of the outlaw Jesse James. The James gang used St. Joe as its base of operations and it was the site of Jesse James’ death at the hand of one of his own gang members.
Rosecrans Memorial Airport (KSTJ) is named after Sgt Guy Wallace Rosecrans, a St. Joseph airman who was killed in World War 1. The first airport in town was built in 1922 and was named in Rosecrans honor. Later the airport was moved to its present location and was used for pilot training during WWII. A 1952 flood rerouted the Missouri River and the airport ended up on the Kansas side of the river. Despite that, the airport is still technically in Missouri and the city maintains access via a bridge over the river. The military maintains a presence at Rosecrans to this day. Missouri Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing operates C-130 cargo planes out of St. Joseph.
The journey so far (11.5 hours and 673 NM)
Next leg: St. Joseph to Liberty
