Missouri Simulator Tour-Unionville to Tarkio
Previous leg: Bowling Green to Unionville
This weekend I finally got enough time to continue working my way around the state on the next leg of my Missouri Flight Simulator Tour. Taking off from Unionville in marginal VFR weather I had to stay below 3,500 feet to avoid some fairly nasty looking clouds. A series of stops across the northern tier of counties took me all the way to the Nebraska border and provided a very enjoyable afternoon of flying.
Today’s route (1.8 hours, 121 nm)
In addition to introducing me to several new airports, this flight also gave me a chance to use Foreflight with FSX for the first time. After a couple of frustrating hours spent setting up FSUIPC and FSXFlight I was able to link Foreflight just as easily as I do when flying in our club’s real life Cessna 172. Having Foreflight up and running was very helpful and made flight planning much smoother and more realistic.
The first stop was was Princeton, the seat of Mercer County. Mercer County is named after another Revolutionary War general, John F. Mercer. Princeton’s Kauffman Airport does not appear on current VFR sectional charts, but does show up in FSX’s airport database. Because the airport has apparently been closed in real life, it does not appear on today’s Great Circle route map. The airport was a fairly short grass strip and provided the second most challenging landing of the day. In addition to the grass runway itself, the degree of difficulty was increased by the auto generated tall trees that FSX placed right at the threshold. Because of the trees, instead of the planned touch and go, I made a full stop landing, back taxied, and then made a short field takeoff before turning west toward Bethany.
Bethany was the second stop on the journey. It is the home of early 1900’s baseball great, Charles Babe Adams, and the seat of Harrison County. The area is also fairly familiar territory for me in real life. While attending Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg, Bethany was a regular fuel stop on I-35 when I went to visit family in southwest Iowa. Today Bethany proved to be the most challenging section of the journey with fifteen minutes spent in instrument conditions. Foreflight’s moving map came in very handy during that space of time. After a touch and go at Bethany I followed US-136 straight west to Albany Municipal Airport (K19). Albany is home to the Rigby Theater, a Vaudville Era opera house, and the seat of the seat of Gentry County. At this point in the day the flying started to get easier because the weather began to change and the clouds started to break up.
Worth County is the smallest county in the state of Missouri both in terms of population and area. It also does not have a public airport, so the private grass strip at Hibbs Farm proved to be as close as I could get to Grant City, the county seat. Because it is a tiny grass strip in the middle of green fields It also proved to be the most challenging destination to find. Even with Foreflight leading the way I was directly over the airport before I was able to make out the actual runway. Once I finally figured out where the strip was I made my second short field landing of the day. After double checking the Vx speed of the Cessna 172, I made a short field takeoff and dodged the trees at the end of the field.
After Hibbs Farm, the next two stops were incredibly easy by comparison. Maryville, the seat of Nodaway County, is the home of Northwest Missouri State University. Runway 32 at the Northwest Missouri Regional Airport (KEVU) is paved, twice as long as Hibbs, and the wind was at a dead calm. It was simple to do a quick touch and go before heading toward Gould-Patterson Airport (K57) outside of Tarkio. Tarkio, the home of a former liberal arts college that closed in 1993, is looking for a new tenant for the campus. If you’ve ever wanted to have your own college, here is your opportunity. Tarkio ended up being the final destination of the day because Rock Port, the seat of Atchison County, does not have an airport of its own. Rock Port has become a leader in the wind power industry. The numerous wind farms outside of make it the first town in the county capable of generating all its own electricity needs through wind power.
The journey so far (10.1 hours, 575 nm)
After nearly two hours of flying, landing in Atchison County meant that I had finally crossed Missouri’s northernmost tier of counties and arrived at the Nebraska border. From this corner I will begin working my south and east. The next leg will provide the opportunity to explore more of the state’s northern farming region.
Next leg: Tarkio-Savannah
