Wendell's Aeronca Champ Heading to Amarillo - - Page 8.

May 7, 2013:  As you can see in this photo taken at 6:26 Eastern / 5:26 Central Time, there is still plenty of daylight to get in one more flight today to put Arkansas behind the Champ.

Northwest Arkansas has plenty of mountains.  This route is north of the I-40 corridor and the Red River.  It also keeps our flyers out of the Fort Smith Class C airspace.

This is Lake Tenkiller in Oklahoma about 20 miles east of Muskogee, OK.

That is Chicken Creek Island down there on the south side of the airplane.

This is the Arkansas River flowing south at this point and it is about 5 miles from Davis Field (KMKO) where our flyers will end their day.

This view looks north at the Arkansas River and the US 62 bridge that crosses the river east of the city of Muskogee.  The river then turns west across the north side of the city.  The river flows down from Kansas.  Up there, they call it the "AR-CANS-US" River.

This telephoto picture is looking toward downtown Muskogee about 6 miles to the north of the airport.

Flying over at or above pattern altitude to see the windsock is a good way to know which runway will be used for landing.  This airport has no control tower.   All of the airports visited today have also been uncontrolled airports.

The camera has focused on the bugs on the windshield.  Runway 4 is the short runway, which is still very long for a slow airplane like the Champ.

One of the advantages of an uncontrolled airport is the guys with the powered parachutes can "hang out" around here.  These guys keep clear of the main runways as a courtesy and safety issue for normal airplanes.  The letters on the FBO are MKO for the airport official code KMKO for Muskogee, Oklahoma.  The field elevation is 611 feet above mean sea level (611 MSL).  The pilots will calibrate their altimeter to 611 feet before takeoff from this location, Davis Field.

This time, the Champ is tied down for the night and the bags come out for a ride to a nearby motel.

It took eight pages of photos to tell the story of Day 1 of a 2-day trip to Amarillo, Texas where the Champ will be delivered to the new owner.  The total mileage was 576 miles from Folks Field near Chickamauga, Georgia to Davis Field here in Muskogee, Oklahoma.  Because of the limited speed and fuel aboard from only one of two fuel tanks, each flight segment was relatively short.  The first stop at Lawrenceburg, Tennessee was only 117 miles from home.  The second leg of the trip was 134 miles to Covington, Tennessee located about 250 miles from home.  The flight to Heber Springs, Arkansas was 137 miles from the stop in Covington, which is 387 miles from home.  The short flight from Heber Springs to Clarksville, Arkansas was intended to be an overnight stay and was only 80 miles, now 467 miles from home.  With plenty of remaining daylight, the airplane was refueled and the flight to Muskogee, Oklahoma was 110 miles, to complete the 576 miles flown today. 

The first take off at Folks Field was at 9:07 AM Eastern Time.  The arrival at Davis Field in Muskogee was at 7:28 PM based on the time stamps of the photos taken with Terry's camera.  Considering the fuel stops and lunch, the average speed for the day was 55.6 MPH.  The ground speeds for the Champ according to the GPS were typically between 80 and 90 MPH in cruise flight conditions.  For comparison, my RV-9A could fly that route non-stop in about 3 hours and 40 minutes with no headwinds on about 22 gallons of fuel.  The advantage the guys had on this trip was getting to see more of the countryside flying lower than my RV-9A and meeting more folks at the airports along the way as a result of the limited fuel range of the Aeronca Champ using only one fuel tank.