August 13, 2022 - Mifflin County, Penn Cave
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This Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day: blue skies, great visibility, light winds, smooth air, even a little cool in the morning. Very unusual for August in Maryland.
The plan for today was to have breakfast at Mifflin County Airport's monthly fly-iu breakfast, followed by a short hop to Penn Cave airport, and tour an underground cave in a boat. I had wanted to do this flight a month ago but in contrast to today, the weather that day was horrible flying weather.
We had four planes today: Chuck in his RV-7A, Paul in his SuperCub, and Ed in his Varga, pictured below.
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This picture of Baltimore shows the exceptional visibility today.
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Mifflin County Airport is 100 nm almost due north. Almost in the center of Pennsylvania. We passed by York and Carlisle on the way there.
Paul had taken off earlier in his SuperCub. The two RVs flew wing off the Varga which did a respectable 125 mph or so.
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Cruising north.
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| Approaching the series of ridges that run east-west in central Pennsylvania. |
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| A river, highway and railroad runbetween two ridges. |
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| Skimming over one last ridge with Mifflin County on the other side. |
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Mifflin County Airport dead ahead!
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| Lots of planes and cars down there. The fly-in breakfast is on. |
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Turning final. The Varga is visible just over the threshold.
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| Parked on the grass next to the taxiway. |
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| Ed and his Varga. |
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| This airport has lots of grass area to park on. |
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Just like last year, a long line to stand in. We probably stood in line for over 30 minutes. It was worth the wait, though.
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| Getting close. There are quite a few EAA Chapter 518 volunteers cooking the food back there. |
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The breakfast was over the top. An omelet, bacon, sausage, even scrapple, pancakes, and two items I don't even know what they were but they were delicious. Plus juice and coffee of course. All for $10. You'd pay $20 for all this at a restaurant and it wouldn't be half as good. No wonder this fly-in breakfast draws such a large crowd.
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| The breakfast runs from 8am to 10:30. We arrived around 9:30, so by the time we finished eating, many planes had already bugged out. |
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| That grassy area to the left was full of planes when we arrived. |
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| Paul's stealth SuperCub blends in with the terrain. |
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A beautiful open cockpit FlyBaby getting hand-propped. This plane was built from plans and completed in 2019.
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Soybeans? With a couple of rogue corn stalks that have infiltrated.
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| Another look at our planes. |
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| Nice Tail Art! |
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| The Varga was a late 50s design but this particular aircraft was built in 1981. It has an O-360 engine (180hp). |
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This Sonerai taxied by while I was fueling my RV. It's an unusual looking plane with the oversized cockpit compared to the small fuselage, a tiny empennage, and short stubby gear.
The Sonerai was designed by John Monnett. It is built from plans and has a V@ engine. The Sonerai began to compete in air racing as a single-seat, mid-wing, tailwheel Formula-V racer class formed in 1972. John Monnett came up with the name Sonerai from a combination of the words Sonic and Cosmic-Ray.
A guy in my EAA Chapter named Brian Dempsey built a Sonerai I that set a world record. The C-1a/0 (Landplanes: takeoff weight less than 300 kg) Speed over a straight 15/25 km course of 292.15 km/h (181.53 mph / 157.74 kts) on February 19, 1989. Dempsey's record stood for 20 years.
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| Looking back at Mifflin County airport after takeoff. |
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Our next destination, Penn Cave Airport (N74), was only 13 nm to the north.
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| The airport is at far right. Obviously the Cave attractrion is at center left, with all the cars int he parking lot. |
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| Looking down at Penn Cave airport. Ed and Paul have already landed. |
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| Looking at the attraction. I guess the cave is under that big hill. |
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Looking east with the airport on the left and the attraction at center.
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The landing was a little more challenging than usual, with a drop-off in front of the runway threshold, and a slight downhill slope when landing to the west, as we did. But we made it, no problem.
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Not much activity at this airport. No facilities.
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| The Cave attraction was about a half-mile walk. They also have a wildlife preserve. We have expected a big Leopard to jump at us against this fence. |
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| Passing by a herd of Buffalo. |
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| We made it! This attraction has been around for awhile. This Penn Cave Hotel was built in 1885. Overnight guests were accomodated until 1919, and meals were served until 1929. The most famous guest was Alexander Graham Bell. You know, the Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885. I wonder what he would think of the smartphone? |
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Heading to the visitors center at left.
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The visitors center was crowded. We made our way to the ticket purchase area, only to be told it would be four hours before we could get on a boat for the cave tour! Whoops! I don't think so. The cave tour is going to have to be some other day.
Paul checking out the bear in the gift shop.
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Big Panther.
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| Back at Penn Cave airport. Left to right: Paul, Ed, Chuck. |
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| Painted hangar. Per AirNav, Penn Cave is a privately-owned airport open to the public. Only one plane is based here. |
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Heading home. Chuck and I climbed up high and zoomed.
Approaching populated Hunt Valley which points like an arrow south to Baltimore.
The big golf course at lower left is Haysfields Country Club which is a family run, private country club. It has an interesting history. It once was a farm belonging to John M. Franklin. Franklin graduated from Harvard in 1918, volunteered for the Army and fought in World War I as an officer in a tank battalion on the western front (I wonder how many Harvard graduates would volunteer to go fight a war for their country now?), was President of United States Lines shipping company, and was a Brigadier General in World War II serving in the Transportation Corps. He died in 1975.
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Heading for the Back River, the aerial highway to Essex Skypark.
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Looking north at the big Interstate 95 and 695 (Baltimore Beltway) junction.
Although we didn't get to do the cave tour, it was still a fun aviation day.
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