A Little Piece of Heaven

 Once in awhile you run across a place that has just about everything you always wanted a place to have. Last weekend Leo and I flew the CallAir Cadet from our mountain home to another tranquil place about 70 miles west as the crow flies. The views of the mountains was wonderful, no wind, smooth all the way and the Mighty Continental (Powerful as the Nation) pulled us along at a stately 100 mph or so.

There was quite a bit of fog in the valleys between here and there (1A5 was reporting indef 200 and 1/4 mile) so we detoured to the south, beyond the mountain ridges, so we wouldn't be caught "on top" .. just in case.

The place we visited is called Tusquittee Landing (NC08), a private air park with homes and a community area. Brian took a picture looking east when he flew over it to scope it out:

It's a little piece of paradise at slightly over 2,000' msl with a 2,700 foot runway that is smooth as a pool table. Brian drew in their right traffic pattern for runway 28 in red .. Leo and I flew a straight-in approach from the east down a beautiful valley.

From their windsock, this is looking east at the terrain leading to runway 28. The nearby hills aren't at all intimidating, at least when there's no wind to negotiate.

The community area might have room for another hangar. Everyone we met was super friendly and we enjoyed our visit and BYO sandwiches .. much like 8NC9's Wednesday lunches.

The homes at midfield and toward the west end feature their own hangars .. aircraft ownership is required. That's a good thing as so many airport communities lose their way in this regard, leading to the hangars being turned into storage buildings.

Looking west you can see the broad expanse of runway and grass that allows for quite a comfortable, open, air park. Mr. William T. Piper of Piper Aircraft envisioned a country full of places like this in the 1940s and 50s and went all over speaking to private groups and municipalities promoting the idea. 

**NOTE** Tusquittee Landing is a private field and prior permission is required. Please check in with them at https://tusquitteeflyers.org/ BEFORE visiting!

The trip home, winding our way between mountain peaks, included a fuel stop at Franklin's Macon County Airport (1A5) where we filled up with 6.9 gallons of their finest 100LL AVGAS. My fuel consumption with proper lean mixture averages out to 5 gallons per hour .. pretty good for a 90hp engine.

All in all, a grand day to be out flying, best spent with good friends, old and new.