...and as of today I've landed at all of them.
I decided to start this project a few months after I got my private. I needed to fly to keep my proficiency up, but was bored just flying around my local area. I figured it'd be a good way to see the state and experience a variety of different sizes and layouts of airports. I've had the last two hanging out there for more than a year. I've found enough to do between trips, lunch meets, training, and Lifeline flights that I didn't get around to it. Decided today was the day, so I took the rent-a-wreck Cessna to the NW corner of the state and hit 3G8 and 3H5.
It's been a lot of fun seeing all corners of the state. My one regret is that I didn't take photos of every airport and maybe keep a journal. I think it might be worthy of a book if a guy had good enough photography skills. A number of them were just touch and goes, so stopping and taking a picture would've added many hours to the project. I often would take half a day and go hit five that were relatively close together.
Unsurprisingly, ORD was the most memorable. I (somewhat foolishly) flew in there in April of 2020 when the numbers were way down from COVID with about 120 hours in my logbook. My second favorite trip was to Cairo & Metropolis. The confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi, the barge traffic, and the old city were cool to see, and I spent a couple hours flying the rivers. MDW was another fun one that was accomplished as part of my IFR long XC.
Surprisingly, the big airports I assumed would be hard to do wound up falling into place quite easily. The grass strips were harder to get because it took the right combination of nice weather for a few days, a rented (slow) airplane, and free time. They also generally tended to be the shortest an most challenging. Nothing is harder than taxiing around ORD though lol.
Here's a selection of the photos I WAS able to find:
First solo landing ever...KCMI
KGBG Galesburg
KORD
KBMI (Bloomington)...not my first trip there, but a memorable one
KMTO (Mattoon)...John's first airplane ride
Percival Springs....2T2 (south of Effingham)
KMDW
1C5 Bolingbrook
KSPI (Springfield) Instrument checkride
I decided to start this project a few months after I got my private. I needed to fly to keep my proficiency up, but was bored just flying around my local area. I figured it'd be a good way to see the state and experience a variety of different sizes and layouts of airports. I've had the last two hanging out there for more than a year. I've found enough to do between trips, lunch meets, training, and Lifeline flights that I didn't get around to it. Decided today was the day, so I took the rent-a-wreck Cessna to the NW corner of the state and hit 3G8 and 3H5.
It's been a lot of fun seeing all corners of the state. My one regret is that I didn't take photos of every airport and maybe keep a journal. I think it might be worthy of a book if a guy had good enough photography skills. A number of them were just touch and goes, so stopping and taking a picture would've added many hours to the project. I often would take half a day and go hit five that were relatively close together.
Unsurprisingly, ORD was the most memorable. I (somewhat foolishly) flew in there in April of 2020 when the numbers were way down from COVID with about 120 hours in my logbook. My second favorite trip was to Cairo & Metropolis. The confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi, the barge traffic, and the old city were cool to see, and I spent a couple hours flying the rivers. MDW was another fun one that was accomplished as part of my IFR long XC.
Surprisingly, the big airports I assumed would be hard to do wound up falling into place quite easily. The grass strips were harder to get because it took the right combination of nice weather for a few days, a rented (slow) airplane, and free time. They also generally tended to be the shortest an most challenging. Nothing is harder than taxiing around ORD though lol.
Here's a selection of the photos I WAS able to find:
First solo landing ever...KCMI
KGBG Galesburg
KORD
KBMI (Bloomington)...not my first trip there, but a memorable one
KMTO (Mattoon)...John's first airplane ride
Percival Springs....2T2 (south of Effingham)
KMDW
1C5 Bolingbrook
KSPI (Springfield) Instrument checkride
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