Where have you been? What have you seen?
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By Rob L
#1769308
(September 2019)

Pueblo had the most beautiful old railway station, now disused









And they had their own big 4-8-4 "Northern" steam locomotive in the yard, which they hope to restore to running condition.





The museum has some interesting internal exhibits, including this Bicentennial diesel-electric loco.



And these little self-propelled service cars. I know they look like toys, but they were the real thing!





The next day, we planned to depart Pueblo north-east bound back towards Jim's home in Iowa, but not before some local military dropped in on a training exercise, so we waited for them.





After departing Pueblo, NE bound, we were definitely in the dry rain shadow of the Rockies. They have little precipitation here, so the ground is generally scrub for a few hundred miles. I get another chance to have a bit of low-level legal fun.







Rob
Paul_Sengupta, Moli liked this
User avatar
By Rob L
#1769311
Our next overnight is a Jim-pre-planned chosen stop at Kit Carson field (KITR) on the eastern border of Colorado, just shy of Kansas. We were welcomed by the airport Manager whom through Jim's planning was allowing us to camp in the airport lobby.



Whilst we were out having dinner with a local pilot, the airport manager, off-duty and in a private capacity, took a very stunning photo of our three Taylorcraft on the ramp; he was kind enough to allow publication. This is now my PC desktop background!


(above image (c)copyright Dan Malia reproduced with permission)
Thanks Dan for your hospitality and your lovely photo!

Our prepenultimate stop was in KODX in Nebraska, better known as Evelyn Sharp Field. She was from Ord here in Nebraska, and amoung the first US female airmail pilots, and at the age of 20, she was one of only ten female flight instructors in the United States. She died in a P-38 ferry-flight crash in 1944 aged 24 under suspicious circumstances; there is some suggestion that her P-38 was sabotaged because others didn't believe women should be flying. No evidence proved this.

It was quite poignant.







Our reason to stop there was Jim has relatives who breed seed popcorn in that area, and 40% of the world's popcorn growers buy their seed from here.

I wrote the popcorn story in this Flyer post (and it was an education for me!)

From ODX it was familiar flying territory home (albeit another 6.5 hours across the praries for my and Mike's return to Dacy Airport). I did more hooligan flying, but I can't publish that.

All in all, 34 hours at 4 USG/Hr with ten new airfields in my logbook. No new States this time (I've done all the lower 48 already, and I'm not aiming for the other two).

I met a lot of new friends; visited great aviation museums and I revisited an old haunt from when I was in my early 20's.
All three of us: Jim, Mike & I, got a little bit of training on the way! :eye:



My next USA Taylorcraft trip report will be about why you should always tie your aircraft down, from April 2019