Herbert Hoover's House - West Branch, Iowa

An Almost Trip Out West
(7/3/2009)

     For the second year in a row, I planned a flight west to check out the sights in Iowa and Kansas. For the second year in a row, it got scrubbed. The original plan was to fly to Iowa City IA, Council Bluffs IA, Abilene KS, Atchison KS, then back to 1C5. In the end, I flew a totally different itinerary, but still had a fun trip.  I had been watching the weather for several days, so when flight services told me most of my trip was a no-go, I wasn’t surprised. Still I decided to set out, get as far as I safely could, then get an updated picture of the situation.

     The first leg of the flight was from 1C5 to Iowa City via the Davenport VOR. For this trip I wisely invested in the external antenna cable for my Garmin-196, so I had the GPS working as well. The ceiling was about 4,000 ft., but visibility was great and winds were light.  One of the runways at the airport was closed, so I was glad I had checked NOTAMs before going.

Crossing the Mississippi westbound

Iowa City Airport

   While I was checking the weather, and realizing that I would definitely not being completing the original itinerary, the man working the front desk asked if I wanted to use the crew van to run into town. I asked if it would be ok to drive to West Branch (10 miles away) to see the Herbert Hoover museum. He said that’d be fine, so I borrowed the van and set off for West Branch.
   
     The Herbert Hoover Museum was much nicer than I thought it would be. It is not a museum so much as a complex. The cottage where he was born is there as well as the original one-room school, and Quaker meeting house. There was also a reconstructed blacksmith shop like the one owned by Hoover’s father. Beyond the collection of period buildings is the Hoover Library, which featured many exhibits about his life. After checking out the place, I drove the van back to Iowa City.

Driving the Crew Van to West Branch

Herbert Hoover's Birthplace and Boyhood Home

   There was a big line of storms to the west, and I was debating staying put and waiting them out in the aviation themed hotel next to the airport. Instead, I opted for a change of plan. Brenda and the kids were in Fort Wayne, IN for the long weekend, so I decided I’d join them. Not wanting to retrace the route I'd just flown, I flew to Marshall County (C75), simply because I’d never been there before, then to Rantoul to visit the Octave Chanute Museum. It was about 45 minutes from Iowa City to Marshall County, then another hour to Rantoul.

A coal barge on the Mississippi

Approaching Rantoul, IL

     Rantoul Airport was strange because two of the four runways are closed as are most of the taxiways. The museum was a mixed bag. The planes in the indoor hangar were in great shape and there were some interesting planes you don’t see very often, but the ones outside were obviously neglected. The inside of the museum was dark and dank, a lot like…well…a closed military base.

Outside the Octave Chanute Museum

Inside the Octave Chanute Museum

   After topping off the tanks, I plotted a course to Fort Wayne, and called for (yet another) briefing. The route was via GPS until in range of the Wolf Lake VOR, then to Smith Field (SMD). With the help of a tailwind and some leaning, the GPS showed a ground speed of 112kts.

Good-bye Rantoul, IL

A windmill farm on the way to Fort Wayne, OH

    After spending the 4th of July in Fort Wayne with the family, it was time to head home. That morning there was an Airmet for IFR conditions. Cielings and visibility were low, but improving. After waiting a while for the weather to improve, I filed an IFR flight plan and got a lift to the airport. My clearance was via radar vectors to Victor-38, Victor-38 to the Peotone-VOR, then to the Joliet-VOR, and finally Clow. My assigned altitude was 4,000 ft. After slogging around in the clouds for a while, I could see that 6,000 was going to be a much smoother ride since the tops were somewhere below that. I asked ATC for, and received 6,000 ft. for my cruising altitude. This put me on top in smooth air. While cruising along Victor-38, I checked in with flight watch on 122.0 and confirmed Clow was VFR.

Breaking out at 6,000ft.

Does this get any cooler?

   Eventually near the Peotone VOR I was cleared to descend to 3,000, which was at the base of the clouds, and told to expect a visual approach. Since I could easily drop out of the clouds now into VFR, I cancelled my clearance, descended, and flew home VFR at 2,000.

   Landing back at Clow, I saw two wiener dogs being unloaded from a Cessna 182; apparently mine aren't the only ones! Total flight time had been aout 6.5 hours and the route have covered about 650 nautical miles.  Not a bad way to spend a weekend.