Fly to the Sun! (Nationwide Event)

drwhite

drwhite

Orbiting Earth
On August 21, 2017, millions of people across the United States will see nature's most wondrous spectacle — a total eclipse of the Sun. It is a scene of unimaginable beauty; the Moon completely blocks the Sun, daytime becomes a deep twilight, and the Sun’s corona shimmers in the darkened sky. As pilots, we have a unique opportunity to be able to move quickly to an area where the viewing will be optimal. We are going to make this a nation-wide BAC event. If you fly your airplane anywhere to see the eclipse, report the miles flown (one way) for PT points. This will be an airplane only event as far as PT points are concerned as driving doesn't take you to an airport or event to meet other BAC members. To view the areas that will be in the direct path of the eclipse, check out the link below.

https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/best-places-to-view/
 
Triple Tree in SC is having an eclipse fly-in. Sounds like a great place. I may go the night before and camp. Anyone interested?
 
Was with the caretakers of triple Tree aero dome this morning at KAND Breakfast and they ha a whole weekend event planned thru Tuesday 22nd morning
I am thinking of taking Motorhome up for sat thru Monday or Tuesday
Go online and follow info or the Eclipse
Maybe should make a BAC event out of it
Fred
 
gribbled said:
I was going to go to KSTJ, or maybe somewhere a bit more east in MO

Here is a map of the eclipse path on sectional charts
http://wms.chartbundle.com/charts/tms.html?layers=000000000B00
Click to expand...

Dave, I am planning to take a NASA-geek friend on a fly-away to the NW Missouri area on the 21st. The preliminary idea is to fly to the Columbia VOR (COU) at or about 10K-ish, then fly west along the path of totality for the duration of the event or until we get bored or tired. The only airport on the red line we would actually fly over would be KSTJ, and at 10500 we wouldn't likely interfere much with any viewers on the ground.

Kind of a gee-whiz bucket list kind of trip. A 2-ship would make it even more memorable (or 3 if we can get Kyle to go along, or 4 if Denis Weiser joins too!) Would it count as a BAC meetup even if we didn't land anywhere?

CB
 
"Would it count as a BAC meetup even if we didn't land anywhere?"

Yes! We are quite liberal as we consider what is official and what is not.
Two BACers could meet in a supermarket parking lot and we would count it.

For the record, I can think of another get together that does not require a landing... our annual meet-in-the-air-event 26.2 miles west of Boston... Fly Over The Boston Marathon.

Tom Corcoran
 
CleoBen said:
Dave, I am planning to take a NASA-geek friend on a fly-away to the NW Missouri area on the 21st. The preliminary idea is to fly to the Columbia VOR (COU) at or about 10K-ish, then fly west along the path of totality for the duration of the event or until we get bored or tired.
Click to expand...
LOL Why not fly east? You could fly a good portion of the way to the Atlantic Ocean. I wonder if you'd get to log it as night?

My thought was to bring a couple lawn chairs, land at whatever small airport I can find, and enjoy it from the ground. I wonder if the view would be better from the air or the ground?
 
gribbled said:
LOL Why not fly east? You could fly a good portion of the way to the Atlantic Ocean. I wonder if you'd get to log it as night?

My thought was to bring a couple lawn chairs, land at whatever small airport I can find, and enjoy it from the ground. I wonder if the view would be better from the air or the ground?
Click to expand...

I chose westbound only because in the midwest, the blackout event will occur about 1:10 local, so heading west would provide better visibility / photos for the pax to see overhead and a bit forward of the windscreen.

Aviation news reports are indicating nearly every airfield within the eclipse map is already filling up and possibly running out of parking. That's what drove my plan to fly through it. (Nice map, by the way - I used it to create a flight plan using that sectional and approximating it in FlyQ.)

CB
 
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