Pell City Alabama March 31 Lunch

T

TomKinstler

Initial Climb
Just what my nose-heavy Sundowner needs is more weight in the front seat. Nevertheless, the restaurant at the Pell City Airport (KPLR) usually has a lot of planes fly in for lunch on Saturdays and Sundays. The many times I've been there, the hamburgers, etc. have been good, and I expect that the rest of the menu is good also.

"Sammy's Touch and Go" is a log building at the north end of the runway (far end from the FBO) with grass parking right off the taxiway, and in front of the restaurant.

let's do lunch on March 31???

Tom Kinstler
Springville, AL
N9290$
 
Tom, I just stuck this into the BAC Calendar, as there was still time. Being scheduled will qualify your Fly-In for President's Trophy points.

I'll try to make it; it's only a couple of hundred miles from 34A. Maybe Monty and Jim Spencer can make it in the Sundowner. Maybe Trae McElwaney can make it in his nice Super.

Monty and I are planning to attend Bill Heybruck's annual Wilgrove event on the 24th, but no reason I know of why I can't fly two weekends in a row!
 
Further Details on Pell City Alabama Lunch March 31

Previous post re TFR near KPLR is quite correct, in fact there is both a TFR, and restricted areas northeast of the airport.

R-2102A, B, C and R-2101 (Anniston Army Depot) are roughly centered about 10 NM north-northeast of the Tallageda VOR (108.8), which is the source of the VOR (or GPS)-A approach into KLPR. The airport is 10.4 NM DME west of the TDG VOR on the 263 radial. So pilots approaching KPLR from the northeast need to be aware of the Restricted areas and TFR. They are not always active, but R-2102 goes from the ground to 24,000. R-2101 is from the ground to 5000, and is really redundant because it is completely within the TFR.

The TFR is SFC-5,000 AGL, and overlaps roughly the southern half of the restricted areas.

Note that in good weather, there is a lot of sky diving at the airport but they are very vocal on the CTAF freq, 123.05. They land (or whatever you call a parachute arrival) beyond (to the south of) the grass parking area in front of the restaurant.

Flying over TDG VOR gives a good view of the Talladega Racetrack

All the info on the airport can be seen at:

http://www.airnav.com/airport/KPLR

If you look at the picture of the runway on that Airnav website, that picture is looking south down runway 20. In the foreground, just to the left of the threshold of runway 20 there is a line of hangars, and just above them in the picture is a building with a lot of grass parking area. That building is Sammies, and the parking area is right in front of the restaurant. You'll probably see a number of airplanes there, at least my airplane will be there. You can access the grass area by the paved taxiway that leads up to the hangars and restaurant, or there is also access from some points along the taxiway that parallels the runway. I have taxied to Sammies directly from the parallel taxiway, but if you have any question about access, the paved taxiway from the runway threshold is the surest and safest route to the parking area. The FBO is at the far end of the picture, the south end of the airport. Not sure whether they'll come and fuel by truck, or whether you have to taxi down to the FBO.

Restaurant reviews can be seen at:

http://www.airnav.com/airport/KPLR/SAMMIES_TOUCH_N_GO#c

The hamburger is called a "Breezie burger" after the homebuilt which you have probably seen. Sammie, the guy who started the restaurant, built one and flew it for a while, and unfortunately met an untimely end in it, but the restaurant continues on, and has a pretty good following.

Just to make sure, remember that KPLR is in the central time zone.

I'll be at Sammies no later than 12:00 CT, and hopefully well before then.

Hope to see many BAC members

Tom K
 
Don't know why the TDG VOR Freq of 108.8 wound up with a smiley face b/c I think I typed in the last digit.

The TFR is for the disposal site where old rockets w/ nerve gas are being destroyed (incinerated). Latest local news reports are that there are no more left, so can't explain why the TFR is still there for transport of the hazardous materials. The nerve gas was stored in bunkers under the TFR, and you can imagine the outcry when the Army decided to build the incinerator there.

Hope see you at Sammies

Tom K
N9290$
 
Two BAC A/C made it to Pell City, my Sundowner N9290S, and Ron Montgomery in Sierra N6044D from the Pensacola area. Food was good as well as discussion of other possible fly-in sites in SE region.
 
What was the weather like, Tom? From our direction it looked like it was going to be IFR once we got past Atlanta yesterday. The official briefing was pretty discouraging for an elective fun flight; including strong headwinds and turbulence.

We have hed enough of that for a while, after the Louisville flight a few weeks ago. That one included having to land in a 30-knot crosswind (as reported by the Tower on final). We got slammed around good, both coming and going, at altitudes all the way upi to 12,000 feet. I wasn't up to another 4 hours of that yesterday.
 
Mike

Wx was 1300 OVC @ GAD before I went to the airport to get my A/C. Birmingham and Anniston were clear and 10 miles vis. I filed IFR just to get through the thin overcast, but by the time I was fired up, the clouds were breaking up and so I went VFR, just had to drive around a few clouds here and there. Winds at altitude were generally from the south, maybe 15 - 20 Kts, lower later in the day. Pell City was VFR, w/ general Saturday morning traffic. Rest of the day was scattered to broken but certainly VFR. Surface winds at Pell City were pretty much down the runway. No real bumps although I wasn't going over the mountains north of Atlanta.

At Sammies, had a number of Vans RVs, our two A/C, an Aztec, 182, 172, Yak 52, Cirrus SR20, AT-6, Cardinal - typical lunch crowd on Saturday there. Good for airplane watching.

Hamburgers required two hands as usual. Had a good time, we ought to try it again some time

Tom K
 
10-4. Sounds like we should have tried it. We just got beaten up pretty badly with the last two westbound trips over the mountains, when the winds were reported that high. And the DUAT briefing was predicting low IFR around our arrival time. I just wasn't thrilled with going through all that for a same-day turnaround. But I'm not nprmally that wimpy, either. Of course, Monty (and his plane) are really still VFR at this stage. As you say, hopefully next time it will look more promising.
 
Tom,

Glad ya'll had a fun lunch. Sorry I didn't make it. My newly repaired landing gear motor is being installed this week. Will hopefully get 30 years out of these new brushes. :)

Doug
 
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