Gene Snyder (K62)

Last thursday (April 27th), I flew down to Gene Snyder (K62) with the senior member of my flying club, Ed. He was visiting some family in the Butler, KY and needed a co-pilot for the flight. Hey, X-country practice time for free? You betcha! This was a welcome opportunity, because my XC to MFD was canceled on Tuesday due to bad weather. I reviewed all the course planning information with my instructor and then laid out two courses to K62, approximately 160nm away. I had to plan one course through the Brush Creek and Buckeye MOA, and an alternate around the MOA to the northwest. We would find out if the MOA was "hot" from Columbus approach in the air. Thursday morning came, and the weather was fabulous! Winds calm @ 1400Z pretty much across the state of Ohio. The prevailing winds at 5000 and 6000ft were forecasted to be heading west, which would be perfect for the flight back.
After leaving I40 and climbing to 6500ft, we flew over one of my favorite places in my part of the world. Dawes Arboretum, a 1150 acre preserve of hundreds of rare and indigenous trees and plants, about 5 miles south of Newark, Ohio, is an absolutely wonderful place to spend an afternoon. The photo here shows part of the 2000ft hedge that spells out "DAWES ARBORETUM" in huge letters, convenienty visible from the air:). Continuing on our flight, we flew down to Circleville (CYO) where CMH approach informed us that the MOA was active, and that we should plan to fly around. I dialed in Fayette County (I23) into the Garmin 430, and we headed due west towards Washington Courthouse and Wilmington Airpark. During our flight by Wilmington (KILN), we viewed a DHL 727 taking off, and another DHL 727 and 767 on final approach and landing. For a small town boy like myself, it's really exciting to see some heavy(ier) metal than the Cessnas and Pipers that I am used to spotting in the skies. We headed closer to CVG airspace and overflew Clermont County (I69), home of Sporty's, where we saw quite a lot of GA traffic on this clear and sunny day. A few minutes later, we crossed the Ohio River, just over the dam and locks near Neville. Once on the ground at Snyder, we toured the various hangars and met with a Comair pilot who was testing the new smoke system in his Christen Eagle. Ed's nephew showed us around his 1967 Piper Aztec, which was termed "the mother ship" when he siphoned gas on occasion to transient pilots before they got their 24-hr credit-card operated pump. He also sits on the airport board, and it was fun to hear about his plans for the future expansion of the airport. Good luck, Dan! Hopefully, I'll be back soon to get a ride in one of those Christen Eagles!