John County Executive Airport

Another in our series of bad photos taken with the cell phone from the motor scooter.

A mile and a half South of our house is Johnson County Executive Airport.  Seems like the planes are parked right with the cars.  But there is the smallest strip of grass between the parking lots.

I rode over to the corner where you pull out on to the field.  Only a sign says restricted, but there was no one to enforce it.  But you are right under the tower, so they will know if you are up to no good.  The front door of the FBO (Fixed Base Operator) opens out onto the runway ramp.

So I drove the little cycle out onto the parking ramp and took this shot across the active runway.  You can see the other FBO on the other side of the field.

If you look hard you can see the smaller airplane that has just lifted off to the South.  I didn’t have to wait long as this place is quite active.

I biked up North to the end of the runway, and out onto the tarmac again.  The building in the distance is the Helicopter operation.  There wasn’t a soul around.  Again I’ll bet the tower was watching me.  I waited for someone to land but didn’t get lucky.

So speaking of the tower, I went over and waved at them with my camera.  Again the gate was wide open.  There are bunches of hangars scattered around the field.

And since this is a controlled field, with the tower and all, I went to the South end of the runway and rode right up to the VOR transmitter.  You can see the tower in the distance on the right side.

There were locks hanging on the fence that were clearly marked FAA, but they hung on their chains with open shackles.  No one was around, and I was way too far from the tower to be seen now.

So all of this is pictured, for me to back up a post I put on the Facebook Wall yesterday where in I said that I didn’t much care to be back in the city, but that Loyce really likes it.

I received various reactions from folks, which I found interesting.  Fred Wishnie mentioned that cities were exciting, but then I remember him saying several years ago, that he was stacked up like cordwood when he was in a crammed up RV park in Southern Tucson.  So, he doesn’t like being all crammed together.

Of course, Al from the Bayfield  Bunch has a real dislike for traffic and being crammed together, so he was with me on my comment all the way.

And then Arlene, who is Leno on the RV Dreams chat room, simply said “I’m a city girl myself.”

So this airport is one of the reasons that the city life seems tight and annoying, because we have all these airplanes buzzing about 200 feet above our house, engines screaming on take off.  They start about 5:30 AM and are in full force by 6.

At night we seem to have the wind out of the South and they slide over on base, turning to final.  Their power is pulled way back then and they do not make near as much noise.  Still we have a bunch of turbo prop singles, one of which you can see in the picture of the front of the terminal building above, and they scream at any speed.

My ornery friends up in Des Moines, bought a bumper sticker for fellow Ham Radio operator Bob Evans.  It simply says, “I love airplane noise!”  He lives about 4 blocks from Des Moines International.  Good thing they don’t live down here.

Retired Rod