Breakfast Club

An Affiliate of the Arizona Pilots Assn

 

 

The Knife & Fork

 

 


Breakfast Club Visits Copper Town of Kearny, Arizona

 

 

 

 

16 Feb 2013

by Warren McIlvoy

 

 

Our February Breakfast Club event saw us traveling to “copper country” and the mining town of Kearny, Arizona.  On yet another sunny and brisk (it is winter in Arizona after all), we departed Phoenix Deer Valley Airport heading east to our favorite intersection in the sky, GRINE INT.  From there, it is a straight shot along the mountains that line the western limits of the Outlaw MOA.  While under the overlying Class B airspace, I had to stay below 6,000’ until reaching the BeeLine Highway (better known as St Rt 87) where I continued my climb to just below 7,000’.  Once outside the outer ring of the Class B airspace, I could climb to our eventual cruising altitude of 7,500’. 

 

GRINE INT is just outside that ring so just about the time that we reached 7500’ we were at the intersection and starting our southeasterly turn towards Kearny.  I did hear some other Breakfast Club aircraft in the air and determined that we were not the “tail-end turtle” today.  Kearny Airport (E67) is tucked-away in a valley with mountains on three sides with the town of Kearny being just to the north of the airport.  We crossed over the ridge of the mountains that paralleled our course and continued to the south when we were just to the north of the open pit mining area.  For a cool morning the air was unusually bumpy as we approached the airport from the north.   If there is traffic in the area, our plan (in the past) has been to overfly the departure end of runway 26 and fly upwind along the south side of the runway.  We then would pass-over the approach end of 26 to enter a left downwind to land on runway eight.  Today, however, we would be the only aircraft in the pattern so I elected to make a left base entry to runway eight by skirting the foothills of the nearby mountains and turning about a ¾ mile final for eight.  Since there is no taxiway here, it is just a case of rolling out all the way to the end where you make a left turn to the ramp area. 

 

After securing our aircraft, I walked down to the east end of the hangar row where the door was open and where Roger has his mechanics business.  Roger is the person to talk to in order to reserve the “airport limo”.  He said that the keys were in it so I waved to my passengers to head towards our transportation.  I have since forgotten the make of the car but when you are in need to wheels, it makes little difference if it is a Rolls or a Yugo.  In this case, it was closer to the Yugo.  Upon start-up, the windshield wipers go through a cycle just in case it might have rained since it was last used. 

 

From the airport to the West End Café, the distance if just over a mile.  As we pulled into the parking space in front of the restaurant, Adam Rosenberg came running down the road on his way back to the airport.  I stopped him and asked him if he would take the car back to the airport as there was still one Breakfast Club airplane load that would need to get a ride to the restaurant.  When one enters the West End Cafe, you would not be overwhelmed by the ambiance of the place.  You must remember that you are in copper mining country and Spartan is the word of the day.  Other than the check-out counter, the lunch counter, and the scattered dinning table, there is little to distract you from reading the small menu.  I seriously doubt that you will ever see the West End Café written-up on Trip Adviser.  None of this is ever considered when hungry pilots converge on a dinning destination.  The menu is not overly large and the prices remind one that you are, indeed, in a small country town.

 

After a leisurely breakfast and some airplane talk, we began the shuttling of folks back to the airport.  At each end of the runway, there is a “tear-drop” loop so that 2-3 aircraft can taxi to the end of the runway.  The lead aircraft can finish its run-up and then line-up for take-off while the other two finish their business in the loop.  We departed runway 8 with a left turn to the north over town.  I headed directly towards the mountains to the west in order to get to the western side as quickly as possible to avoid the bumps that I am quite sure were more enthusiastic that they were earlier in the day.  Once on the west side of the slopes, the air was smooth enough to make the ride home a bit more enjoyable. 

 

As we neared Weaver’s Needle, I started our descent to get below 7,000’ which was the floor of the overlying Class B airspace.  I continued descending to about 4200’ to stay just above Scottsdale’s airspace while contacting Deer Valley for landing.  Kearny is not a long flight by any means but it is a fun place to have the “$300 ham and eggs” and to share “war stories”.

 

The Kearny Gang

 

  • Warren & Jeri-Ann McIlvoy and Paul Fortune in 93MB, BC-1 & 1.5 and BC-201
  • Austin Goodwin, BC-317
  • Trent Heidtke, BC-112
  • Larry Jensen and Randy Henry, BC-65
  • Tom Koche, BC-31
  • Jerry and Nancy Grout in 2862W
  • Glen Yoder and Tim Yoder , BC-007
  • Peter Lenton and Tracey Gray in 560CD
  • Richard Spiegel and Sam Foote, BC-3 and BC-53
  • Adam Rosenberg, BC-72

 

What’s Next?

 

In March, the Breakfast Club plans on heading west to Chiriaco Summit and dine at the adjoining truck stop and maybe a visit to the Gen Paton Tank Museum.  In April, we will be flying southwest to Yuma, Arizona and visit Mimi’s Café.  That’s all for now but remember, fly safe.

 

To view photos of this fly-in event, just click on Kearny Photos