Breakfast Club

An Affiliate of the Arizona Pilots Assn

 

 

The Knife & Fork

 

 


Breakfast Club Drops-in On Airport Pancake Breakfast

 

 

20 Jul 2013

By Warren McIlvoy

 

 

The July Breakfast Club event offered a little change in pace in that we flew on the 3rd Saturday as opposed to our traditional 2nd Saturday and we joined-in on a fly-in pancake breakfast at the Benson Airport (E95). 

 

Benson is along I-10 and about 40-miles or so southeast of Tucson and with that in mind, I chose to fly my “copper row” route from Deer Valley Airport in north Phoenix.  This route begins at GRINE intersection (north of Saguaro Lake) that is just outside the Phoenix Class Bravo airspace.  At 7500’, you cruise along the moderate mountain ridges that make-up the western edge of the Gila River Valley and historic copper mining towns of Superior, Kearny, and Winkelman.  A little further south, we come across another of the mining towns, San Manuel that also was the site of a large copper smelter.  To the east are the Sulphur Springs and Winchester Mountains that, more or less end just west of Wilcox.

 

 Southwestern Aviation has taken airport management to a whole new level.  Roy has been proactive in promoting the airport and aviation by sponsoring his “can’t pass gas” pancake breakfasts on the 3rd Saturday of each and every month.  And if a free breakfast isn’t enough to pique your interest, how about a fuel discount just for attending.  Roy also has “airport limos” available for trips into town that feature a 1955 Dodge Lancer.  It is not often that you get to see someone who is really enthusiastic about promoting an airport and aviation in general in this day and age. 

 

Although folks come and go as these pancake events go, I guess that there were somewhere around 35-40 people there including the Breakfast Club gang.  There were a few tables in the area of the grill where (I am guessing) that members of his family were fixen the pancakes and sausage.  There were more tables in the parking area at the bottom of the hill below the “terminal building”. 

 

Since Benson is only about an hour’s flight from the Phoenix area, I would like to see the Breakfast Club make this an annual fly-in event.  Roy is a real breath of fresh air in the aviation industry and I would like to see him succeed in his endeavor in Benson.  Great job Roy.

 

The Benson Crew

 

  • Warren & Jeri-Ann McIlvoy with Paul Fortune in 93MB, BC-1, 1.5, and BC-201
  • Glen Yoder, Rivera Santos, and Peete Duran in 31TC, BC-007
  • Austin Goodwin and Trent Heidtke, BC-317 and BC-32
  • Jim Carter and Larry Jensen in 14LJ, BC-65
  • Dewey Harnegel, Jim Little, and Rich Agoirre in 6028X

 

What’s Next?

 

 August will see the Breakfast Club make a switch in the schedule and head up to White Mountain Lakes (21AZ) and a cook-out supplied by Dr Dana Myatt and Mark Ziemann, R.N.  They have done cook-outs at several of our fly-in both at this airport and over at Taylor.  They do such an outstanding job putting on these events that we usually have a very good turn-out.  September will see the Breakfast Club spending the weekend at the south rim of the Grand Canyon with breakfast at the El Tovar Hotel.  This should be a great weekend at the Canyon.  That’s all for now but remember, fly safe.

 

To view photos of this event, just click on Benson Event