Breakfast Club
An Affiliate of
the Arizona
Pilots Assn
The
Knife & Fork
Breakfast Club Drops-in on Lake Havasu/Makai Café
10 Oct 12
By Warren McIlvoy
What started-out as just a Breakfast Club fly-in event to Lake Havasu
and the Makai Café has now turned into an annual event. Last year, the weather, location, and dinning
facility were such a great event, a number of folks felt that we should make
this an annual thing so, that is just what the Breakfast Club Event Committee
has done.
From Deer Valley,
it is a northwesterly course over mostly wide valleys with numerous washes and
occasional ridge lines with one exception, that being Alamo Lake State Park. You could easily make this trip at about
4500’ but I choose 6500’ mostly for the view.
The only high pile of rocks is just to the east of Lake Havasu
and that is Crossman Peak at
5100’. But by the time that you reach
that point, you are letting-down anyway for landing at HII.
I did contact Luke
Approach for the transition in the northern portion of their Alert Area and upon reaching Wickenburg, I switched-over to our “group flight following” frequency. As usual, I was about in the middle of the
pack with some folks already at Alamo
Lake. By the time that we reached Lake Havasu,
there was a lull in the traffic which I took advantage of with a mid-field
crossover for left traffic for runway 14.
After turning to the ramp from the taxi-way, the folks from Desert Skies were marshaling the
traffic to the parking spaces.
I had made prior arrangements with Desert Skies Aviation to reserve their two 8-passenger vans for our
trip into town so when all had arrived, it was just a case of filling-out the
paperwork and getting the keys. The
drive into town is about 6-miles or so with a couple of turns at the end to get
us to the “Island Mall” where the Makai
Café is located. After exiting the
vans, the group descended the stairs to the lower level of the mall that faces
the channel that flows beneath the adjacent, World famous, London Bridge.
I can think of few cities that are so defined by a single
landmark. The London Bridge
is often mistaken as the “only” bridge that London
had. Quite the contrary, our London Bridge was
one of a slew of bridges that spanned the Thames River. Our London Bridge
was slated for demolition as it was too small to handle the heavier flow of
traffic generated by the ever growing City
of London. In steps a man by the name of Robert McCulloch best known for his chain saws and Jet Ski engines. His company assisted in the dismantling of
the bridge and systematically numbered each and every stone and shipped them to
the Arizona
desert and the town that his company helped to develop, Lake Havasu, Arizona. The London Bridge
is only second to the Grand
Canyon in the number of tourist visits.
To facilitate the construction of the bridge, it was built
over dry land and, when finished, a channel was dug from Lake Havasu that was formed by the construction of Parker Dam. What was once a promontory
jutting into Lake Havasu, it now
became an island. The original Lake Havasu Airport was on that
island. I would guess that with this
famous attraction, the land on the island became too valuable to support such a
frivolous endeavor as an airport. From
the air, you can still make-out the remnants of the old airport.
I had reserved the patio seating that gave a gorgeous view
of the river channel, boat docks, and of course, the London Bridge. The “fixed in place” seating of the patio
tables do not allow for group seating but the shear scenic beauty of this
setting more than made-up for this slight inconvenience. After my breakfast of steak and eggs, I walked
around the area to get photos of this event.
After the photo op session, it back to the vans for the
return trip to the Lake Havasu
Airport. The folks at Desert Skies Aviation have always been very accommodating to our
needs and deserve some the credit in making this event possible. Their graciousness and warm hospitality is
one factor in make this event so popular.
The Lake Havasu Gang
- Warren & Jeri-Ann
McIlvoy in 93MB, BC-1 & 1.5
- Richard Azimov and Paul
Fortune in 6864Q, BC-2 & 201
- Roger
Whittier,
Barry Allen, and Iris West in 706CD, BC-122
- Larry
& Sandy Jensen in 14LJ, BC-65
- John and Nick Rynearson in 3501S, BC-117
- Trent Heidtke, BC-112
- Jim
Carter in
9586R
- Greg
Coomans,
Richard Kupiec, and Michael & Janet Piche in 669M, BC-48 & 47
What’s Next?
The November Breakfast
Club event will see us traveling south to Tucson, Ryan and Todd’s
Restaurant and in December, we will be going northwest to a fan favorite, Seligman and Lilo’s West Side Café. That
all for now but remember, fly safe.
To view photos of the Lake Havasu
event, just click on the link below.
Havasu
Photos