The Breakfast Club
An Affiliate of the
The Knife & Fork
Breakfast Club Visits Prescott/Skyway
Restaurant
14 Aug 04
by Warren McIlvoy
"Seat of Yavapai county, west-central
But it wasn't the lure of gold or other minerals that brought the Breakfast Club to
this mile high city. Rather it was the allure of a cooler climate and a neat
airport restaurant.
This particular Saturday morning dawned with a high overcast sky that held the
likelihood that the days flying would be blessed with smooth conditions. The
weather forecast indicated ceilings at about 12,000' with widely scatter rain
showers. Under ordinary conditions where our destination was more than 200
miles away, we would seriously consider going to our alternate destination but
since
Departing
The
After landing on runway 21-left, I taxied to the transient parking area that is
to the southwest of the terminal. After shutting-down and securing my aircraft,
my wife and I began mingling with some of the other Breakfast Club folks
who had arrived before us. There were just a couple of other aircraft yet to
arrive but they were in the pattern and would soon join us in Suzzie's Skyway Café inside the
terminal building.
Suzzie's Skyway Café is probably
the quintessential airport restaurant. The place is decked-out with an aviation
motif with model airplanes dangling from every square foot of ceiling space.
The walls have aviation pictures and the decor is right out of the 50's. As a
matte of fact, the entire terminal building is a living, breathing example of
that mid 20th century decade. The restaurant is not overly large but
there is counter style seating where you enter the restaurant from the lobby of
the terminal building. That seating area is separated from the table area by a
wall that is covered with pictures of, what else, airplanes. The food is good
enough and the prices are just right for the hungry aviator that is looking for
a quick bite and some "rocket fuel" to get him on his way. Our group
took-up two long tables in the center of the room and several smaller tables
along the inner and outer walls. The north wall is a continuous window that
affords a great view of the adjacent ramp area but is a little disconcerting as
it is right in line with aircraft departing runway 21-right. Aircraft that are
slow on the climb-out are coming right at you and most people
who are watching the action, seldom take their eyes off of them until they pass
overhead.
After a leisurely breakfast meal and good old fashioned "hangar
flying", it was time to head back out to the ramp and the ride home. The
weather was still quite overcast but the temperature was very appealing so as
to delay our quick departure. I got a few pictures out on the ramp and then
prepared for the next leg of the day's flying assignment. You see, our next leg
was to take us to Show Low rather than back to the valley. Our assigned
task was to fly to Show Low and spend the night in Pinetop in
order to bring our 10-year old Granddaughter Nicole Dreos home as she
had to start school that Monday. She and her 6-year old cousin Carley Paul had spent the week up there with
their other Grandparents. We know that it would be a "tough" job but,
you know, some one had to do it.
The flight along the Mogollon Rim was very pleasant as the overcast
skies prevented the normal afternoon bumps and jostling that would be the norm
for that time of the day. We never spotted and rain shafts while enroute and light winds at Show Low favored runway
21. The Saturday night plans was to have dinner out on the deck facing the
ninth fairway on the Pinetop Lakes Country Club but the rains that started at
about 1530, wash-out that idea. Not that it was raining on the covered deck but
temperatures had dropped into the low 50's and that did not appeal to me one
bit.
Sunday morning dawned with sunny skies, cool temperatures, and no winds, all
the right ingredients for a great flight home. I had gotten an extra headset
for 6-year old Carley and I had enough
headsets for the rest of the "flight crew". My wife sat in the back
to tend to Carley and Nicole sat in
front with me as it was her "turn to fly". Nicole has flown
with us on several occasions in the past so this was no big deal. At our cruise
altitude of 8500', we were about 500' below the widely scattered cumulus clouds
that dotted the sky along our path and as expected, the air was rock smooth.
The trip was just under an hour back to
The
What's Next?
The September event for the Breakfast
Club will see us traveling north to the
Click on the Prescott
link to view photos of this fly-in event.