Breakfast Club
An Affiliate of the
The Knife &
Fork
Breakfast Club Dives Into Eloy, Dines at
The Bent Prop Café
11 Aug 2012
by
The last time that the Breakfast Club visited Eloy and the Bent Prop Café, and I am guessing that it was somewhere around 10-15 years ago, the dinning facility at that time was little more than a trailer that offered breakfast burritos that were served through a walk-up window with maybe 4 or 5 round tables. Well, all of that has changed. I have been there a couple of times during the absence of a formal visit by the Breakfast Club with another person. Because of these changes, Eloy warranted another visit by our group.
From
For those not familiar with this little burg, Eloy is the sky-diving capital of the World and that is in the literal sense. World records have been set here by groups from all over the World. There is almost a cult following here as evidenced by the many mobile homes that dot the property. The twin Otters that serve as launch platforms never shutdown their engines as they take on another group of avid sky divers. They do observe a modicum of decorum when it comes time for itinerant aircraft to use the runway but we observed that they took-off on 02 and landed on 02. When flying in the area, it is wise to give this airport a wide berth to avoid any unpleasant meet-ups with errant sky divers.
This sky diving community has many of the amenities of a small town. They have their own bar, convenience store, picnic area, swimming pool, and what could best be described and a “ceremonial” field, and of course, the Bent Prop Cafe. There is also a sky diving simulator just a bit south of the landing area for the sky divers. From a short distance away, it appears like two huge chimneys. I have seen this facility in action on the television with people doing acrobatic moves while being suspended by the column of air that is being generated by what are likely very large fans. This facility allow the divers to practice their moves without the cost of being towed aloft by aircraft.
Today, what little wind that there was, favored runway 20
and after making the mid-field turnoff, I taxied directly to the fuel pump to
top-off with some of the “cheapest” av-gas in the
area. After fueling-up, I taxied down
the ramp to park where the rest of the Breakfast Club gang was parking. After everyone had arrived, we started the
hike to the Bent Prop and early on
in our hike
The breakfast menu is not overly large but adequate but it is a bit ironic that we ended-up ordering the breakfast burrito as it was highly endorsed by a number of people and, indeed, it was quite tasty.
After breakfast, the group walked-over to the sky diving shack and the landing field that consisted of a large grassy field (maybe and acre) to observe the sky divers as they glided down to very smooth landings. There were a few tandem teams of what was most likely their first sky diving experience. There were a few groups where all of sky divers were wearing the same color uniforms, an obvious sign that they were all from the same sky diving club.
After watching all those folks who harbor a death wish, it
was time to get back to some semblance of sanity and get back into our own
aircraft that we have no wish to depart from while it is still above the
ground. Our return trip was much the
same as the inbound leg with the exception that we had to use the east corridor
to get back on the north side of the
The Eloy Gang
What’s Next?
Our September Breakfast Club event will be our 2nd
planned over-night fly-in to Cortez, CO
and a tour of Mesa Verde National Park. This is a new destination with
doing the leg work on this one. Our October event will see a repeat of a very
popular fly-in to
To view photos of this Eloy fly-in, just click on the link below.