Breakfast Club
An Affiliate of the Arizona Pilots Assn

The Knife & Fork

Breakfast Club Blown out of Seligman, Visits Marana



13 Dec 2008
by Warren McIlvoy

To close-out our 15th year of fly-in events, the Breakfast Club was going to travel to north just a tad and visit an old favorite, Seligman, Arizona.  Lilo's West Side Café has become sort of a "cult" favorite of many of our starving aviators. But, as luck (or more appropriately, the weather gods) would have it, the winds were expected to be extremely gusty in the northern part of the state and that put a damper on those festivities. So rather than toss-in the sponge on what would otherwise be a nice flying day, the Breakfast Club opted for another old favorite, Marana (AVQ).

The majority of the Breakfast Club folks who dwell in the north part of the valley, opted to use the Phoenix Transition through the Phoenix Class B airspace via the west transition. Once we were turned loose by the controller, we promptly tuned-in our air-to-air frequency and reported-in for our group flight following. It was quickly determined that we were not exactly at the rear of the Breakfast Club gaggle, but we could see it from where we were.

The Marana CTAF was busy with the usual Saturday morning "$300 ham & eggs" folks so I chose to enter the pattern via the "cement plant" that is a common reporting point to enter the 45-degree entry into the left down-wind for runway 12. I was fortunate enough to get one of the last remaining parking spots at the far west end of the ramp. After securing our aircraft, my wife and I trekked across the ramp for Nancy's Sky Rider Café.

This little eating spot, somewhat off the beaten path, draws its share of locals but is also a large blip on the radar of most every pilot in south central Arizona. The draw here is the obvious good food at pretty good prices as well as the aviation atmosphere that dominates the scene. I seriously doubt that Marana sees a whole lot of kerosene burners so it is the small airplane guy that rules the roost here. The Breakfast Club group was scattered amongst the numerous tables around the dinning room so the various conversational topics at each table were shared by no more than about six people.

When you leave the café and head out to the ramp, you walk along paved pathways that are painted like runways with dashed lines and numbers. As we walked through the coded gate to the ramp, there was a gentleman standing there much like a greeter at Wal Mart. He said that he was part of an airport association and he had heard from the President of the Arizona Pilots Association that there were a couple of pilot groups heading his way. He said that he did not know which group was which so he inquired of us where we were from. With as glib and serious an expression akin to that of Al Capone at an income tax audit, I informed him that we heard that there was a serious lack of "terrorists" at this airport and that we were the "designated terrorists" for this region. Following a brief snicker, I stated that we were with the Breakfast Club out of the greater Phoenix area. He said that there was another group down from Prescott but was not sure who they were.

Our flight home was still fairly smooth so it seems that we were able to salvage a good flying day and enjoy to fellowship with folks who just love to fly and eat. What more could you as for?

The Marana Group


What's Next?
The Breakfast Club will inaugurate its 16th year of fly-in events in January 2009 with a fly-in to the "town to tough to die" or more familiarly known as Tombstone, Arizona and the Longhorn Café. February will see the Breakfast Club take a gamble on Globe and the Apache Gold Casino. That's all for now but remember, fly safe.

Click on Marana for some photos of this fly-in.