The Breakfast
Club
An Affiliate of the
The Knife & Fork
Breakfast Club Visits Benson, The Apple Farm
9 Feb 08
by Warren McIlvoy
As one famous philosopher once said, "the best laid
plans of mice (in this case, the BC Event Committee) and men, some times go
awry". We switched the January and February events due to the
restaurant at the Grand Canyon Inn in Valle, being closed for the
season but it was scheduled to reopen in the first week of February. Well,
guess what; It still wasn't open by the time that we
were scheduled for our February event. We tried twice to go to Valle but
for the 2nd time we were forced to scramble to determine an
alternate. Benson came to mind since we had such a great time there when
we last visited in November of 06. On that fly-in, we visited Kartchner Caverns but this event was to be
much less lavish. It would be a simple fly-in to a local eatery that was not
too far from the airport.
The accommodating people at Southwestern Aviation suggested that we go
to a place called "The Apple Farm". The folks at the FBO said
that it was not over 5-6 miles away and they would be happy to supply the
"airport limos" that would provide the transportation.
Our route to Benson would be the same as the prior visit. A straight
line course from Deer Valley to Saguaro Lake and then in a
southeasterly direction that I like to call the "Copper Trail" I call it this because the route takes you either over or
abeam a constant "string" of old copper mining towns that mark your
route of flight. Historic copper mining towns like
From the air-to-air chatter, I had determined that runway 28 at Benson was in
use. The winds were calm and after following other traffic in the left-hand
pattern for runway 28, we soon had our aircraft secured and placed our fuel order
with the line person. We only had three vehicles but we had 38-people in
attendance so that necessitated making about three trips each in order to get
everyone to the restaurant.
The Apple Farm is located on the east side of the north/south road and as you
pass under I-10, it is the 2nd building on the left. Not hard to
find even for me. The Apple Farm appears to be a favorite watering hole
for the locals as the north half of the dinning area was nearly full when we
arrived. The Breakfast Club group filled the south half save for a few small tables.
After enjoying a leisurely breakfast meal, I visited with many of the Breakfast Club
members and took some photos of some of the folks.
When everyone was ready for the return trip to the airport, we loaded-up the
vehicles and made several trips each to make sure that everybody was accounted
for. Our return route was slightly different in that when we reached the north
side of the
The Benson Gang
I wish to extend a big welcome and a salute of the Knife & Fork
to the folks from the Phoenix Pilot Group and the folks from the Sun
Lakes Aero Club.
What's Next?
The March Breakfast Club event will take us to a new destination of
Click on the Benson link to view some photos of this fly-in event.