AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2012 - 79

above Earth
for that somewhere in the town. A few longtime residents still speak boontling. Telluride Regional Airport, Colorado, sells high-quality T-shirts and sweatshirts (that means I own some) that read, “Some Fly at 9,078 Feet; We Land.” All the sweatshirts and T-shirts had to be changed to, “Some Fly at 9,070 Feet” after the airport was reshaped to eliminate the bowl at the center of the runway, dropping the airport elevation by eight feet. Beneath the phrase, “We Land,” is this: “Highest Commercial Airport in the U.S.A.” Also still offered is a poster that reads, “The Best Pilots Land in Telluride,” because landing there when the runway was bowl-shaped took skills. Even with improvements, you are still landing on a mountain runway with steep drop-offs at both ends. Pilots at Fort Myers, Florida, wear homemade but highly professional-looking T-shirts that proclaim, “Buckingham Air Park, Fort Myers, Florida; A Quaint Little Drinking Community with a Flying Problem.” The airpark shares a runway with a mosquito control operation. I beat the widow maker Survival was the game for military student pilots shooting the ILS approach to Runway 21 at Roswell International Air Center at Roswell, New Mexico. When the student made it, there was a reward, a T-shirt from Great Southwest Aviation that reads, “I Beat the Widow Maker,” with a copy of the approach on the back. It is

a monstrosity of an approach starting at 15,000 feet and diving 11,000 feet, all the time intercepting and then following a DME arc. If traffic is backed up, you’ll start the approach from a holding pattern at 15,000 feet above the outer marker. The military students drop by less often, and civilian pilots almost never fly it, but the shirt survives. Frogs play a prominent role at Beaufort County Airport, in Beaufort, South Carolina, and on the T-shirt that is offered. There was once a post office called Frogmore near the airport that used a picture of a frog as its cancellation stamp. In 1995, the financial state of the airport was terrible, and to save the airport, a T-shirt was created showing a frog sitting on a biplane. It proved popular and did what was hoped. You can still buy the T-shirt featuring the name, Frogmore Intranational Airport. More or less as a joke, it once had the nickname Frogmore International Airport, but the owner was uneasy about it—he didn’t have U.S. Customs service. He declared that day it would be known as Frogmore Intranational Airport, so that pilots would be curious about it and maybe drop by and buy fuel. The shirt features a green frog sitting on a biplane and wearing a red scarf with the notation: “Frogmore Intranational Airport; Just a Hop, Skip, and Jump From Anywhere.” Share your favorite airport and FBO experiences on Al Marsh’s blog (http://blog. aopa.org/blog).

and let you build the total over time until you qualify for the really neat stuff. They have to sign the receipt, so make sure to follow the rules. Here’s the way it works. Each gallon equals a point. When you have 200 points, you get two steaks or one bottle of wine, selected from among a few different labels. If you have a light sport aircraft, you’ll need to fly off 20 to 40 hours of fuel to get those steaks and wine. Or you can let the points accumulate to a total of 500 and get a $50 gift certificate at any Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, or Best Buy. The program has been in effect many years. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania There are two airports at Harrisburg, relatively close together and neither is far from the chocolate capital of America, Hershey, Pennsylvania. So if it’s Hershey bars you crave, be sure to get the right airport. We are talking here about CXY, Capitol City Airport (the smaller of the two), not Harrisburg International (MDT). You’ll find a choice of either dark chocolate or milk chocolate, and this offer is open to everyone who lands there. You don’t even need to buy gas, although it is of course appreciated. There’s a touch of controversy with this one. One pilot said he has landed there often and so far, not one Hershey
AOPA PILOT • 79 • JANUARY 2012

so special that pilots tear up their diet right at the counter. They are made by the personnel working the desk. Just to emphasize, these are not cookies in the bag, they are scratch-built. Even smallaircraft pilots qualify for the cookies. Gulf Shores, Alabama A little bit of everything from the world of freebies comes flying across the counter at Gulf Air Center located at Jack Edwards Airport in Gulf Shores, Alabama. You have military pilots to thank. In order to entice military fuel contracts, Gulf Air Center turned the old terminal building into a pilot lounge called Jack’s Aces with a skull-and-wings logo. For a 100-gallon purchase, you

can choose from among T-shirts, hats, a 24-ounce glass mug, or a cooler. If you buy 50 gallons, you are directed to an area with water bottles, plastic glasses, key chains, playing cards, bottle openers, and stickers. OK, you didn’t buy 100 or 50 gallons. Guess you’ll just have to hang out at Jack’s Aces with WiFi, an Xbox, theater seating, and often hot food. Darn. If there is no food, you might want to try Lulu’s restaurant. Charleston, West Virginia This is the place where pilots of smaller aircraft can play the mooching game, too, even though their aircraft don’t have big fuel tanks. The Executive Air Terminal will total your fuel purchases

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2012