M. Wynn: "Wild Card" Aviation Photography & Images: Gallery Update: Breakfast and Spotting

About This Blog:

The primary purpose of this blog is to showcase the best of my aviation photography. As such, you will find links to my main aviation gallery on Facebook containing photos from aircraft spotting, some kind of aviation event such as air shows and fly-in events, as well as aviation museums. I also critique my flights on commercial airlines and the services they provide. Occassionally, you'll find personally written, independent articles based on news and current events involving aviation. And of course, I'll put up links to official and unofficial aviation-related websites when I find them. And when time permits, I'll talk and discuss about anything involving aviation. But most importantly, this is my way to document my journey into the aviation industry!

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Gallery Update: Breakfast and Spotting

This morning, my dad, uncle, and I took a little drive to a small town just west of Salem called Independence to have breakfast at a restaurant called the Starduster Cafe located at the Independence State Airport. Need I say more? The restaurant is what you call spotter friendly and as such, serves as a local gathering place for pilots flying in to get a bite to eat and whatnot. Independence State Airport is also an airpark, meaning there's community neighborhood with houses with hangars. Pretty sweet deal to have a home where you can taxi and hangar your airplane into! Makes a guy dream... Anyways, the Starduster Cafe has an outdoor deck with tables and I got some spotting in while we stuffed our faces. After breakfast, we walked around the ramp to get a closer look at some of the planes and there were quite a few unique things there. I'll let the pictures in the photo gallery do the talking!

Independence (7S5) 1

Photo preview:

Rand Robinson KR-2 (N5391M) taxiing.

Old-style, retro-looking Cessna 182A Skylane (N5192D) departing on 34.

Glasair GlaStar GS-1 (N9TZ) getting started up.

Beechcraft K35 V-tail Bonanza (N954DR) taxiing into the ramp. V-tail Bonanzas has a special place in the heart of our family members because my grandfather owned two V-tailed Bonanzas.

Van's RV-9A (N954RC) with a cool paint scheme on the verticle stabilizer taxiing for departure. I'm starting really have a thing with Van's RVs because I look at them as "wildcards" due to the many paint jobs they seem to have.

Fournier RF-5B Sperber (N55SM) motorglider parked on the ramp. Seeing this is a first for me!

Piper PA-46-350P Malibu Mirage (N345MM) taxiing for departure. Note the radar pod under the wing.

Locally-based GlaStar (N50RJ) rolling for take-off. I saw this one at Warbirds Over the West in Salem a few weeks back. This may be the prototype because the serial number for this airframe (according to the FAA) is 1.