M. Wynn: "Wild Card" Aviation Photography & Images: 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.