In the morning, I returned the airport and asked the airport manager to take my photo by a Brinkley Airport sign, but sadly he said the town council was too cheap to buy one. So he gave me a souvenir to prove I was actually there; an authentic “HENRY’S AERIAL, Brinkely, AR” hat. Nice gentleman.
I took off from Brinkley in clear skies heading west, following I-40 toward Little Rock. The air was smooth and cool – a delightful morning to fly at 1000 AGL. About 16 miles east of North Little Rock Airport, I flew directly over some fish farms. I later learned that I had flown over the world famous I.F. Anderson Fish Farms, the world’s largest producer of shiner minnows. I landed at North Little Rock Airport and my trial lawyer friend, Rick Beard III, treated me to a late breakfast at his country club and later dropped me back at the airport so I could head west. I departed Little Rock around 11 a.m. or so heading SW toward Arkadelphia Arkansas (M89). It was bumpy at 2500 but I had to go that high to clear the ridges. In about an hour, I landed in calm winds at M89. No one was home, so I took the obligatory photo, gassed up and departed.
I then headed straight west for Durant, OK (KDUA). During this leg, I noticed that Arkansas has a lot of trees with only logging roads. For safety, I flew higher than normal. Although the visibility was still great, and it was sunny, some cumulus clouds started to form and pretty soon, The Champ got wet. Off to my right, I could see the ridges of northern Arkansas that prompted a cautionary note on sectional charts “RAPIDLY RISING TERRAIN, Use Caution during periods of low ceiling and visibility.” Not to worry, the terrain was north of my flight path. We passed Lake Hugo off to our right, the rain started to abate but it was still bumpy. As I approached Durant, OK, winds were reported at 90 degrees to the runway gusting to 14 knots. Rather than tackle a gusty crosswind on an asphalt pavement, I elected to bypass Durant and continue on to Gainesville Texas where there are two runways so I’d have a better chance of landing with a small crosswind component – that’s one of the reasons I carry 24 gallons of fuel with two wing aux tanks. We flew over the southern end of Lake Texahoma and after 3 hours and 13 minutes arrived at Gainesville, TX. Landing turned out to be a piece of cake because the winds died down to 8 knots. I gassed up, had some help from the airport manager to tie down The Champ, signed up for the Gainesville Airport Courtesy Car, rented a room, ate a slab of ribs and went to bed.
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