06/06/2026
In 56 years of flying I’ve come to realize a few absolute truths set in stone. First, unless all you plan to do is fly in the vicinity of your home airport on a perfect day you will quickly realize that flying is incredibly unpredictable. I have only 3 rules I live by in aviation. 1. I don’t want to die. 2. I always have an out and 3. I leave myself margin. To me that’s the beauty of it. I’ve lost track in my personal and commercial trips how many times I’ve been forced down by weather,mechanical issues,etc. I’ve been rescued by the Marines once,Arkansas park rangers twice, not to mention all the interactions with locals in small towns around the country. Today was another one,but pretty cool. I was returning this morning from competing in the Harold E. Neumann aerobatic contest in Ottawa, KS. I came in second by the way which was disappointing,but I digress. I wanted to get out of there before I got trapped in the thunderstorms forecast for this afternoon. At the time of departure there were 2 areas of convective activity on either side of a line from Ottawa to PNC to GOK.My goal was to reach PNC which was MVFR and then decide from there . I figured lunch at Enrique’s wasn’t a bad place to wait out the weather before the final leg. Well, about 30 miles north of Ponca traversing the plains of Kansas dodging windmills I decided Strother field in Winfield looked better. Ponca just went IFR, so here I go. I landed at WLD which was abandoned of course, not a soul in sight. I promptly hit the door code , called my wife and decided my next plan of action. It’s only 17 minutes to Ponca which was IFR but not crazy bad at the moment. Hop in the airplane and off I go. Well, after about 10 minutes in the air 800 broken and 10 became 400-700. Hmmm. Then I realized something most people don’t notice about PNC. It’s class E airspace there , not class G. If it’s IFR and non towered you need a special VFR clearance from center to land. So, hello Kansas City, who heard me but I was too low for radar. Since I’m a fabric covered airplane, I’m basically stealth in regards to primary targeting. They have a process for identifying you by doing a series of turns if there’s no transponder. That’s old-school but it does happen but he told me since he couldn’t see me he couldn’t give me a clearance. I said thank you and now it’s time for some ADM. Back to Winfield I go for my most common habit in this situation. Land, get an Uber and head to the nearest local Mexican restaurant and regroup. There is just something about chips and salsa that centers you. Once again I digress. Believe it or not, Nathan from Uber was on his lunch break and picked me up and took me to El Maguey about 3 miles away. Beautiful. Once I finished my delicious chimichanga and chips and salsa it’s time to pay the check and get my Uber back to Spinderella for the last leg home. In 30 minutes the weather cleared dramatically,so here I go. I punched the destination in for my ride and………
Nothing……. Crickets……. After about 10 minutes I realized that good ol’ Nathan who dropped me off is now back at his job at the lab and he is the only one in town. Ok…. How about a taxi? I asked the very nice man who is the manager at El Maguey about a taxi in Winfield.He just stared at me at mumbled something in Spanish. I’m 3 miles from the airport. Might as well have been 3000. now what? I guess I could’ve gotten a job as a dishwasher there, stayed forever, but it didn’t seem like a good idea so after a couple of minutes of checking Google and confirming there’s no such thing as a taxi cab in Winfield Kansas he comes over and sits down by me, asked me where I was going. Looks over said something in Spanish to someone and pretty soon. Here comes Juan who was was told to take me to my destination. So I hop in this Nissan pick up truck go 3 miles down the road. Told him my Story, offered to pay him which he refused and my last leg home was a non-event. If you’re ever in Winfield, make sure and go to the El Maguey Mexican restaurant. God bless you, Juan. it’s days like this that really make it all worthwhile.
