Page 6 - February 2022

“From an aerial sight- seeing standpoint, none of Arkansas is boring.”
of that line, Arkansas is a bit flat- ter. While northwest is where you’ll find Arkansas’ two largest mountain ranges, the Ozark Plateau with more dramatic views between the Boston Mountains to the northwest and the Ouachita Mountains to the south- west, is Arkansas’ highest point – Magazine Mountain, topping out at 2,753 feet above sea level. From an aerial sightseeing standpoint, none of Arkansas is boring.
I cannot in any way consider myself to be an experienced Arkansas aviator or tourist, but my flying has taken me to the state many times over the years. In my days as a regional airline pilot, flying the Beech 1900D, my company had a Milwaukee to Kansas City to Little Rock route that I flew many times. Little Rock was well outside of our mostly Upper Midwest territory, so going there was always a nice change of pace, especially in the winter. That same airline used a facility in tiny Mena, Arkansas, located on the western border, for heavy maintenance on our 1900s. The few times that I was selected to operate those ferry flights gave me a deep respect for Arkansas’ terrain. Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport (MEZ) is surrounded by rising terrain on all sides, some of it 1,500+ feet above the airport elevation. The area’s valleys are prone to persistent
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fog and the terrain doesn’t allow approach minimums consistent with low IFR conditions. I recall being shocked, upon breaking out below the overcast, to find rugged hills surrounding me and a valley airport ahead. I also recall sitting out multiple delays (sometimes hours, sometimes days) waiting for fog to dissipate from the valley to allow a legal departure. My airline adhered to our FAR-121 Operating Specifications, even on FAR-91 ferry flights.
Aside from those occasions, my experiences with Arkansas has been limited to fuel or training stops on general aviation cross-country flights at airports such as Pine Bluff (PBF), Jonesboro (JBR), and West Memphis (AWM). Of course, overflights of portions of Arkansas have been common over the years, as well. If visual conditions prevail, the state never fails to draw my nose to the glass to watch the beautiful countryside go by. Yet, it was not until recently (after 31 years and nearly 20,000 hours of flying) that I had a reason to visit Hot Springs. The reason was twofold: to check another national park off my list and a family escape from our Wisconsin home climate during the chilly last days of autumn. While some trees had already become barren and brown at home, they were still in the
FEBRUARY 2022