Chippewa County Airport

[Dave S]

A great fall day dawned in the midwest on Sunday 9/29/2013 for a lunch trip and leaf inspection survey. A totally CAVU day

Wife and & decided to fly from Lake Elmo MN to Chippewa county (Eau Claire, WI) to check on the fall color and get some food. I can't call it a $100 hamburger because I really like the baked codfish and you just cannot spend $100 for fuel flying a kitfox that way!

Chippewa County is a Class D environment but extremely GA and EXP friendly. The runway is so long that you could probably land 10 kitfoxes on the runway in train...so it is not a short field experience.

There was a Citation about 11 miles behind us so we kept up cruise speed all the way down to the runway and landed long to keep from lingering while taxiing up to the turn off.

While this site is serviced by feeder airlines, there are three gates with 1/3 of them dedicated to GA & EXP at the terminal (that would be Gate C of A, B, C) .There is a row of transient parking spaces right next to Gate C.....Be sure to remember the punch code when going through the door....you need it to get back to your plane gracefully.

Just on the inside of the entrance to the right is The Farm On Starr.... the restaraunt which was recently renamed, refurbished and remenued with "Wisconsin old farm" decor. FYI - Starr is the street the restaurant is on. Glen and Sarah Hein are the owners responsible setting up this place for gracious hospitality....and not overpriced at all...you can get basic pilot food or even better. For those who have been there a while back, this is the same retaraunt location previously known as Connels.

The Farm on Starr is open 6 am to 9 pm daily except an hour later on Friday and Saturday

Our wait person was Amanda who made sure we did not leave hungry notice that the entire restaurant is decorated with seed corn, tractor, livestock signs and artifacts.

After lunch, a short walk to the plane via the keypad door exit on gate C got us on our way.....off the runway well before the first stripe and climbing past pattern altitude after turning west over the field.

Even found some fall leaves on the way home.

Sincerely,

Dave S
KF 7 Trigear
912ULS Warp Drive

[SkySteve]

Dave,
Thanks for the Trip Report. You sure do fly a good looking plane.

[DesertFox4]

Fun report Dave.
The great fall colors are just around the corner there.
Way back in the late '80's we were members of the Mankato Corvette Club. Took a nice scenic cruise to Eau Claire then down to La Crosse. The river was beautiful with fall colors. Enjoy the Minnesota fall.

[Pilot4Life]

Great report! Perhaps there needs to be another coined phrase, because $100 Hamburger isn't going to work. Perhaps the $50 Full Meal Deal? Anyhow, Thanks for the pics and info...