Our trip to Bowie, Texas
By Haiko Eichler
Why Bowie, Texas?
Well, it is a very quaint west Texas Town, named after Jim Bowie of hunting knife fame, which also
happens to be where my Son Mike and his wife Cindy have a small (by Texas standards) 160 acre
ranch where Cindy is raising and training “cutting” horses and Mike works as a computer software
developer for a major oil company.
We had not been out there for a while and the last time we went for a visit we drove the distance. It
is a fairly long drive lasting about 12 hours so this time we decided to fire up the trusty old Cessna
182 and go by air. 4.5 hours
beat 12 hours anytime!!
Now, the last time that I
went on a major four hour
trip, it was to North Las
Vegas. I didn't do sufficient
homework and ended up
in trouble getting into
the Nellis Air Force Base
airspace. So this time I did
my appropriate research
for this trip. Being the
proud owner of my
MOGAS STC, I was also
trying to find a fuel stop
approximately half ways
where I could gas up with
Mogas. Looking at my
aviation charts I found a little airport in southern Oklahoma that advertised dispensing Mogas. I
decided before going there to give the guys a call to make sure that Mogas was still available and
at the price they were advertising it, particularly since Moreland, the name of that small airport,
was suggesting to call a certain phone number if you wanted to have fuel. So I called the advertised
number and got a hold of John (not his real name) the fuel man. To my chagrin John told me he
wasn't sure if he could get the fuel pump started. As a matter of fact, to my amusement he said: " I
ain't sold no Mogas in over a year. I ain't completely sure if that stuff is still any good."
Well, this was certainly a red flag for me not to stop in Moreland. But John the fuel man was very
helpful in suggesting to stop in Woodward which was just about 12 miles to the west and
their aviation gas was lower-priced than his Mogas. The aviation gas in Woodward was just $3.92 a
gallon. So I decided to make that my fuel stop.
I filled up the fuel tanks in Longmont with Autogas at $2.50 a gallon, put a couple of new tires on the
maingear, loaded our two long-haired dachshunds in the backseat , called flight service for weather
information, filed my flight plan and we were off and flying.
52
Cessna Pilots Association -January 2016