Warbird Information Exchange

Most of my friends think I'm crazy for chasing airplanes all over and I'm sure many of your friends feel the same. I was just wondering what is the farthest you have gone to an airshow or aviation related event and returned the same day. I live in Detroit and have gone to Toronto, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Dayton and returned the same day. Also had one trip to Dayton and Indinapolis and back the same day.

My one-day record is probably attending the Madera airshow when I lived in Los Angeles, about a 480-mile round trip. In recent years the farthest I have been willing to travel from my home near New York City is to Nashua NH, about a 420-mile round trip.

I did recently make a one-day trip to the St. Louis area to retrieve the aviation photos of my late friend Dick Kamm, which I frequently post on this forum. That is about 980 miles each way; I flew there and drove back, all the same day. Not exactly an aviation event, but it did win me the all-time crazy award from my wife.

August

Depends on what you consider "longest"

Time-wise, my longest day trip was the first time I went to Oshkosh, we left at about 5am and returned at midnight. About 11 hours of that is on the road, its a 600 mile round trip from here.

Distance-wise would be a visit to the NMNA. I was lucky enough to take a charter there last April, the round trip is about 2100 miles.

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Dan Johnson

Well, I drove from Los Angeles (area) to Oshkosh once. Flew that same route as well. Been to Reno a bunch of times (500 miles each way). Been to Madera and Merced as well.

Wow, where to start?

The biggest was on my way back to NY from the Navy, Stationed in Lemoore, California. I planned my route by Air Museums and National Parks. There were some very long days on that trip. I think I saw must of Texas in about 3 days, El Paso - Midland – Corpus Christy – Galveston – DFW.

The one that really jumps out was 1 Saturday I drove from Bloomington, Illinois to the SAC Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, than back to Chicago. I got up at like 3am drove until noon or so, spent a few hours at the museum and I did not get to Chicago until like 10pm.

Marathon run was after Thunder with Scott and Broken Wrench. That was from Dayton to my house. That was nuts! That was after driving to Dayton from Thunder of Michigan, spending a few hours at the museum. When it was about time to stop for the night; I got a call that our dog was having problems and would need emergency surgery. My wife was a total wreck so I decided to make the run home without stopping. Those last few hours were tough to stay awake.

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

In keeping with the spirit of the OP's question, could you guys clarify which ones were day trips? It looks like Tim has a couple of doozies in there; I'm not sure which, if any, of bdk's were one day round trips.

August

Go to Osh.(from Mt. Clemens Mi.) a week or so early to stake out a camp area. 500 there 600 back. only want to deal with chicago once a day so I come back though though the U.P. so its a loop. and the ferry has bad timing for the loop.


Tony

This doesn'y quite meet the criteria but...

Oct 4th 2005: me and the girlfriend left Greybull, WY (Hawkins & Powers) around 8ish in mist and rain. We drove virtually non-stop (food and gas only) from there to Dayton OH for the Airforce Museum, A hotel, and the opening of the 05/06 NHL Season featuring the Flyers and Penguins. Original plans were to stop and camp overnight somewhere in SD, but due to mist and cold temps we adopted the new plan. After almost exactly 24 hours in the car we made it to Dayton and checked into the first hotel with OLN. 3 hours of sleep later, we were off to the museum, then hockey later, and more sleep. Any way, the night we spent driving, SD got some ridiculous amount of snow. The morning paper showed a National Guard Blackhawk picking up stranded motorists off the side of the highway. I'm glad we didn't get stuck, but at the same time a blackhawk rescue would have been pretty bada$$!

Sorry, but as I'm sure you've noticed my reading comprehension and attention span are somewhat limited. Maybe it has to do with having an 8 month old around!

My longest 1 day was the Gathering of Corsairs in Stratford CT, 2004. From up here in BGR its about 400mi and a 6hr drive, one way. With the prerequisite stops, and a side trip to pick up the Colonel, it was closer to 7hrs. We left about 0300hrs and RTB 2400hrs.

Probably the hardest 1 day was down to Larry Websters(Kingston, RI) to pick up a set of wings for an L5, strapped to the back of the Dodgemobile with rain, snow and gust over 50mph. That was a long, hard day. I was all over the road!

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I never said the jokes were Good, they're just Free! You gets whatchyas pays for!

Hey congrats, bdk! They are fantastic at that age aren't they?

August

Thanks August! No question he is a bundle of joy and I enjoy every minute, but I also appreciate the free time when the little guy is asleep as well. I'm not as young (or in as good a shape) as I used to be!

We departed San Diego KSAN and flew to KTTN, Trenton, NJ. A long flight.
Jim Harley was there with the Collins group.....

Lynn

We have a trip next month leaving Dallas, Texas to Ontario, CA. Pick up two pax's and then on to Washington DC, drop them off and then back to Dallas.....

Lynn

technically....east coast to RNO for the races, but that was flying, not driving.

my longest drive was Redwood City, CA (near SF) to Valle, AZ for one of the early POF airshows there. got a beastly sunburn (wore shorts, tank top and sandles for some stupid reason) and was nick-named 'lobster girl'
haven't had the chance to go back since. it was a 14 hr drive, plus full day of airshow and party, followed by second day of airshow (including a ride in the tri-motor) and the 14 hr drive home. total hours of sleep through that = 0! of course, that was back when I was young and could get away with things like that