Fellow Ercoupers, My wife and I returned yesterday from a trip to Fredericksburg, Texas, and it was a really enjoyable trip. I highly recommend Fredericksburg as a destination.
We flew down Sunday, Dec. 28, with two stops along the way. We left Sullivan, MO (UUV) at about 8 am and flew to Drake Field in Fayetteville, AR (FYV). It took just under 3 hours with the headwinds. We fueled up and flew from there to Gainesville, Texas (GLE) which took about 2 1/2 hours. Filled up again and on to Fredericksburg (T82) which took just under 3 hours. We had headwinds the whole trip. Spent Monday touring the Museum of the War in the Pacific, which is now in the old Nimitz hotel (Admiral Chester Nimitz grew up in Fredericksburg). This was an outstanding museum, and you could spend an entire day there. We spent about 4-5 hours. The rest of the time was spent visiting the many interesting shops and eating German food. There are a lot of German restaurants in town, and good beer if everywhere. We stayed at the Hangar Hotel at the airport. It is a very nice hotel. Problem was, we were there on exactly those days that the diner and the lounge are closed. Oh well, something to come back for! We originally planned on returning Wednesday, but the forecast was for - surprise surprise - stiff headwinds. So on Tuesday afternoon we took advantage of the tailwind and flew up to Ardmore, Oklahoma. We spent the night there and left Wednesday morning for home via Fayetteville again. Both of the legs home were in the 3-hour range with the headwinds. The controller at ZKC mentioned that Ercoupes were historic as the first JATO planes. He said he thought I might have lit the rockets when my ground speed shot up to 80 knots. I asked him to forgive me if the blip on his scope was causing burn-in... All told, a great destination and a lot of fun flying to get there. I recommend it, especially if you're a WWII buff or if you like German food and beer! Larry Snyder Washington, MO N99340
