Pea Patch, Georgia

Caution - Man running (with) power tools

There is no way I could not land at an airport named Pea Patch.  So when a friend mentioned that they were having an EAA chapter fly-in down at 61GA AKA Pea Patch, we had to stuff Torque in the baggage compartment and fly on down for the day.  Unfortunately, due to some maintenance issues and STRONG headwinds, we got a late start and missed most of the crowd.

Just outside of Charlotte's Class Bravo airspace we passed 500 feet below four C-130's flying in trail.  When I say below, I mean dead center under the lead plane.  That was SO cool!  The bummer of it was we couldn't get the camera out quick enough to get a good picture.

Other than the strong headwind it was an uneventful flight.  We had a very nice, but brief visit with the gang down there and really appreciate their hospitality.

Nora is getting good at having the camera at the ready for the approach and landing photos.  So, for those of you who haven't flown into to Pea Patch there are two things you need to watch out for when landing to the south.  There is a big 'ol tower out there just about where you want to turn base.  Had it not been so windy, I would have turned inside of it but I wanted a nice stabilized approach.

Then to make matters worse, some disgruntled home owner put up a bunch of telephone poles with fishing poles attached to them to try and keep airplanes from coming in low over his property.  Let's hope no one hits those obstructions and gets injured.  The one good thing is, Pea Patch is a LONG grass runway that is about as smooth as some of Augusta's golf greens.  So landing long is an option.

One word of caution, when it's windy, be careful because the runway is surrounded by trees so the air can be just a bit turbulent when dropping below the tree line.

Here is the sequence of pictures taken on approach to land.  You can make out the poles in the fourth picture.