{"id":16522,"date":"2020-09-25T20:14:06","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T20:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=16522"},"modified":"2020-09-25T20:14:08","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T20:14:08","slug":"flying-adventure-weekend-at-the-beaumont-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/kansas\/flying-adventure-weekend-at-the-beaumont-hotel\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Flying Adventure – Weekend at the Beaumont Hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jerry Chism<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been flying a long time, but I can\u2019t remember ever\nhaving to stop my airplane at a stop sign on a city street. But that is exactly\nwhat happened on a trip that my wife Kelly and I recently made to Kansas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owning and flying a 1950 Cessna 170A has allowed us to\nexplore some short grass strips that were previously unsuitable for the type\naircraft we were flying. As I often do, I was playing around on some online aviation\nsites one day and happened across a place called The Beaumont Hotel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Located in the tiny town of Beaumont, Kansas, the Beaumont\nHotel is a weekend favorite for local pilots – and bikers – who come there for\nbreakfast at the well-known restaurant located in the hotel. A little further\ninvestigation revealed a 2400\u2019 grass strip located on the East side of town\u201c\u2026 and\nthat\u2019s where the fun begins. It turns out, after landing, arriving aircraft\nsimply turn right at the south end of the runway and make a quarter mile taxi\nright up to Main street. After stopping at the aforementioned stop sign, you can\npark your airplane in the grass just across the street from the hotel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, with beautiful weather forecasted for the weekend of\nSept. 19-20, we made our reservations, loaded up the airplane and headed\nNorthwest for the 2 \u00c2\u00bd hour flight from central Arkansas. Perfectly clear skies,\nlight winds and cool temperatures made for a very uneventful, but pleasant,\nflight. After crossing over the Ozark mountains of Northwest Arkansas, the\nterrain soon gave way to flat farmland and we knew we were getting close to our\ndestination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Winds at Beaumont dictated the use of runway 18 and after\ntouching down and rolling out, we turned right and headed up the hill. Drawing\nnear the hotel, you will notice a wooden water tower on the left – a reminder\nthat Beaumont was once an important railroad point on the cattle drives going north\nfrom Texas and Oklahoma. Immediately under the water tower is a 1949 Twin Beech\nD18S that once belonged to Barry Seal. Seal, as you remember, was the subject\nof the movie \u201cAmerican Made\u201d starring Tom Cruise as Mr. Seal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Having parked the airplane, we made our way across the\nstreet (no need to check for traffic\u201c\u2026not a car in sight) and entered the lobby\nof the hotel. At this point I should probably make it clear that if you are\nexpecting the Ritz Carlton, you will be sadly disappointed. Don\u2019t get me wrong;\nthe hotel is certainly adequate and hearkens back to days-gone-by with a very\n\u201chomey\u201d feel to it. I guess the best way to describe it is to say it smells\nlike \u201cgrandma\u2019s house\u201d and that\u2019s a good thing. There is no check-in counter\nand the hostess does double duty behind the cash register in the adjacent\nrestaurant. While nothing fancy, we found the room to be sufficiently\nappointed, clean and comfortable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The restaurant is small, somewhat crowded and provides food\nthat is the \u201cstick-to-your-ribs\u201d kind that you would expect in a small-town\nrestaurant in the farmland of Kansas. More to the point\u201c\u2026 it\u2019s good. Really\ngood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It just so happened, the weekend we were there, the city was\nhaving a street dance featuring a local country and western (of course) band.\nClosing Main street wasn\u2019t difficult, as we didn\u2019t see a single car pass down\nthe street the entire duration of our stay. A flatbed trailer provided the\nstage, the hotel provided the food and drinks and The Matt Engle Band provided\nthe music for what turned out to be a really good time. A cool Kansas evening\nnecessitated a fire in the firepit and we sat at a picnic table in the middle\nof Main street, enjoying the band and watching the locals do the Two Step in\nthe street. Cowboy hats and boots were plentiful and a good time was had by\nall. After a couple hours, we called it a night, and headed upstairs to the\nroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sunday morning, we awoke to the rumbling sound of\nmotorcycles as several groups arrived for the breakfast at the restaurant. Much\nlike the night before, the meal was real downhome cooking \u2013 no quiche on the\nmenu here. Eggs, sausage, fried potatoes, biscuits and plenty of gravy made a\nquick recalculation of our weight and balance necessary. After eating we loaded\nup the airplane and talked to several of the bikers who wandered over to look\nat the plane and ask questions about our trip. \nI\u2019m always happy to discuss flying with anyone who will listen \u2013 and even\nsome who won\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All good things must come to an end, and we fired the plane\nup and began a slow taxi through a crowd of motorcycles and people who were\nfilming our departure. A few hours later, we touched down back at home with a\nnew experience under our belts \u2013 one that we will certainly do again in the\nfuture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jerry Chism I\u2019ve been flying a long time, but I can\u2019t remember ever having to stop my airplane at a stop sign on a city street. But that is exactly what happened on a trip that my wife Kelly and I recently made to Kansas. Owning and flying a 1950 Cessna 170A has allowed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kansas","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20200920_09445edit2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16529,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16522\/revisions\/16529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}