April 8th 2024 was the Great American Eclipse. I started planning for it in 2017. In 2017 I had a mechanical issue and missed the one that went over South Carolina so I said, I'm not gonna miss the next one. Fast forward to February 2024 when I was remined that it was coming soon, I bought some glassses and started thinking about where to go view it.
Apparently while I started in 2017, having done nothing for 6.5 years, other people had gotten ahead of me in the planning department. I pulled up some resources and soon figured out where the path of totality would be. Then I started to think about what was the shortest path to Totality. The answer was Missouri. Yeah, I thought that was strange but after some double checking, the answer was still Missouri, specifically Cape Girardeau.
Technically there were airports slightly closer but I wanted a big place with services and a control tower. I knew there would be a crush of traffic and I figured some order might be a good thing. My next step was calling the FBO and Morgan answered the phone. Yes they would be having an eclipse, yes you need to be on the list. I am not much for commitment but I sent them an event registration fee and was added to the list.
So after devoting 30 minutes of planning in February, I went blissfully on my way until about a week ago when I started to see if I had picked wisely or needed a new plan. Apparently I did OK and the weather was looking good for the big event. We discussed possibly leaving Sunday and getting closer to the event. Hotel rooms in Totality were long gone but a hundred miles out, they were plentiful. In the end we decided to do it all Monday.
Everything was looking good Sunday afternoon. The low over the great lakes was going to create a line of rain across the top of Alabama. I awoke to a solid line of storms across our path but it was on the move. Taking a further look, it seemed like it might just get out of our way. Even if it did not move completely we could go around.
My first look showed we would need to deviate 165 miles. By the time we were ready to head out it was 124 miles. I looked again as were about to start and it was down to 100 miles. Things were looking good. We headed out towards our first stop. The way up would be 4 hours with headwinds so we decided to top off West of Atlanta. We had used Carrollton, GA before. It's a noice stop.
Heading out from Georgia things were looking good. Storms had moved bit still blocked our path a bit. I decided to stay direct and see how things played out. In the end the storms moved and though we flew through a bunch of clouds, but no storms.
When we checked in with Memphis Center the controller asked if we had a reservation for Cape Girardeau. They had run out of room and closed the airport to anyone without a reservation. I said I did and we heard many other aircraft get the same question and reply that they did and had paid the fee.
We arrived at a mini crush and were told we were 4th for the airport. It seemed like we were 8th when all was done but it all worked out. As we entered the ramp that had flag men to direct us and we were sent to a nice row across from the FBO. The early arrivals were all crowded on one part of the ramp. We lucked out with spacious parking.
The local pilots group put on a BBQ fundraiser and CC and I partook of cheeseburger, chips and water. Later we purchased ice cream from a local vendor. They had a nice setup, everyone was friendly and it was a lot of fun. We wandered a bit and looked at airplanes. One Bonanza had brought a serious telescope and he let us look at the sun. Our glassses were good but this was top shelf.
The number of jets was also impressive. One CJ3 arrived and the people piled out. They then set up a picnic on the wing. Fisrt time I had seen packed lunch set out on a CJ3 wing. During this time we kept looking up and watching the moon creep in front of the sun. Even with half of the sun blocked it was still bright out.
Eventually more and more of the sun was eclipsed and you could see that everything was a bit dim. We headed back to the plane to enjoy the show. Right on time, those NASA guys are good, it happenned, Totality. The glasses came off and we all went Oooo, Ahhhh. It was quite cool, I tried to take pictures but it didn't work well so I just stood and stared. After a bit over 4 minutes, I had to put the glasses back on.
I found the post eclipse show a bit anticlimactic so I started packing up and a few minutes after totality we were ready to start. I believe we were the first. We fired up, called ground and they said, go forth and taxi. I asked about my IFR and they couldn't find it but I had a backup so we headed out VFR.
The first controller was swamped with airborne IFR pickups so I didn't bother him. I had a plan filed from an intersection 100 miles away. As we neared the intersection, I called a much less busy controlled who had both of my plans and we soon were in the system. This was good as we still had some clouds over Alabama.
We made another quick fuel stop in Georgia as they never got to my plane for fueling during the event. It was just as well as the gas was cheaper in GA and we enjoyed the quick break. The flight home was smooth and as we arrived I heard the plane from the hangar next to mine sequenced behind me. We had seen eachother in the morning as we prepared to depart and he had gone to an airport close to us.
I beat him back by 2 minutes, then held to let him get past so that we did not have a parking jam. Overall a great day, lost of flying and an eclipse!!!!
