Flight to Indy – Brickyard 400
Jeff and Bobby flew to Indianapolis on Friday morning, July 25th, 2008. We left early and were off the ground before 7AM to beat any of the summer afternoon thunderstorm possibilities. The weather on the way to Indy was very nice with only a few clouds around 5000′ as we approached Indy. We stopped in Conshocton, OH (I40) which is a small airport with inexpensive fuel a little northeast of Columbus, OH. Once in Indianapolis we landed at Eagle Creek (KEYE) where the plane was tied down for the weekend. The nightly fee was only $8 which was waived for the first night with fuel purchase. Eagle Creek staff was very friendly and professional. It is a very nice FBO. These are some of the excellent shots that were taken on the way to the fun weekend that we had. Total flight time to Indianapolis from Dover, DE was about 5 hours.
Here is a picture of Indianapolis Motor Speedway from the air. The flight into Eagle Creek took us just to the north end of the track.
We had a fun time in Indy spending time riding race go-karts on Friday and going to a great dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse. On Saturday we spent most of the day at the track. We were able to get access to the infield to see the end of Qualifying, spend some good time in the “Hall of Fame”, peruse the sponsor booths and driver trailors and see some of the practice session. It was a great day at the track! Saturday night continued with a great dinner at St. Elmo’s Steakhouse which is very well known for their shrimp cocktail which comes with an excellent homemade cocktail sauce with fresh horseradish. The evening continued with a quick trip to the new casino in Anderson and then a night at the clubs in downtown Indy. A fun filled day that didn’t end until about 3:30 AM!
Sunday morning was a little rough, but after shaking off the cobwebs we headed out to the track for the race. A beautiful day for the race and an interesting venue. The seats were just short of the start/finish line and only about 10 rows back from the pits. At Indianapolis Motor Speedway you can’t see the whole track. The track is also very long so there is a time between each lap when the cars come around. There were also a lot of cautions at the race due to a tire issue identified the day before. NASCAR was taking precautionary cautions just when the racing started to get good. At the end of the day, Jimmie Johnson won the race.
On Monday morning there were some early storms that passed through Indy. Visibility was a little low at about 4 miles but just north of the area it was clear. There was a slight delay in departure. Weather being reported on AWOS stations from Dayton, OH to Dover, DE was reported as sky clear below 12,000 and visibility greater than 10 but the haze would have made you think otherwise. It was very difficult to make out a clear horizon at times. The air was smooth though and a decent 15-20 knot tail wind helped get us home a bit quicker. Total flight time from Indy to Dover was about 4 hours. We were going to stop in Conshocton but when we were on downwind they informed us that they were out of fuel. We climbed back out and decided to stop in Wheeling, WV (KHLG) and add another airport to the logbook. The rest of the flight was uneventful and we were back home by lunch time.
We had a great weekend!
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