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STOL camping at the Lake of the Ozarks
Following are photos and four videos of our camping trip this past weekend to Mt. Eagle Escape.
Friday afternoon (after work), loading up for a two night camping trip. Lots of space!
Zenith STOL CH 701, ready for fun: Still have plenty of room for more gear.
Cross-country flight: It was a very beautiful spring evening to be flying. Our flight took us 1:15 to reach our campsite.
90 miles cross country to Mt. Eagle Escape from Mexico, Missouri. Mount Eagle is a private residential development property located at the 67 mile marker of the Lake of the Ozarks in south-central Missouri:
View from the top (Google maps):
This was the first time a plane has landed here at Mt. Eagle. Before I decided which way to land, I made several approaches in each direction to determine the best runway to land on. View of my final approach (from inside the cabin). Watch the video of the flight (from Mexico, Missouri to the Lake of the Ozarks), including the landing at Mt. Eagle Escape:
After the landing, two beautiful 701s on the grass, ready for the weekend out.
Watching the clouds develop from the comfort of our campsite:
The runway has an uphill slope about halfway, and then levels off.
Setting up camp: Now the works begins. It is not the Hilton tonight!
Beautiful evening clouds as seen from our campsite (with isolated thunderstorms):
Our camp is all set up, right next to the "runway"
Note that even though we camped next to our planes, we tied them down securely (especially due to the thunderstorms):
Notice how far Dennis is sitting from the campfire. That tells you how hot it was last weekend.
Life is good: No cell phone service. (Sorry Zenith builders - no tech services this past weekend!)
We just need a few more airplanes to join us. Maybe a fly-out after the September Open Hangar Day. (Let me know if you're interested!)
The best thing about camping is cooking over the fire.
It doesn't get much better than this:
Evening:
...and night
Mt. Eagle Escape is nearly completely surrounded by water, and is at the 67 mile marker of the Lake of the Ozarks, a superb recreational lake in south-central Missouri. The west end of the Lake of the Ozarks is a excellent fishing area.
We went on a hike the first morning and I noticed this large track. I believe it is a Mountain Lion paw print (I'm glad we didn't find out for sure!)
On Saturday we took some friends flying to give them a nice view of the area from the air: This was her first flight since she was 7 years old!
The takeoff distance was 150 feet with two on-board and up hill on grass on a hot day!
It is such a beautiful area with all the trees around us.
Fun scenic flight (in light rain) - video:
...and here's another video clip of a scenic flight.
Approach:
More about Mt. Eagle Escape, Lake of the Ozarks.
Dennis and I had a fun weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks with our STOL CH 701 planes! We plan to go back soon.
Comment
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Comment by Chris M. Brammer, Jr. on May 5, 2017 at 6:22pm
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Thanks for sharing guys. Looking forward to fun times.
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Comment by Bob Wood on June 9, 2014 at 5:24pm
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Good Stuff Guys! Camping Zenith Style is indeed a Win Win!
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Comment by Scott Hunter on June 5, 2014 at 11:25am
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Roger-if possible, send photo copy over here to Glenn Sterling, he'd know. Based upon size, softness of ground, sits a little deep for a big cat, but you must have therefore ruled out black bear, if other prints available to det. how far spaced apart, etc.
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Comment by Les Bolen on June 5, 2014 at 9:10am
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Looks like a great place to fly into for weekend. Thanks for sharing the videos and photo's!!!! next best thing to being there.
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Comment by Tim Smart on June 5, 2014 at 12:21am
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Looks like a relaxing weekend, thanks for sharing. Someday I hope to have similar experiences with my plane.
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Comment by Terry Samsa on June 4, 2014 at 10:38pm
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Motivational!
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Comment by Wayne Clagg on June 4, 2014 at 8:45pm
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Outstanding! Thanks so much for sharing this with us. not many destinations like that around here in the hills!
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Comment by Brian Parsons on June 4, 2014 at 6:14pm
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Nice! You need to come beach bouncing with us in Nova Scotia when you get a chance. They are the best runways you can get and they are groomed by mother nature twice a day!
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Comment by Don Morrisey on June 4, 2014 at 5:39pm
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Great trip report!
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Comment by buz heuchan on June 4, 2014 at 4:55pm
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put some floats on that thing for your next outing
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