Looking for places to fly to in Michigan

[midcoast9]

Hi...

I'm going to be flying up to Mackanac Island (Michigan) next week and was wondering if anyone knows of nice destinations to visit while i'm in michigan. I'll be coming from the St. Louis area, so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

If anyone can recommend a web site that is good for finding great destinations (for any state), that would be nice too.

THANKS
mike

[email protected]

 

[avbug]

If you're in the detroit area, visit YIP, to see the Yankee Air Museum. They have some of the usual static stuff outside (and a few unusual copies); they have restored a few airplanes and their work is impeccable. They move very slowly on their restorations, but the work outshines anything that came off the assembly lines as an origional.

 

[BoDEAN]

Traverse City (NW Michigan) and fly into Marshall (Brooks Field). They have a car-shuttle service that takes you to one of the best restrauants in the state!

 

[TDTURBO]

Don't forget about a stop in Kazoo for the full motion F-14 simulator and a sweet museum.

 

[knelson]

MI Destinations

Spent my first 20 years there and learned to fly in and around TVC. You should head over to Beaver Island if you have time. They have (or at least had) a good resturant on the field. It's kind of a nice trip. You feel like you are really out over some serious water, but in reality you could probably glide to land somewhere if you had to.

Sugarloaf's strip is a nice place too. If you have a day, head over to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. Take your sandles and a vacuum cleaner to get the sand out of the plane afterwords.

Definatly fly over Torch Lake (you will understand the name when you see it from the air). National Geographic named it the second or third most beautiful lake in the world, pretty good, but being a local, I personally think they missed it by one or two places.

Boyne City is a nice place too, especially if you are a golfer. Boyne Mountain resort is close and the shuttle will pick you up. Harbor Springs, same goes except it is a sister resort called Boyne Highlands. Charlevoix and Petosky are pretty places, but not a whole lot to do except look at nice views and boats, with the exception of good shopping for the ladies.

I am guessing the leaves are some pretty spectacular colors right now and you do not want to miss that.

Tahquamenon Falls is also another "don't miss" it's probably another 50-75 air miles past Mackinac, but well worth the trip. One more and I'll quit. . . I promise, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. any good road atlas will have all these places on them, but if you have trouble finding them, PM me and I will try to help out. You must know I envy you and I wish I were in your shoes. There are not many other places I would rather be in this country that Northern Michigan. Enjoy!!!

P.S. If you run out of things to do, I have about a million more, but I think your time will be pretty full.

 

[woody]

Kalamazoo has probably one of the finest collections of vintage WWII aircraft in the country, not only is the collection incredibly restored but many of the aircraft fly on a regular basis.
The aircraft that fly are mainly Navy aircraft such as the F3f wildcat, F4F Hellcat, F4U Corsair, F8F Bearcat, also a rare F7F tigercat which I believe is only one of two left flying in the world.
There are many other worthwhile aircraft to see there and when I was last there I thought it to be as good as the Smithsonian on era specific aircraft.
Best of luck
Woody

 

[tom_rob]

Great Flying!!

I can't tell you how jealous I am. I just moved to to Florida to go to FlightSafety and miss the flying in Michigan. I was in the Grand Rapids area but flew to Mackinac Island many times (beaver, U.P. all around). I don't know how far your willing to go but in Sault Canada (About a 25-30 minute flight from Mackinac and just across the border) there is a great bush plane museum. Beaver is also a pretty cool place to visit, very out of the way. While on Mackinac the Grand Hotel is amazing, very upscale. If you're planning on eating or going there you have to have tie and coat. There are many other places there also that don't require that attire. Mackinac is a day in itself; pay the landing fee and have the attendant call the taxi (horse and buggy) for you and it'll take you into town for about $5.
Have a great time, if you have any more q's, feel free to ask.
Regards,
Tom

 

[ILLINI]

Midcoast9,

I've never flown up to Mackanac Island myself, but i've heard that you can't get fuel there. Make sure you check it out first and plan a fuel stop accordingly.

 

[Merlin51]

If your looking for museums to visit along the way, I'd choose Kalamazoo Air Museum (AZO) over Yankee Air Museum (YIP).

K-zoo does phenomenal quality restorations (up to Smithsonian Standards). They have an entire Grumman Cat collection, and you can get a tour of their restoration/maintenance shop and see the XP-55 Ascender, and more.