I spent yesterday training back up on instrument flying. It is a Sisyphean task, especially in the Midwest. I have been instrument rated for about 12 years. Of that 12 years, 6 of them have seen the plane down,  and most of the rest have been working back up to “comfortable” with instrument flying after an extended period out of the clouds.

My current instrument instructor is also a lawyer (no, really, he is a nice guy), and a graduate of the most excellent OSU aviation program. He has a very good “real world” attitude about flying, he was the first instructor who has us do at least one approach on full automation (and one with all the movie screens turned off) that I have had. Instructors are very much a personal flavor. I have had some really good ones, and some really bad ones. I fly over an hour to train with this guy, just because he and I mesh well. Stay with me, we are getting to the point…

I typically meet up with him in Hope, AR, at airport M18. Hope is a relatively small Arkansas town, mostly famous for being the childhood home of Bill Clinton, and the place (on the airport) where they stored all the FEMA trailers at one point. The airport is a ex-WWII military facility and has the possibility of being quite nice given a bit of attention from the city. Instead, it looks about like what it is, a neglected piece of infrastructure, that the city is making money off of renting one runway out for storage. The runway markings are unreadable, and the runways themselves are in need of attention. In a town of 10k people, in need of additional business injection, that is very nearly unforgivable, considering how much money the airport has and could bring in.

On our flight, we landed at Magnolia (KAGO).  Magnolia is also a 10,000 pop town, but is a completely different town than Hope. There are several small and medium businesses in Magnolia, the town is quite dynamic, and the airport reflects this. There are about 10 hangars, mostly new. The runway is freshly repaved and marked, there is an AWOS II being put in and the fuel is working and reasonably priced. The terminal buildings are fresh and in very good shape. Altogether, it is the type of place that if you were on a quick trip around several towns, in search of a place to locate a business,  you would remember. It’s a showplace for the town, and the first step to luring business into town.

A good airport will always help support a town. A bad airport is barely better than no airport at all. You look at Hope, and you see a town that has given up. You look at Magnolia, and you see a town that is working hard at getting to the next step, whatever that is.

I know where I would want to live…