He’s got high opinion of U.S.
On April 4, 24-year-old Denver Wilkinson packed his gear into a small airplane and took to the skies. His mission was to explore the United States by airplane, “see it from the air, live out of my duffle bag and sleep under the wing.”
About halfway through his trip, the Hayden Lake resident has logged plenty of stories along with flying hours.
Believing there is no better way to see America, his goal is to visit all 48 contiguous states, hoping to land at more than 100 small-town airports. He camps with his airplane to keep on a budget. He chooses little airports because that’s where he finds the friendliest people, the most interesting tales and sometimes stables of unique aircraft.
Flying has been Denver’s passion for as long as he can remember. As a little boy, lights of approaching aircraft to the Yakima airport from his hillside home intrigued him.
Describing himself as the “classic airport kid – hanging on the fence, just hoping someone would take me flying,” he took his first flight lesson the day after his 13th birthday, met Chuck Yeager at 14 and talked corporate pilots into letting him tag along on a cross-country business-jet flight at 15. Flying solo the day of his 16th birthday (16 is the legal age to solo), he passed the private pilot check-ride on his 17th birthday (17 is the earliest age one can be a private pilot).
At 19, the aspiring aviator needed an invitation to the famed Paris Airshow. He created a business, on paper, naming him “Director of Aviation” for “Wilkinson Air Group.” Only he knew the “group” consisted of one little family plane, so show sponsors provided him back-stage access and special treatment saved for VIPs.
Training at the historic McCallister Aviation flight school in Yakima, Denver earned a flight instructor rating while in his sophomore year at Walla Walla College, where he later taught flying and earned his degree in business marketing. He has logged more than 1,700 flying hours to date.
Denver had his sights set on a professional pilot job until the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which evaporated many flying careers. So he joined his father in a Coeur d’Alene-based business where he markets health supplements. Flying now is mostly for recreation.
Hendersonville, N.C., tops the list of Denver’s favorite airports so far. Although “just a narrow strip barely wide enough to make a runway,” there were old, rusty hangars crammed with classic airplanes – from beaters to beautifully restored flying machines. The airport office was dirty, with 1960s furniture covered in dog hair – courtesy of the resident 150-pound Great Dane. Complementing the vintage aircraft were the old-timers hanging around the airport jawing about flying. The airport owner sprang for a steak dinner, one pilot drove him to town for coffee and another treated him to breakfast.
Dropping into Shelter Cove, Calif., he found a beautiful little airport. It had no restaurant or much else on the airfield, so he began trudging to the nearest town. Coming to a trailer park, Denver asked a resident couple where to find a decent place to grab a bite to eat. “Scoot” and Florence Miller insisted he dine with them. They feasted on hot dogs and whiskey.
“A real dump,” says Denver of Winslow, Ariz. However, he found the history of the airport – used as a fueling point for DC-3s in days before transcontinental flights were possible – fascinating. Aviation’s most famous couple of the era, Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow, stayed in the now restored La Posada Hotel.
Some airport locals occasionally offer relief from camping. Denver has bunked with a crop-duster in Mississippi, a tour helicopter crew at the Grand Canyon and others. Other pilots sometimes loan their cars for the trip to the closest civilization.
Not all encounters have been friendly. Suspicious cops in West Helena, Ark., woke Denver at 3 a.m., making him stand in the rain clad only in boxers to question why he would sleep under the wing rather than at a motel.
Johnny Mack, airport czar somewhere in South Carolina, was downright inhospitable to Denver, refusing to allow him to sit in his air-conditioned office to make a cell phone call, directing him instead outside in 107-degree heat and killer humidity. Mack tried to rent Denver his car for a rip-off rate, then offered a discounted price to a lady wearing “a bra a few sizes too small” who flew in her private helicopter. She turned down the car, and Denver got the discount after pointing out the discrepancy. He drove to Charleston, where he learned there are “six girls to each guy.”
Nice and “not so nice people” aren’t the only factors in this odyssey. Huge thunderstorms and rain created a budget-busting week of sitting in stale motel rooms, prompting Denver to write in his Internet log, “I swear the weather has it out for me on this trip.”
Engine problems demanded an emergency landing in Oregon, resulting in a two-week wait for parts. Fuel prices have been a shocker, with some airports charging more than $4 a gallon.
Homeland security concerns have created increased demands on pilots, brought to life in a radio transmission overheard by Denver in the Jacksonville area. Inadvertently straying near a temporary flight restriction, a pilot received a tongue-lashing from the FAA controller with the warning the Department of Defense was tracking him, and “they won’t hesitate in shooting you down.”
Denver is flying a 1966 Mooney M-20E, which has an average speed of 140 knots (about 161 miles per hour) with a maximum range of about 900 miles. He someday hopes to own a Piper Super Cub for exploring the backcountry of North Idaho. Helicopter and seaplane ratings are his next goals – when money and time allow.
Denver saved for this trip for a few years. “Other people save money for retirement, but no, I saved it to blow it on a summer of flying around the United States,” he said. Denver plans on returning to Coeur d’Alene and his job the middle of August and eventually publishing a book about his adventures.
“Land at any rural airport in America and you’re guaranteed to find someone out of the ordinary, most of whom are exceptionally friendly and good-humored, if not a bit quirky,” he says.