By Tom Snider, EAA 485345
When a friend and I decided to take my 70-year-old Beech Bonanza to Oshkosh this year for her birthday I decided to check another item off my bucket list too.
Several years ago while in California, I thought it would be fun to fly from Furnace Creek Airport in Death Valley, the lowest airport in the country at 210 feet below sea level, to Lake County Airport in Leadville, Colorado, which, at 9,933 feet, is the highest airport in the country. I live in Arizona so, as we were making plans for Oshkosh, it seemed like a good time to complete that dream, and include the busiest airport, too.
The mission was accomplished with a temperature of 109 degrees in Death Valley, 39 degrees in Leadville, and beautiful weather at Oshkosh. Not bad for a 70-year-old airplane. It’s a 1947 Bonanza, serial No. 667, and the first flight in the logbook was on August 18, 1947.
