Mission Planning: Burke-Lakefront

I'm planning a flight that is intended to meet the followig criteria:

- no more than one day in length
- less than 2 hours flying each way
- near big water and photogenic scenery
- something nice for lunch
- something I haven't done before

That last item rules out the Bass islands, even if the second to last didn't rule out all of them but Put-in-Bay. The third item means either north, north west, or southeast. The second requirement rules out southeast, though.

That left two areas: the Benton Harbor/Muskegie area of Michigan, or Ohio's Lake Erie coast. Theorectically, Niagara Falls would fail the 2 hour leg limit by a mere 3 minutes, but to achieve that time would require extensive flight over the lake. Routing so as to remain over land for the majority of the trip only adds a few miles, though, so I could see it as an option.

That said, one thing I immediately noticed when I looked at the direct route from VES to Niagara Falls (KIAG) was that it flew directly over Burke-Lakefront in Cleveland. That reminded me of something I learned in July when I was up there for HarborFest: there are three new things I want to do there, and one that I've done before that I would like to do again. With that in mind, I decided that there was no reason to go the extra distance to Niagara when a trip to Burke-Lakefront meets all five criteria.

Here's the plan:

- Arrive at Burke-Lakefront near 10am.
- tour the USS COD from 10am - 11am. This is my re-do.
- Take the noon tour on the Goodtime III.
- Upon return, take a tour of the William Mather Museum.



- late lunch at Hornblower's Barge & Grill
- Depart

The currently planned routing:



Note that I will be remaining under the Class B, so I'm taking the easterly path around Hopkins. I don't want to get stuck out over the lake again.

The problem I have with going up to Michigan is that I have no idea what that region is like, or where the nice coastal touristy towns are. I need to research that because I do want to go up that way eventually, but for now the Burke trip looks pretty appealing.