An AvGeek Day Out In A Kansas Field … Now This Is Fun!

Like everyone I have ups and downs, times when everything gets in the way of taking five minutes for myself, no time to blog, no time to stare at planes, no time to do much and like everyone sometimes a day out is just what is needed.   My boys enjoy Day Out With Thomas riding the trains, well last week I had a Day Out of my own in a massive field in Kansas.

 

What made this day out in a Kansas field rejuvenating? The field is a giant bone yard of aircraft, from small agriculture crop dusters to four engine DC-8 jet airliners.

 

When most airplane junkies think of bone yards they think of the Mojave Desert or some other flat, dry desert location, not Rantoul Kansas … but Dodson International is essentially were most planes go to die.  Their final resting place to be stripped of everything, cabin parts and engines stored in massive warehouses and the carcasses moved to massive farm fields out back.

 

I found myself in Kansas, not a place anyone who knows me would expect to find me, with four other AvGeeks (who you can find on Twitter at @trvlinsalesgal, @user47, @brianmcspadden and @jpsingh93) being lead through a maze of parts and planes by Dodson International’s web designer and social media manager Donielle.

 

There is nothing quite as fun as watching a Bombardier Challenger 604 being stripped, standing inside an engine cowling, sitting in old Boeing 727-100 first class seats … complete with an AirPhone, crawling through an old cut up DC-8 or climbing in the complete stripped shell of a carcass of an Embraer E-170 that over ran an runway before being scrapped. Crawling through a Republic of Liberia aircraft and stepping into an Air Malawi plane, where else would one get to do this?

 

After hours exploring everything that is fun about being an AvGeek in place that is set up for the business of buying and selling aircraft parts, but is seems like an amusement park to visitors what could better than driving a town over to check out a full restored Douglas C-47 (DC-3)?  By the way … if you’re in the market for your own DC-3, they have one for you.

 

What a day … I can’t thank Dodson International enough for allowing us to come play in their yard! You can follow Dodson International on Twitter at @dodsonintl I‘ve also have to thank @trvlinsalesgal for setting this up for her fellow AvGeeks.

 

Below are a few photos from a day spent among the plane parts.

 

Happy Flying!

 

@flyingwithfish

 

You ever see a better welcome for a group of Aviation Geeks?

A Bombardier Challenger 604 Wing

 

A Challenger 604 … without wings … Welcome Aboard!

 

A Pile Of Propellers … say that three times fast

 

A 1972 Boeing 727-100 engine, many of these engines end up being used as truck mounted generators instead of flying again

 

The Black Box … yup they are orange

 

Row upon row of planes that will never see the air again

 

Do you spot what is missing from this Bombardier Challenger?

Check out this beauty of a Douglas C-47! She’s owned by The Roasterie Coffee.

 

A happy AvGeek hanging out inside the carcass of a Shuttle America Embraer E-170. Thanks to @trvlinsalesgal for the photo!