Ol' Man River Part III

[Viking01]

We continue our flight along the Mississippi.

For the third part of our Mississippi tour, we depart from Marston (KEIW), fly over the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and land in Barkley (KPAH), KT. Contour Airlines is the only airline serving Barkley, which flies Embraer 145s to Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina. The next stop is Cape Girardeau (KCGI), Mo. The town is named after Jean Baptiste de Girardot, a French soldier who established a trading post there. The 'cape' in the town's name referred to a rocky outcrop overlooking the Mississippi River. It was later destroyed by railroad construction.

We continue north and reach Perryville (KPCD), MO. Further north we reach St. Louis Downtown (KSPS), IL.

Here I hand over to Mike:

A Quick Tour of St. Louis. We start at St. Louis Downtown [KCPS] which hosts the Parks College school of aviation (one of the oldest such schools in the US). We jump across the Mississippi River to visit the historic Anheuser-Busch Brewery. Then up to downtown to see the St. Louis Cardinals Busch Stadium, the St. Louis Arch, and Union Station. Then west to the Central West End (MM1), Forest Park (Zoo and Art Museum), Washington University, UM-St. Louis, and then the suburbs of Olivette and Creve Coeur (MM3-MM5). We land at Creve Coeur [1H0] which is a thriving GA airport with an important regional classic aircraft restoration operation (including a 2-hangar historic aircraft display). The flight is 29nm and we want something low-and-slow with good visibility. [Maybe a cruise at 1,000 ft @80kts or so.] I recommend something appropriately classic such as a Tiger Moth or a Stearman. You should certainly fly what you like.

The flightplan is available here.
A tiny scenery pack is available here. (1.6MB. 2020 sceneries, fine in 2024.)

Thanks Mike, and back to the tour.

At Creve Coeur (1H0), MO, we switch back to our faster plane and follow the Mississippi to Hannibal (KHAE), MO. By 1846, Hannibal was Missouri's third-largest city when the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was organized by John M. Clemens (Mark Twain's father) and associates. This railway was built to connect to St. Joseph, Missouri, in the west, then the state's second-largest city. This railroad was the westernmost line before the Transcontinental Railroad was constructed. It transported mail for delivery to the first outpost of the Pony Express. Construction of railroads in the area and increased steamboats on the Mississippi River had stimulated growth. In 1843 the city had also annexed the town of South Hannibal. Hannibal gained "city" status by 1845. The American writer Mark Twain spent his childhood and youth in Hannibal. Twain wrote his first newspaper articles in the Hannibal Journal, which belonged to his brother Orion Clemens. His first drawing, A Gallant Fireman, also appeared in the Journal in 1851. The city also served Twain as a model for the fictional St. Petersburg, the setting for his best-known novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Based on an episode in Tom Sawyer, Hannibal holds an annual fence-painting contest. In the story, the title character cleverly avoids this work by describing it to the village children as so desirable that they eventually reward him for having it painted.

Straight north we arrive at Keokuk (KEOK), IA. The city is located at the mouth of the Des Moines River into the Mississippi River at the intersection of the three states of Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois. Close to Keokuk are Lock and Dam No 19. The lock and dam obliterated the Des Moines Rapids which had effectively been the northern barrier for traffic on the Mississippi until efforts began in 1837 to address the Mississippi's 2 ft 6 in (76 cm) depth in the rapids.

We continue to follow the Mississippi north and reach Muscatine (KMUT), IA. This community has an interesting history and a remarkable resident: From the 1840s to the Civil War, Muscatine had Iowa's largest black community, consisting of fugitive slaves who had traveled the Mississippi from the South and free blacks who had migrated from the eastern states. One of the most prominent community leaders was Alexander G. Clark Sr., born free in Pennsylvania. He was a barber, a respected position at the time, and eventually became a wealthy timber salesman and real estate speculator. In 1848 he was among the founders of the local African Methodist Episcopal Church, which had been established as the first independent black denomination in the US. In the antebellum period, he assisted fugitive slaves and petitioned the state government to overturn racist laws before the Civil War. In 1863, Clark helped organize Iowa's black regiment, the 60th United States Colored Infantry (originally known as the 1st Iowa Infantry, African Descent), though an injury prevented him from serving. In 1868, he gained desegregation of Iowa's public schools by suing the Muscatine school board after his daughter Susan was turned away from her neighborhood school. Eleven years later, in 1879 his son Alexander Jr. became the first black graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law and its first black graduate from any department. Clark Sr. went to the college and became its second black law graduate five years later, despite being 58 years old. He said that he wanted to serve “as an example to young men of his own race.” Clark rose to prominence in the Republican Party, serving as a delegate to state and national conventions. In 1890, Clark was appointed ambassador to Liberia by President Benjamin Harrison. He was one of four Muscatine residents to be appointed as a diplomatic envoy between 1855 and 1900, a remarkable feat for a town of such small size: George Van Horne was consul at Marseille, France during the 1860s; Samuel McNutt served at Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1890; and Frank W. Mahin represented his country in Liberec (Reichenberg), Austria-Hungary in 1900.

We turn east and finish this flight at Quad City (KMLI), IL. The airport was named "Illinois Primary Airport of the Year" in 2012. It serves the Quad Cities Metropolitan area, including Davenport and Bettendorf in Scott County, Iowa as well as Moline in Rock Island County, Illinois. The airport does not have any international commercial passenger flights; its international designation is due to being an official port of entry and having a Foreign Trade Zone and U.S. Customs Office, enabling international cargo shipments and international general aviation passenger flights.

The flight has 430 miles and 8 landings. We want to cruise at about 250 knots. I will be in the SWS PC-12, please fly what you like.

The flight plans are here. I included a complete flight from KEIW to KMLI without Mike’s part and two separate plans for the part before and after the St Louis sightseeing tour.  

Recommended scenery:

KCGI Cape Girardeau (downloaded already for the previous flight)

KPAH Barkley (downloaded already for the previous flight)

KMLI Quad Cities

Time and Weather: We try real weather. Please set your simulator for an 11:00 am local departure.

 

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Wednesday, March 15, 2025. 1900 UTC
RTWR Multiplayer Discord Channel
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: United States East server.

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