I have a great idea for a fly-in, for all of you nature lovers and fisherman. When I was a young student pilot in 1990, I picked up a Plane and Pilot magazine and the cover picture was a beautiful grass runway in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas. The story featured Gaston's Resort, that has hotel rooms and cozy cabins, as well as a nice restaurant and bar along the White River, down stream from Lake Bull Shoals near Flippin Arkansas. The runway is 3M0, a well groomed 3200 ft. grass runway. You can find pictures of it by searching for Gaston's resort online. There are beautiful pictures of all types of aircraft that have landed there.
I remember making a solo flight there as a student, which was quite an experience since I had never flown around 200 ft "mountains" or landed on a grass strip. Mr. Gaston signed my logbook and helped me decide how much flaps to use on take-off, with a tail wind. It is recommended that airplanes only land on runway 24 and take off on 06. I enjoyed a picnic lunch under the wing on that warm sunny day in Februrary.
Since then, I have visited there several more times. Thanksgiving Day offers a supurb buffet lunch. Trout fishing there is awesome. There are record size brown trout there, and I caught a 5 lb rainbow trout, and had it mounted. I have seen times when there wasn't much water in the river, but this year it is full to the banks. Bull Shoals Lake looks like a good place to land a seaplane, too.
So this is one idea for a fly-in, or even an individual vacation for those of you looking for a new place to experience.
I would like to hear about other neat fly-in resorts that any of you other pilots would like to share.
Judy Mitchell
N7001M

Judy,

Great suggestion! I second that motion!

Their website is www.gastons.com for anyone who wants to check it out more. They post their full menu as well as the different overnight facilities and rates on the website.

Some of my friends go there on an annual fishing trip and love it. They drive there as it's only a 5 hour drive for them and they aren't pilots. I've never been there in person but I hear it's fantastic. I drove within a mile of it just last week and was tempted to go in and check it out but time was short so I didn't.

Gastons has been one of my intended destinations for some time now. If the club decides to do this, count me in for sure.

Right now Bull Shoals lake is 40 ft above normal pool due to all the heavy rains in the area in spring and early summer. They are aggressively draining the lake and Gaston's is on the bottom side of the dam. This is anticipated to continue through November 2008 with only normal rain in the area. In talking to them last week, the water conditions has made fly fishing conditions poor but they are still catching a ton of fish with live bait.

This would be a great place to have a fly in. Please post if you are interested.

Jim Swanson

Looks like a nice destination. I wonder if they allow camping? I will certainly be interested in making the trip.