I flew to Mountain Air, NM for breakfast last Friday. Actually, several of us flew over – a Rans S-18, a Cessna 120, a Cessna 170, and myself in the Vans RV-3. They have a dirt runway that is in pretty good shape – recently graded. It has a pretty good slope and is pretty dusty though. The walk into town is about 1.5 miles which makes for a nice bit of exercise and a good appetite!
We elected to visit the Shaffer Hotel and Restaurant which is an historic building. It was build in the 1920’s, has 19 rooms, and a great deal of Pueblo art. The following photos are of the inside of the building – forgot to take outside photos – sorry. BTW: the swastica shapes have nothing to do with the Nazi’s, Hitler, nor the Third Reich. Dating back much further than that, they have been found on Navajo and Chaco Indian artifacts and, I am told, all the way back to some Chinese dynasty of long ago. You can read more about this at ReclaimTheSwastica.com. Please do not confuse them with Hitler.
The service was fantastic, the food was delicious, and the atmosphere was wonderful. I highly recommend a stop at this restaurant if you are in the area!
Hi,i wonder if the Rans is aluminum enclosed(skin)…
any more pics or info…
Haven’t seen one like that
Thankz
Howdy! I apologize for the slow response. It is fairly rare. My understanding (not to be confused with actual facts) is that RANS marketed it in a more open cockpit form and experimented with an enclosed version before pulling it off the market. My friend had a kit already and wanted the closed cockpit form so got the info from Randy S. and then did it himself. It is a great photo plane – great visibility, slow, big-open-able windows, and engine in the rear. I flew it for a couple hours and liked it. It is much different than the fast, slippery airplanes I normally fly in that it is very draggy. I’ll grab some more photos of it and post when I get them.