How to Fly by Mount Rushmore

Well, we never went to South Dakota but we did take a quickie trip to Huntsville, Alabama, to visit the Space and Rocket Center. I recommend that museum. We thoroughly enjoyed it and they have a planetarium that's really cool.

So Mount Rushmore is still on my to-do list! Top of my list now is New England, Mount Rushmore, Freriscksburg, Texas, and Denver to go the Casa Bonita! I've been there a couple of times and who can resist cliff dwellers, gorillas, and balloon-making fairies? The food there was bad but it didn't matter. Now the food is apparently much better. What fun!

I will do what Approach tells me. It’s not a big deal to go around, but since the chart informs me I need to be 2000 above the monuments, I’d be there anyway. If Approach lets me get lower, I guess they’d be the ones to enforce the rule. And remember, it says “pilots are requested”. No FAR prohibits it.

I’ll skip the arm flapping. My plan is to take off from Hot Springs, SD, at 7 am and climb to 7700 feet on the half hour flight to the monument. I will contact Ellsworth Approach and see if they can guide me closer. The helicopter tours don’t start until 9 am so there’s time to get to Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse before they start. I’ll just do what Ellsworth tells me. Hopefully they can let me sneak in a little closer.