BD-5 On A Stick - Best Wind Direction Indicator Ever!
Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 08:27PM 
BD-5 wind direction indicator at Mishawaka Pilots Club (3C1) in Elkhart, Indiana
This must be the best looking WDI ever!
I made a late afternoon road trip about 35 miles from home today to check out an airplane (more on that another day) at the Mishawaka Pilots Club airport (3C1) located at the edge of Elkhart, Indiana. I've known about this airport for at least 30 years but for some reason I hadn't ever been there before. Now I know I should've done this a long time ago! Wow, what a cool place... a beautiful clearing at the edge of the city with a 2,243' x 40' asphalt runway (3-21) and an awesome 3,140' x 100' grass runway (12-30). It's also a very unique place because even tho it's a public use airport, it's really an aviation community, owned and operated by a group of pilot / shareholders. You can learn more on the way that works at the Mishawaka Pilots Club 'about' page. This place lives for 'sport aviation', which already makes it one of my favorite places ever : )
So I get out of the car and with just a glimpse off in the distance I instantly realize that their wind direction indicator (WDI) out in the middle of the airport is a BD-5 on a stick! I have some pretty sharp radar for that gorgeous BD-5 shape, and the fact that these guys are using one for the WDI told me straight up that this is an exceptionally cool airport. I've had some pretty extensive exposure to Jim Bede's little airplane over the years, and my post 'Almost 40 Years Later The BD-5 Still Looks Hot!' from last year shows that I believe it's gotta be one of the 10 best looking airplanes ever.
I got permission to go get some up-close pix of the 'BD-5 on a stick' so I could share it with the world. I was really pleased to see that it's in great shape, unlike just about every tetrahedron I ever saw on an airport that was usually heavily dented, rusty, and could be heard squealing as it turned from the other side of the airport. Nope, this was by far the nicest WDI ever. I guess it's actually very cool and kinda sad all at the same time. Cool because it's so beautiful to look at and sad because this is just about the best thing you could do with the several thousand incomplete BD-5 kits scattered all over that are buried under 30+ years of dust.
I'm just really glad to see that my new favorite airport in northern Indiana also has the coolest wind direction indicator in the world : )
Close-up of the pivot for the BD-5 on a stick
There should be one of these at every airport!
Reader Comments (2)
Thanks for the great write up on our airport! I fly my 172 out of there, and it truely is great community of pilots.
Stop in and see us for our Fathers Day Fly-in. Last year I cooked the pancakes for over 900 people! With a lot of help ofcourse.
Joe
Joe- I'm thinking I'm definitely gonna try to make the Father's Day Fly-In... sounds like a ton of fun : )