Mt. Sterling, Kentucky: The Unplanned Stop Where We Bought an Airplane

We stopped in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, in summer 2026 on the long way home from EAA AirVenture, the fourteenth stop of our Oshkosh or Bust RV road trip.

Mt. Sterling was never on the itinerary. Neither was buying an airplane.

Then again, the best stops on this trip rarely were.

Funny thing: a few months earlier, on our way to Frankfort, Kentucky, we drove the highway right past the Mt. Sterling airport. We had no idea our future airplane was sitting right there.

Why an Airplane? (The Short Version)

Our daughter Mackenzie is a newly licensed pilot, and pilots who want to fly for a living need hours. Lots of them.

There are a few ways to get there. Flight-focused universities and flight programs. Working as a flight instructor and building time while you teach. Or the road less traveled: owning your own airplane.

We’re not getting into the math here. Let’s just say flight hours are expensive one way or another.

What owning opens up is independence. No hunting for a rental plane that’s actually free. No waiting for instructing hours to come your way. Just a plane, a pilot and a lot more fun getting those hours.

The Search

Mackenzie had been searching for months. And by searching, we mean she knew virtually every Piper for sale in the country. Total time, engine hours, where it had been based, when it was last serviced. Ask her about any listing, and she could give you its life story. She knew exactly the model she wanted, and what plane could “grow” with her as she worked toward her instrument and commercial ratings.

Her pick: a Piper Cherokee 180. It’s a classic for a reason. A 180-horsepower Lycoming, fixed landing gear and a fixed-pitch prop make it simple, forgiving and relatively affordable to keep flying, and parts and mechanics who know the type are everywhere. It’s plenty of airplane for real cross-countries, without the complexity (or the bills) of something fancier. That’s why it’s such a popular hour builder.

At Oshkosh, we spent real time at the boards where people post airplanes for sale. Plenty of options. But we kept coming back to one listing on Barnstormers she had been watching for weeks: a 1968 Piper Cherokee with low hours, a respectable avionics upgrade and a fair price, based in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky.

Indy, Rain and the Hourly Rate Surprise

After Oshkosh, we’d planned to spend some time around Indianapolis so Mackenzie could build hours at what was advertised as a relatively cheap hourly rate.

It wasn’t. The prices went up the day we arrived. Doh.

Then the weather got involved. Every time she had a plane reserved, it rained or the wind picked up. When the sun finally came out, someone else already had the plane booked.

At some point you take the hint. We hitched up and headed for Kentucky.

Travel Day: Three Tires and One Very Slow Mile

We’d just pulled out of our campground near Noblesville and gone a few miles down the highway when a tire on the Jayco popped.

There was no shoulder to speak of, and the next exit was four miles away. Lying on the ground changing a driver-side tire, half in the right lane, was not how we planned to go out. So we rolled. VERY slowly. Traffic was light, thankfully, and we didn’t cause much trouble. It was still scary.

We almost made it. One mile before the exit, both tires on the trailer’s passenger side went flat. Nails on the side of the road.

Now we were officially stranded.

We called Good Sam Roadside. They found a vendor, and we waited. About an hour and a half later, a young man pulled up, changed all three tires and had us rolling again in under 30 minutes.

The charge they authorized made our jaws drop. (But what are you going to do, live on the shoulder?) It turns out they authorize high up front and adjust to the actual cost afterward. The final number was much lower.

We pulled off at the next exit and torqued the wheels, just to be sure. The remaining 215 miles were wonderfully boring. A drive that should have taken a little over four hours took seven and a half.

Our tip: Keep your roadside assistance info somewhere you can grab it fast. You’ll want it on the side of the highway, not buried in your inbox.

Life in Mt. Sterling: Work, Paperwork and Cook Out

We didn’t do much sightseeing in Mt. Sterling. Between work and buying an airplane, there wasn’t time. Inspections. Finding a hangar. Insurance. And roughly a million other things nobody warns you about.

Still, Mt. Sterling has more going on than we had time for. The town dates back to 1792 and takes its name from an ancient burial mound nicknamed Little Mountain, plus Stirling, Scotland (the creative spelling stuck). It bills itself as the gateway between the Bluegrass and the mountains, and you can feel it. Rolling horse country on one side. On the other, the Daniel Boone National Forest and Cave Run Lake, the self-proclaimed Muskie Capital of the South.

Downtown has red brick streets and century-old buildings, and Ruth Hunt Candies has been making bourbon balls and Blue Monday candy bars there since 1921. Every October, Court Days takes over the town, a trading-day tradition more than 200 years old that now draws crowds well into six figures. And the Judy Drive-In has been running double features since 1952. All of it is on our list for next time.

This time around, though, our Mt. Sterling was mostly the little airport on the edge of town. Lucky for us, that’s where we met the team at Kentucky Airmotive, the FBO and maintenance shop at Mt. Sterling-Montgomery County Airport (KIOB). They made the whole airplane-buying circus a lot easier. They did the pre-buy inspection and stored the plane for us until closing, and they went above and beyond on both. Fantastic people. Extremely helpful. Thorough.

A quick note if you’re shopping for a plane: the usual advice is not to use a mechanic from the field where the plane is kept for your pre-buy. Fair advice. In our case, the shop had very limited history with this airplane before our inspection, so we were comfortable with it.

We did make time for Cook Out. Twice. We hadn’t seen one since our earlier pass through Kentucky, so we were thrilled. It turned out to be our last Cook Out of the trip, and we made it count.

Where We Stayed: Outpost Campground & RV Park

We based at Outpost Campground & RV Park in Salt Lick, a short drive from Mt. Sterling and a couple of miles from Cave Run Lake. Quiet, set back from the road, great sunrises and close enough to the airport to handle everything the plane purchase threw at us. Starlink was great, and the laundry was right by our site.

We liked it so much we’re already planning to stop back. Mackenzie wants to visit the plane’s former owner.

Read our full Outpost Campground & RV Park review.

Lessons Learned

• Roadside assistance: Save the number and your member info where you can find them in a hurry.
• Roadside pricing: A high authorization isn’t the final bill. Ask before you panic.
• After a tire change: Torque the wheels at the first safe stop.
• Building hours in rental planes: Weather and the booking calendar call the shots. Build in buffer, and expect posted rates to change.
• Pre-buy inspections: Use an independent mechanic when you can, and ask about any history with the plane when you can’t.

Final Thoughts

Mt. Sterling started as a detour and ended with an airplane in the family. Not what we pictured when we pulled out of Naples, but that’s kind of the point of traveling this way. Plans bend. Sometimes they bend toward something great.

Now Mackenzie gets to build hours on her own schedule. And have a lot of fun doing it.

Next up on Oshkosh or Bust: Nashville, Tennessee.

Have you ever made an unplanned stop that changed your whole trip? Tell us in the comments.