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Flying Your RV To Work....for a day.

DeltaRomeo

doug reeves: unfluencer
Staff member
Wednesday was one of those 'Motivation 101' type days for me. One of my friends (RV-8 builder Charlie Kearns) works for an architectural firm that occasionally needs photographs of some of the buildings they have built. Charlie knows I like to do the camera thing and also knows I have an RV, so he called. They had a property down in Leander, TX (NW of Austin) that had a newly renovated police station and needed shots. I looked on GoogleMaps to see where Leander was and found there was a public grass runway not two miles down the road. Wednesday I got to combine both flying the RV and photography. Got to meet some very interesting people and made some extra pocket money in the process. Who could ask for more?

I drove out to 52F around 0845, as Austin was showing low clouds that wouldn't break up until about 1000. No need to rush. I was in the air about 0855, had the iPod on and was sipping my bottle of water in no sweat mode. Be glad you weren't there....nobody should ever hear me try to harmonize with 'Penny Lane'. After leaving the class B area I climbed up to 6,500 and went direct to Temple (restricted space around the base). Flew by the President's Crawford ranch, over my hometown (Waco) and was on the ground 1hr and 6min after leaving Dallas. Welcome to 77T in Leander, TX.

I walked up to a hangar that looked like somebody was inside and went in. Meet Joe Sills of Sills Aviation. Great guy. He let me use his phone and offered to drive me over to the police station if they couldn't come get me. As luck would have it somebody was able to come over and I was at the station in no time. My plan B was to fly into Georgetown several more miles down the road and rent a car.

I started on the shoot around 1015, walking around trying to look like I knew what I was doing and wondering what an architect might like to see in a picture. Around noon one of the fine folks asked if I would like some lunch - she was making a chicken run. Absolutely. So, not only did they come get me, they went and got food. Over lunch we had a nice visit with some of the employees and I got to do something I hadn't done in awhile - visit with complete strangers in a completely different surrounding.


After lunch I finished the shoot and then cranked up VAF Mobile One (my laptop with one of those AT&T 'Internet Anywhere' cards) to make sure the forums were up (and civil) and that the inbox wasn't overflowing. Oh yeah, I also checked the winds for the trip back to Dallas.

They drove me back out to the runway and bid me a nice day. Wonderful folks. Here's their web site if you'd like to see more. They really made me feel welcome and I can't thank them enough for their hospitality.
Walking back over to the plane a guy drove up in a golf cart. Hadley (hope I spelled that right). He's building......wait for it.....a RV-7A. Small world. Another fine person that I was glad to have met. We talked for a few moments and then, as I lifted off the runway, he waved as I left Leander.

Well, I didn't leave quite yet. At lunch talking with some of the officers the topic drifted to airplanes and how they are built, and would you like to see it? I looked at the station location on the map and made sure to make a few (legal) passes as a way to say thanks.


Cruised back over to Temple, then direct 52F expecting a HUGE wind change sometime enroute. Around Spinks there was one of those 'in the Bible' type walls of dark headed sound, full of dust and a big temp change. No rain. Nexrad looked good on the XM, so I tightened up the straps and dropped to about 2,000' to clear under it. It was a nothing burger. I got back in the pattern at 52F and landed with a 20-25kt wind on the nose from 350. I used runway 35 <grin>.

I got Flash all tucked away and then drove down to Grady's to see what was in the booth. Three RV-10s as it turns out. One was Bruce Lane's. Sorry I didn't get to meet you, Bruce. Your plane is gorgeous. I was home about 4pm - something not possible if done with the car or on the major airlines.

Well anywho, that was my day. I had the Zaon collision avoidance unit humming the whole time (no sweat and it spotted things I didn't catch). I did spot a slugger (non-RV) crossing from my left to right just a smidge above me way off in the distance. It was a tiny black dot in the haze and I could barely pick it up. Right when I was thinking the Zaon was broken, it chirped to life and reported it at 5 miles and 500' above. So *that's* what five miles looks like, I thought. When it was actually a threat, it came to life. I like this thingy - it's educating me. The Spot tracking unit worked as advertised (see pic of day's route above). VERY easy to see where I was (and when). Each blip is ten minutes so you can calculate speed....and all trackable by one of your buds somewhere on the other side of the planet. I can't help but continue to think that the search for Steve Fossett would have been about thirty minutes with this thing.

I got to use my RV to travel to a commercial photography gig. I got to eat chicken with folks with guns strapped to their sides. I got to land on a runway I'd never landed on before.

It was a good day. Thanks again Van!

More pics from the day...(click to view)
 
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