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I love Texas

Vlad

Well Known Member
I've never been to TX before and was planning this trip for a while. Several things I needed to activate the plan. Incidental business, stack of charts, the same thickness stack of money, suit and tie. Check, check, check. Ready.


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Up I go. Passing little amish village at a distance.


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By 53VG International, it's not far from a cosmodrome



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a cruise ship nursery of Norfolk



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via burning plains of mid Atlantic



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safely completed leg 1 at a place where fuel is cheap and plenty.


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Tweety One with Tony onboard is about to launch from Florida in opposite direction. We have secret air-to-air frequency to communicate around the globe. It's 12345.
 
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A Bo-pilot was filing I Follow Road the same direction I spied on his weather data. Bill didn't mind. FSS gave tops at 8K and mentioned a brew over Atlanta.

IFR guy was still doing his clearance stuff I hurried up, found big window in the clouds and peacefully settled on top. Called secret freq several times no answer I suspect his scratchy iComs. :D


Then I became somewhat preoccupied it's pretty rare thing when I fly. Didn't have time for camera and there was nothing interesting anyway. Maybe only this guys transitioning from Class A.


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Leg 2 was absolutely unique. It was completed in under three hours. I ended up 30 miles farther back then when I started :D


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It's time for tie downs and motelling.



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How come you parked at the bank?

:D connections connections. :D


Next morning the motel owner drove me via Hardy's to the airport. Bank style terminal lost power at this time. Breakfast and preflight briefing were performed outside. :D



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This time I decided not to go on top. There are some disadvantage to go on the bottom. This is one of majors.


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I had good 3G signal, couple RVators were watching me and sending update along the route. Thanks Ted and Tony.



Weather was in action ahead and I diverted to a nice place with very romantic name Dawson.


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There I spent almost an hour sipping coffee and working hard on a subject they call ADM :D
 
ADM was hard to conquer but I did it. I waited a bit more the line of storms ahead started to dissipate and I launched west toward TX via AL and LA. It was fun ride airport hopping and following the roads. This time the main obstacles were birds they owned the skies below clouds.


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(a disclaimer and focal lens explanation will be inserted here)

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Cousin was in charge of national airspace and was sending me last minutes radar updates :D After mighty Mississippi the workload was easy.


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I even spotted couple of Pierre Smith's competitors. Or was it him?



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This leg will end here. Rusk County Airport with the cheapest AvGas in the nation. $4.19 per gallon thank you Jerry for letting me know.


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Finally in Texas !!!

Where am I? Back in USSR????



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No, it's Texas!!! Rusk is a good place to stop for fuel and snack.


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This is the fuel farm with the cheapest avgas in the nation. There is a local legend that the pump is connected to underground oil well. It cost more to buy premium car gas in NYC.


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This are the snacks.


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After couple minutes rest I launched south. Have an incidental business there. The final leg lasts about an hour and terminates at Giddings Municipal Airport. RV network is the best thank you John Sannizzaro for timely communications. I was this close to failing the mission.


Hospitable Giddings.


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My RV was put in a hangar. I was given a car and sent to a recommended crash pad. Thank you John М for everything. I will be back as promised.


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What's for tomorrow? RV CENTRAL!!!!!
 
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Blue jug?

Silly question blue jug is vodka.:D Cant be taking a little bottle when visiting the boys in texas.
 
When was this? I did Texas (the whole thing, plus LA, MS, AL and GA) on Friday and the weather was similar...
 
He's a traveling man

I found it hard to believe that a young man that test flew his beautiful RV-9A about seven months ago would have over 300 hours on the bird. So I did some reconnaissance work for VAF while he was in North Texas. Here is a shot of Vlad?s tach last week.

By the way I helped put one of those hours on his plane. Great flying plane (really doesn?t need a pilot, it flies itself).

I really enjoyed the visit and lunch, Vlad. I can?t wait to fly up to see you.

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re: "300 hrs in 7 months"

I said nearly the same think the time Vlad and I flew down to Kittyhawk. At his current pace, Vlad will catch up to Turbo !

(Turbo has averaged 28 hrs/month and Vald is burning thru 42 hrs/month)

Turbo, you better get flying ;)
 
The trip is over but impressions are not. I might not follow chronology but facts are facts I was there and it's a wonderland.


Left KGYB and in no time was approaching Hicks. Familiar weather but it was not someplace faraway. Texas is like home.


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Soon I was parked by the Beacon and talked little business with a fellow RVator.


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Didn't see Jay Pratt yet :D
 
I contacted Jay months before the trip and asked if I could stop by to visit. He not only put my RV in his hangar but gave me excellent quarters to stay as long as I wanted.


Stranger RV is chatting with Jay's planes.


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This is very important part of the amenities in the same hangar. Hot water with lots of psi. Everything very neat and clean.


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For those new who does not know Jay Pratt he is the RV Central Boss and VAF #2. He helps workaholic RV builders to finish their planes and get them in the sky. Jay charges small fee for that and his work is perfect. He is a busy man but he will find time for your RV. It's his life. He built about 40 machines and participated in countless other projects. At the time I was there the shop contained 7 projects and one already airworthy airplane.

RV1 was gone couple days ago we crossed paths somewhere in AL. Roy was already back. Scott and 22C were home too.


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That's how RV Central looks from the taxiway.


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I stayed with Jay for three days. Canceled my Bahamas trip and went further west instead. Met fellow RV9 builder and we flew local for food and sightseeing.

Daily RV fix looked like that. Checked local lake.


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Very familiar airport :D I saw it on VAF front page for years.


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Speedway.


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Chuck Norris House :D


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Less familiar airport but several RVs on it too.


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After work Jay drove me around Fort Worth. Showed me amazing places. The most memorable was the shop called "Cheaper then Dirt". By that shop only pick up trucks were parked :D Can anyone guess what kind of shop is it?

Next one was Meacham Field. And so on and so forth...
 
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I flew my compulsory daily routine and by the time I got to the hangar I saw lots of green. St. Patrick's Day!!!!


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I also figured out that Jay would not be that successful without his boss. She rides motorcycle, drives pickup, wear boots and hat, shoots any weapon, pilots airplanes and cooks. Carol rules the house after work.


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Famous feline (her name is Patches) like everybody else in Texas drinks.


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We ate, drunk, told each other lies and folk tales. Why and how I ended up with Boomerang Bomber I don't remember. Was I totally drunk?


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I found it hard to believe that a young man that test flew his beautiful RV-9A about seven months ago would have over 300 hours on the bird. So I did some reconnaissance work for VAF while he was in North Texas. Here is a shot of Vlad?s tach last week.

By the way I helped put one of those hours on his plane. Great flying plane (really doesn?t need a pilot, it flies itself).

I really enjoyed the visit and lunch, Vlad. I can?t wait to fly up to see you.

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Dean the pleasure was mine Sir. Thanks for the excursion and lunch. I had good time.


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We met at T31 and flew to Sulfur Springs for lunch.


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Without you I would never knew where Mel keeps his 17 years old RV :)


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How come you parked at the bank?

Man, that's funny. I actually laughed out loud when I read that; glad I wasn't drinking a beer or it would have been on the keyboard! But, now that you mention it, some of these newer FBOs do look like bank buildings.

I'm diggin' the trip report and pics, makes me want to go fly a big grand adventure somewhere...
 
re: "300 hrs in 7 months"

I said nearly the same think the time Vlad and I flew down to Kittyhawk. At his current pace, Vlad will catch up to Turbo !

(Turbo has averaged 28 hrs/month and Vald is burning thru 42 hrs/month)

Turbo, you better get flying ;)


It's never about hours but destinations. I got bunch of hours in my previous life but could not log them. No goal to catch anybody. It's addiction you just can not stop. Probably I will soon. For a while. Local destinations are exhausted. Cash is low. But a bigger summer trip is under construction. ;)
 
WOW! So WELL Said!

It's never about hours but destinations. I got bunch of hours in my previous life but could not log them. No goal to catch anybody. It's addiction you just can not stop. Probably I will soon. For a while. Local destinations are exhausted. Cash is low. But a bigger summer trip is under construction. ;)

I am kind of feeling my way right now but you so eloquently state the way we used to look at flying. Enjoy it Vlad, both the doing and the sharing.

Bob Axsom
 
Great thread, you are very inspiring, I will be at the airport today working on baffling and the cowl. Your panel is similar to mine, I just need the expensive radio and transponder. Thanks for sharing all the photo's, have great day.

Jim
RV9A
 
Thanks guys for kind words. Those who are still building go to the shop and come back in two hours to read the rest.


... I have one more day to kill. Jay was busy with projects I was getting hungry and plotted a course for lunch. I usually fly cardinal headings this way it's easier to get lost. This time I went deeper West. I heard New Mexico might have a Chinese restaurant with affordable soups.


Taking off as usual weather in TX was not changing for weeks. Settled peacefully on top tuned up a MOA freq and listened to some entertainment. Other side of the radio called somebody "Hazard 13, 14 etc" then they named a flyer T-34 pointing me as a traffic. Fun. The only T-34 I knew was a Soviet WW2 tank.



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So here I troll on 6500' till clouds ended and suddenly I became lower then when I started. Gradually raising terrain is a phenomenon.


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Lots of oil here.


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Some engineering marvels.


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Plenty of airports.


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Destination Carlsbad NM.


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Several runways wind calm unicom dormant.


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Oh boy it's hot here.


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Cooler in the terminal.



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While refueling I met Rev. Mike, an RV-10 owner. We chatted airplanes then Mike drove me to town and we had great lunch at a Chinese Buffet. The soup was really good. The price was even better for me - $00.00. Yes Mike paid :D


I asked him about directions to famous caverns. He said I'll show you and he did.


With high DA, full fuel and athletic Reverend my carbed ponies were struggling to get us level with Guadaloupe peaks. Put more horses under your cowling guys who plan to fly to NM.


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We circled caverns and climbed to a ranger station and science lab.


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Traced the gravel road and looked for a water fall.


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Mike smiled pointing to my N-number and I gave him quick explanation on alphabetical containment. These RV people all have a sense of humor.


Words can not describe my thanks and gratitude Mike if you are reading this. If you are in our woods please let me know. We also have a park here and it's called Central. Recently I've learnt how to do photo ops there...
 
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Road back to TX was familiar.

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MOA people were done with flying tanks and there was no onboard amusement. But outside there were some impressive looks.



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Closer to Dallas weather was the same unchanged for weeks. Clouds, gusty winds.


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Not all landings are created equal. I was luckier and got no gusts. This guy landed maybe 30 minutes after. Nobody was hurt even pride it was a challenging environment indeed.



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It's good to be in right place at right time. :D Walt Aronov of Exp Aircraft was troubleshooting an elusive problem a fellow RVator had for a long time. He emailed me that Walt is visiting his hangar. After Walt was done with his RV8 he immediately started working on my RV9 :D Give your business to Walt this guy is a pro!


Certified my transponder and fixed silent intercom. Thanks Walt.



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Yep, Walt can troubleshoot mag problems via telephone on labor day weekend! I wish he was closer to NJ.
 
Time to go home

Then it was time to go. To go to odd East. I departed early and made it back to NJ in one day.


There was a bit of rodeo on the way back but it was nothing compared to some thunderstorms a week ago.


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I shuffled through odd altitudes to keep clear and the other side of the radio didn't mind not much traffic over Kentucky anyway.


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And then it appeared... Highly recommended.... Absolutely beautiful...
 
Cynthiana!!!!

Picturesque airport in KY.


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Brand new terminal with all bells, whistles and rocking chairs.



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Very reasonable fuel prices.


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.hi
.where are you heading?
.from TX to NJ
.quite a distance huh?
.yep. nice airplane you have.
.thanks. I am Larry Wolf.
.I am Vlad see ya.


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Couple hours more and I was home.


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It was muggy no wind and this guy had some fun by my destination.


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Thank you Texans! I will be back!
 
O I know! O O O Pick me!!

The most memorable was the shop called "Cheaper then Dirt". By that shop only pick up trucks were parked :D Can anyone guess what kind of shop is it?

Guns Vlad, and lots of em!! Everyone here (in Texas) has at least 1 gun and for those that don't I have 1 to 2 in each room. (Have to make up for the non-owners... he he)

Great write up buy the way! Enjoyed every bit!!
 
You are correct Bob. What an impressive store!

BTW Jay Pratt has two times more long barreled guns and three times more pistols then Captain John :D
 
Vlad - it was good to see you again. I wish my travel schedule would have allowed us to spend more time together. Hopefully you'll be back and maybe become a neighbor at Hicks.
 
Vlad - it was good to see you again. I wish my travel schedule would have allowed us to spend more time together. Hopefully you'll be back and maybe become a neighbor at Hicks.


John it was a wonderful trip. I enjoyed every bit of it. Thanks for letting me know about Walt! I will be back sometime mid July and want to see new baffles :) Plenum maybe? ;)
 
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