Rosie & Tuppergal's (2nd) Cayman Islands Trip 2009

[Daver]

I heard the hurricane tore the islands up pretty good last year. On Cayman Brac some of the resorts are still closed. How were the conditions of the resort hotels/lodging?

I'm thinking about taking my wife there in June for a 10th anniversary. We're not certified and my wife hasn't had any dive training. Does it make sense to try and get certified there?

I've been following this thread with much interest.

I learned how to dive in Grand Cayman in 1994 - 3 day "crash" course at
Eden Rock.

Until I started my RV project a couple of years ago, we' go back for
diving just about every year.

This RV project is taking all my time & money

I've been showing all these pictures to the wife convince her that, someday, we
will return to the Caymans - maybe even in our own plane!

Dave
just ordered -9A finish kit (due in 1st week of June)

[Louise Hose]

The Dye (I think of it as the Dye-Hose) Hotel also has a two couple maximum, if you want more than a couch. Plenty of room for tie-downs.

Love to have you join us! There's a pilots' BBQ tonight already scheduled!

[scard]

First things first. After Rosie jumps into his PJs, gotta' get a VAF post out.


Really, I do have normal places to sit! Watson stole the show and everybody decided to sit on the floor with him.


Rosie isn't without his party tricks. If you've ever looked closely at your pilot's license, Rosie can read the micro print that makes up the struts on the back.

That was really a fun 12hrs. for us. Come back anytime guys.

[Rosie]

First off, I have to say "Thank You VERY Much" to Scott & Tanya Card for inviting Tuppergal & I AND Carolyn & Gary "Seismo" Zilik into their home with about 2 hours notice from an unexpected phone call that originated in Louisiana!!!!!! When we departed Florida on Tuesday morning, I was aiming for a yet-to-be determined location in the Great State of Texas, and the Card's were there for us ;-)

Here's our SPOT TRACK for the Tuesday flight from Perry to Georgetown (and to San Antonio on Wednesday). I'll double-check but I think total flight time was about 5 hours Perry to Georgetown with one fuel stop at False River (LA).

We arrived into Georgetown (GTU) Tuesday about 4pm and were at the house by 5pm. Bill & Sharon stayed in a nearby hotel as they were going to depart for CA in the morning bright and early (and they arrived safely to Fox Field in Lancaster, CA around 5:30pm PDT. Mercedes Eulitt and Chris & Indira Kleen are also home safe to California and Washington respectively: All the Cayman flyers are home now except for us :-)

After a nice tour of the house, including the air-conditioned garage where they are building an RV-8, we got ready for dinner. We had a super-fun-filled-evening eating at Tanya's favorite Tex-Mex restaurant, on Cinco de Mayo with Mariachi music no less! Afterwards, it was Baskin-Robbins for a cone.

Back at the Card's house, we spent time 'hangar-flying', telling lies relaxing and such... and thanks to the post above, Tanya has shown you all how fast I can get comfortable amongst friends ;-)

In the morning, we played with Watson-the-dog then had breakfast as we watched the morning overcast burn off. Scott dropped us off at the airport around 11am, and we departed a 2-ship for San Antonio.

Victoria caught New Braunfels coming up below the nose and remembered some TV food network show where they had some good food somewhere near there. However, after landing, the FBO had no idea what it might have been :-( So we had a bite of dessert then continued into San Antonio's Stinson Airfield (SSF) where we got the planes secured and rented a car.

We drove directly to the Alamo, and spent about 2 hours there (which I very much enjoyed reading all the history). We then drove over to the site of the 1968 Hemisfair which I attended as a young boy in 1968 (my Dad was raised in San Antonio). We then spent a couple of hours on the Riverwalk and ate Italian food outside enjoying the Riverwalk atmosphere.

We're now back to our room at the 5-star Drury Hotel which the FBO set up for us for a GREAT RATE!

Thursday morning's plan is to fly to Corpus Christi to visit the USS Lexington, and sometime before dark, we plan to fly to the skypark home of Paul & Louise Dye near Houston. They have graciously invited us to stay for two nights, and on Friday, Paul will be giving us a very special tour of the Johnson Space Center, WOW!!!!!!

Saturday morning we'll fly over to the Texas RV Fly-in with Paul & Louise so we hope to see many of the Texas locals then :-) Rosie

Here are pics of the flight from Perry (FL) to Georgetown (TX).

Our weather leaving Perry...


Note the GPS shows Pensacola (PNS) as our destination with the pink line indicating the direct course from Perry to PNS, however, our ground track shows different. See the red/yellow/orange stuff off our right wing?


Victoria took his picture of the same the red/yellow/orange stuff off our right wing...always fly to where the weather is good (and it helps to have XM Weather in the cockpit!)


Here's what we had off the nose. Note compass heading approximates the GPS ground track and thus the reason we stayed flew 'off course'. This path takes us around the big clouds on what I call an "end-run". The red arrow is to match up clouds in the two pictures. We stayed mostly over the water as the clouds were forming over the land.



This is what we found around the corner (this picture taken off the right wing looking north). Staying over the water kept us in the clear.


Left base to runway 18 at False River (HZR), LA.




Weather into Austin (TX), flying at 8,500 ft MSL.


On final to Georgetown (GTU) just north of Austin.

[Rosie]

Leaving the Card's house.

[Rosie]

It's early Friday morning, and I'm just finishing up another fun-filled day here in the State of Texas! The Zilik's and us have been flying here, there and everywhere, and the only gripe I have is this thing called 'morning fog' ;-) In the desert, it's not a matter of 'if' we can fly but 'what time do I want to get up to fly'!

Knowing that it would be foggy in the morning, I slept in until about 0900 then joined the Ziliks and Victoria who were at the breakfast buffet. We killed an hour there then went back to the room to pack-up.

We arrived to the airport around 1100 and were airborne by 1200 when the field was at ~2300' overcast (with scattered clouds a few RV minutes to the south).

We cruised over to Corpus Christi (CRP) at 4500' MSL, and were on final to Runway 13 about an hour later. We landed 2-ship on the 150' wide runway, and we were both shutdown within minutes of landing on the ramp at Atlantic.

We checked in at the front desk, and I found out that, true to the motto "Everything is bigger in Texas", our ramp fee was $25 instead of the $20 I'm used to paying in California ;-)

We were able to get a VW Beetle rental car, and the drive to the USS Lexington took maybe 15 minutes.

I'd never set foot on any Naval Vessel anywhere so I was very excited to be there, and we all had a great time checking out the ship. Carriers are BIG!!!! I must have taken a jillion pictures but have only included a few here.

They bullhorns kicked us off the ship at 1700, and by 1745, we were again rolling down runway 13. After departure, we turned to heading 045 at 7500' MSL (nice cool air up there). We had flight following all the way to Polly Ranch (7XS0) and were also given a Class B clearance in Houston's airspace.

We touched down about 1900 with Ironflight and Louise waving as we rolled by them. We got the planes parked on there ramp, did some hangar flying then went out for an excellent Tex-Mex meal.

Back at the house, more hangar flying ensued then Ironflight and I stayed up visiting (and reading VAF on each of our laptops). He just went to be so I'm turning off the lights tonight in the Dye-Hose houseold ;-)

Here are pics from today's adventure, and we look forward to Ironflight's personal tour of the Johnson Space Center.

We look forward to seeing many of you at the Texas RV fly-in on Saturday at Pecan Plantation, Rosie & Tuppergal





On final to Corpus...




What are these things?!?

[Rosie]

[longranger]

Originally Posted by Rosie

What are these things?!?

Lifeboats?

[Ken]

For offshore drilling and production platforms.

Ken

[dforster]

Thanks for including us in your vacation and flying with us to Pecan Plantation - Avril and I had a great time!

Here's a picture of Gary and Carolyn en route to the fly in:



And here's Rosie and Tuppergal: