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Taking advantage of a TDY

majuro15

Well Known Member
I?ve been TDY (temporary duty) at Sheppard AFB, located in lovely Wichita Falls, Texas, for about two months. While this place chalks up to the armpit of the Midwest, I was determined to get out and enjoy myself during the three months that I?m here. Luckily, another class mate, Justin, in my Aircraft Maintenance Officer training is a private pilot and we quickly found a few great places to airport bum meeting some great folks and getting a few flights under our belts. John Hooker, located at Wichita Valley Airport (F14), built a very nice RV-10 several years ago and was happy to show me around and give me some tips. Ironically, a unique feature spurred my memory and after digging through Oshkosh photos from four years ago, I realized I had seen his airplane in person. When we couldn?t find any good reason not to fly, he offered to take me for a quick hop along the Red River and gave me plenty of stick time. I?ve been attending the weekly Sunday evening social at F14 whenever my schedule permits.
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The most exciting opportunity came with a visit to Houston and an amazing contact from VAF.net. Gaylon Koeining built, in my opinion, one of the best RV-10s flying. His choices and methods align very closely to my build and he has had to make a few modifications that I expect to make as well. After emailing back and forth for a few years, I finally got the chance to visit him in person. Gaylon was gracious enough to invite me down and show off his beautiful airplane.

My classmate was up for the adventure and we decided to make a weekend out of it by renting a very well running, very poorly equipped, but most importantly very cheap 172 to fly down south. At just under 100 knots, it was a three hour flight with a fuel stop at College Station. By the time we landed, we were down to only the nav and position lights working with no taxi, landing, or beacon light operable. You get what you pay for.
IMG_2163-900x675.jpg

Carl Martin, who owns and flies a RV-6A, was kind enough to host us for the weekend.*The community that exists in aviation, especially the RV neighborhood, never ceases to amaze me.* He saw a post of mine about heading south and in two weeks, had a **** of a weekend lined up for us.* He met us at Pearland Rgnl (LVJ) and had a hangar waiting for our crappy 172 that didn't deserve the shelter.* Dinner was lined up with a coworker from NASA and her husband, a retired USAF Col, who had some great stories.* After a few drinks at their house, we got some rest for a big day on Saturday.

The morning was spent at Gaylon's hangar home at Polly Ranch (7XS0).* He had the top cowling off and was ready for my endless barrage of questions.* Conversation flowed for several hours with a lot of technical discussion and tips/tricks being shared.* I took a ton of close up pictures to use as reference and really benefited from his experience.* Gaylon is an amazing guy who shared all of his secrets and even gave me ideas on making his ideas better.* I only hope I can pass my experience on one day as he did for me.* My biggest take aways from his build were around the Show Planes cowl, cooling, SDS EFI, and air conditioning setup.* It was also great to see Jonathan's (Plane Schemer) paint work up*close.* Truly show quality that gives me motivation to finish my build.
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IMG_2173-675x900.jpg
IMG_2186-675x900.jpg

After lunch, Carl whisked us over to Songbird Ranch (91TS) where we met up with his close friends and formation partners.* One of them has built several RV's including a very nice 10 and really cool 7.* After a little hangar talk the guys organized a three ship and each one of us climbed in a plane to go have some fun underneath the 3000' ceiling.* I went with Nick in the 10 while my buddy and Carl got seat time in the RV-7 and RV-4, most of that time being spent in close formation with us or upside down!* Nick was awesome and gave me the stick the whole flight, even trusting me with a crosswind landing on his 30' wide private strip.* It wasn't pretty, but I got us down and logged another RV-10 landing in the log book.
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With Saturday almost as good as Oshkosh, Justin and I thought Sunday would be a day of rest while waiting for weather to improve to fly our allegedly IFR certified 172 back VFR to CWC.* Little did we know it would turn into a behind the scenes tour at the Collings Foundation with a quick pit stop at the Houston Space Center.* Carl seems to know everyone who flies in Houston thanks to his time at NASA, so we checked out another guy's RV-4 and v-tailed Bonanza at Ellington Field.* Sitting on the ramp, we saw a ME-262 and while checking it out, got called into the restoration hangars to climb all over the foundation's F-100, A-4, and F-4, all of which were in flying condition.
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With winds at our backs and enough of a ceiling to skud run north, we climbed in the 172, now with only the position and right nav working (shhh don't tell the FAA), and launched towards Kickapoo.* The tail wind had us screaming over the ground at 130 knots and got us back on base by 1500.* It was an amazing weekend thanks to so many people, especially Carl Martin who played host, tour coordinator, chauffeur, friend, and co-pilot.* What we thought would be just a nice weekend away from Sheppard turned into a trip to remember.* Now, only another month until I can get back to work on my 10 and start taking advantage of the amazing capabilities of general aviation!
 
Wow! Sounds like a great adventure. Great photos thank you for sharing your trip.

Best regards,
Mike Bauer
 
Great post Tim. Sounds like an awesome weekend that you could almost call a reward for putting up w/ 2 months TDY there!

Doug
Seattle area
 
Nice report! I think the difference between a great 172 and a crappy 172 is the adventure!
 
Thanks for coming! And for your current military service!

Tim and Justin, it was great to have you come and visit. With connections through Doug?s VAF Forum great adventures are possible!

Lone Star Squadron is a great group of pilots in the Southeast Houston area, and I?m also thrilled just to catch a backseat formation ride.

Thanks for the great write-up, see you at Osh!

Carl
..
 
I?ve been TDY (temporary duty) at Sheppard AFB, located in lovely Wichita Falls, Texas, for about two months. While this place chalks up to the armpit of the Midwest, I was determined to get out and enjoy myself during the three months that I?m here. Luckily, another class mate, Justin, in my Aircraft Maintenance Officer training is a private pilot and we quickly found a few great places to airport bum meeting some great folks and getting a few flights under our belts. John Hooker, located at Wichita Valley Airport (F14), built a very nice RV-10 several years ago and was happy to show me around and give me some tips. Ironically, a unique feature spurred my memory and after digging through Oshkosh photos from four years ago, I realized I had seen his airplane in person. When we couldn?t find any good reason not to fly, he offered to take me for a quick hop along the Red River and gave me plenty of stick time. I?ve been attending the weekly Sunday evening social at F14 whenever my schedule permits.
IMG_1679-675x900.jpg





The most exciting opportunity came with a visit to Houston and an amazing contact from VAF.net. Gaylon Koeining built, in my opinion, one of the best RV-10s flying. His choices and methods align very closely to my build and he has had to make a few modifications that I expect to make as well. After emailing back and forth for a few years, I finally got the chance to visit him in person. Gaylon was gracious enough to invite me down and show off his beautiful airplane.

My classmate was up for the adventure and we decided to make a weekend out of it by renting a very well running, very poorly equipped, but most importantly very cheap 172 to fly down south. At just under 100 knots, it was a three hour flight with a fuel stop at College Station. By the time we landed, we were down to only the nav and position lights working with no taxi, landing, or beacon light operable. You get what you pay for.
IMG_2163-900x675.jpg

Carl Martin, who owns and flies a RV-6A, was kind enough to host us for the weekend.*The community that exists in aviation, especially the RV neighborhood, never ceases to amaze me.* He saw a post of mine about heading south and in two weeks, had a **** of a weekend lined up for us.* He met us at Pearland Rgnl (LVJ) and had a hangar waiting for our crappy 172 that didn't deserve the shelter.* Dinner was lined up with a coworker from NASA and her husband, a retired USAF Col, who had some great stories.* After a few drinks at their house, we got some rest for a big day on Saturday.

The morning was spent at Gaylon's hangar home at Polly Ranch (7XS0).* He had the top cowling off and was ready for my endless barrage of questions.* Conversation flowed for several hours with a lot of technical discussion and tips/tricks being shared.* I took a ton of close up pictures to use as reference and really benefited from his experience.* Gaylon is an amazing guy who shared all of his secrets and even gave me ideas on making his ideas better.* I only hope I can pass my experience on one day as he did for me.* My biggest take aways from his build were around the Show Planes cowl, cooling, SDS EFI, and air conditioning setup.* It was also great to see Jonathan's (Plane Schemer) paint work up*close.* Truly show quality that gives me motivation to finish my build.
img_2995-900x506.jpg
IMG_2173-675x900.jpg
IMG_2186-675x900.jpg

After lunch, Carl whisked us over to Songbird Ranch (91TS) where we met up with his close friends and formation partners.* One of them has built several RV's including a very nice 10 and really cool 7.* After a little hangar talk the guys organized a three ship and each one of us climbed in a plane to go have some fun underneath the 3000' ceiling.* I went with Nick in the 10 while my buddy and Carl got seat time in the RV-7 and RV-4, most of that time being spent in close formation with us or upside down!* Nick was awesome and gave me the stick the whole flight, even trusting me with a crosswind landing on his 30' wide private strip.* It wasn't pretty, but I got us down and logged another RV-10 landing in the log book.
IMG_2213-900x675.jpg
IMG_2218-900x672.jpg


wow, that looks like so much fun my man. gaylon's plane is fricking awesome!
 
Deodorant...

I’ve been TDY (temporary duty) at Sheppard AFB, located in lovely Wichita Falls, Texas, for about two months. While this place chalks up to the armpit of the Midwest, I was determined to get out and enjoy myself during the three months that I’m here.

Tim,
There are a few worse armpits than SPS out there, Balad Iraq comes to mind.... Since I live not too far away I can certainly relate.:)
If you guys get bored, stop in with the Ten...

V/R
Smokey
 
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ShowPlanes

Interested in hearing about the ShowPlanes cowl he used. Looks like he had some issues with fitment because of his A/C compressor. Other than that, was he glad he did it? Any tips/tricks? How about flying performance, any difference?
 
Josh, check out Gaylon's website, www.texasrv10.com/wordpress. He has a lot of good information and pictures.

The AC compressor caused some issues, yes, both in fit and in cooling. Short story, I'm going to machine a different mount which will lower the compressor out of the intake opening (but will require a blister on the cowl). Otherwise, the cowl works very well with the Barrett cold air induction system and some like the looks better than stock.
 
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