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The Texas Loop

Capt Sandy

Well Known Member
Hello VAF'ers!
This past week our magic carpet has taken us from Lake Havasu, Arizona to Fredricksburg, Texas. Of course we did not take the straight route. Here are some highlights - Working Backwards:

Today we’re headed to T31, Areo Country, in McKinney, Texas.

Fredricksburg, T82, Yesterday we arrived at The Hangar Hotel for a bit of R&R, resting from our travels as it were. The officers club is a nice place to relax, have a drink and play billiards. We sort of needed the drink after the 30 knot cross wind landing. Hangar Hotel is plush, but no easily available ground transport. We found a couple of restaurants within walking distance. Hilda’s Tortilla House was our choice. Great Food. Reasonable price, and the tortillas really are handmade.

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Georgetown Municipal, KGTU, near Austin, Texas. Visit with Roy’s cousin, David. Great BBQ at the Salt Lick Restaurant, and did a bit of hiking. The photo of the Blue Bonnets was taken at a park David was instrumental in building. Georgetown has a nice terminal building and reasonable fuel. It’s a busy airport with USAF trainers and ATP touch and go’s. Also lots of birds in the area, just to make it a little more exciting.

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Brenham Municipal, 11R – borrowed the courtesy car and visited the home of Blue Bell Ice Cream. Fun, informative visitor’s center and only a $1 for a scoop! Brenham airport is a destination in itself this time of year as the field around the runway is COVERED in wildflowers. I tried to get some photos as we were taking off, but our plane had to pop in to the air due to admiring gaze of on-lookers. “Beautiful plane,” one fellow told Roy he was getting fuel. “Nice panel,” the other said. Nothing makes a plane pop off the ground faster than Panel Envy.

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Fields of Blue Bonnets from the air. This photo doesn't do it justice.
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David Wayne Hooks, KDWH, near Tomball, Texas. Visited our friends Paul and Maria. Roy and Paul worked together ‘back in the day’ at Compaq and was Best Man at their wedding. We went driving to see Blue Bonnets, watched the Astros win at Minute Maid Park, and visited NASA Houston Space Center. Maria is a docent for the Saturn 5 rocket.

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As we were leaving DWH, we ran in to our friend and fellow VAF’er. He said he was waiting for passengers (the fancy plane he was flying is in the background), saw an RV at the fuel pump and wandered over to see who it was. So nice to run in to friends in unexpected places. (left to right, fellow VAF’er Taco, Roy and our friends Paul and Maria)

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Coleman Municipal Airport, KCOM. Fill the plane. Empty the people. Nice airport. Web site says it was updated in 2003.


Belen, New Mexico, E80. See previous post on Big Airplane, No Runway Lights. But first, hop on over to Penny’s Diner for some great grub.
 
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Holy cow! I don't think I've ever seen Taco with actual shoes on. I bet he walks funny. His backup flip-flops must have had a blowout!
 
Nice report Sandy! Completely forgot about Hangar Hotel is on the list now. PM is heading your way... :)
 
I can sympathize with you on the 30 knot wind at Fredericksburg - we landed at Dumas (up in teh panhandle) yesterday on our way back from SnF, and the winds were 35, gusting to 45 at the time. Fortunately, they were pretty close to runway heading, and we were in a CJ3+, not an RV. I don’t think it would have been possible to taxi an RV taildragger in those conditions - it was bad enough in the slick nose dragger jet.

Paul
 
Hello Paul,
For sure, 30 knots right on the beam makes for an exciting landing. The next one at Aero Country was only slightly less exciting. We were happy to be on the ground and even happier to have 174RT in the hangar before the hailstorm arrived. We left our RV there with the Buono's, then headed off to Honduras for scuba diving. Our subsequent flights and landings after returning to the U.S. were so Uneventful! "Ahhh.... no cross-wind.." we said to each other. "Makes it so much easier!"
Regards,
Sandra
 
Thanks, Vlad! Antelope Valley is on our list for next year per your recommendation. And.... what is 'PM?"
Regards,
Sandy
 
Thanks, Vlad! Antelope Valley is on our list for next year per your recommendation. And.... what is 'PM?"
Regards,
Sandy


It a private message take a look in upper right corner of the screen. Right under the Garmin ad. I have an off topic question :)
 
The Texas Loop finale and Sort of an RV Trip

Hello Again VAF'ers!
Shortly after my last post on our Texas Loop, Roy and I parked 174RT at Aero Country where Dave and Alina were our gracious hosts. The morning after tucking our plane away in their hangar, the four of us drove to DFW to board a Big Silver Tube. Our destination: Roatan, Honduras. Our mission: Scuba Diving. Several other RV-fliers, from last year?s trip to the Antilles, were joining us, and already at DFW, having flown in from L.A. and the Mid-West. Rosie and Victoria, Gene and Janet ? so wonderful to see them again, and to be going on another adventure together, even if it was in a Big Silver Tube. Andrew aka Sharkbait also joined us, but took a more adventurous route through Central America and met us in Roatan.
What a great group to travel with. We had a blast!

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Rosie and I

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Roy and our Dive Master, Alex

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My Mermaid Self

And if our trip wasn?t already wonderful enough, when we arrived back in the U.S. Roy and I, and Dave and Alina met up with Scott and Tanya Card at the Hard 8 BBQ. Our three planes constituted Bravo Flight on last year?s Antilles trip, where we all experienced (as Scott said) some ?Steely-Eyed Aviating?.
Wonderful Reunion for Bravo Flight and Wow, the BBQ was awesome!

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Bravo Flight Re-United

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Now THAT's some BBQ!!

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Bravo Flight at the Hard 8

There?s much more to the rest of our Texas loop ? some interesting, some surprising in a fun way, and more surprises in a not fun way. Best for a blog post. Stay tuned.
What a wonderful community we are a part of! Big Hugs, Bravo Flight and all you RV-Fliers!

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Tanya aka Cookie and Scott
 
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