Terry Has a New Toy!

By the time I arrived at OSP this afternoon, Terry and Brian were already in the air. I got some really nice shots of Terry when he returned.

Don't forget to click on the photos to see them in a larger size.

Terry making a low pass.


No more Fresh Breeze for Terry.

Terry is coming in for a landing. Notice the flag in the background is at half-staff. This is in honor of the soldiers killed at Ft. Hood this week.

Terry carrying his motor back to his truck after his landing.

Brian coming in for his landing.

Brian making the hike back to his truck.

Hopefully this weather holds out. Seems like we're finally getting some flying time in!

Jack

100th Post

I have way too much time on my hands! I made 100 posts!

Travis and I were emailing each other at work discussing how good the weather looked last Tuesday. We decided it was too good to pass up. We headed out to Taylor, only to find they hadn't mowed our field! We found a good area to takeoff from though and we were soon in the air. Even after leaving work at 3:00, it's still hard to get in a good flight as the sun is now setting at 5:45. We did get in almost an hour though in nice smooth conditions. We only landed because we were running out of light.

Here's to 100 more!

The Book

Over the years, I've printed out many photos. I have a good collection in my office at work, I also have given them out as gifts. I like to frame a photo of someone flying with me and give it to them. It's not an expensive gift, it costs me about $3.00 to print an 8X10 photo, then $10.00 for the frame. Still, this adds up.

I checked into making a book of photos. I found it to be reasonable, not cheap, but not too bad. In this book, my first one, there are 80 pages of nothing but photos. To print these would have cost me up to $240, so I'm happy to say the book is only $26.95 for a soft cover, and up to $39.95 for the hard cover. I have the option of adding a profit, but I chose not to. This is the price the vendor charges me, you order it directly from them. I only want to share my photos.

Check it out. Even if you're not interested in buying one, take a look and give me a review. Also, I'm working on the next one now! The next one will take a little longer. It's not going to be just photos, it will explain PPCs as I see them. I will have chapters such as: Takeoffs, Air-to-Air Photography, Air-to-Ground Photography, Fly-Ins, & Landings. Preview the book here: http://www.blurb.com/user/store/flynlow

Here are some screenshots to give you an idea:

Jack

Beeville Chute Out

Travis and I headed down to Beeville, TX to join the BARF (Bay Area Recreational Flyers) group for their 6th annual Halloween Chute Out. We had a good time and I got in a few flights. Everyone there was very welcoming. I'm looking forward to next year!

We got in a short afternoon flight Friday afternoon.

Saturday morning, we got up early and headed to the lake where a group of Rick & Fletch's friends had breakfast waiting for us.

On short final for breakfast!

I took this on the way back to Beeville. It was nice of this farmer to make such a cool picture!

Back at Beeville!

See you guys next year! Thanks for throwing a great event!

Jack

Luecke

I've been trying to get everyone to head out to Smithville for awhile. Today was the day. A rancher cleared his trees for cattle, and spelled out his name! I've heard that NASA uses it for calibration as it can be seen from so high up and is so accurate.

Chip, Chris, Scott, Bill and I all showed up, so it was a lot of fun. They were laughing at my windshield I made, but they landed before I did because they were cold! I was nice and comfy behind my new piece of plexiglass!

Here's a photo from Google Maps.


These are the first photos I have of Chip with his new parachute.

You can see his shadow coming through his parachute!

Chip flying toward the "U".

I love it when the light shines through like this!

A couple of Bill.

Here's his shadow no the underside of the chute!

Chris and his son Dustin going in for a closer look.

Bill and Chip flying by the "E".

Scott posing!

Chasing Bill.

Hope you liked them!

Before the Fly-In

I'm a little late adding this post. The fly-in was 9/27.

We had a local fly-in yesterday. We got there early to get a flight in before all of the GA traffic arrived. It was a little foggy, which made for some neat photos. Chris and his daughter Maddie know how to pose! Travis flew with us too, but he was behind me and then headed back early to meet his wife and son to check out the airplanes.

Tree Shadows


Cow Shadows

A Smart Car Shadow

Chris and his daughter Maddie flying over the river.

We were headed back to the fly-in. It was foggy, but some of the photos came out okay.

Sunday Morning Flying Low

Only Chris and I could make it out to fly today. He brought his oldest son, Dustin. It was perfect flying weather. We took off on 18, landed on 35! After flying for an hour, we landed. I added more fuel and turned around to depart 18 again. As I was doing this, we heard Hubert landing in his Kitfox. Chris walked over and got a ride with him. I went up for another 30 minutes. Now I'm tired and must sleep!




I'm pretty sure we were in Taylor.

I've taken photos of this barn from outside, inside, and now above!

What makes you ask if we were in Hutto?

A coyote? Whatever it was, it didn't know which way to run!

Travis couldn't make it out to fly, but he spotted us near his house and drove out.

Chris on base for three-five.

On final.

Umm, dude... I'm over here!

This is a good example of the wind we had a few weeks ago.

This old building was seriously damaged too. I hope they save most of it, it's from the 1800's.

You might ask, Jack, is this a school? No, it's a prison! This is where we kept entire families waiting for departation. Enough people protested, now they moved them to Kentucky.

Dustin learning to taxi.

So I shove this thingy all the way forward?? Just kidding, he did a great job.

See you next time... Jack

My Day Off

I had Monday off for Labor day so I decided to use a couple of vacation days to make a mini-vacation. I dragged my butt out of bed this morning to go for a flight. Since we flew to Rockdale on Monday, I thought it would be cool to fly from there. It's about 45 minutes from my house, so I left around 5:30. I kept seeing lightening off in the distance as I was driving, but it appeared to be far off and it was clear above me. I decided it was worth the drive; I would evaluate the weather when I arrived.

As the sun was coming up, it was clear except near the horizon and the wind was barely moving at all. I was off!

I've been bragging to my PPG buddies that I never have a blown launch, so of course I did! My wing went all the way to the left and stayed there. I pushed a little right steering bar and it came up, but went right back down. I repeated this a few times, but I had used 1/3 of the runway, so I just shut down and setup again. I don't know what was wrong the first time, but the second launch was perfect.

I decided to fly around Alcoa, which is a large plant that makes Aluminum Powder and mines lignite. It was very smooth flying, but I was only getting around 17mph on the way out. That became 36 when I was coming back! When I landed, some guys who work for the city came out to greet me. They had never seen a powered parachute so I showed it to them and answered all of their questions.

As I was driving back home, the skies got ugly! It still hasn't rained, but they say it's on the way.

The skies looked nice as the sun was rising.



ALCOA

I learned today this is called Lignite or brown coal. It's the lowest form of coal.

I wasn't sure how this would come out. I like it.

Here's a shot of the Rockdale Train Museum. This one's for my little buddy Andrew. He likes trains, especially the caboose.

A closer shot. I didn't see these guys watching me when I was taking the photo!

Till next time... Jack

Labor Day - Part 2

Well after part one of my Labor Day, I was worn out. The winds actually looked pretty good for this evening, but I didn't even consider going up! I went to Old Settler's Park to see if any of my PPG buddies were flying and sure enough they were there. Brian, Glen, and Alt were all kiting when I arrived. Tim showed up later, but he's still waiting on his Green Eagle (way past due!), so he was just a spectator like me. It turned out to be a little windy, so they only got a short flight in before sunset.

I had my 70-200 lens on and didn't feel like changing it. This is a close-up of Glen's wing.

Alt's Wing

Alt right after takeoff.

Glen preparing to spin around and run for his reverse launch.

Glen flying off into the blue skies.

Alt flying by!

Brian coasting in for a dead-stick landing.

Glen coming in for a landing.

Hope you guys had as much fun as I did on my day off!

Labor Day - Part One

I'm exhausted. We got up early since the winds were predicted to be very low. The forecasters got it right for once! It was Travis, Chris, Bill & me. We decided to do a cross-country flight to Rockdale. My GPS said it was 22.5 miles. You might remember from another post here that my EGTs are low and Marty pointed out that was contributing to my high fuel consumption. I have a 10-gallon tank, but I burn about 5 gph. As we were nearing Rockdale, I was getting close to an hour and had slightly over half a tank. When we landed, I was seeing about 1 inch over the halfway mark, so I wasn't too worried. We knew if we climbed to over 2,000 we'd have a tailwind and sure enough it was there. Still, 2 full hours of flying leaves me no reserve and it's a mistake I don't plan to duplicate!

Travis can actually outrun me when he has a passenger!


I kept startling cattle. I really hate it when this happens.

A lonely tree.


Travis on short final for one-seven at Rockdale.


This pilot greeted us when we landed. He was off in his Cessna Cardinal to pick up his son for a ride.

Travis was going to do a touch-n-go, but then he realized Chris was taking off, so he did a quick left turn out to clear the way.

Bill flying below me.


I was just in this building a few weeks ago. We had some big storms with high wind. This building was damaged and it appears they're tearing it down.


We're back home! You can see our trucks and trailers on the road to the right of the runway.

Hope you enjoyed them!

91st Blog!

Several years ago I heard about this thing they call a Blog. It's like a diary, but much manlier! Now I just noticed I'm at 91 posts!!! Hard to believe. We'll have to find a way to celebrate 100.

Travis and I got up at the crack of dawn this morning to get some air-time. The rest of the group decided to sleep in. I can't say I blame them, but they missed some good flying.

Georgetown AWOS was reporting 6 - 8 mph winds when we were expecting 3 mph, but it seemed to be steady so we decided to head on up. I took off first while Travis and his passenger Steve were setting up. I wasn't making much progress into the wind, but it was a smooth wind.

I flew the river for awhile and then we headed to Granger Lake. I circled a man who was jumping up and down waving at me. Hopefully he was a friendly!

Travis and I were both a little concerned about the winds. They were picking up quickly. We were going almost 50 mph on the way back to the airport. When we have to land to the North, we have to come over trees and the rotors usually kick us around. Today wasn't bad though, it was a little bumpy, but close to the ground it was smooth. I had a nice landing and taxied right up to my trailer. It was a good day for flying!

We had decent winds tonight, but I'm tired and not planning on going anywhere. Maybe in the morning...

This looks like it was once a nice mansion! Now it's run down with broken down cars scattered all around it.

A couple of shots for Robert Laird!

Windmill Shadows are hard to find!

My camera couldn't catch the beauty of the sun shining on these trees. I would sure hate to go down here.

This picnic table at Granger Lake had a neat shadow.

Granger Lake Dam

You've got to get up early to see shadows this long.

I love the patterns of fields!

This wasn't one of my better photos, but what a cool shadow!

Garage in the way? Go around it!

I know these farmers spend a lot of time making their fields look nice just for me!

Be back soon!

Jack

Rathan's First Flight

It's been a month since we've flown. It's just windy and dry here in Central Texas. Finally this morning looked perfect, starting off with 1 MPH winds. My buddy Rathan came out for a ride with Chris and Bill drove in from Buda, so we had a big group.

It was a day of many firsts. Rathan got his first flight. A guy Chris works with came out and brought his son (it was his birthday) and they both got their first rides too.

It was also my first texting while flying! Shortly after we took off, I saw Travis heading back to the airport. When I couldn't get him on the radio, I texted him!

It went like this: "RU OK" His reply: "Yes. No comm. Came back to switch headsets. Taking of in a min." You have to love modern technology!

Chris and Rathan

Chris and Rathan

Bill down low. This will now be known as Touch-N-Go Road.

Scott on the left, Chris and Rathan on the right.

I finally got a nice shot of Scott!

Touch-N-Go Island

Scott again!

Chris and Rathan

Scott flying the beach!

Not my best photo, but I liked the sun in Scott's wing.

It must be tough to be so poor!

Birthday Boy!

This was my second flight of the day. Just following Hwy 79.
Bill and Chris on their second flight.

Travis is feeling left out! I didn't get a single photo of him this time. I'm not sure why either! I guess I got such good photos of him last time, I forgot him this time!

Hopefully I'll be making more posts if the weather gets better.

Jack

Storms are Coming!!

What can I say about today? One word sums it up - Wow! Travis and I were watching radar and weather reports last night and I thought there was a 50% chance we'd get to fly this morning. I had to put a tube in one of my tires on the PPC, so I was working on it and managed to hurt my already bad hip. I wasn't sure I would be able to get out of bed today! Then the alarm clock went off, I got up and checked outside, it was beautiful and my hip didn't hurt too much, so we were off.

Chris and I met up on the highway and when we got there Scott and Travis were already there. We got setup and headed off into great, no wind conditions. It was just great flying weather.

We saw some hot air balloons again and tried to get too them, but the best I got was a photo of one of them after he had landed. Maybe the dark clouds building to the North convinced them to land!

After we landed, a cop was there, and not for the normal friendly conversations we've had with them. He said we had flown over a "No Fly Zone", the building right next to the airport apparently controls the electric grid for the entire state. It's not on the chart, but instead of telling him to get lost, we just said we would stay away. Gotta love un-informed police!

By the way, it's 3:00 and still hasn't rained! We're very cautious.

Click on these for larger versions.

Check out the sun coming through Chris' sails.

Travis doing a touch-n-go on Runway 17.

The Twin-Beech ready to go. Check out the very cool shadow of the plane!

I almost didn't post this photo, but again, check out their shadows!

Scott and his son.

My Shadow. Some crops are doing well, others are dead.

Chris and his daughter Maddie.


Is that Maddie smiling at me :-)

Pretty tight landing zone!

Hey Travis come over here and let me get some photos.

Umm, maybe not that close! Check out that "S"-eating grin!

Taking a photo of you taking a photo of me taking a.....

Chris deflating his wing as Scott turned final.

Trying Out a PPC

Travis took Glen up for a ride in a Powered Parachute. Glen owns and flies a Powered Paraglider now and is thinking PPCs might be fun too :-)

Travis' Pegasus




Travis and Glen hiding from the harsh sun!


Travis warming up the PPC.


Preflight

This Cessna was doing touch-n-goes.

Inflation - notice they're both looking back at the parachute.

Rolling Preflight - this is where we make sure everything looks good on the parachute.

Ready to takeoff.

And they're off...

They're back. This photo makes it look stormy!

They were packing up and I was chasing the sunset!

I hope to have more soon!

Jack

Early to Rise

Travis and his brother-in-law, J.D. joined me early this morning at Taylor. It was worth getting up early! We had a nice flight, but I headed back early when I lost my electrical system. I think it's fixed now, but I guess I'll find out next time I fly!

Travis and J.D. getting ready in the dark.

I'm setup and ready to go.

Plaid field!

Downtown Austin

Travis spotted this balloon and we were off to chase it.

A Golf Course