A couple of weeks ago I decided it was time to start looking at planes. It was the first Saturday of the month so I arranged to meet a Cessna 140 owner in McGregor where they have a monthly EAA meeting and pancake breakfast for Chapter 59.
Chris and I met at Georgetown and flew in his 172 over to Temple to meet up with Travis. Travis had his plane out and ready to go when we got there. He led the way as we taxied out with two other planes also headed to McGregor.
It was a short flight over to McGregor and we were soon on the ground. We visited with other pilots and eventually I saw a Cessna 140 fly over. It was the plane I was waiting on.
When he parked, I was quickly over there looking the plane over. It was a pretty nice airplane that needed nothing to be a safe hour-building plane. It needed quite a few things cosmetically and a lot of them were beyond my abilities. I would have to pay someone to do them, so I decided to keep looking. Luckily I already had a meeting scheduled to look at another one in the afternoon.
We loaded up into the planes and flew over to Stephenville for some BBQ at Hard 8. It was a long walk in the heat, but we survived and soon had more food than we could eat. It was good though. On the way back we saw a skydiver landing. They had some good looking, umm, scenery there and somehow we changed course to walk by!
We took off and flew over to Cleburne. Travis can’t fly into controlled airspace, so he jumped into the back of Chris’ plane and we headed to Arlington to meet Gary and look at his 140.
When we pulled up to the plane, I knew it was the one. Unless I found something terribly wrong with it, I would own this plane. Well, I didn’t find anything wrong with it! I made a deal with Gary and hope to pick it up this weekend. I hoped to pick it up last weekend, but it was raining!
We ended up talking for quite some time. I would sit in the plane and then walk around it looking at every inch. Eventually I ran out of airplane to look at and I was hot and dehydrated, so we decided it was time to go. Apparently I was very tired… I didn’t take any photos! I have a few from Gary though.
We flew back over to Cleburne so Travis could get his plane. On the flight back storms were building up just East of Temple and I was a little worried about Travis making it in safely. I wonder if he heard the concern in my voice?! He did make it though and it poured on him on the drive home. Not something you want to meet in the air.
Chris and I made it back to Georgetown and I was soon on my way home dreaming about my new airplane. Hopefully I’ll have some new adventures to share soon.
Jack "Cessna Flyin" Fleetwood
