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.