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