Saturday morning I pulled the airplane out of the hangar at 6:50 AM with the weather man promising a beautiful day. After a call to Craig, and finding him still in bed, I figured I had the morning "magic hours" all to myself. "Five niner four tango lima you are cleared for takeoff." Easing in the throttle the Lycoming springs to life. Seconds later the tail lifts up and before I know it I'm climbing at 100 mph. Leveling off at 2,500 feet the ground speed quickly climbs to 203 MPH, hmmm must be a tailwind up here. I can see for miles. Ahhhh this is why I fly.An hour later my phone vibrates with a text message. Craig is at the airport ready to fly. Back to the airport I go with a three point landing on runway 17. Craig spent seven years building his airplane and this is going to be his third flight. He has only flown above the airport and this morning I am going to escort him out south of the DFW area so he can "shake her down."
After an hour of flying we head back to the airport for Craig to pull the cowling and make sure everything is okay with his engine. Good news...no oil leaks!!! As the cowling goes on, the cell phone rings. "Tim...Clint here... I'm at Lancaster Airport....where are we flying for lunch?" I tell him that we have a flight of five airplanes going to Granbury, Texas and to hang tight; Craig and I will fly over to fly along with him to Granbury. Now we have six planes flying out for lunch.
At Granbury airport we take two courtesy cars in to town for lunch. Following lunch and a walk around the town square it was back to the airport.
A flight of four of us flew in loose trail up the Brazos River toward Bridgeport, Texas for gas. Nothing like a flight of follow the leader around the curves of a river while 100' feet off the water. What a blast!
Following a quick flight back to Grand Prairie I push the airplane back in the hangar and wipe off the bugs. The sun is setting as I roll the hangar door closed and head for home.
Sunday after church, Craig jumped into the back of my airplane and we headed down to Clint’s place which is called Coyote Field. Coyote Field is a short 2,500 grass runway.
Clint lives there with his two dogs and his three airplanes.
After the airplanes posed for a bunch of pictures we went airborne for several air to air shots
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What a weekend!!! Six hours of flying and for once the weather man was right.
7 comments:
I am not sure life gets much better than this. Wow! Nothing like going somewhere different to eat lunch, and also to have quite a following!!! Go Enjoy Life!!!
Love the pics!!!
Later,
Barb
Looks like a lot of fun!!!
Tim,
I had to ask Carma who "Tim Lebaron" was and she gladly told me. I'm sure we could spend several hours sharing stories! I sure would like to meet you sometime and hear more about your job, etc. You can go to youtube.com and search for "helicopter saw" and the first video in the list will give you a good idea of what I do for a living.
Thanks for stopping by.
Dan
Tim,
I would love to build an RV-8...maybe someday. Right now I'm a pilot flying Lear 40/45's and a Falcon 20. I do come to Texas alot and would love to know where you live and maybe come by and take a look at your RV sometime. Take care!
Joe
Hey Tim!
Talk about a blast from the past! It's good to hear from you. We live south of Dallas (but west of Lancaster!) in Duncanville...close to Executive Airport...fly in anytime! My 4 year old is facinated with airplanes...she asked me the other day if swinging high in her swing was like flying...she's never been in an airplane and is just sure she's missing out...never mind that the last time the twins flew they were 9 months old and don't remember! Seriously, come by sometime. I'm actually going to be going to Corpus for my RN clinicals. I'm FINALLY (after 21 years of being an LPN/LVN) getting an RN and Corpus was the best place for the bridge program.
Men and their toys!
I’m envious however, the closest thing to fun we women do is...(drum roll please) is... shopping and you know how I despise window-gawking.
Hi Tim, Love the Blog!! I still owe you those pictures of Dad with his Wright Flyer and hope to find the time to scan them and send them to you soon.
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