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And here we are at the Liverett’s …..

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And then on the way home…  With a couple of pic’s of Chris with a 6 pointer…

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On long XC’s, I prefer to have the longest leg the first leg. I’ve made the trip from KMUT to KSAT a couple times and had originally planned a fuel stop at Paris, TX for a couple reasons. Nice facilities and more importantly, an opportunity to met fellow RV10 builder Dr Fred. Unfortunately, head winds of 25-35 knots pushed Paris just a little past my comfort zone with fuel reserves so maybe Paris next trip. Linda and I launched from Muscatine, IA (KMUT) at around 9:30 with a fuel stop planned for Poteau, OK (KRKR). We stayed low until we crossed the razorback ridges in Arkansas then climbed a bit to get out of the bumps. Landed at KRKR for fuel behind a National Guard helicopter. KRKR is a nice fuel stop. Self service fuel (even though they pumped it for me), friendly folks, recently paved runway and extremely important for the co-pilot… clean restrooms. Highly recommend KRKR.

We launched for KSAT after a brief bit of leg stretching. Climbed out of the valley at Poteau, picked up our IFR clearance and we were on top of a solid layer. I’ve flown to San Antonio 3-4 times in the last 6 months and I tend to just go on into KSAT if it is IFR or late at night. Otherwise, I’ll try Bourne Stage field. This trip was to KSAT for IFR and it’s more convenient for Katie to pick us up after school …. (can’t be late for the recognition reception ?). Shortly after leaving KRKR, DFW approach routes us to the Clear Lake VOR ( always happens, don’t know why I don’t go ahead and file it that way. One of these days I’m going to stop at Clear Lake and see what’s there ) then we begin the Waco, Gray, Austin and finally SAT handoffs. We were given the Marcs 8 approach procedure leaving Gray. Makes you appreciate the 430… load the approach, help the Digitrak anticipate the next turns and just follow along. We did get extended on west (actually out past Bourne Stage) due to commercial traffic but finally get turned in to ILS 12R at KSAT. Really wasn’t what I’d consider an instrument approach, just some broken stuff that were under fairly quickly, get transitioned over to 12L and grease in the landing. We’re taxing across 12R and a SW Jet is waiting on us and I’m thinking… bet those pilots wish they were us today.

Plan was to visit for 4 days and return on Tuesday. Visited the Alamo again and of course went down to the Riverwalk for dinner one night. Drove over to Austin in support of Linda and Katie’s favorite past time (shopping… this time at IKEA) then detoured out to Driftwood, TX in support of my favorite pastime … Saltlick BBQ. Good stuff, nuff said.

Monday night the flight back looked iffy but doable with a 50 knot tail wind forecast. Love to see the 200 knot ground speed. Tuesday morning was a different story, strong line of rain in the DFW, Eastern OK, Western MO just wouldn’t push on through. Darn, have to spend another day with Katie and Jason . I always block out the following day on my calendar at work just so I don’t feel the pressure to get home for this exact reason.

Wednesday morning, San Antonio and most of Texas awoke to bright sunshine. We launched from KSAT VFR with a fuel stop planned for KEQA, El Doroda, KS as it was clear there and I’ve never been to El Doroda so why not visit somewhere new. Guess which way the wind was blowing… yep.. totally switched around to now having 35-50 knot headwind. Oh well, the great thing about the RV is that you’re still doing a better ground speed with the headwind than with most of the rentable fleet. Started out at 3500 ft to stay out of the wind but climbed to 5500 for better ride around Waco. Also, decided that KEQA was not reachable with comfortable fuel so changed destination to KRKR for fuel stop. Actually saw some of the DFW skyline this leg as we received VFR clearance into Class Bravo at 5500. Landed at KRKR for a quick fuel stop.

We launched from KRKR for KMUT on the last leg home. Climbed up to 9500 as the winds were less direct according to the 396 up high. Landed at KMUT around 5:30ish for a total of about 12.5 hours of RVing. Headwinds both ways… no problem…just turn up the tunes a little louder

Chris and Rachel, our son and daughter-in-law met us at the airport. After a hug, we visited a few minutes and they launched from KMUT to KCSG (Columbus, GA) where Zach, Rachel’s brother was graduating from Airborne training.

Guess which way the wind was blowing… yep.. my headwind was their tail wind… KMUT-KCSG … 600+ miles ….3 hours 15 minutes…

Gotta love the RV…. ?

Not sure why the thumbnail pictures are cutting off the top.  If you click on the picture they do display correctly.  Sorry, not the best pictures….

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My RV-7A is a two seat plane so the kids are right up front with me and get to take it all in.  I encourage them all to fly the plane themselves (just one rule, if I tell you to let go of the stick, you do J).  It is a hoot to see these kids get out of the airplane grinning from ear to ear.  I’d love to hear the stories they tell to their friends about getting to fly the plane.  It is some of the most enjoyable and rewarding flying that I have ever experienced.  There are always at least a handful of the kids that you get to fly with that really enjoy it, that are easy to talk to and are so appreciative of the opportunity to fly that you’d like to spend all day with them.  Sunday I flew 7 kids.  All were different.  All were a blast in one way or another.

With the weather warming up Sunday most of the snow and ice that was still around was melting away.  Even the Mississippi River was clearing up.  Really weird to see the ice breaking up and floating down river in small sheets.  Anyway, a great way to spend a couple of hours on a sunny Sunday afternoon (even if it did turn back to freezing rain and snow by midnight). 

Today it finally warmed up above freezing with the sun out and a light wind.  It’d been a couple weeks since I had the weather and time align to get out and fly.  I headed no where in particular but ended up over Tipton, IA and then decided to try to find Greencastle Aeroclub  I’ve heard people discuss the Aeroclub but never have taken the opportunity to go find the airstrip.  I knew in general that the airstrip was between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids.  I heard a couple planes self announcing on the radio so kept my head on a swivel and headed west.  Found the strip but a couple planes were doing pattern work and another was announcing their intent to land so I just flew over and headed back to Muscatine (KMUT).  I finished off the afternoon with 3-4 touch and goes (land and take off) to practice landing and called it the afternoon.  Flew about an hour this afternoon.

 Here’s a couple pictures I took while out buzzing around. It’s still pretty white out in the country even though it’s been a few days since the last big snow.  Been a cold, snowy and icy winter around here this year.  We’re all ready for Spring (actually, I’ll just skip Spring and go to Summer).

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It’s cold here in Iowa.  Zero on the thermometer today.  When it gets this cold the heater in the garage can’t keep up so it’s too cold to be working on the plane.  I spent about an hour working on the wing tips but finally gave in to the cold.

 I’ve spent a little time this afternoon getting the web pages for the RV10 set up.  It will not be a detailed web building site as that is too time consuming.  The old RV7A site is also linked to the home pages here.

Doug