It's been a while since I last wrote... some of you already know that I sold my RV-7 project and tools the first week of June.  Now you know why it's been a while since I last wrote!   I haven't had a project to write about.  Long and short of it is we needed the money immediately for an urgent matter.  'Nuff said.  I'll build again another day.  It was a grand adventure, and I met some nice folks in the process of selling the empennage kit and tools.  VansAirForce.net's forums are great!  I listed it for sale Thursday night before I went to bed, and had cash in hand the next evening.

We recently took a trip (driving) to Denver to see friends... I'll come back and post those pictures and that story later, so look for a beginning-of-July post later. 

Today, I went flying with my boss' boss, Mike.  He owns a 200hp Piper Arrow, recently earned his Instrument rating, and wanted to go shoot some approaches.  I served as safety pilot, and we did a circuit from Denton (KDTO) to Greenville Majors (KGVT) to Sulphur Springs (KSLR), where we stopped for breakfast.  Then, off to Sherman (KSWI) for cheap gas (see below) and to see one of Mike's friends, who was there having a new prop installed on his Mooney M20E to comply with some recent Airworthiness Directive (which netted him a new prop for 50% off the usual price).

Here's a picture of Mike's Arrow.

One of the reasons for stopping at Sherman was "cheap fuel"... it's all relative, but compared to what we pay elsewhere, this isn't bad for 100LL.  We asked, the City sells the gas at just 25 cents over what it comes off the truck.  That should give you some idea of the markup others are putting on their fuel.  Of course, this is self-serve, and FBOs have facilities, fuel trucks, personnel to come out and put the gas in your plane, and so on.

While at Sherman, a beautiful Beech B58P pulled up to fuel just as we were finishing putting gas in.  I struck up a conversation with the gentleman, told him that his B58P looked a lot like that of a guy I know (Dave S.).  He asked me who my friend was, I told him it was Dave, and it turns out this is Dave's plane... Dave is currently winging his way to Hawaii with his three nieces, and his partner (Chase?) was out flying the plane.  Not sure if it's his partner in business or the plane, but we had a nice chat.  He was full of suggestions about how I might "photoshop" some fire or smoke coming from the plane during departure.  :-)

I liked this shot... you could see the fuel farm in the spinner.

Dave's "throne".

A web-board member recently made a comment about how nice the paint job was.  He was right, this is one beautiful plane.

The panel is loaded, meant for real-world flying.

Here is a video of Dave's plane leaving Sherman:


Can't see the video above? Download it (1.3 MB).

Inside the hangar is the reason I pulled the camera out of the plane in the first place.  They have a hangar cat.  Found wandering around the airport as a stray a couple of years ago, the mechanics adopted it.  It's been there ever since... and the problem with birds in the hangar and nests in the cowling inlets went away.  Really!  The mechanics said they'd tried everything to get rid of the birds, and this cat fixed the problem.  I forgot to ask the cat's name.

He (she?  it?) was too lazy to complain.  We asked how he got up there, and the mechanics told us he starts at the lowest point (the tail) and just walks up to the wings... that's where he likes to "park" himself, which is fine with them, because he's not underfoot.

Flying back to Denton at the end of a great morning of flying.  It's been HOT (105) in Dallas/Fort Worth the past week or two, and last night a cold front (I use that term loosely) blew through.  Actually, it was moving through when we took off this morning.  It was hazy when we left, but smooth.  By the time we headed back (around noon), it was bumpy, but clear and good visibilities, with strong blustery winds... and, granted, cooler.  Temps in the 90's.

Mike has a nice setup, with Garmin 430 and the transponder that feeds TIS traffic information to it.  That was useful.  We got an up-close view of a WWII warbird.  Interesting story about perspectives, visually... we spotted traffic moving left to right in front of us a couple miles away.  It appeared to turn west (the same way we were going)... as we were close to the destination airport, we presumed he was turning to join the arrivals.  Just as quickly as we thought "we're sure gaining on him fast, we better slow down/turn", we realized that we were wrong... we weren't gaining on him, and he had not turned away from us, he'd turned TOWARDS us and was closing FAST.  He passed about 1/8 mile off our right, same altitude.

Here is a video of Mike's landing in the Arrow back at Denton:


Can't see the video above? Download it (4.5 MB).