My friend, Terry, recently bought a home and hangar at Eagle's Nest Estates in Midlothian TX.  It's a fly-in community, meaning your home and hangar and airstrip are all at the same location.  It's like a dream-come-true for many pilots.  Terry and his wife Kim had a party for a few of their friends on Saturday 12/9, and Teresa and I planned to take the G1000 C172 from NW Regional and fly down to his place, rather than drive.  Since I'd not been there before, I wanted to fly in first by myself, so Friday after work I went to Grand Prairie and took the Evektor Sportstar solo to Eagle's Nest.

The Sportstar is one of a new "class" of airplanes certified by the FAA, in the "Light Sport Aircraft" (LSA, for short) category.  Any licensed pilot, like myself, can fly them, but they were specifically designed to be easy to fly, slow, two seat aircraft for people seeking to get a Sport Pilot License.  The new Light Sport license takes less time to earn than a private pilot license, and has more limitations, but has some benefits, too, especially for older pilots who have trouble passing the stringent FAA medical exam.  Under Light Sport rules, if you're healthy (self-certified) and have a valid driver's license and FAA Sport Pilot license, you can fly a LSA.  More info:  EAA's Sport Pilot site.

Here are some pictures Terry took of my arrival:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The runway lighting is an interesting story.  Grand Prairie Municipal upgraded their lighting, and the local pilots from Eagles Nest went to the city's auction... and got the entire lighting system for the runways, taxiways, beacon, pilot-controlled-lighting radio switch, etc. for $15 because nobody else bid.  Then they just paid for installation.  What a steal!  And they have commercial-quality lighting at their airfield now!

The runway is 3200' x 36'.  Plenty for the SportStar, which gets off the runway in only 500' or so.

 

 

 

 

Now, when people talk about a "small plane", this is it.  Cessna 172's are giants by comparison.  But, the SportStar is actually quite roomy inside by virtue of its design and that huge bubble canopy.  The visibility is incredible, and since the plane only weighs 750# empty, it climbs like a rocket, even with two people aboard, despite only having a 100hp Rotax 912 engine.

All metal construction, just like any "normal" airplane.  A Mini Cooper with wings!

I toured Terry's hangar, "Tree house", the home, and then Terry and I went flying in the SportStar to Mid-Way Regional and back.  I then departed at night back to Grand Prairie.  These shots are lightened up a bit so you can see the plane... it was getting pretty dark!

Low pass after rotation for Terry to get a picture before departing the area back to Grand Prairie.

The following day, Saturday 12/10, Teresa and I flew the Cessna 172 G1000 to Eagle's Nest for Terry and Kim's event.  Then, night flight back to NW Regional.  This was Teresa's FIRST EVER time flying with me at night, and she loved it.  The city lights, with many homes done up in their Christmas lights, made for a visual feast.  The air was smooth at altitude, with a strong-but-steady southeast wind at the ground, which made for a couple of bumps down low, but nothing bad.

Before returning to NW Regional, we went to Alliance Fort Worth, a large airport that services American Airlines' DFW Maintenance Facility and the DFW West Fedex hub.  The airport thus has great facilities but little traffic, and the air traffic controllers LOVE it when us little guys come by, and encourage us to do so to help their traffic count.  We headed there to do two full stop night landings (that, plus the one at NW Regional would reset my day/night landing currency requirements).  The controller, on request, gladly turned up all the lights on 16L, the big runway, which we were cleared to use, so Teresa got to see a full approach lighting system in all it's glory.  Very cool.