Mission Accomplished: Epic Texas Flying Expedition!

So, leaving work a little early on Thursday evening, we drove on up to David Wayne Hooks Airport north of town to pick up N280JA, our trusty year-2000 model Cessna 172S.

Now, Zero-Juliet-Alpha is the newest Cessna 172 available at Hi-Tech Aviation, has a couple of Garmin GPS units with moving maps, 180 horses under the cowling, and takes over 50 Gallons of AvGas in the two wing tanks - enough for 5 hours of flying (including reserve)

Take off was around 6:30pm, and we flew west towards Fredericksburg, deviating a little north around Austin to skirt thundershowers. We flew through one or two rain squalls, but the ride was very smooth, and thanks to the extra 20 horsepower in this model of aircraft the ground fairly flew by underneath us at 125 knots.

As we were already a little north of route, we took in some tight turns over Enchanted Rock State Park, and waved to the folks below who had walked up to watch the sunset. Rules and Regs advise pilots to remain at least 2000 feet above ground level over national / state parks which we did. A turn to the south saw us on approach to Frederickburg. We overflew the field at 3000 feet, and made a decending left turn to line ourselves up for the 45 degree entry to the right downwind for Runway 14. Touchdown was just before sunset at about 8:30pm, a brief taxi to the front of the Hangar Hotel saw us park, tie down and check in.

Co-incidentally (yeah, right!) it was Martini Night in the Officer's Club, so we went straight in there without going to our rooms first. Nice! After leaving strict instructions with the barman that he was on no account was to close up before our return, we climbed in to our waiting taxi and headed into Fredericksburg for a bite to eat and some beer.

On Friday morning, I fuelled up, loaded up bags and we began our taxi to 14 for departure. After the run-up checks all were passed succesfully, we checked for traffic and rolled onto the runway and set off... Airspeed active... All in the green... 20 knots, 30, 40, 50, 55... begin to lift the nose... positive rate of climb... After a quick rock of the wings to the people watching from the hotel, we turned right, and picked up our direct route to Alpine in West Texas, 247.4 nautical miles almost due west.

The weather was good - just some lightly scattered clouds which we soon climbed over, and we happily buzzed west at 6,500 feet. We crossed initally over the hill country, with its very flat lying strata making the hills look like they had contour lines drawn on. The trees and rivers gave way to more scrubby and desert-like conditions, and the advent of vast oil and gas fields that continue to provide much of the wealth in Texas to this day. As far as the eye could see, there were cleared flat patches of ground, some with a tank, others with an active drilling rig, but most just with a small wellhead and a pipe connecting it to the distribution network.

The chart and GPS both warned that a MOA (Miltary Operations Area) lay in our path, and after a check revealed it was a block of airspace from 9,000 to 18,000 feet, we resolved to fly under it. Roads and other marks of civilisation were increasingly sparse, but the views were pretty cool, and it was nice to be able to cross this expanse of ground twice as quickly as a car.

As we approached Alpine, we collected weather information from the various automated weather reporting stations, and listened out for other traffic. The only barrier ahead of us now were the Glass Mountains, topping out at a similar altitude to us! We climbed to 8,500 feet to we well clear of them, turned a little to the south to shoot for a freindlier looking transit under the clouds, and flew over the ridges into the Alpine area.

Alpine is surrounded by mountains in all directions, but the flat area that hosts the town is wide enough so as not to feel intimidating when flying in. We passed over the aiport 2000 feet above ground level, and entered a left downwind for runway 1.

On arrival at the ramp, we went to invesigate the rantal car situation, and were dissapointed to find that due to a conference at the nearby McDonald Observatory there were no rental cars for miles. Damn! We cut our losses, borrowed the crew car from the airport and headed into town for something to eat.

After some extensive phoning around, it turned out that there was a car for us in Marfa, some 30 miles away, so we asked them to hold it for us, hopped back in our plane, and headed west again, and thanks to the direct nature of flying we were over the mountains and on the ground at Marfa Airport in a little over 20 minutes, with our car waiting for us on the tarmac.

to be continuted...

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I just got back from a superb trip across Texas. Flew in N280JA from KDWH - T82, stayed overnight in the Hangar Hotel. Flew on from T82 - E38, and then when we couldn't find a rental car, went on to MRF. Total outbound trip =503 nautical miles over 5 hours. Drove down to Big Bend for a day.

Return trip from MRF to ERV, then back to DWH. Total distance 491 nm over 5.4 hours.

See the Outbound trip here in Google Earth KML format, with altitude colouring
See the Inbound trip here

Photos to follow...

posted by Sam @ 21:31