January 11, 2013
Finally Hit 40 hours......- 4.0 hrs
Today was the day I was supposed to fly with Jim up to Dallas to drop his plane off at GloCustom for paint. However as close as I was the weather was just not working in my favor to get the last 4 hours flown off towards my 40 hours. Today was the first good forcast day with low wind and clear skys so I asked the boss if I could take off to fly and he said Get er Done!!! What a guy huh. So its about 9:30 with the bird sitting in front of the hangar going over everything to make sure I have everything. Plan was to run into town for a pic of the Pinnacle World Headquarters, check. Then head out west to see if I could hook up with Jim on his way to Big D. After the Pic of the office I started west climbe up to 3000 after the Class B vail then over to Skydive. As I got close to the field I see Jim taxi down the runway for takeoff. I radioed him on our normal freq and he said he was heading to Brenham for fuel so we did a direct to and off we go. Landed at Brenham and taxi to the fuel pump for a pic of Jim. This is the last time I will see this plane with his stolen copied paint job of mine. Or maybe I have his... or maybe we both have John's....
Next Jim launched for Dallas and I followed as far as I could staying within my 75 miles of the Industry VOR then I broke off to head back to Weiser for fuel. Gotta buy local to keep Cecil happy ya know. Once fueled up it was a relaunch for more time still 2 hours more. The boss called and wanted to see so had to go back and do another office run. Takes about 3 minutes from Weiser so no big deal then back out west. As I get out to Waller the clouds are coming down and the wind is even stronger 60 knots due south above 3000. Climbed up over the clouds for a bit but they were closing in so I headed to Navasota for a pit stop. Wind was howling at 16 down the runway so no big deal but now I am wondering what is happening at Weiser. This dang gulf coast weather is killing me. It was supposed to be beautiful all day but this stuff is coming in fast and ceilings lowering. So I launch from Navasota due south for a bit and then I have an idea to checkout West Houston. And guess who I run into over there at the CAF hangar. Not one Bixby but 2 of them.... and the look the freakin same. Anyway my first time to meet Jim and he is just as cool as John. Jim I mean that as a total compliment. :)
Well guess what these guys were up to... they were about to pull the T6 out for some play time. I bet John wished he did it earlier when it was sunny and clear. Any how I showed up at just the right time to get a pic of them pulling the old lady out of the hangar and a video of the start. Listen to that big round engine idle! I taxi out and launch first but John was seeing an issue with the alternator. Who needs that you got magnetos right... anyway I think during the runup it came online because once I was up and over towards the north I hear John ringing me up on the chat freq. So we joined up over by Derek's high school and did a pass over the Lacrosse Team practice. If I had a pic of this I would call it "Gerneration Gap" My newly built RV flying together with a 60 plus year old WWII plane. How freakin cool is that! Plus bother Jim got my first air to air picture of my plane with me flying. Then it was time for John to head north for some fun so I checked the Hobbs and holy crap I just busted 40 hours so I snapped a pic of the hobbs and headed for Weiser for a nice crosswind landing.
Now its time to install the wheel pants and leg fairings and do some flight testing with it all together and complete a few things that need to be done to ready the bird for paint next month. This time our hope is to take Jim to pick his up and drop mine off. I can't wait!
January 11, 2013 North American T6 Startup
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