Duncan, OK
The weekend of 4/27-28 doesn't look good in the long range forecast. Saturday will be thunderstorms and rain, but clearing overnight for a good Sunday. I check all the web sites for something to do Sunday within 200 miles. I finally find a Bluegrass Music Festival in Duncan Oklahoma which is set for Fri-Sat-Sun. Duncan is less than 100nm by air, north of Wichita Falls, west of Ardmore. The FBO will be sure we have a vehicle to use, so we plan to go.
Sunday AM is low clouds, but FSS says they will be gone by 10:00 AM. We pack a picnic lunch and go to the Airport. The preflight is done under heavy low clouds, but we take off anyway. McKinney is reporting overcast at 2000, but the clouds are just above pattern altitude (1600) at Aero Country. When I open my flight plan, I tell Flight service that I am just under the clouds at 1600. He replies that they end suddenly just west of where I am, both Denton and Gainesville are reporting clear.
No sooner than he finishes, the edge of the clouds passes overhead and we are in gloriously clear sky! We stop in Gainesville and put in 20gal of gas. I don't want to fill up since Duncan is furnishing a car. I would rather buy some gas there even if the cost is higher.
We drive out to the park beyond Lake Duncan where the Festival is supposed to be. People are on the way out. The rain Friday and Saturday has kept attendance so low that everybody is leaving by mutual agreement. All the musicians are gone. We drive back to the lake and have our lunch. Then we drive into town, looking for any indication of sights to see. Downtown has the sidewalks rolled up, but we see signs advertising a Chisolm Trail Museum. After several retracings due to road construction, we find it.
Very interesting place. Many artifacts and much information. A larger than life statue. I was impressed by the aerial photos showing traces of the trail that are still visible today.
Back to the airport and get ready to return. The flight back is also smooth with great visibility. Seeing it from several miles away, I deviate and fly over Falconhead. It is a resort community with their own airstrip. The airstrip has "Falconhead" painted on it in medieval script, reading from north to south.
Paris, TX
Bad weather ate up the first 2 weeks in May. May 14th was a good day, clear with very light wind, so I went up for some practice. I flew over to McKinney and did some touch and gos. They were going well, so I did a full stop and went into the FBO for potty and a coke. Then back to Home.
"See what I mean."
We takeoff into an overcast at 10000' and set course for Ardmore. We ride in on the VOR and I turn north when I have the airport in sight at 15 miles (I can't actually see the airport, I just know from the landmarks where it is in relation to Lake Murray which is about 5 miles at 11 o'clock.) I dial up ATIS and try to call the tower. I have not done my normal anal retentive planning, and am relying on the sectional. I read the wrong frequency off the chart and get no reply. Again. Again. Some one comes on the frequency, "Aircraft calling Ardmore Tower, their frequency is one one eight point five."
Sure enough, we make contact, enter a right downwind for 13 and I execute a good landing. I taxi to the ramp and shut down. We get out and walk towards the building where the Redhead and I got Tea and water last June. It is now a trucking school and the restaurant is in the new building 50 yards south of it.
We eat our hamburgers while we talk life and flying. I go out and check fuel and order the truck. Paying for the fuel, I also pick up new DFW and Houston Sectionals (The current ones expire on the 22nd). On the way back, I let him fly for a while. The look on his face is worth it.
The next day, I fly down to Addison to get a new oil filter. Standing at the counter at Tex-Air, I mention that I had gone to Paris for lunch yesterday. The other person standing there asks; "Did I see you?"
Come to find out, he was in the Bonanza that was taxiing out when we got back to the airport.
I do the oil change myself this time. It only takes about 45 minutes and is not too messy now that the quick drain is back on. Just hook a tube on it and open the drain. Changing the filter is a little more complicated, but not hard. Beats paying the A&P $40/hour.
Again, the weather turns bad for the weekend. Sunday seems possible, we really have no destination in mind for lunch, but "need" to go somewhere. The name Pauls Valley intrigues us and it is just 25 miles north of Ardmore. I file a flight plan and we go get the plane. Turning towards Gainesville, we can see what looks like bad clouds to the northwest. I call Flight Service and ask them for a weather update before we open our flight plan. The weather on a line from Wichita Falls to OK City is bad and getting worse. Also, it is moving southeast. Since I can already see Gainesville is still clear (By a number of miles), we cancel the flightplan and just go to Gainesville for fuel.
The next weekend, the Redhead had gone to Maryland for a family reunion, so I am alone. I had planned to go to a pancake breakfast at Waco with Bill Karnes, but he had to back out Friday night. I called some friends who had been hinting for a ride and Lewis jumped at the chance.
Saturday, he got it. I took him on the same route I took RW. Lisa (his wife who works with Sandra) told Sandra that he really enjoyed it and she is still waiting for her ride.
Back to Nachitoches.
It is now the first week of June. The children are out of school, but the teachers have to put in a fixed number of days yet. They work 4 10 hour days a week so they have Friday off for that 3 weeks. That means we can make a long trip! There is to be an Arts & Crafts fair at Melrose Plantation outside of Nachitoches on the 8th and 9th. If we fly down on Friday the 7th, we can "do" Nachitoches Friday Afternoon and the Craft fair and the other river attractions Saturday morning, leaving mid afternoon to return home. We have the opening of the Dallas Summer Musicals on Sunday the 9th.
The 5 day forecast on Monday looks good and it seems to improve by Wednesday. I make reservations at the Ramada Inn and reserve a car for Friday-Saturday. We get up early Friday morning and the weather briefing is great for our route, so we leave the house at 7:45AM. We are in the air headed for Sherman by 8:45. Full of gas, we depart Sherman before 8:30 and open our flight plan. There is significant ground haze, but the air is incredibly smooth. So smooth that the Redhead has no trouble doing the crossword puzzle during the first part of the flight. This is over territory we have flown several times, I can now recognize Lake Fork from any direction. The route takes us over Longview, so we are under their control for a while. All the early clouds that were at 3500' leaving Sherman have dissipated, but the haze still restricts ground visibility.
Longview Center clears me over Gregg County at 3200 and approves my route: 110 radial inbound to GGG VOR and 110 outbound. All I have to do is hold 3200 and keep the needle centered. Outbound, all goes well until we get beyond the GGG VOR range. At 3200', there is about a 40 mile limit and this leg is 90 miles. The ground visibility is about 10 miles, so we have to fly 40 miles with no nav aids over country that has few recognizable land marks. Once we get beyond the north end of Toledo Bend Reservoir, we are on our own. My plan is to hold a compass heading slightly less than that which kept the 110 radial from GGG until I can see I49 and the Red River. Doing this, will put me over I49 north of Nachitoches.
Good Plan! I recognize I49 at my 10 o'clock at the same time I see Lake Sibley at 2 o'clock. I am just north of where I49 curves west to go west of Sibley. Nachitoches is just east of Sibley and the airport is south of downtown with the approach to runway 7 over Sibley. The ground haze has so restricted visibility that we are too close to descend and get into the pattern for 7 without popping eardrums, so we fly over the field descending and circle back to the left downwind. This also gives us a pass over downtown at 1000 feet as we enter the downwind leg.
We land, taxi up to the FBO and shut down. The manager comes up with the chocks and welcomes us. While we get the bags and secure the plane, he goes to call Enterprise. It all worked so smoothly, we were driving away from the Enterprise office in a Ford Focus at high noon.
We head downtown. Tourist center first so we can find out what is to be seen and where it is. Now for the travelogue. Nachitoches (pronounced Nack uh tish) was founded in 1714 around a fort built to block Spanish expansion from Texas. At that time, it sat on the banks of the Red River. The Red "dried up" due to a 100 mile log jam and when it was cleared, the river shifted 5 miles east of town. The old river bed still carried water sometimes and agriculture still flourished along the old banks. Finally, the old bed was dammed to maintain a water level and named Cane River Lake. The Movie "The Horse Soldiers" (John Wayne and John Ford) was shot near Nachitoches in 1958. But the biggest claim to fame is that "Steel Magnolias" was made here in 1988. Steel Magnolias was written by a Nachitoches resident about his daughter and is mostly true although many of the major characters (Ouiser and Claree and Truvy) are composites.
We are too hungry to take the 1 o'clock trolley tour, so we go eat at one of the downtown eateries. We then walk the entire downtown admiring the homes and old commercial buildings. Most of the buildings along Front Street are now bookstores, art galleries and eateries. Just what you expect from a town dependent on tourists. The outstanding characteristic is the number of law offices and the number of churches. We make the 3:00 trolley tour which along with the other historical stuff points out the major landmarks from "Steel Magnolias". The only place not covered was Truvy's place, but the driver volunteered its location. After the tour, we drove over to Fort St. Jean Baptiste, a recreation of the original French fort.
Then to the motel to check in and clean up some for dinner. We eat at Mariner's on Lake Sibley and drive back into town to spend sunset and dusk walking along the lakefront.
We get up Saturday about 7:30. Weather channel and eyeball says the weather should hold. There is some rain south of us, but we ain't going that way. After breakfast, we drive to Melrose, stopping at St Augustine Catholic Church on the way. There are many graves there from the 1700s.
The "Arts and Crafts" thing is a bust. Think flea market, with 500 booths cluttering the grounds around the plantation house. And the house isn't even open, nor is there anyone to explain any of the outbuildings. While sitting under a magnolia tree waiting for Sandra to finish her rounds of the booths, I note that it is clouding up. When she returns, I use the cell phone to check the weather. The briefer holds that all the weather should remain well south of our intended route, so I file for 3:00PM. We are gone from Melrose by shortly after 10.
Up the river to Oakland plantation. This one is owned by National Parks Service. The Park Service bought it in 98 from the original owners whose title goes back to Adam and Eve. 10 generations of Prudhomme's lived there and the main house was built in 1821. The site is being professionally restored. Over 2 million artifacts came with the place (42 acres and 20 some odd outbuildings) and are currently farmed out to the places nationwide who do those things. The free tour was very interesting and informative.
Then, up the river past 3 other plantation houses and back into Nachitoches. We catch a couple of places at the bottom of the list of places to visit and eat lunch. Meat pies are good!
We get to the Airport about 1:30. I do the preflight and get the tanks topped up. And go in to get a weather update. There is now an area of substantial rain extending west from Baton Rouge and moving northwest. I had intended to return over Tyler, but opt to go back over Longview to get north quicker. We take off at 2:30 and make a low pass over downtown northbound while Sandra makes the last shots on the roll in the camera. Then climb to altitude. At 3000, I am just under some clouds and the ground visibility is worse than yesterday. Even worse, the air is very rough. Not classed as turbulence, just rough.
The further to the west we go, the worse the visibility gets. By Longview, we can pick out ground features no more than 5 miles away. Not to worry, we are riding GGG VOR inbound and by the time it goes away west of Longview, I will have many ground landmarks to use. We cross Carthage, Longview and Gladewater and head out into the void between I20 and I30. From where I crossed Lake Tawakoni, I know we passed less than 5 miles south of Lake Fork, but we never saw it. We dodged under and around several clouds with rain which was not reaching the ground. Thank you Longview Approach for telling us where they were.
After crossing Lake Tawakoni, we could see Lake Lavon/Lake Ray Hubbard, so the rest of the trip was less stressful. We came in over Plano/Allen and turned north up Custer road at McDermott (5 miles south of Aero Country). Crossing 121 and descending to pattern altitude, we ran through a rain shower, just enough to wet the windshield. This path puts us right on the downwind leg for 17 and the landing was uneventful. We unloaded and cleaned out the plane, but before we could get it in the hangar, nature washed it for us.
On June 15, there is an open house/Grand Opening at Cutter Aviation. A new FBO at Dallas Redbird airport. There is free food, live band and door prizes. There is also cheap ($1.75) gas. I need some experience crossing Class B and Sandra has never been "low and slow" over Dallas.
It is a beautiful day, hot but clear with almost no wind. We launch at 11:00. Climbing out, I get the RBD ATIS and then contact Dallas Approach. They clear us into Class B over Addison, direct to Love Field. On handoff to Love tower, I have to descend to 2000' and turn south over midfield.
The food (ribs, hamburgers, etc) is great, and lots of it. The band is jazz/blues and very good.
About two, we prepare to leave. I fire up and get ATIS, then contact ground. They offer to get my clearance back across Dallas. It is set by the time I taxi to 31 and do my pre-takeoff checks. Takeoff, right turnout to Love and contact Love Tower. We cross Love midfield for the second time at 2000' and proceed to Addison. After passing over Addison, we get "Squawk VFR, resume own navigation". I aim for Aero Country. Total flight time for the day 1 hour, but what a busy hour.
Fort Reno, OK
The weekend 21-23 June was going to be limited. We had a Family engagement on Saturday and the Summer Musical on Sunday. That left only Friday available. While researching a weekend trip, I found this:
"Fort Reno, a military camp in 1874, was established as a military fort or post in 1875 and construction of buildings began in 1876. The Fort and Darlington Agency, which served the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes across the Canadian River, together preserved the peace and directed the orderly transition of this part of Indian Territory from reservation to individual farms and ranches. Troops from Fort Reno supervised the first great Land Run of 1889 that opened lands for settlement. The Fort also served as one of two remount depots from 1908 through 1947 when the lands were transferred to the United States Department of Agriculture for an agricultural research station"
El Reno is only 150nm. On the outside edge of "day trip" distance. By Wednesday, the long range weather looked good, so I called the FBO and checked on the availability of ground transport. Rick assures me that a courtesy/crew car will be available as well as fuel.
There is enough fuel on board for a non-stop, so I plan to fly Ardmore VOR and outbound until I intercept the Kingfisher VOR south of El Reno. I know that I may be beyond the ADM VOR before I can receive Kingfisher, but will continue on the ADM outbound course until I can or I can see Chickasha.
Good plan, except. I discover soon after takeoff that Nav1 isn't working. Completely dead. Nav2 works, but is always weaker than Nav1. This means that I can not hope to get a positive intersection fix, but some local NDBs will keep me from getting lost. Worst case, there is a major N/S highway into Chickasha and a major SW/NE which intersects it. We drone northwest for 30 minutes from ADM and the ground references don't quite match the sectional. I discover that I have misread the OBS and was tracking outbound at 290 instead of 310. No major problem, I will just be south of my planned intersection. I have lost ADM and still cannot get good lock on Kingfisher. A good sized (for central OK) town appears with a major road intersection. It must be Chickasha. It is. I am about 15 miles south of where I should be, but no harm. I turn north and a few minutes later can pick up the Kingfisher VOR and hear traffic at El Reno.
The fort is in the beginning stages of restoration, so there is little we can go inside to see. But enough of the buildings remain that you can easily picture the scene at the turn of the century. The standard layout for a 1900 military post: large square (parade ground), clockwise from the south, Hospital, Armory, Commissary, guardhouse, barracks, Chapel, Adjutant's offices, officer's quarters are arranged around the square. Additionally, German and Italian POWs were kept here during WWII. Their labor built the Chapel which is the newest building standing and the only one open.
After driving around downtown (not much to see), we head for the airport. Fill the tanks back up to 40 gallons, refill the water bottle and check the weather. Some dudes from the FAA and the City are inspecting the runway, but we can use the taxiway for takeoff. It is 35' wide, but the runway at Aero Country is only 40' and there is little crosswind, so that is no problem. Take off is a few minutes after 3:00PM. There are broken clouds around 5000', but we hope they are actually above 5500. We are almost to the bottoms of them at 4500, so back down to 3500 for the trip home. It is bumpy and 5-10 degrees hotter than it would have been at 5500, but no problem. The Redhead snoozes while I fly south 'til I can see Chickasha and turn to the reciprocal of the ADM outbound heading.
The Redhead wakes up just as we are getting in sight of Ardmore. The ground haze gets steadily worse as we near Dallas, but is no problem. I can now line up with the runway at Aero country from 25 miles out whether I can see it or not. The landing at Aero Country is one of the best I have ever made there. (Landings at Aero Country are a story of their own)
