Spent the weekend with some friends at their lake house on lake LBJ. The lake is fed by the Colorado & Llano rivers, and is in the chain of lakes NW of Austin. Lake Buchanan, then Inks Lake, Lake LBJ, Marble Falls Lake, & Lake Travis.
The Texas hill country
is really beautiful, I hope to retire there someday.
There is a small grass airport about five minutes from the lake house I was
directed to by some locals. I was up early, and set up to launch about 8:00
am. The wind was out of the East at about 1 mph, forward launch time. A local
pilot who lived nearby heard me warming up the engine and came over to check
it out. The pressure was on now with an audience. I nailed a perfect forward
and climbed out to about 600 feet.
I flew over to the lake house and buzzed around trying to make enough noise for everyone to come out. Not loud enough I guess, when I got back to the cabin later I found out they slept right through it. Oh well. I flew over to the beach area where a lot of people hang out during the day, volleyball, partying, and being seen is the usual scene. Not at that hour though, I had it all to myself. The water was calm as glass and I did a fly-by at about 20 feet along the shore. On the opposite side of the beach there is a cliff that rises from the river / lake to about 100 feet or so. It was cool to fly low and slow through that area.
I followed the river around a bend and it turned into a shallow creek called Sandy Creek. It was wide and had a nice sand bed for a mile or so with rock walls on both sides. I flew through at about 20 feet for at least a mile. Saw several deer, cows, and fish. Also came across a vulture party, there must have been 100 of them in a tree. As I got close they scattered, pretty cool with all those large birds taking off.
I made my way back the way I had come over and buzzed the house again, still sleeping. Flew along the lake past the airport and made my way into the pattern. I saw there were some onlookers parked near my truck waiting for me to come in. I did some wing overs and then spiraled down from about 500 feet to land by the truck. I came in pretty fast as there was still really no wind to speak of. Did the Gadget man heal skid landing and made it to my feet at the end of the skid with the wing over flying me. Turned out it was the brother in law of the friends I was staying with waiting and watching. He's jazzed and asks all the normal questions. I give him the low down and he may be joining the PPG ranks sometime soon.
I was able to get in one more flight at about 6:00 pm. The wind was up and blowing a steady 8 - 10 mph. I demonstrate a reverse launch for the Brother in Law and head off for the beach. I buzzed the cabin again and this time everyone is waving up to me. I dropped down to about 100 ft. AGL by the beach and am getting some rotor coming off the cliff on the opposite side so I climbed up a little higher. Lots of waves and looks from the huge crowd of boats and people. I climbed up to about 900 feet and it smoothed out some.
Made my way back to the airport and had a feather lite power on landing, turned and kited the wing right beside the truck. No audience this time to appreciate this fine example of piloting ;-)
It was a great weekend of flying, jet skiing, boating, fireworks, cold adult beverages, and relaxation. Need to figure out a way to do all that all the time, and make money at the same time.
Stay Tuned...
CP.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
