Over the last several weeks, like many of you, I’ve watched the coverage of the Haiti earthquake and wondered how I might help out.  I have had several conversations with Disaster Relief agencies about the disaster. As you may know, over 200,000 people have died since the earthquake struck the Port au Prince area in January. Thousands more are in desperate need. Many, many people are already helping, including faith based organizations in central Texas. Pilots from all over the U.S.  are volunteering aircraft, fuel and time to fly supplies, medical personnel and relief workers into and out of the disaster area. This is not getting much coverage in the media, which really doesn’t matter, but it does seem ironic that, when a few bonehead CEOs flew their corporate jets to testify about the need for bailouts and gave general aviation a huge kick in the behind along the way, the media jumped on the story like a duck on a june bug.

As I have followed the efforts of volunteers with Texas Baptist Men’s Disaster Relief www.texasbaptistmen.org, Bahamas Habitat www.bahamashabitat.org, Hill Country Bible Church, www.hcbc.com,  Hope for Haiti www.hopeforhaiti.com, and locally, Gibralter Cable Barrier Systems www.gibraltertx.com, owned by Bill Neusch, which is providing food, money and water well drilling teams,  it is abundantly clear that more help is needed. When Bob Roark from Gibralter called to see if I was still interested in flying relief missions, I quickly said yes. Neither Bob or I really know exactly what role the bonanza and crew might be able to play, but we are certain that we’ll figure out how to be useful and productive.

 We met this morning and agreed to move the planning into high gear. During the day, I have called possible co-pilots, ordered WAC charts, located a life raft to rent, updated the GPS database ordered a U.S. Customs decal for the airplane, and started the process needed to set up an E-APIS account with Homeland Security. There is a lot to think about including what equipment should go, where to set up a base of operations, what airports might be open, fuel availability, etc. What survival equipment should be on board? You get the idea. Tomorrow’s “To-Do” list includes figuring out who can cover my students while I’m gone, find my passport which Judy assures me, she put somewhere that  she would not forget (I hope she remembers soon),  set a tentative departure date, figure out what supplies or personnel might need to go with us from central Texas, and much more.

As I write this, I wonder what the next days and weeks will bring. If we can fly into the area and do “good works” supporting others who are contributing so much for folks in desperate need, it will be a labor of love. Through e-mails, blog posts and regular updates, I hope you will fly along with us. Welcome aboard!

Yeehaw! Was the exclamation after Jacob opened the door of 2CH upon completion of his first solo!
Join me in congratulating Jacob Friesenhahn for his first solo today at KBMQ. He endured cross-wind landing practice, simulated emergency review today at Spicewood – he  then soloed back at BMQ after a quick airplane change due to maintenance. Congrats Jacob! Now, the real flying begins………….

That is the comment we keep hearing from everyone who sees the new Remos GX. It flies great too! We are still learning the “ins & outs” but so far, we really like what we see. Plus, people can learn to fly for about one half the cost of a private certificate so hopefully more folks will take the plunge and start their training. More shoulder room than a Cessna Skyhawk, great climb performance and a very high “cool” factor makes this a winner. If you’ve been thinking of learning to fly, give us a call today and fly the “cute” Remos GX.

Join me in welcoming Susie Awalt to the flock of student pilots at Burnet. Susie and her airplane are based at Lago Vista (KRYW). N719WM is a fabulous 260hp Maule. As she is finding out- it will get up and go! Not only that- it will land short too! All of this is perfect says Susie, since she and her husband ( a Cirrus owner) have plans to haul loads to the ranch in South Texas (along with the dogs). Flying a little over an hour sure beats a 5 hour drive! You’ll hear her flying “Mikey” around the Hill Country- be sure to say Hi and give her a dose of encouragement when you see her.

Please join me in congratulating Dennis Harper who became our latest Private Pilot at Burnet yesterday.  “Hi Honey, yes, I’m finally a REAL pilot now” was what he told his wife on the cell phone- upon arrival back to BMQ.

Dennis joined us earlier this summer after moving to the Hill Country from Salt Lake City.  Dennis should be a model for “how to study and prepare for your checkride” beginning with acing  his written exam.  Fly regularly, study hard.  Way to go Dennis!!! We are so very excited to see you join the rest of us keeping current…. Your license to learn has arrived.

See ya ’round the flyin’ patch!!

Please join me welcoming Dennis Harper to the Hill Country and our airport community here in Burnet.  Dennis moved here from Salt Lake City, UT in March.  Dennis has been busy moving, taking care of kids, painting, taking care of kids, unpacking, repeat three times.  So, after a three month hiatus he joined us at Burnet and is now preparing for his PVT checkride.  Dennis just soloed this morning here at Burnet after a couple of refresher lessons.  “It finally felt right”, said Dennis after his three patterns.  Ahhhh, isn’t it sweet feeling?!  Welcome back Dennis!  We look forward to you joining the ranks officially real soon!

Today was a great day at AirVenture! We started by listening to Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan discuss the future of space tourism as we prepared to watch White Knight II fly. White Knight is the “mother ship” for Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic’s civilian space tourism project. It is simply amazing to listen to these visionaries describe a future in which those of us with the desire and a moderate amount of cash, will be able to go to space. My belief is that it will happen sooner rather than later. I mentioned to Leonard & Beth that listening to Sir Richard and Burt Rutan would be like listening to the Wright brothers talk about the future of manned flight.  One of the questions concerned sub orbital flights to cities around the world. Virgin is studying the long term viability of such an application. Imagine flying from New York to Sidney in 2 hours for example.

Next up, we toured the exhibit halls, talked to vendors and marvelled at the glass panels, whiz-bang gizmos & gimcracks of all sizes, styles & colors. After lunch, it was time to head for the flight line to watch the arrival of the Airbus 380. Flying into OSH under beautiful clear skies, the A380 made several low passes before landing on runway 36. It is almost impossible to come to grips with the fact that something so huge could maneuver so well. The airplane is extremely quiet as well. With a landing weight somewhere north of 1.2 million pounds, the A380 will carry more than 500 passengers. 

At the end of the day, we made a quick visit to the “Texas Party” which happens each Tuesday evening during Airventure. Bill Gunn, Bill Aikman, and other friends & fellow pilots enjoyed the cool Wisconsin evening, cold beer and memories of a great day!

We left Burnet early Saturday morning bound for Oshkosh. Curt, Dave and I were wheels up in the Bonanza by 6:15 AM, with planned fuel stops in Rogers, Arkansas and Quincy Illinois. The flight was smooth and cool at 7000 feet. We filed IFR even though the weather was mostly clear. As you can see from the photo, Curt did a fine job of helping with traffic watch.  After a quick turn in Rogers, we departed for Quincy while dodging an area of thunderstorms lying along a cool front to our north. This was the first long trip using the amazing Garmin 696 with XM weather. It made the decision making simple, showing NEXRAD images of the precipitation, cloud cover, METARS, etc. By now, most of you have heard a lot about the importance of having near real time weather information aboard, and I completely concur!

After a little over 1.5 hours we landed in Quincy and had lunch at the cafe, bought some more gas and took off for OSH. Crossing the Mississippi river, we began to prepare for the arrival into Oshkosh by reviewing the NOTAM. So far, we had not seen any traffic. However, approaching Ripon we suddenly found ourselves surrounded as we joined the conga line of GA aircraft inbound along the railroad tracks to Fisk. We received instructions to continue for runway 27 and maintain a half mile spacing from the aircraft ahead. Entering the downwind, we heard the magic words “white & red v-tail bonanza cleared to land at or beyond the green dot. Welcome to Oshkosh!”e were directed to our parking spot in the North 40 General Aviation camping area where we unloaded, tied down and stopped to reflect on how good it felt to be here.

I was just about to leave the airport today when Cody asked me to pick up the phone and talk to a pilot who was out of fuel. “This oughta be interesting” I thought. On the other end of the line was Scott Roberts calling from his cell phone. “I just landed on a ranch strip in my Cessna 210 after running out of gas. I don’t know exactly where I am but I am down safely and need help in getting some avgas so I can get the airplane to an airport with fuel service. Can you help?”

After making sure Scott was really okay, we sorted out where he had landed. When the engine quit, ATC gave him a vector to a private ranch strip nearby. Scott did a great job of landing the C-210 power off and made it to a parking area. The strip is 4500 feet long and paved, but surrounded by rough terrain. With nobody home to help, Scott called Faulkner’s Air Shop at Burnet for ideas and assistance. The strip is located 35 miles south of Burnet, so Cody and I filled a couple of 5 gallon containers. I loaded them into the Super Cub and flew to the strip. As it happened, Leonard & Beth Jenkins followed me in their Husky and helped locate the strip.

After landing, Scott poured the fuel into his airplane and took off. During his climb, the engine stumbled again so Scott did a quick 180 back towards the ranch strip. He turned on the electric boost pump and the engine resumed normal power output. He climbed up and quickly repositioned to Burnet. We suspect his fuel caps on the auxillary tanks were leaking. The gasket was old and cracked as well as being out of alignment. This seems to be the culprit and may explain why Scott’s fuel flow sensor still indicated 1 hour of fuel remaining as the engine quit.

 Scott credits the ATC controller at Houston Center for providing the vector to the strip. Here is an additional lesson. Scott never hesitated in declaring an emergency. He asked for and got the help he needed. (Keep in mind, even with the “nearest” function on his GPS, the private ranch strip would not be listed.)  As many of you have heard me say about declaring an emergency, there is no paperwork and Scott will not get in trouble. ATC simply asked Scott to call in and let them know he was okay. Hopefully he will send a “thank you” note to the ATC controller. Many pilots are hesitant to ask for assistance for fear of getting in trouble.

All in all, a great ending to a story that could easily have turned out differently.

I’d like to take a quick second to welcome Doug Adair back to the world of aviators!!  Doug took a several year hiatus due to work and life commitments, but- now he’s back!  He says “look out”!  He was all smiles during his re-intro lesson on July 6th.  He brings an excitement and enthusiasim that is infectious.  I look forward to helping Doug complete his Private Pilot over the next few months.  You will see him around the CAF and the FBO, please join me in making him welcome!