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My Trek to Northwest Regional (52F)

TomVal

Well Known Member
Departed Charleston, SC yesterday for 52F. Due to ceilings I wasn't able to depart until 1100L. My goal was to make it to Minden, LA (KMNE) with one fuel stop at Prattville, AL (1A9). During the fuel stop I checked in with Minden if they still had hangar space available. The answer was no. So I decided to ron at Monroe, LA (KMLU).

Day 2 wx was forecasted to have a cold front of TRW's passing through the Dallas area. So today's mission was to get further west and ron short of the moving line of storms. So here I sit in Shreveport, LA (KSHV) in the Hampton Inn getting ready to order a pizzia. The line of TRW's should hit here in a few hours.

Rain is forecasted for tomorrow. I'll probably sit here another day and hopefully get to Dallas on Saturday or Sunday.

This was my first cross-country in my -12. Everything is working well. I've only used the autopilot about 20% of the time due to low altitude turbulence. My trip has been in the 1500 - 4500 ft levels.

My personal highlight was to overfly my USAF flying base Craig AFB, KSEM (now civilian) and then take a photo of the house we rented back in 1970. It brought back great memories.

BTW...as an extension of those memories, I'm having Grady's re-paint the -12 in a T-37 white over blue paint scheme. Kind of plagiarize dr's scheme...sorry dr...but the -12 does resemble a T-37.

Now time to order a pizza.
 
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Wonder why they call it "Northwest" regional???

Texas is in The South, Oregon or Washington would be Northwest..........
 
It's Northwest of DFW.

It was originally called Aero Valley Airport.

Oregon and Washington are Northwet.
 
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And don't forget about getting that prop balanced while you're in the neighborhood :D

Walt,

Yes, I would like to talk to you about the prop balance and wt & bal. Just got off the phone with Grady. Wx permitting I hope to arrive tomorrow morning and catch a commercial back to Charleston early Monday afternoon.

I understand the first Jabiru prop balance is free.:D
 
Walt,

Yes, I would like to talk to you about the prop balance and wt & bal. Just got off the phone with Grady. Wx permitting I hope to arrive tomorrow morning and catch a commercial back to Charleston early Monday afternoon.

I understand the first Jabiru prop balance is free.:D

It would be the first Jab I've done and I usually charge extra for that :eek:, but assuming the prop/spinner is the same RV12 setup the only non-standard thing would be attaching the vib sensor on the forward part of the engine somewhere.
 
Dear Mel...

It's Northwest of DFW.

It was originally called Aero Valley Airport.

Oregon and Washington are Northwet.

Average annual precipitation for Dallas is published in various sources as 37.6 - 40.55 inches.

Average rainfall for Portland OR is 39.14 inches.

However, you are entitled to your opinion regardless of the facts :)

Larry Tompkins
544WB -6A
W52 Battle Ground WA (20 miles north of Portland)
 
Average annual precipitation for Dallas is published in various sources as 37.6 - 40.55 inches.
Average rainfall for Portland OR is 39.14 inches.
However, you are entitled to your opinion regardless of the facts :)
Larry Tompkins
544WB -6A
W52 Battle Ground WA (20 miles north of Portland)

But Portland is very often "wet" without rainfall.
 
Born in Oregon, attended Univ of Oregon and lived in the Willamette valley so can attest to what Mel calls "wet". We affectionately call this mist as Liquid Sunshine.

Pat Garboden
Katy, TX
 
Which it will always be to me (I learned to fly there in the mid 1980s from Edna Whyte, who developed the airport).

I flew out of an airport between Ft Worth and Dallas in 1964 when based at Carswell. It was CFI training in a C-150, Edna Whyte worked in the office. Seems to me her husband owned the place. Do not recall the airport name but it had a north-south runway and I thought the owner had built the place. Maybe it was 52F many years ago. There wasn't much around there then.

I did get the rating but not from a Whyte, the check air man was retired Navy from WWII, nice guy, I screwed up turns around a point and he commented I've never been able to do them either. :)

PS Spin recovery demo was with a very young, new CFI. I asked him if he cared to demonstrate the recovery in a C-150 and he responded no I'm sure you know how to do it. So off we went, stalled the 150, full aft stick, left rudder and down we went for a few turns, stopped the rotation, and then it was almost ends-ville. For lack of any other reference I used the T-28 recovery which was pop the stick forward. The little 150 went into a vertical dive and through the red line in no time, thank goodness we were high as the recovery was VERY gentle so as not to lose the wings. I asked the young CFI if we should do another and he said no, that will do. His eye balls got rather large by the time we leveled off thousands of feet below where we started. Live and learn and sometimes survive.
 
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I flew out of an airport between Ft Worth and Dallas in 1964 when based at Carswell. It was CFI training in a C-150, Edna Whyte worked in the office. Seems to me her husband owned the place. Do not recall the airport name but it had a north-south runway and I thought the owner had built the place. Maybe it was 52F many years ago. There wasn't much around there then.

David,

I seem to recall Edna telling me that 52F (Aero Valley) opened in the early 70s, but I'd have to check this. I believe her husband passed away before this. I think they may have had a flight school at Meachum. The story Edna told was that she marked out the 52F runway herself.

There also used to be a small airport called Mangham (I think) a few miles south of 52F. 52F, Meachum, and Mangham all have (or had) N-S runways
 
David,

I seem to recall Edna telling me that 52F (Aero Valley) opened in the early 70s, but I'd have to check this. I believe her husband passed away before this. I think they may have had a flight school at Meachum. The story Edna told was that she marked out the 52F runway herself.

There also used to be a small airport called Mangham (I think) a few miles south of 52F. 52F, Meachum, and Mangham all have (or had) N-S runways

Alan,

Edna Whyte did open Aero Valley Airport in 1970, the year her husband George M. Whyte passed away. That information was reported in her obituary in the NY Times in 1992.

The flight school she and her husband operated before that was Aero Enterprises Flight School in Fort Worth, also information in the obit.

My log shows all of the C-150 flights out of out of IFTW, an identifier not use today. It could have been an airport at Irvine. I had a check ride with George M. Whyte on November 9, 1966, and flew with FAA check airman Tom Ray the following day.

Interesting stuff for me, almost forgotten. I thought it was '64 but it was '66.
 
Pardon me for interrupting this thread drift.:D

But I finally made it...it only took 5 days!
 
Pardon me for interrupting this thread drift.:D

But I finally made it...it only took 5 days!

Sorry about that, Tom. We old geazers have a lot of stuff stored upstairs. :)

I met Grady in June a year ago when at 52F to pick up and fly back to St Louis with my friend Roger Mell in his newly painted -7. Grady had 2 -12's in there at the time.

His shop does great work and you will like it.
 
Sorry about that, Tom. We old geazers have a lot of stuff stored upstairs. :)

I met Grady in June a year ago when at 52F to pick up and fly back to St Louis with my friend Roger Mell in his newly painted -7. Grady had 2 -12's in there at the time.

His shop does great work and you will like it.

No problem Dave. Other than taking photos of me eating pizzia I had nothing to add. Most of my trip was flown at 2500 ft and too bumpy to take photos.

Got to meet Walt today and plan to give him some business. I did see dr flying overhead in his Cub today. Hope to get to meet him upon my return. Presently sitting in ATL waiting for my flight home. [ed. Tom, I'm sorry I didn't meet you - that could have been Randy or John in the cub, BTW. Many fly it <g>. Looking fwd to your return trip. dr]

Regards,
 
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I also dropped my 7 off to be painted by GloCustom yesterday and there were already 3 in the hanger (one was Tom's), and while I was there, an 8 showed up for paint, too.
Mine is not flying yet so I trucked it in in pieces. Good thing, cuz I don't know how he is going to fit another plane in that hanger. :D
 
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