Except as noted, all images copyrighted by and should be attributed to E B Hawley.
I had become many eons ago a traveling literary gnome, inquisitive about places I had and had not visited,
walking the same paths of peoples from the past, through places once grand and still grand,
photographing images that now show me the places about which I still dream . . .

Saturday, May 18, 2013

F14: A Relevant Little Airfield

      A little airport, founded in 1946, sits at Lat/Long north 33 degrees, 56.86 minutes / west 98 degrees, and 36.97 minutes, elevation 1005 feet MSL, near the town of Iowa Park in North Texas.

     Most airplanes at Wichita Valley Airport are small (big on fun, though), such as RVs, Cubs, Pitts, Extras, and home-built. There are at least two helicopters that I've seen so far, including the emergency helicopters from the hospital popping in for some aviation fuel at a reduced price. On the field, too, there is a crop-dusting company with two or three Air Tractors.

     The aviation community there gather en masse on most weekends to fly or mess around with their aircraft. They are a friendly bunch who gather at Pat's home every Sunday for the "Prior Meeting," that is, "prior to supper at the Thai Orchid" meeting.

     Brian at his blog speaks of their friendliness one day when he stopped by for a burger:

     http://brainsflight.blogspot.com/2007/06/wichita-valley-airport-f14-thank-you.html

     In the fall, the airport hosts the "Pumpkin Plummet." Cubs and 172s -- even the twin engine Piper on the field -- fly the pattern and drop pumpkins at a target on the grass.

     MyMrMallory and I flew over the field today and snapped a couple of shots. Here is one of the photos taken from the west.


For more information about Wichita Valley Airport, click here.

     Wichita Valley Airport foments the aviation culture in the Wichita Falls area, and reflects its rich history in aviation.

Update: Unsatisfied with the images we had taken, MyMrMallory again flew the helicopter for another attempt, this time from 2,500' MSL. Below are some of the images I took.

      View of F14 from the south. Grass runway 4 is to the left. The location of the original terminal is at lower right. A couple of old hangars now serve as workshops. Lore has it that an airplane sits still in one of those hangars, once totaled by a flood in that corner of the airfield.

The view from the northeast shows grass runway 22. 

      My favorite image so far. (I say "so far" because MyMrMallory still wants to make another attempt at an angle from the top.) The small grass runway to the left is 16; to the right, paved runway 13.


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JMHawley Gave Me a Kiss to Build a Dream On

Listen, will you? I think that . . . literature, poetry, music and love make the world go round . . . while mathematics explains things; I fill my life with them, then go walking in snowy woods.
Let us go then, you and I
like two etherized patients floating
through life, together feeling prufrockian.
DDB Jr. makes my world go 'round; during his absence, Pachelbel fills it up.
One summer I sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, then through the Gulf of Finland to reach Saint Petersburg; I pursued Joseph Brodsky in its alley ways. I dream of making that two summers.
I read “Biking to Electra;” found my way in a Jaguar car, and glanced at the flashing steel grasshoppers at sunset. I’ll follow K.O.P.’s footsteps after he followed N.Scott Momaday’s; find warmth and inspiration on a rainy mountain.
Throw chinese coins for the I Ching.
Save the whales, the spotted owl, the woman in toil.
Cast a fly for trout; my memories of fly fishing under the sunny blue Colorado sky remain; I yearn to build more . . . with more trophy Browns.
Listen for the swan’s calls on the Baltic Sea. Feel KKII's joy, his arms spread wide in Yazilikaya.
Good night, Jimmy Durante, where ever you are.