Gary Flying My Friend Ellen

      Gary took my friend Ellen for a ride in the helicopter. She was tickled. And I felt tickled watching her. At times, non-aviation folks will walk tentatively toward an aircraft, a bit hesitant to board. Not my friend Ellen! She frisked right up to it and hopped into it, nimbly maneuvering her leg over the cyclic. (The cyclic is the helicopter's steering mechanism.) Here she is taking pictures of us as she and Gary returned to the ramp.

Lazy Eights

     I had the opportunity to fly as a safety pilot while H.-P. practiced "under the hood." In order to fly an airplane by its instruments only, as pilots do when they fly through the clouds, unable to see the ground, they must practice doing so in nice weather, but with their eyes covered just enough to omit everything above the cockpit. A pilot places "foggles" over his eyes to cover everything except his instruments. This mandates having another pilot flying with them to make sure they do not fly into someone else, or to prevent other mistakes.

     First we flew to Olney where they enjoy having beautifully maintained runways and a GPS approach:

      The chart above reminds me of an expression I hear often said by the volunteers and rehabbers at Wild Bird Rescue in reference to some nestling birds, such as the baby grackles: ". . . a face only a mother could love." Only pilots love the kind of charts the aviation navigation engineers developed to aide them in finding air fields while flying inside clouds.

        After H.-P. practiced his approaches, the final ones subsequently at Wichita Valley Airport, he practiced lazy eights, a maneuver practiced by pilots to develop perfect control of the aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration provides a good diagram to show what a lazy eight should look like:

        What fun to sit in the right seat while experiencing the undulations of the lazy eight! (Yes, more fun to fly them!) While climbing and descending during a lazy eight, the pilot tests his skill in maintaining constant speed while the airplane loses or gains with each turn. I took photos as H.-P. performed the maneuver. H.-P. pitched to a forty-five degree angle, bringing the nose of his aircraft up, and watched his altitude and airspeed as he flew the lazy eight. The horizon shows the North Central Texas countryside looking green in spite of the severe drought conditions.

Early Mornings at Ramp

       My flights with Gary and H.-P. take me to the airport as the sun rises. I post processed the images of the sunrise in the digital darkroom using Lightroom's vast options to make the otherwise drab images look surreal.

       

Chaps with Chaps and Boots

And one angry bull . . .

Cowboy Hat

More Bunnies this Year

Poetry: Revised History of Retractable Gear on Aircraft

On the spring Amelia covered her blond hair with a leather helmet
then donned her clear as air glass goggles over her blue eyes --
was the same spring Antoine set his headings 270 degrees

Skimming the sunny top of the clouds they came upon each other
in the sky, over the world, one heading east, one heading west
Antoine looked out his cockpit and saw Amelia’s bi-plane

her wings gliding along the top, a ship gliding smoothly in the air
He exclaimed, C’est une jolie image, Amelia et l'avion!
was what she thought of his plane, too, over the top of the clouds

Then a fantastic idea conceptualized in both brilliant minds
of wheels that would tuck up under the plane upon take-off
to glide through the air like a ship gliding across the surface

Amelia waved to Antoine and said, Nice day for flying, non? 

The WWI Curtiss "Jenny" piloted by Tom Danaher, Wichita Falls, Texas, 2008.

Yes, Clouds, Actually

Finally clouds have begun to form in my neck of the woods. We hope for rain.

Hot Day in Decorah

Windy Days

Fifty knots blowing across North Texas today. 

Turkey Vultures, Purple Martins, and Barn Swallows dashing through the winds.

Pelicans in Late May

          Seeing pelicans still in the area confirms our suspicion that they may have become year-round residents of Lake Wichita. A Purple Martin from Wild Bird Rescue shares the image above.

Cooper's Hawk

Through Dust and Hail Storms, I Serve

      I served as transporter for a Red-tailed Hawk and four nestling Barn Owls.  A large sign fell over in one of the recent storms, and it tore down a nest, sending its tenant, a young Red-tailed to the ground. Concerned citizens brought him to Wild Bird Rescue. The four Barns had hatched inside a hunter's deer blind. Since Wild Bird Rescue cannot raise large birds -- yet -- Gail Barnes at South Plains Rehabilitation Center receives them and raises them, eventually to release them back into the wild. (I enjoy alliteration and thought of titling this post "Barns to Barnes," but I could not bring myself so to do, ha-ha.)

      In Seymour I came upon the symbols for branding irons.

Windmills and quadruped power-lines: How pretty, no? 

I drove through a dust storm blowing at forty miles per hour across North Texas.

And encountered one of Ben's fave views . . .  a storm building rapidly . . . and waiting for me. Fortunately I came upon an underpass and tucked my car under it while the hail passed by. 

Mahatma and a Nestling Barn Owl

      Lila (my hero), the new executive director of Wild Bird Rescue, held a nestling Barn Owl in her hands. I caught sight of the quote on the t-shirt she wore and thought it made a wonderful background for her work saving wild birds.

The Schedule

         Hmm. Any room for my name on the schedule? The late Executive Director of Wild Bird Rescue, Bob Lindsay -- BirdManBob -- left us with devoted volunteers. Everyone has rallied to pitch in after his passing in order to, as he used to say, "continue in our life-saving mission."

Hunters and Deer Blinds

       Now, hunters, do close up your deer blinds after every season. While at Wild Bird Rescue we adore seeing nestling Barn Owls -- how cute they look in their Barn owlish way -- we would rather you not allow their parents to nest in your deer blinds. Hunters, please take a few minutes of your time to close your deer blinds. Penny lay the four nestling Barn Owls in a row to show that each owl hatches after a specific number of days (four weeks), the mother laying each egg on separate days. Penny estimates the nestling at left to have hatched four days ago, making the owl at right approximately eight days old. A volunteer will transport the owls to Lubbock where at South Plains they have the room to raise such large creatures.

Planes to Cars to Horses

      The Museum of North Texas History celebrated a new fundraiser on Saturday, 21st of May, at Call Field East, Kickapoo Airport. David Martin flew the Curtiss "Jenny" and several classic car owners exhibited their vehicles. In addition to flying the Jenny with speeds of forty miles per hour around the grass air strip, David Martin flew his aerobatic airplane (Extra with a top speed is 400 miles per hour) over the airport. Mac flew next to him in his own Extra, both delivering trailing clouds of smoke along the sky that framed two parachutists, one of whom carried the US flag.

David Martin often assists the MONTH in its fundraising efforts. (Hey, any reason to fly!)

Mac flies his Extra at 200 miles per hour behind the sky diver.

Peyton drove his Packard to the fundraiser.

         While MyMrMallory took the two latter photos above, my friend Bobby accompanied me as we drove in the parade in the 1973 E-type.

         As the morning progressed, an Air Tractor outfitted to fight wild fires flew over the east taxiway and released several gallons of water that reached the croud downwind, providing a cooling mist. The grand event, though, consisted of the horse races along the grass runway.

Photo by Kristen Duwe published in the local paper.

Storm Over Sock

We . . .  finally . . .  saw rain in North Texas. 

Curious Fledgling

One of the fledgling Bald Eagles peers into the web cam.

Mac Waving