Mike sent back a picture of the pre-dawn takeoff at Pecos, today, Friday morning.  The right magneto has failed at their next stop, Iraan, Texas.  We’ve got a spare magneto here at the hangar in California, and we’re on alert to FedEx it out if  needed.  

Frenchie fills in the day’s details for us:

 ”Today started at 0530 in Pecos Tx with takeoff at 0700.  While trying for Ozona Tx, we had the bad mag and fog that put us down in Iraan Tx. No fuel but a neat small town.   The local airport mechanic, IA, FAA (Mike) fixed the mag problem with a mirror and small screwdriver purchased from Aircraft Spruce of Texas (AKA Carquest).  Down for 1.5 hours and back we went to Ozona Tx. Another friendly airport.  Fuel and go to Taylor Tx.

In Taylor they have only one airport courtesy car. A retired Dodge Intrepid police car.  Still has the lights and radio.  And the back doors still don’t open from the inside. We shared it with the pilot who had just flown into Taylor,  a US Army Wounded Warrior named Todd.

Todd, the US Army Cav Scout is undergoing rehab for injuries he received in Afghanistan in 2009.  Todd and his family showed us where the best BBQ in Taylor was and so we went to Muellers BBQ in downtown.  We had a great lunch with a good group of people.  Thanks Todd for what you did.

After standing down for the Texas afternoon winds, we headed east where we were trying to make Lousiana.  A 40 degree crosswind  at 15 knots made us rethink that decision and we made a far better one.  Instead we turned left for Angleina Airport in Lufkin Tx.

Upon arrival, we were greated by two fellow aviation buffs Scott and Bubba.  Scott gave us his truck to borrow for the night to get in and out of town.  After tying down the plane, Scott and Bubba treated us to ice cold Shiner Bock at their hanger and man was it good after the longest travel day yet.  Come to find out that Scott is the Chief of Police of Lufkin TX but I suspect he’s a full time pilot who just has to work for a living.  Sound familiar?   Scott and Bubba are very interested in the plane and are considering flying to Sun  n Fun next week to meet Tom.  Saturday morning, they are going to introduce us to some of their airport heroes.  A close friend of theirs was a Corsair driver in WWII and still comes to airport everyday.

Tommorrow will start early as we plan on spending most of the day in Lufkin.  We were invited to the ranch that belongs to Scott’s father in-law.  His dad had a 2600 foot strip on his ranch where he keeps his Stearman, Luscombe and other assorted planes (and gun collection)  Is this a great trip or what?
 
We have not met a mean person yet in Texas or anywhere on this trip for that matter.  Is it airport people or is just what happens when you leave California?

Saturday, March 26th-Leavin’ Texas….Finally!

There’s been several stops today, and the boys had yet another great day of meeting new airport friends.  Back at Cable Airport in California, we’ve just shipped off two pair of headsets to Florida, as it seems both Chris and Mike’s headsets produce too much static to safely listen/navigate the busy Sun N Fun traffic.  We’ve also shipped ‘Lady Satan’s display poster, also to be used at the show.  The boys have stopped in Waynesboro, Miss. for the night. Here’s Chris’  report:

“After downing  many glasses of sweet tea and a good southern meal of fried catfish, hushpuppies and crawfish, we finally got  to sleep on Friday night.

Today,  Saturday, Scott and Bubba loaded up in their Cessna 182 and had us follow them in the OY-1 to Scott’s Father’s ranch about 12 miles west of Lufkin where we landed on his grass strip.  The strip is 2600 feet long, has a hill in the middle (or jump depending on how you look at it), doglegs to the left and has a pond on one side.  The old girl took it like a champ!  We were greeted by Mr. Landry who lives in a 120 year old wood shack  but has a new 3000 square foot (+-) hangar on his ranch for his Stearman, Luscombe, Cessna 180 and Lightsport.  Are these guys great or what!  Not only that but he has a 600 yard rifle range (runway)  where he shoots his rifles everyday.  We were greeted at the front porch of his cabin by the big black lab AKA “porchdog” that was a love but deaf because he swam too much in the pond  and an infection caused his hearing loss.  That did not stop him from smiling and wagging his tail!  Mr. Landry showed us his collection of rifles that cover every wall of the house.  Being a sniper, I was drooling!  Not only does he have an M-1, he has a whole wall top to bottom dedicated to M-1′s. The next room is for M-1A’s. After that, he flew back to Angelina in his Luscombe off our wing to go to breakfast.  

Once back at Angelina, The airport guys came out to meet “Lady Satan”.  We enjoyed meeting all the guys there.  A gentlemen named Buzz Patrick came out to see her. Buzz was an OV-10 driver in Vietnam and has a keen appreciation for what this plane did and what Tom Rozga and the boys were doing.  The OV-10 was used as a forward air control plane up until the late 90′s.  Mr Odom, another Texas gentleman, stopped in to see the girl.  Mr Odom flew T-6′s in Korea also as a forward air controller.  We picked the right airport didn’t we!  Mr. Odom also flew F-86′s later on.  Thank you both for your service.

Thanks to everyone in Lufkin Texas for showing us what good people are made of!  Thanks Scott, Bubba, Ricky, Linda, Josh, Jacob and rest of the crew!

We left Angelina and headed east for Opelousas, La.  After 3 days in Texas we finally crossed out into Louisiana.  Our first stop was St. Landry Parish Airport where we met the nephew of pilot, Lt. Karl Elton Kelley Sr, Dallas Kelley.  Dallas was able to sit in and see the plane his uncle flew on Iwo Jima 66 years ago.  Dallas enjoyed the stop and took many photos to share with his boys.  We are waiting on the gusty minds to stop before we head east to the area of Mobile AL.  for the night. ”

View of Louisana

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Crossing the Mississippi River

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