Sunday afternoon and evening we went west to Real County and Edwards County airports. Both were really out in the middle of nowhere but it was some very scenic countryside.
Medina Lake.
Coming in to land at Real County.
It was weird because the hills were on both sides of the runway and we were actually lower than most of them.
When we landed we met Jim and Kathy from Corpus Christi who were waiting for their daughter and her boyfriend to fly in with Jim's Cherokee 140. They were camping at Garner State Park this week for spring break, which we gathered was somewhere in the immediate vicinity. They said there are a lot of places to stay around there, little cabins and cottages and they usually meet there for Thanksgiving also. There was actually one cottage for rent right by the airport.
Very scenic.
As we were getting ready to leave, and after we had been sitting there for about 5 minutes, there was a minor disturbance in the cockpit that went something like this:
Renee (inner monologue): I wonder if maybe giving Bridget leftover black jellybeans is maybe bad for both her stomach AND her teeth. It seems like the perfect solution, no one has to eat the black jelly beans and they don't go to waste but still...still....
Scott (breaking Renee's reverie): Okay, now I'm going to need you to scoot your chair all the way up and lean forward so I can kill the wasp that's in here.
Renee: What wasp?
Scott: The one that's behind you...
~much swatting and commotion in the backseat~
Scott (visibly lacking a paper towel full of wasp): Okay, I got it.
Renee: Where is it?
Scott: I got it, it's dead, I'll get rid of it when we get to Rock Springs.
~5 minutes later, wasp lands on Renee's window 5 inches from her shoulder~
Renee: It's not dead! It's not dead!
Scott: Okay, everybody STAY CALM. Get your chair forward again...
~an even greater period of swatting and commotion in the backseat~
Renee: How'd it get in here?
Scott: I don't know, how'd YOU get in here? It probably came in a window or door or something...(Scott has a smart mouth)
Renee: I just think I would have noticed a wasp the size of my fist walking in the door with me is all...
Scott (winded): Okay, NOW it's dead. I'm almost positive.
Renee: What do you mean almost positive?
Scott: It's dead, let's move on! Unless we stop, shut everything down and physically remove it from the aircraft,
Renee: If that's what it takes to make sure it's dead then that is what I would prefer!
Scott: It's dead, it HAS to be, I'm 100% sure...can you make it a half hour?
Renee: Fine, if you're sure...
Scott: I'm sure.
~10 minutes later, after takeoff~
Scott looks over to his left, sees the wasp on his window, grabs a map and smashes it against the window, leaving a smudge, without saying a word.
Renee: I knew it. I knew it.
Scott (laughing): Okay NOW it's dead! Cross-check confirmed!
~15 minutes later~
Renee (noticing the dead wasp perched on top of her book in her purse): That wasp is in my purse.
Scott: NO WAY. IT. CAN'T. BE.
Renee: I mean it's dead, but it's in my purse.
Scott: Oh. I'll get it out when we land. Jeesh.
~THE END~This is a picture of the runway at Real County, we're going to submit a couple pictures of airports to AirNav.com to see if they use them. The one currently on there for this airport was last updated in 2003, but it's prettier because itwas taken in the summer. We'll see what happens, it would be kind of cool to have our picture posted.
Coming in to land at Rock Springs. It gets flatter the further west you go.
There isn't much at this airport, just a few hangars, but they do have a weather station...
...and a phone booth!
Clearly we learned our lesson with the wasp...
Edwards County runway from the air.
Coming back in to Boerne.
We should have taken a picture of the wasp, but Renee didn't want to get too close, lest it come back to life. It was about an inch and a half long and an angry orangish red. But we survived!
The computers that control the sim.
Scott flying the sim.
View from the cockpit.
Coming in to land at Real County.
It was weird because the hills were on both sides of the runway and we were actually lower than most of them.
When we landed we met Jim and Kathy from Corpus Christi who were waiting for their daughter and her boyfriend to fly in with Jim's Cherokee 140. They were camping at Garner State Park this week for spring break, which we gathered was somewhere in the immediate vicinity. They said there are a lot of places to stay around there, little cabins and cottages and they usually meet there for Thanksgiving also. There was actually one cottage for rent right by the airport.
Very scenic.
As we were getting ready to leave, and after we had been sitting there for about 5 minutes, there was a minor disturbance in the cockpit that went something like this:
Coming in to land at Rock Springs. It gets flatter the further west you go.
There isn't much at this airport, just a few hangars, but they do have a weather station...
...and a phone booth!
Clearly we learned our lesson with the wasp...
Edwards County runway from the air.
Coming back in to Boerne.
We should have taken a picture of the wasp, but Renee didn't want to get too close, lest it come back to life. It was about an inch and a half long and an angry orangish red. But we survived!
The bird, a Piper Archer 181.
A different perspective with the wing being below the windows...
Coming in to land at Fredericksburg.
The diner is right on the ramp and people will walk around and look at everybody's airplanes while they're parked there. Right in front of our window was a 2006 Cirrus SR22 GTS that had obviously been in some kind of accident. We asked the waitress and she said about 3 weeks ago the pilot, who had been inexperienced, had run off the runway and into a fence while attempting to land. It had damage to both wings, the fuselage, the propeller, engine, rudder, and both wheels. Without being experts or anything it appeared to be a total loss because of the structural damage to the fuselage. This particular type of Cirrus was over $500,000 new and is still worth over $300,000 today. We didn't want to be the jerks on the ramp taking pictures of the poor damaged Cirrus but we managed to get this one surreptitiously.
Something different about the Archer is that there's only one door, so the pilot has to get in first and crawl across before the passengers get in.
Taking off from Fredericksburg. It's hard to see the hills from the air but Fredericksburg is also in the hill country and it was a really nice scenic flight.
Poodle skirts and saddle shoes!
We'll have to go back sometime and take more time to look around and enjoy it!
From there we drove to New Braunfels. Llano is about a 45 minute flight from there, and would be a little over two hours driving. Devin helping Scott pre-flight.
Taking off from New Braunfels.
Karla and Renee in the back seat.
Devin at the controls briefly after takeoff.
Flying low over a river as we approached Llano at sunset.
A creative sunset shot by Renee.
Landing at Llano.
When we landed, the airport manager came out in a golf cart and told us to be sure to back taxi the runway before taking off later because they had just fenced in the airport with deer fences, and although they had shot nine (!) deer earlier that day, there were still a few to watch out for.
We rode to Cooper's with another group of four who had flown in from Killeen (about a 1/2 hour flight away, where Fort Hood is located), also for BBQ. The pilot of the group was an extremely enthusiastic young gentleman named Franklin. Franklin has been flying about four years and is currently working on his instrument rating. He said he loves flying so much, he'll take a ten-minute flight to the next town over from Killeen just to get a hamburger! Renee wanted to get his picture for the purposes of this blog, but no moment presented itself where that wouldn't have been considered weird. So you'll have to take our word for it, but his face absolutely LIT UP when he talked about flying, he was a very happy and enthusiastic individual. This is us waiting in line outside the BBQ pits at Cooper's, Franklin was nice enough to take the picture.
En route to Victoria. It was very peaceful, just cruising along in the dark at 5500 feet. Very nice date night!
The moon.
Victoria. 
The Sky Restaurant. Fantastic food, but too much of it!
