Texas Convention.......TEXAS size

[V529]

I made it! The weather was daunting, but fortunately the breaks in the cloud allowed it. Long flight. 1037 nautical..........An overnight and a fair amount of "Funk" in the middle 400 or so miles. More on that later.
Here's the good Stuff.
T82, Fredricksburg Texas. Hangar Hotel. A real destination! The town is awesome, many cool shops and restaurants, winerys, An awesome WWII Pacific museum, (Nimitz was from Fredricksburg and has his own building!) Cool Rock climbing and Lukenbach Texas is just down the road for you country buffs.

Here's some pics.
We had about 27 120/140's about 7 people flew "other", 172, 182, 150, a Beech 18, a grumman and even a C-310! (yellow.......gotta luv it!)
There were more 140A's at this event than I've seen in decades.......Seven! Sometimes we're lucky to get one! Tom Reneau's Oshkosh Lindy Award winner A polished 140A was there and several other Grand champs! It was a feast for the eyes! I think most of the 140A's ended up in Texas!(mis-spelled Tom's name in the picture.......Sorry!)

The Hangar Hotel is just the coolest! Awesome decor........complete with a bar and restaurant, you never need to leave the field! The balcony facing the ramp was in constant use. who wouldn't want to just "hang out" and look at aircraft!!??

[V529]

Fredricksburg was/is a German immigrant town from Wayyyy back. Lots of German building architecture, eateries etc. Really a "destination". Many tourists! This is Texas "Hill country" if you are familiar".....If not it's hilly, semi arid, very scenic.......and HOT!. It was 100 on the first couple of days.

Unfortunately the top of the US was shrouded in "Funk", low ceilings and rain. I know of about a dozen folks who didn't fly due to the weather. The lower US was ok. During the event, we were blessed with good viz and no inclement weather, other than one brief shower on Wednesday night. (the night I took the frontal shot of the hangar hotel, see below)

We did a fly out to local strips (Poker run) and there are airports everywhere.......including the LBJ Ranch just down the road. Lotsa cool strips! It was hot and bumpy, but nothing we couldn't handle.

I was able to fly home in one day. Due to a "straighter line" than I took Monday/Tuesday to arrive it was a few less miles and no overnight. 997 NM. (I don't like to land at my own airport in Michigan at night due to the Abundance of deer)

To make it in one day would not have been possible without several things. 1. Self serve fuel, no need to wait on fuel truck or spend time explaining or detailing your trip, just gas and go. 2. Foreflight, having the onboard weather, flight planning, GPS routing, Airport directory............all at your finger tips is priceless, to say nothing of traffic via ADS-B. 3. Cessna 150 seats. I installed David Lowe's C-150 Seat STC several years ago. I couldn't have been able to do this in the original seats. I took off before sunrise and landed just after sunset with three fuel stops. 4. Honorable mention......tailwinds. I had tailwinds the entire trip down over two days, a consistant 5-10 knots. Coming home I had 15-20 knot tailwinds through Texas. 5-10 knots up to the Mississippi river, then no help/no hurt winds through Illinois, then Indiana and Michigan the headwinds kicked in, but by then I was almost 3/4 of the way home. Better to be lucky than good.

It was expensive, but worth it. We had an amazing turn out, while we had few airplanes, we had well over 100 people come, the events, food, lodging, location were all top shelf.

Next year!?? Wichita! Cessna 100 year anniversay. Stay tuned!
BTW, more pics to come. Jeff Tourt took a bunch but he's still on the road. He'll post as soon as he gets home.

[V529]

I should mention. We had many 'day vistors'. Lots of 120/140 owners and previous owners in Texas. There were some stunning aircraft where I never tracked down the owners. They came, hung out for a while and then took off for home.
One visitor I did catch was my OL bud Vic White. A looong time member from the Austin TX area. He retired out of the AAF flying "Buffs". I've known Vic for Decades, I'm super pleased he stopped in, I hadn't seen him since Wichita in 2017.

[V529]

Here's a picture of about 60% of the attendees. Most........... of us wore our "T" shirt..............

[V529]

A few pics inside the lobby and bar area.

[jetlagged]

These are great photos, Victor. I'm glad we got to meet you, and it's comforting to have your expertise just up the road.

[6643]

A few pics inside the lobby and bar area.

Where are all the people?

[V529]

A few pics inside the lobby and bar area.

Where are all the people?

Pics taken first AM, they were all sleeping? Recovering?