Tuskegee Airmen motor gliders

Seaplane base

It is pouring with rain but I came out here anyway; had to be done. Will probably return tomorrow if wx improves.

Cessna Citation Mustang

And then they threw us into this beautiful jet for another hour! Photos and more words to follow :-)

Cessna 206

Thanks to several friends and Cessna, I got to fly in this for an hour! It was very cool.

A380 is quite large!

Canadian warbirds

Lysander and Lancaster

Gratuitous WK2 pic

WK2 on Aeroshell Square

Dear God, no!

Not everything here is beautiful ;-) however, camp has arrived and is now set up and is a sight for sore eyes. We also got a proper demo from White Knight 2 and the A380 which were so, so good.

Skycrane

This helicopter did a huge water bomb drop demo.

White Knight 2

Virgin Galactic's finest shiny new spacecraft launcher.

Oshkosh 2009

Made it to Oshkosh! Shame my bag full of clothes and camping gear went to California. I hope to be reunited with it soon. Meanwhile, there are aeroplanes to be examined!

Kitneys in Austin

Agent K and his family came to visit for a couple of days! Although it was fairly spur-of-the-moment, they hopped on a flight from the UK and were with us for two nights.

It was really great to see them and to be able to show them around some local places, such as Kingsbury, San Marcos CAF and Austin's Capitol Building. I cooked a curry for their arrival on Tuesday, then we ate in the Cellar Cafe in San Marcos, Trattoria Lisina in Driftwood, and Kerbey Lane Cafe in Austin (below).

Next stop for the Kitneys - Houston, for a few more days holiday.
Next stop for me - Oshkosh! Watch this space for updates :-)

Of Birds and Flying

I spent a good day on Saturday.

First stop was New Braunfels airfield, for their Pancake Breakfast fly-in. This is always entertaining and hey, they offer free pancakes! So I enjoyed a pleasant hour or so socialising with the usual posse of local pilots that attend these things.

When they all flew away, my attention turned towards the many swifts that were flying about, back and forth to their nests. There were at least four swift nests in an overhang close by, with chicks in.



Next stop was Aquarena Springs, which is a natural area in San Marcos that is home to freshwater springs and several rare species, as well as plenty of other wildlife. I wanted to see herons. I was not disappointed!


Green Heron


Great Blue Heron


Blue dragonfly


These fish live in deeper holes (bottom left) and come up now and again. This one is blowing the bubbles seen top right.


And a cute little green anole that leapt up to have his photo taken.

There were many other birds, fish, turtles, dragonflies etc; the place is teeming with life and is generally splendid.


Later on, I went into Austin and met up with Jim, in the Thai Kitchen restaurant. Not the most upmarket of places but the food was very good. We then decamped to Taylor airfield, and Jim took me in his aeroplane, a Vans RV-7A, for a bit of sunset flying. Most excellent!


Jim taxiing to the gas pump


Sunset over the ski lake

We watched the sun creep below the horizon, from 4000 feet. It was glorious. Thanks, Jim.

Bats!

It's well-known tourist attraction; the millions of Mexican Freetail Bats that live under Congress Avenue Bridge. Every night at sundown, between April and September, they come out to feast on mosquitoes. Good bats! And every night at sundown, loads of people come out to watch them swarm off into the night. Here's a few shots.

Waiting


Out they come!








There's really quite a lot of them.