A Tigger Tale I
5/16/2005
A nice line up |
Tigger Goes to the Lonestar Aerobatic Championship, 2005
by Mike Thompson
Saturday, 11 June broke to low clouds; Just what we didn’t want. Our 0900 departure was going to slip. A call to the contest director on Friday had verified they would start at 0700 and continue until done. We would be late.
The contest was held at Denison - Grayson County Airport, 193 NM North of Taylor. The airport started life as Perrin Field (Army Air) in January 1942. It became Perrin Air Force Base in July 1952. It became Grayson County Airport in June 1971. I can tell you the field looks like a military installation, from the runways to the ramp space!
You can get the full history of the field at:
After a 0930 call to the weather briefer to verify winds aloft and TFR status, we headed to the airport, stuffed our chairs/cooler/binoculars/umbrellas and what-not into the RV, topped off the tanks and launched through broken clouds. We expected and got a very nice tailwind at 5,500, and cruised Northward at 195 Knots GPS groundspeed. Life is sweet! We got clearance into the Dallas Class B airspace and meandered Northwards over much glass and concrete.
About an hour after lift off we arrived on top Grayson and entered the pattern being mindful of the aerobatic box to the West of the runway. There was no radio traffic and no planes in the air.
The cloud bases were at 2,500, which we were to learn was holding up the competition.
After my usual squeaker-when-no-one-is-looking, we taxied in amongst the brightly colored ships waiting their turn to fly. You could feel the testosterone on the ramp among these aircraft!
Parking and wandering to the FBO office, we found the contest director Barbra Boyle and learned of the delay. Since it was now after 1100, we decided to launch to our lunch destination, Cedar Mills. This is a nice little grass strip on Lake Texoma, and is a hop, skip and a jump from Grayson. http://www.cedarmills.com/airfield.htm
The RV, by the way, likes grass. The Pelican’s Landing restaurant is a short walk from the airstrip.
We also wanted to take this opportunity to check out the units available for rent, seen along the strip and here, on take off. They seemed like a nice place to stay, even at $100/night on weekends
(!). We might try them some time – or see if we can camp on the field (there is a camp site on the other side of the “condos”, by the shoreline).
Full of lunch and diet coke, we headed back to Grayson under a raised ceiling, sure that the contest was underway.
We parked and got comfortable. The activity seemed to come in bursts. Several aircraft would fly, then long waits… and the wind was blowing up a storm! A great opportunity to walk the ramp.
You might call this next picture, “ Champions On The Line”. Or how about, “ Titans At Rest”. “ A Chick Among Hawks”? OK – so Tigger needs a weight-training program… and another 100 HP… and a constant-speed prop… and a stronger tail... inverted fuel, inverted oil, fuel injection... We can always dream.
I hoped some of that aura would rub off, anyway.
Watching these aircraft being put through their paces is truly a humbling thing.
I get a grin when I manage a nice aileron roll, or get the bump on the exit of a loop…
These folks… are awesome! All too soon it was time to head home. We got a sip of gas from the truck on the ramp ( never turn down an opportunity to top off the tanks!) and launched Southward.
Back through Dallas Class B and GPS direct home. We were able to minimize the headwinds by climbing to 8,500 where the 20+ Southern winds dropped to 12 and swung West a tad.
All in all a good flight home, puffy cumulus passing beneath us to the strains of a Big Band CD.
This was a nice little day run, and truly is,
La Dolce Vita!
- Mike ‘n Kit ‘n Tigger, the RV-6
| 
Test Area
