The Pain of Aviation

Aviation...explaining it with words is very difficult. From that first flight you never look to the sky the with the same eyes. you see something most other earth bound humans just cannot see. For many aviation becomes a passion, maybe even an obsession. I have a friend who is a Doctor in St Louis, his wife jokes he doesn't have platelets in his blood he has planelets. He is passionate about flying. Put two pilots who do not know each together, and suddenly they can talk for hours, as if they have known each other forever. Get a group together, their like a family. When you get that news that of your fellow aviators dies, it's like a family member dies.
I frequent an aviation forum on the internet. jetcareers.com This morning I found out one of our brothers took his last flight. I have not found out the details yet. really it does not matter. Yet! I will eventually look into and try to read the NTSB report, because every accident is a learning experience, and we we learn something, hopefully we will be able to prevent another such accident.
I did not know Ben personally. Only by his "screen name" on the forum. He was a great guy from what I could tell. Loved his family, and was passionate about flying.

I have lost a few friends now to aviation, it's never easy. I have to admit when I took off today in the C182 I had to test fly I had a lump in my throat and my thoughts where with Ben's Family, and my own. I had that "what if it had been me" thought. What if it had been my family that just had their world pulled out from under them.

I have to remind myself that our time here is short, God can call us home any time. It really doesn't matter what we doing, I believe when it's out time its our time. It still doesn't make it easy.

Flyer's Prayer
By Patrick J. Phillips

When this life I'm in is done,
And at the gates I stand,
My hope is that I answer all
His questions on command.

I doubt He'll ask me of my fame,
Or all the things I knew,
Instead, He'll ask of rainbows sent
On rainy days I flew.

The hours logged, the status reached,
The ratings will not matter.
He'll ask me if I saw the rays
And how He made them scatter.

Or what about the droplets clear,
I spread across your screen?
And did you see the twinkling eyes.
If student pilots keen?

The way your heart jumped in your chest,
That special solo day-
Did you take time to thank the one
Who fell along the way?

Remember how the runway lights
Looked one night long ago
When you were lost and found your way,
And how-you still don't know?

How fast, how far, how much, how high?
He'll ask me not these things
But did I take the time to watch
The moonbeams wash my wings?

And did you see the patchwork fields
And mountains I did mould;
The mirrored lakes and velvet hills,
Of these did I behold?

The wind he flung along my wings,
On final almost stalled.
And did I know I it was His name,
That I so fearfully called?

And when the goals are reached at last,
When all the flying's done,
I'll answer Him with no regret-
Indeed, I had some fun.

So when these things are asked of me,
And I can reach no higher,
My prayer this day - His hand extends
To welcome home a Flyer.


God Speed Ben...Please everyone keep Ben's family in your prayers. The will need them!

Grass...

There is just something about a grass runway. Maybe it's just me, but There is something special about it.

Zuehl field began life as an auxiliary field for Randolph Air Force base in 1932. Randolph had just opened in 1930, it was named after Captain William Millican Randolph, a native of Austin who was on the Randolph base naming committee at the time of his death. CPT Randolph died in a plane crash returning to his home base after a meeting.

We have been working at Zuehl Field for a couple weeks. We are doing an annual on a 182, and an engine an a debonair.

I like the country feeling a small grass field offers. Sometimes it is fun to play with the big boys, and taxi out behind an md11, but other times it's just nice to be on a small quite little field, knowing if you want to go for a ride around the patch you can just jump in, fire-up and pull onto a runway and go!

The other side to the small air field is you tend to see a few of these

This Mooney has been on the ground for at least 8 years. For someone who loves to fly and would love to own their own plane, it makes you sick to see one sitting and rotting away! You have to wonder what the owner is thinking!

On the other side of the field sits this beauty. again, unfortunately she has not flown for awhile.
Its an amazing looking airplane. I'm not sure what happened but in 1997 she was in Oakland CA being rebuilt, notice the old United paint scheme had been put on. after all that work she now sits in a field.


I would have loved seeing it land on that grass field. Reports are that the owner landed on a small wheat field next to zuehl field (this wheat field had been a runway during the military days) The landing roll was under 900 feet. I would have loved to see that! There is supposedly a video, if I ever find it I will post it!

This airplane also as an interesting History. She began life as an Air Force C118 53-3279

Later it became Navy 53-3279 and flew trans Atlantic and through out Europe.

It flew under Navy colors until 1983. Also note worthy she has come home in a sense, It began life in the Air Force in 1954 being assigned to Randolph AFB, and now back at Randolph Auxiliary Zeuhl field.

The plane is in flying condition, it's about 90% complete, but because of litigation the owner has been unable to finish restoration. The shame of it is its a group of pilots fighting the owner.

That is the great thing about a small field, you just don't know what will pop up next, sometimes they are full of great stories.

Bringing it back?

I got an email a few days ago, What can we do with her? She has been on the ground for about 4 years now. A couple of A&P's later she is sitting in pieces, and I have no real idea what it would take to bring her back from the dead. I have a couple phone calls in to see what the cost would be to taker her apart and truck it to Alpine Tx, where the owner has an A&P he would like to work on it. There is a shop here at KSAT that would be happy too get the work, but after 4 years sitting outside, they cannot even begin to estimate how much it would cost. Shop rate of $75, trying to figure out what parts are missing, how much corrosion is in the fuel system, engines, and airframe. I would love to see her fly again! The owner would like to use it for business (he travels all over Texas) and I would love to fly him around! So now we wait for all the quotes to come in and then he will make a decision! It will be interesting to see if this old bird will fly again!