Aviation Photographs (100-01)

Under construction...

1976 Piper Warrior (PA28A-151)

Above is the first picture of the Warrior I took, actually before I bought it (summer 1998). The owner had it for sale over at Hull Airport in Sugarland, but allowed his agent fly it to Arcola at my agent's request, for the purpose of a pre-purchase inspection. No, the girl standing on the wing didn't come with the airplane, but we ended up getting married about 2 years later anyway. Guess she really liked the plane!

Since I am the phtographer as well as the pilot, this is the only picture of me you'll see on this site (photo by Jeff). This picture circa 2004.

Above is the Warrior outside the hanger in Arcola (summer 2002). This is a little better than the picture on the home page, which is not the greatest, but that hides the fact that the paint job is getting old, and the aircraft needs a good washing. The pictures do show the smooth lines and the great looks of the Piper Cherokee class. It has a horizontally opposed, 150 horsepower engine, with a 50 gallon fuel capacity. At 8-9 gph, this airplane will fly for longer than my bladder can hold out (good pilots are trained to remain as physically fit as possible for flight safety, which includes remaining hydrated, and this of course, causes a delima). The plane has around 4500 hours TT, and I have a couple of hundred hours in it. It is a real pleasure to fly this airplane...as graceful as a Cessna, and a touch more forgiving, I think.

Above is another angle (fall 2004). Not sure if you can tell in the picture above, but behind the Warrior is a T-28 being restored. Aviation buffs will know what this is. It is a 2 seater WW-II trainer aircraft. It is a sight to see, even under renovation. I'm not sure completely of the stats, but I believe its engine is rated at over 900 horsepower. It is being restored by the man who owns the hanger (and he is full of great bush-pilot stories and adventures derived from his air taxi-business in Alaska during the summer months). You can kind of see the massive size of this trainer as compared to the Warrior. I can stand under one wing without ducking. I'm impressed every time I see it. My father owned one of these when he was a young man and has some adventures of his own to tell, but I was only a few years old at the time.

Behind the T-28 are the fuseloges of 3 Argentine (Italian built) fighter jets (wings proped up to save hanger space) that saw combat in the British-Falkland war in 1982. One is touted to have scored a hit on one of the British ships. Why John bought them, I don't know. I don't have good shots of them yet.

So far, this is the best picture of the panel of the Warrior I have. It is hard to get a good inside shot because of the brightness outside, which causes contrast. I hope to get a better instrument panel shot. But you can see that it is IFR equiped. Localizer, DME, dual Nav/Coms, and ADF. You can't see it, but on the lower left is a hand help GPS (Garmin GPS III Pilot), which is actually panel mounted. It also has a wing leveler, but lately it hasn't been keeping right on course (at least not as good as I can using the GPS).

A standard "6-pack", plus dual nav.

Here is the Warrior taking on fuel in Angleton. Of course, it uses only 100LL AvGas, total of 50 gallons, 25 per wing. Ahhhh! I love the smell of AvGas in the morning!

19?? T28-B

Here is the T28 I talked about above. An impressive sight.

1978 Cessna 152 II

Here is a picture of a 1978 Cessna 152, N64822 (summer 2002). It is the plane I did most of my air work in, one of the planes I soloed, and the plane I took my FAA check-ride in. So this plane holds a lot of history for me. I love this plane. I see it from time to time flying into, out of and around Arcola. Occasionally, when the Warrior is down for maintenance or for its annual inspection, I will rent it, and reminisce about my student pilot days. Around the summer of 2000, Steve, the owner, was selling it for $14k. In this picture, he has a fresh paint job, some interior work, a new prop, and today he's selling it for $25k. I considered buying it a few years ago, but I finally decided on the Warrior. A step up, I'm glad I did.

Update, October 2003: I learned from the flight school that owned this plane's lease-back, that Steve finally sold N64822. The new owner moved it to Conroe. What a disappointment. I wondered why I had not seen it flying around lately. My flight instructor wants to check me out in a Cessna 172 as an alternative. There is quite a cost difference, but it would be good to fly a 172 again.

Here is a panel shot of N64822. Pretty simple compared to the Warrior, but still an excellent trainer.

Here is "822" in flight. Taken from within the Warrior, waiting to depart (the black line is the Warrior's prop).

198? Piper Archer-II (PA28A-180)

Here is a picture of a beautiful Piper Archer II. Some of my hanger neibors own this plane. A Cheroke, like mine, but upscaled and more powerful (and faster). The Warrior is great, but the Archer is truely a step up.

Misc.

Here is a picture of a typical sunrise at the Arcola airport. We see a lot of these, but usually I am thinking about the up-coming flight, and I forget to capture the image. But here I finally got one. This sun is rising on a Beachcraft V-tail Bonanza, and a Piper Seminole Twin. What a sight!

On the other hand, here is Arcola on a rainy afternoon. Still VFR mind you, but you can see the light rain drops on the windshield, waiting to depart. Pictured: an expensive Piper Saratoga landing, over the numbers.

Here is a shot of a Float Plane in the Victoria, British Columbia inner (safe) harbor, returning to its dock after a flight (November 2002). It is one of many float-planes up there, part of another air-taxi business. We recently visited there, and liked it quite a bit. This shot taken from the deck of an auto ferry, taking us from Vancouver Island, Canada, across the Puget Sound to the Olympic peninsula in Washington State.

This is an in-flight photo (summer 2002) of a hanger neighbor, Joe, flying his Experimental Glass-Air off my right wing, over taking me. I watched him depart behind me, then he announced his fly-by, so I got the camera ready and got this shot, albiet pretty poor. I understand he got a shot of me also, so I'll post it as soon as he gives me a copy.

This is the panel of a Mooney in flight (summer 2000). Notice the altimiter and the air speed indicator. A business aquantance took this shot on a trip from California to Texas he and his wife took. Yes, he is a 20,000 feet (I didn't know a Mooney could get to that altitude), but he is not really at 67 knots. The airspeed is an erroneous indication because of altitude. He reported his GPS ground speed indication was about 140, for which he believed he had about a 25 knot cross-tailwind. Notice something else. The artificial horizon is showing a slight nose up position. I suppose this showes the Mooney is giving everything its got to maintain FL200. By the way, I never could get him to admit if he was oxygen or not (a violation if he was not)! Fear not, the red light on the dash is gear up. At FL200, plenty of time to get that gear down!

Don't know what it is, but it was on the apron at Arcola, so I captured this shot. I think it flew in straight from Moscow.

This is the Warrior tied down right next to a Steerman in Angleton.

Ali, our retriever/sheppard, just loves to go with us anywhere we go. In this case, Ali percieved the Warrior as some sort of transportation device, so as with any car, she jumped in, on her own, as soon as I opened the door. This is at the airport in Arcola. C'mon already, LET'S GO!

"A boat's a boat, but the mystery box could be anything...it could even be a boat!" -- unknown

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