I must be honest and confess to having very mixed emotions about reporting on another Big Bend Ranch State Park weekend. On the one hand, flying in to the park and spending some time is one of the more interesting and unique things you can do with an RV. On the other hand, the more we talk about it, the more people that are going to want to go, and the experience will change. In fact, change is already in the air, and it could be either good or bad – but in the end, I bet that the folks who made it out there this weekend will agree that despite some weather problems that shortened things up for many, the trip was once again worth it!
We announced back in December that we were going to head out to the Ranch again this President’s Day weekend, and that it would be great to meet some other RV’ers there again. As usual, lots of folks signed up and signed on. And then, as usual, the weather threw us a curve ball that made a Saturday crossing of Texas just about impossible. A big winter storm wound up over New Mexico, swung itself into the southerly-dipping jet stream, and sent lots of low clouds and poor visibilities across the entire state of Texas. The showers stayed mostly to the north until another pulse of low pressure kicked in from the west, building up a cold front that swept across the state in a line of strong thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. Louise flew in from D.C. on Friday, and we spent the day Friday watching the weather and building a jigsaw puzzle at home. The day became a good learning experience as we shared the forecasts and talked abut the potential for an IFR launch with a VFR arrival. Unfortunately, the area is so isolated that even with an RV’s range, finding a legal alternate that was reachable with reserves was not a trivial exercise – especially with Low IFR conditions across central Texas and strong headwinds along the route. When the cold front built up, we realized that this was not a bad thing overall – it was too late to go and arrive at the unlighted park strip before dark anyway, and the front would clear the area pretty quickly. We set the alarm clock for 0400 and made it an early night.
Now we already knew that some RV’ers had made it out to the ranch. Mark Ausman decided to take his laptop and go early, figuring that since he runs his own company, he could work from wherever he wanted! Some friends of Louise and I from Carlsbad that wanted to join us (but whose Cherokee was suffering from a carburetor problem) drove down and arrived on Saturday. And the Ziliks from Colorado surfed the backside of the storm around through New Mexico and slid in on Saturday. Most of the rest of the folks planning on going cancelled out on Saturday, but we figured two days of a three day weekend were better than nothing! So we lifted off from Houston about 0530, logging some smooth night hours until the sun rose over the Hill Country. The only problem was the winds – straight out of the west, and blowing 40+ knots at 4,500 feet. And they only got worse with altitude! The original plan was to go non-stop to Alpine for fuel, then head down to the ranch, but here I was in an RV in which I routinely see 1000 mile range (when flying high), unable to make the 460 mile trip with adequate reserves. Going higher to get better TAS and a lower fuel burn wasn’t going to buy us anything – the wind was just too strong! So a very minor diversion to Terrell County (6R6) for fuel was added in to the plan. Once I ran the numbers, I realized that the trip from 6R6 to the ranch is only about ten minutes longer than going from Alpine to the ranch, so there was no need to go on to Alpine at all. 6R6 turned out to be a great fuel stop, attended every day but Wednesday, according to the manager, who lives just a hundred yards up the road, and monitors Unicom at home. We’ll use them from now on!
The winds lightened up for the last 30 minutes in to the ranch, and upon landing, the surface winds were nothing to mention, and straight down the runway. We were happy to see a couple of RV’s on the ramp, and a Luscombe as well! The Cards arrived from Austin (with cookies!), as did Pat in his RV-8 from the DFW area, and before we knew it, we had seven airplanes on the ramp. The day was beautiful – sunny, moderate temps, and good visibility for flying. I’ll write more about the events at the ranch in the next post, so I’ll finish up the flying portion here first. The forecast was for continued nice, and when we got up in the morning, that proved to be the case. I was very pleased that the westerly winds aloft had decided to stick around, as I figured the atmosphere owed us something for the flogging we’d had the day before. Louise had ot make a 1430 flight out of Hobby to ge back to D.C., so we shot for an early departure (but not before big BBRSP breakfast!). The flight plan showed a total time to Houston of about 2:20, which looked mighty sweet! We went direct to 6R6 as a waypoint, as that takes you safely around the “corner” of the border with Mexico, then proceeded to Kestrel in the hill Country, on our direct line to Houston, and still selling the cheapest gas in the area. A relaxing stop there to chat with future airpark neighbors, and we were on our way back home – the total flight time (cruising at 11.5K and 9.5K) was just about 2:30 – a very quick trip.
The park provides some really unique flying opportunities, and (if you can get through the weather on the way), generally good local weather (or so we have found so far). The runway seems to be well oriented for the prevailing winds that I’ve found in my trips there to this point. Once again, the staff did a great job of supporting us, even though they were in the middle of a complete organizational change, and there were other guests there as well – in fact the bunkhouse was slightly overbooked! But once again, the flying was extraordinary, and the capability to get there by RV was what made it work. I’ll take two of three days anytime I can get it – most people who go to that region from Houston by ground wouldn’t go for less than a week, as it wouldn’t be worth it. But to fly along at altitude and see the unique geology of the area (and have it explained along the way by Louise – a big plus!) made for a fun few hours of flying.
I like dealing with weather challenges – and sometimes, the best place to deal with them is on the ground. I fault no one and salute everyone that looked at the weather on Friday and decided that Saturday was not going to be a good aviation experience. I use days like that to really study what happens locally under a given set of conditions, and therefore, be smarter the next time. It is always hard to plan a flying event well in advance, and I like the fact that we don’t really “plan” anything for the BBRSP trips – we just pick a date throw out some contact info, and let everyone fend for themselves. And so far, that has worked great. It does look, however, as if the park is going to be “modernizing” there operations to satisfy the TPWD folks in Austin – central reservations, more accountability, more adherence to the “procedures” – I am still hopeful that the local guys will be able to provide the same relaxed experience we have gotten each time, but I have my doubts. Folks that haven’t had the chance to get there might have missed out on some of the charm of the place. Only time will tell how the park is managed, but I do believe that the land and the flying experience will remain the same – extraordinary!
We announced back in December that we were going to head out to the Ranch again this President’s Day weekend, and that it would be great to meet some other RV’ers there again. As usual, lots of folks signed up and signed on. And then, as usual, the weather threw us a curve ball that made a Saturday crossing of Texas just about impossible. A big winter storm wound up over New Mexico, swung itself into the southerly-dipping jet stream, and sent lots of low clouds and poor visibilities across the entire state of Texas. The showers stayed mostly to the north until another pulse of low pressure kicked in from the west, building up a cold front that swept across the state in a line of strong thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. Louise flew in from D.C. on Friday, and we spent the day Friday watching the weather and building a jigsaw puzzle at home. The day became a good learning experience as we shared the forecasts and talked abut the potential for an IFR launch with a VFR arrival. Unfortunately, the area is so isolated that even with an RV’s range, finding a legal alternate that was reachable with reserves was not a trivial exercise – especially with Low IFR conditions across central Texas and strong headwinds along the route. When the cold front built up, we realized that this was not a bad thing overall – it was too late to go and arrive at the unlighted park strip before dark anyway, and the front would clear the area pretty quickly. We set the alarm clock for 0400 and made it an early night.
Now we already knew that some RV’ers had made it out to the ranch. Mark Ausman decided to take his laptop and go early, figuring that since he runs his own company, he could work from wherever he wanted! Some friends of Louise and I from Carlsbad that wanted to join us (but whose Cherokee was suffering from a carburetor problem) drove down and arrived on Saturday. And the Ziliks from Colorado surfed the backside of the storm around through New Mexico and slid in on Saturday. Most of the rest of the folks planning on going cancelled out on Saturday, but we figured two days of a three day weekend were better than nothing! So we lifted off from Houston about 0530, logging some smooth night hours until the sun rose over the Hill Country. The only problem was the winds – straight out of the west, and blowing 40+ knots at 4,500 feet. And they only got worse with altitude! The original plan was to go non-stop to Alpine for fuel, then head down to the ranch, but here I was in an RV in which I routinely see 1000 mile range (when flying high), unable to make the 460 mile trip with adequate reserves. Going higher to get better TAS and a lower fuel burn wasn’t going to buy us anything – the wind was just too strong! So a very minor diversion to Terrell County (6R6) for fuel was added in to the plan. Once I ran the numbers, I realized that the trip from 6R6 to the ranch is only about ten minutes longer than going from Alpine to the ranch, so there was no need to go on to Alpine at all. 6R6 turned out to be a great fuel stop, attended every day but Wednesday, according to the manager, who lives just a hundred yards up the road, and monitors Unicom at home. We’ll use them from now on!
The winds lightened up for the last 30 minutes in to the ranch, and upon landing, the surface winds were nothing to mention, and straight down the runway. We were happy to see a couple of RV’s on the ramp, and a Luscombe as well! The Cards arrived from Austin (with cookies!), as did Pat in his RV-8 from the DFW area, and before we knew it, we had seven airplanes on the ramp. The day was beautiful – sunny, moderate temps, and good visibility for flying. I’ll write more about the events at the ranch in the next post, so I’ll finish up the flying portion here first. The forecast was for continued nice, and when we got up in the morning, that proved to be the case. I was very pleased that the westerly winds aloft had decided to stick around, as I figured the atmosphere owed us something for the flogging we’d had the day before. Louise had ot make a 1430 flight out of Hobby to ge back to D.C., so we shot for an early departure (but not before big BBRSP breakfast!). The flight plan showed a total time to Houston of about 2:20, which looked mighty sweet! We went direct to 6R6 as a waypoint, as that takes you safely around the “corner” of the border with Mexico, then proceeded to Kestrel in the hill Country, on our direct line to Houston, and still selling the cheapest gas in the area. A relaxing stop there to chat with future airpark neighbors, and we were on our way back home – the total flight time (cruising at 11.5K and 9.5K) was just about 2:30 – a very quick trip.
The park provides some really unique flying opportunities, and (if you can get through the weather on the way), generally good local weather (or so we have found so far). The runway seems to be well oriented for the prevailing winds that I’ve found in my trips there to this point. Once again, the staff did a great job of supporting us, even though they were in the middle of a complete organizational change, and there were other guests there as well – in fact the bunkhouse was slightly overbooked! But once again, the flying was extraordinary, and the capability to get there by RV was what made it work. I’ll take two of three days anytime I can get it – most people who go to that region from Houston by ground wouldn’t go for less than a week, as it wouldn’t be worth it. But to fly along at altitude and see the unique geology of the area (and have it explained along the way by Louise – a big plus!) made for a fun few hours of flying.
I like dealing with weather challenges – and sometimes, the best place to deal with them is on the ground. I fault no one and salute everyone that looked at the weather on Friday and decided that Saturday was not going to be a good aviation experience. I use days like that to really study what happens locally under a given set of conditions, and therefore, be smarter the next time. It is always hard to plan a flying event well in advance, and I like the fact that we don’t really “plan” anything for the BBRSP trips – we just pick a date throw out some contact info, and let everyone fend for themselves. And so far, that has worked great. It does look, however, as if the park is going to be “modernizing” there operations to satisfy the TPWD folks in Austin – central reservations, more accountability, more adherence to the “procedures” – I am still hopeful that the local guys will be able to provide the same relaxed experience we have gotten each time, but I have my doubts. Folks that haven’t had the chance to get there might have missed out on some of the charm of the place. Only time will tell how the park is managed, but I do believe that the land and the flying experience will remain the same – extraordinary!
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