Rubbing Elbows with El Presidente
Posted: Fri May 06, 2016 3:04 am
Literally. I went flying with the guy. He even picked me up in his spiffy taildragger Cessna. Unfortunately, it was the wrong airplane, but since it was a first-class upgrade, I was all too happy to oblige.
Now I don't want to go making everyone feel inferior because of my new-found status, being a ballast for his 195 and all, but I'm pretty proud of myself.
In all seriousness, Richard comes up to Dallas on a regular basis, and I happened to luck out in that he has not yet headed north for the summer. After exchanging information last weekend, I called Richard up on Monday to hash out some basic details, and eventually all the pieces fell into place and I've had a terrific ending to my first month down here in Texas. Richard was kind enough to offer to pick me up in his 195 at Hicks and take me flying for a bit, before putting her to bed at his hangar at Grand Prairie Municipal and having dinner.
I have read a lot of his posts on here over the years, but until one gets to meet someone in person and exchange stories, it's a different kind of "knowing" someone. I'm sure everyone on here that's an active community member understands, but Richard was a fantastic host and gave me a lot of history of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and a great aerial tour of the south part of the city, as well as a good education on 195s and some awesome stories from his days working oil fields in Alaska.
He was kind enough to let me fly the RNAV Rwy 35 approach down to minimums, which is particularly helpful as I am going home on my 10-day break to finish my instrument rating for work. We had an awesome dinner at BBQ restaurant (more like institution) in Ft. Worth called Angelo's, where I had a BBQ salami sandwich, on Richard's recommendation, and it was quite satisfying. Before dropping me off back at my place, we stopped at Northwest Regional to see the goings on out there and watched a clipped-wing Cub do some touch and goes.
All in all, my first (work) trip to Texas has been a blast. I've had an opportunity to connect with five local 170 owners, (Rusty Morris; Steve Jacobson; Richard Pulley; Bruce Conner; and Gene Hattaway, who is an American captain and recently purchased a beautiful 52). My next time out here, I have have meeting Paul Wood on my list as we've exchanged a few messages. If there are any 170 owners in central Texas that want an excuse to go fly, I'll be happy to buy fuel and lunch on a Saturday/Sunday for any willing victims. My only caveat for being here is that I cannot venture too far away for too long (so going to Houston for the day or anything like that is ill-advised) because of the nature of my job and being on call for any potential service interruptions, but I am free to tool around the area and exchange lies.
As always, I have pictures of Richard's airplane, but I feel a bit like a stalker for taking a picture of my company. Plus, everyone knows what he looks like anyway.
Thank you for your hospitality, Richard. I can't wait to be back down in the area again in a few weeks.
Now I don't want to go making everyone feel inferior because of my new-found status, being a ballast for his 195 and all, but I'm pretty proud of myself.
In all seriousness, Richard comes up to Dallas on a regular basis, and I happened to luck out in that he has not yet headed north for the summer. After exchanging information last weekend, I called Richard up on Monday to hash out some basic details, and eventually all the pieces fell into place and I've had a terrific ending to my first month down here in Texas. Richard was kind enough to offer to pick me up in his 195 at Hicks and take me flying for a bit, before putting her to bed at his hangar at Grand Prairie Municipal and having dinner.
I have read a lot of his posts on here over the years, but until one gets to meet someone in person and exchange stories, it's a different kind of "knowing" someone. I'm sure everyone on here that's an active community member understands, but Richard was a fantastic host and gave me a lot of history of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and a great aerial tour of the south part of the city, as well as a good education on 195s and some awesome stories from his days working oil fields in Alaska.
He was kind enough to let me fly the RNAV Rwy 35 approach down to minimums, which is particularly helpful as I am going home on my 10-day break to finish my instrument rating for work. We had an awesome dinner at BBQ restaurant (more like institution) in Ft. Worth called Angelo's, where I had a BBQ salami sandwich, on Richard's recommendation, and it was quite satisfying. Before dropping me off back at my place, we stopped at Northwest Regional to see the goings on out there and watched a clipped-wing Cub do some touch and goes.
All in all, my first (work) trip to Texas has been a blast. I've had an opportunity to connect with five local 170 owners, (Rusty Morris; Steve Jacobson; Richard Pulley; Bruce Conner; and Gene Hattaway, who is an American captain and recently purchased a beautiful 52). My next time out here, I have have meeting Paul Wood on my list as we've exchanged a few messages. If there are any 170 owners in central Texas that want an excuse to go fly, I'll be happy to buy fuel and lunch on a Saturday/Sunday for any willing victims. My only caveat for being here is that I cannot venture too far away for too long (so going to Houston for the day or anything like that is ill-advised) because of the nature of my job and being on call for any potential service interruptions, but I am free to tool around the area and exchange lies.
As always, I have pictures of Richard's airplane, but I feel a bit like a stalker for taking a picture of my company. Plus, everyone knows what he looks like anyway.
Thank you for your hospitality, Richard. I can't wait to be back down in the area again in a few weeks.