Boerne Stage Field.

[Whip]

Texans just love these kinda signs...it may as well said "Welcome ya'll....anyone want a beer"

 

Upon my most recent return to riding you may remember I stopped to help a friend get off the ground.

 

Another friend(Kaneman) thought he could fly without my help.

 

..............and a few others needed a different kinda help.

 

 

 

 

Some could take off without anyones help..... Imagine that!!!!

 

Landing didn't look so hard......anyone could do it.

 

Now parking may take some practice.

 

If these two idiots would get out of the way....

 

I wonder if any of these can fly.

 

One of our more Moderate members has a personal attachment to this Air Field.....

I'll let him explain.

 

Ya'll have a great day.

 

Hey!...I did an entire Ride Tale without mentioning Richard....Almost.

 

Whip

[Firefight911]

Nice job!

 

Me love airplanes!!!

[Paul Mihalka]

I love small planes. I did a bit of that too. For a couple of years I flew a Globe Swift. Any of you youngsters know what that was?

[russell_bynum]

One of our more Moderate members has a personal attachment to this Air Field.....

 

That would be me.

 

We lived about 5-6 miles from Boerne Stage, and I used to ride my bike over there to hang out, bug everyone, try to bum airplane rides, etc.

 

My first real job was washing 152's and 172's for the FBO/Flight School (which has since moved to San Antonio) in exchange for flight hours. You haven't lived until you've spent an hour on your back in an ant hill scrubbing oil off the belly of a 172. Sometimes I'd man the Unicom...which was fun.

 

As with most small airports, this one had lots of interesting characters hanging about: Old airline pilots; Fighter, bomber, and transport pilots from every war since WWII; young hotshot flight instructors trying to build up enough hours to go fly for one of the big airlines, etc.

 

That tow plane has an interesting story. The airport owner's wife is a Southwest Airlines pilot. So...when they had the 152 down for a major overhaul/upgrade/repaint, they had it painted like a Southwest 737. And I can recall more than one time when she'd be on final approach in a sailplane and she'd call Unicom with "Boerne Stage Traffic, Southwest...Err...Grob November Three Eight Seven Six.."

 

It's a really neat little airport and there's always something going on.

 

We had some "culture issues" trying to coexist with the glider folks and the powered flight folks. The glider guys were really bad about using their radios to tell everyone where they were and what they were doing. It wasn't uncommon to be in the pattern and be cut off by a sailplane you never knew was there because he couldn't be bothered to key his microphone and announce his position/intentions. The best was one day when we were on approach and there was a glider on the displaced threshold, waiting to eventually be hooked up to the tow plane and taken aloft. The pilot had his kids out there with him, playing. Now, mind you...this is literally abou 20 feet off the approach end of a runway at an active airfield...and this guy had his kids out running around playing like they were at the park. The best part: one of them was FLYING A KITE!!!!

[Mike O]

Whip,

 

Nice ride tale. Every time I see one of those gliders, I get the itch to try it out. I've flown in several small Cesna's (one friend had a 1968 182, and another friend just bought a new 182 for his personal use). But the glider I've never tried, but was always intrigued by the 'quietness' and solitude of a glider...

 

One of these days...

 

Mike O

[russell_bynum]

I love small planes. I did a bit of that too. For a couple of years I flew a Globe Swift. Any of you youngsters know what that was?

 

There was a Swift at Boerne Stage for quite a while. Neat little flying machine.

 

[Paul Mihalka]

That's the one!

[WestTX RT]

I was a line boy at a small county FBO (Terry Co.) right out of high school. I had a great time working around the planes. A lot of what I did would make good "Dirty Jobs" segments. We did a lot of aerial application, and I mixed and flagged until the Parathion almost killed me.

 

Some of my favorite stories that I still tell came from some of the "hangar rats".

 

Planes get in your blood just like motorcycles do, but they cost a whole lot more.

[TEWKS]

We also had a small airfield in town. As a kid I spent many hours hanging out there watching planes take off & land. In the mid eighties I took some lessons & soloed a Grumman AA1B. Money got tight & I never finished training. In my opinon the airport gave the town character. About five years ago a builder offered the owner a boat load of money, now we have a "nice" function hall & golf course.

 

Pat

[russell_bynum]

I was a line boy at a small county FBO (Terry Co.) right out of high school. I had a great time working around the planes. A lot of what I did would make good "Dirty Jobs" segments. We did a lot of aerial application, and I mixed and flagged until the Parathion almost killed me.

 

 

Those crop-dusters are amazing planes. So ugly and utilitarian, yet so beautiful because they're perfectly designed for the mission. There was a 188B at Boerne Stage that they mostly used for towing banners.

[WestTX RT]

perfectly designed for the mission.

You got that right, all horsepower and control surface. We had a couple of spray pilots that could do some amazing things in a Pawnee, which is what we flew.

Two summers in a row, we had a terrible green bug run in the maize. We had some guys come up from S. TX in Thrush Commanders, which were huge planes. One of them landed on his flagger's Datsun pickup cab. He powered up and just crushed the top of the cab and got glass all over the poor kid. The pilot and the kid both had the shakes for the rest of the day.

[Marty Hill]

Hey Paul,

 

I flew a swift a couple of times/nice bird. Beautiful to look at.

[russell_bynum]

Speaking of utilitarian and ugly, but really beautiful at the same time...there was a Fieseler Storch at Boerne Stage for a while.

 

 

Wingspan: 49 feet.

It could land in 66 feet.

[Dennis Andress]

I believe this one's called a "Forked Tailed Doctor Killer"

 

[Paul Mihalka]

If I had a plane today, it probably would be a Maule

http://www.mauleairinc.com/cd/aircraft/m-7-235c_dune_white_&_green_&_brown.jpg

[russell_bynum]

I believe this one's called a "Forked Tailed Doctor Killer"

 

Indeed. The V-tail Bonanza got a bad rep because it was so slippery...didn't take much to get it over VNE. Fly into IMC, get disoriented, come out of the clouds in an inverted dive...bye bye.

 

I was really suprised about that with the Mooney as well. Pull the power...and the thing doesn't slow down. No wonder they started putting speedbrakes on those things.

 

We had a 182, which is sorta the airplane equivalent of a half-ton Ford Pickup. It wasn't pretty, or fast, but it was reliable and it carried all four of us and our luggage. It was a tremendously stable instrument platform and we flew all over the place in that plane.

[Dennis Andress]

We had a 182, which is sorta the airplane equivalent of a half-ton Ford Pickup. It wasn't pretty, or fast, but it was reliable and it carried all four of us and our luggage. It was a tremendously stable instrument platform and we flew all over the place in that plane.

 

 

I'd put the 206 in the "1/2 ton Ford truck" category and call the 182 a station wagon....

[russell_bynum]

We had a 182, which is sorta the airplane equivalent of a half-ton Ford Pickup. It wasn't pretty, or fast, but it was reliable and it carried all four of us and our luggage. It was a tremendously stable instrument platform and we flew all over the place in that plane.

 

 

I'd put the 206 in the "1/2 ton Ford truck" category and call the 182 a station wagon....

 

Fair enough.

 

The 206 was VERY popular with the drug runners. With a STOL kit and some big tires, you could carve out a small landing strip on a hillside in an evening with a dozer, land the plane, stuff it full, and as long as the door would close, you could take off.

 

Every week when we'd go flying, we'd see a new landing strip that had been carved out of a hill like that. Every now and then, the'd land the plane and blow the tires, or have a problem...and they'd just abandon the plane.

 

Usually they'd fly back up from Mexico a few months later, buy their plane back at a DEA auction, and fly it home.

[David]

When I was a little kid, back when I was developing my love of flying, I was put in charge of weight and balance for 185 models with STOL and belly holds.

 

I'd weigh each passenger and luggage, account for temp, alt, fuel, etc., and sort of act like a loadmaster--as a young teenager.

 

We'd then taxi the 185 to the grass strip (in the Mexican jungle), go to the end of the runway, spin the rear around (the 185 is a taildragger), and shut off the engine. Then the pilot and I would push it back into the jungle as far as we could (sort of like what they call a displaced threshhold nowadays). Start it up, max engine, release brakes, but hold yoke forward to keep it on the ground. Then pull up at the last minute, climb real fast, settle down just a few feet above the jungle canopy, and barely pull out of a stall.

 

Looking back on it, I thought it was great fun--the pilot was probably a little more nervous.

[WestTX RT]

We had DEA chase a Loadstar into our FBO with an Aztec and a Centurion one Sunday morning. After all the agencies raced off into town to chase the perp, I got left with the deputies to move the Loadstar off the ramp. I got elected to crawl up inside to release the brakes. That old airplane had an incredible amount of pot in it. The smell was so strong the pilot was running oxygen.

[russell_bynum]

When I was a little kid, back when I was developing my love of flying, I was put in charge of weight and balance for 185 models with STOL and belly holds.

 

I'd weigh each passenger and luggage, account for temp, alt, fuel, etc., and sort of act like a loadmaster--as a young teenager.

 

We'd then taxi the 185 to the grass strip (in the Mexican jungle), go to the end of the runway, spin the rear around (the 185 is a taildragger), and shut off the engine. Then the pilot and I would push it back into the jungle as far as we could (sort of like what they call a displaced threshhold nowadays). Start it up, max engine, release brakes, but hold yoke forward to keep it on the ground. Then pull up at the last minute, climb real fast, settle down just a few feet above the jungle canopy, and barely pull out of a stall.

 

Looking back on it, I thought it was great fun--the pilot was probably a little more nervous.

 

That's cool. I remember my first real lesson in density alititude. Departing out of Taos, NM in the 182 on a summer day. The damn thing just didn't want to climb.

 

Of course...my first flight in a 152 was pretty funny. Instructor was in the right seat, I do the preflight, taxi out, runup, etc. It was my first flight with an intstructor and I was trying to impress.

 

Key the mic. In my best hotshot pilot voice: "Boerne Stage traffic, Cessna 3281B, departing Runway 17, and we'll be departing the pattern to the west, Boerne Stage."

 

Turn to check for aircaft on final, taxi onto the runway, one last scan to make sure everything's good, then smoothly push the throttle to the firewall.

 

After about 50-feet, I pulled the power and aborted the takeoff roll.

 

Keyed the mic, cool pilot voice...announce we've aborted takeoff and will be exiting the runway at mid-field.

 

Instructor says "What happened?"

Me: "There's something wrong...I was at full throttle, all the engine instruments were in the green, but we weren't making any power."

Instructor: "You're in a 152, goofball. They're not supposed to make any power."

Me: "Oh......uuuh.....ooops."

[skinny_tom (aka boney)]

A good family friend has the very expensive hobby of re-building vintage war planes into "experimental" aircraft. Holding that title because he really "builds" the planes to look like the original, with a whole lot of performance modifications.

 

He had an AT-6 for a while. I never got to ride in it or see it, but I hear stories...

 

A recent project is a Russain Yak 3 that he purchased from Egypt, and received with the wings disconnected and the entire works slathered in cosmoline. I sat in it before is was cleaned... there were rat skeletons in the controls and I was sticky when I got out. Pretty cool for a young guy.

 

It now looks like this:

 

 

These images are heavily faded and don't do the paint job justice. Oh, and yes, that is a Superconnie it's parked under.

 

In addition to being completely skinned in aluminum and carrying a P&W R2000, it's heavily streamlined and reinforced. I beleive they call it a "Yak Replica" even though it's bones are the real thing because there's not much on it that isn't custom fabricated and one-of-a-kind.

 

And it could probably compete in the Gold Unlimited Class in Reno... Apparently it's insanely fast.

 

To put it politely, this man gives a whole new meaning to the word technician. Everything he does is a work of art...

 

Sorry for the hijack...

 

And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

[Marty Hill]

My fave's were the c-180 for short fields and the f-33 bonanza for going places. For low and slow the Tiger and Chipmunk were great. My last was a twin comanche/interesting plane. Loved them all! I do miss flying. Gotta go get a lotto ticket.

[K2R1150RS]

I also had a job as a lineboy/fuel truck driver as my first job out of high school. At the beginning of every shift, one of my jobs was to drain the sumps on the fuel truck and check the fuel for water. I never did find any. As I was a poor but honest college student, I asked my boss if I could put the drained gas in my Honda 125. I figured that if I used half 80/87 octane and half 100/130, that would be pretty good premium. My free gas cost me beaucoup bucks when I burned a hole through one of the pistons.

[azkaisr]

Speaking of utilitarian and ugly, but really beautiful at the same time...there was a Fieseler Storch at Boerne Stage for a while.

 

 

Wingspan: 49 feet.

It could land in 66 feet.

 

This airplane is why I am alive today.

 

My Dad was born in 1931 in Kassel Germany on a Farm that backed up to the Fiesler Factory. My dad became an aviation nut and decided to become an engineer. Right after the war, US Army Air Corp parked a lot of US planes there rather then fly them back to the states. My uncle still talks about the time he shot off a flare pistol they found in a P47 in 1946. This little pranked caused all the Americans to go nuts and was my Grandfather mad when he had to answer to the base CO. Anyway some of the GI's who worked on the planes planted the seed that my Pop should go see America. He moved to Southern Germany to work for Zeiss, met my Mom in 1957 (She had no love for Communism so fled with her Brother to the West) and eventually came to the US where he still lives today.

Me and my Pop

 

My dad ended up working for a number of years for Garrett/Allied Signal designing and working on small turbofan engines. He made a lot of friends in the warbird world and we have gotten to go check out some cool things. Here we were in Seattle checking out the replica ME262's they are making.

 

That Storch is painted in Post war colors which is interesting. I will ask my Dad if he knows if it is still flying.

 

Kaisr

[Paul Mihalka]

Speaking of utilitarian and ugly, but really beautiful at the same time...there was a Fieseler Storch at Boerne Stage for a while.

 

 

Wingspan: 49 feet.

It could land in 66 feet.

I knew something was odd in this picture, the original Storch did not have a radial engine. By Wikipedia the original had a Argus inverted V8 engine. The plane in the picture has French colors. By Wikipedia Storch replicas were built in France after WWII. This may be one of them, with a radial engine. I don't think the French had availability of German Argus engines after the war .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fieseler_storch