I just checked out your Facebook page. That Kitfox showed up at one of our flyins up here before, pretty wild. I personally liked his stick grip.

Skalywag wrote:Here ya go Evan [emoji12]

Nice. Drink one for me!

Skalywag wrote:Here ya go Evan [emoji12]

Oh shit, I get it now. It ain't about airplanes.
"STOL" means..........Silver Tub Of Liquor.............

Way to go Joe! Wish we had a like button. "LIKE"

Cheers,
Mike

Man! I almost made the 6 hour flight out there on Friday after work...

I ended up sticking around the house to help the wife get a bunch of chores done so she could focus on her classes, but man! I wish I'd have made it!

It was a great event, my first STOL contest as a participant and second one total. Great experience for sure, and it showed me how much I have to learn!

Met a couple fellow BCP'ers to boot!

Hate that I missed it, but I got a lot done on my cub this weekend. Frame is almost done.

Bring on the pictures and videos please.

I hear the weather was great and the turnout was fantastic! My hats off to everyone that made this happen.

mountainmatt wrote:Bring on the pictures and videos please.

I hear the weather was great and the turnout was fantastic! My hats off to everyone that made this happen.

Im sure there will be a whole bunch of pictures and video surfacing over the next couple weeks. A big thanks to Phil, AirBoss Jimmy and all the volunteers for making this the best fly-in and competition I have ever been to. Best proof I have ever seen that GA is alive and well in this country.

I cant wait till next year!

I shot video, so don't have anything visual to add yet, but I'll give a quick trip report.

I flew up from Mexico and by the time I got there Friday at 11:37 there were already 40+ planes. Jimmy Gist and crew had done a fantastic job getting the grass strip ready and it was a glistening sea of green as I greased my landing (I had to put that in there since it happens so rarely. Good to pull one off in front of a crowd).

Since we were a sponsor (we gave a free kit to the "dirtiest plane") we got to park in sponsor row. That put us at show center with a great view of everything that happened all weekend.

Beginning after lunch the arrivals really picked up. 95% tail draggers. Really great to see so many of them all in one place. And so many different kinds. From little J3's to Maules like mine to a few "super heavies" in the form of a Helio Courier, a Beaver and even a Kodiak, and everything in between. The variety was fabulous.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a few faces I didn't expect, including a friend I met in Lagos de Moreno, MX, Swingle and an old co-worker in his Cherokee.

Of course the crew included the standard cast of characters also and the thing felt like an epic homecoming.

As the afternoon wound down there was a band that everyone enjoyed as the excitement built for the next day. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camping gear in Mexico, so had to depart for the hotel (and Coopers) to prepare for the next morning.

Saturday morning we drove both flight lines and counted well north of 100 planes. I heard through a friend that Phil wanted me to shoot so video, so I abandoned my plan to compete and instead dedicated myself to getting footage.

But first, we had to have our safety briefing. Jimmy handled this with his usual combination of character infused essential information and I'm happy to report that there were zero incidents during the competition. Not even a flat tire. The only minor issue during the course of the entire weekend was that someone seems to have somehow collapsed a gear during a 'normal' arrival on the asphalt runway. This, of course, sucks for them and they have my sympathy, but also speaks to the attention paid to safety during the entire contest.

Anyway, the day started with the obstacle STOL competition. Result was your combined total of take-off roll and landing beyond pylons. The pylons add a real element of excitement and airmanship. There were a couple people that reunited with mother earth a bit firmly, but no control issues or other problems.

By the time mid-morning came around there were approximately 350 planes on-site and several thousand spectators. This is a real credit to the sex appeal of bush flying right now. Many, many local families in attendance and all had a great time in the perfect weather. Lunch was burgers, but we opted to make another Cooper's run and got chopped beef sandwiches instead.

The afternoon was the traditional STOL competition and it was interesting to see, with the obstacle removed, the different approaches pilots took during this phase. Some continued to take a steep approach and others opted to switch things up and drag the planes in. I couldn't tell you which was more successful. I saw a lot of the draggers not manage to maintain enough power and briefly touch the ground before the line or add too much power and end up too fast by the time they needed to land. On the other side, some of the steep approaches bounced and you can't hit the brakes while you are in the air from a bounce. Each bounce can add 10-40 feet to the landing.

The awards ceremony was fun with a bit of banter and friendly harassment of the winners. I presented the Plane Perfect kit to the winner of the dirtiest plane only to hear his wife yell to the crowd "you know he ain't gonna use it, that's going on *my* plane!". Hope she enjoys it! (And I think she's right!)

BBQ dinner was available from Inmanns, but we elected again to go to Cooper's even though it meant missing another band. I was pleasantly surprised at the bands. Both nights displayed solid musicianship and I wish we could have stuck around for more of them.

We arrived the next morning and got some fuel while the flour bombing got setup. I wish I had photos of the line at the fuel pump. Was a beautiful array of tail draggers. Convert it to black and white and you would swear it was a photo from the 50's or 60's. Well, except for the Kodiak!

I had six hours of flying, plus clearing customs into Mexico ahead of me, so we departed during the flour bombing and headed south of the border.

I will definitely be back...

rw2 wrote:Since we were a sponsor (we gave a free kit to the "dirtiest plane")

I figured Swingle would've won this for sure.

Nice little write up Rich!

Crzyivan13 wrote:

rw2 wrote:Since we were a sponsor (we gave a free kit to the "dirtiest plane")

I figured Swingle would've won this for sure.

Nice little write up Rich!

In truth, he could have had it if he wanted it! We mutually agreed we didn't want it to seem like it was setup.

It wasn't a Rans. It was a Bearhawk Patrol. I heard the distinctive chirping of heavy brake application coming from Runway 35 (pavement) and turned to see the Patrol too far into a swing to be able to catch the rotation, even with full brake. I felt very sorry for the fellow. Nice new Patrol and all. It took about an hour to clear the runway. Looked like it got the gear and gearbox and one wing tip, along with prop strike (would be a TDI for type certificated aircraft).

That was the only incident I heard of.

The Texas STOL Roundup was beyond my expectations. A big change since the last time I attended two years ago. It's about the perfect size. Any bigger and it might go the big commercial FAA oversight route. Let's try to keep it homey if able.

Jim

So I guess I am going to have to get a facebook account just to see some pics???

Where ya at? C'mon boys.......

I didn't get to take a bunch of pictures. Between competing and sponsoring and talking to people about fishing trips I feel like I hardly got to sit down! I did end up with one picture from the weekend though. Might be my favorite one.

Great event!! My first STOL event and I'm hooked for life. My husky was mad as hell at me for crapy mushing. Won the flour bombing! Luck is a good thing LOL thanks to all who worked so hard to make it happen.

Bunch o' pics here:

https://candyb9.smugmug.com/Photography/3rd-annual-Texas-STOL




Safety briefing

Viddy from Catto Props and Pops Dory:

Can someone help me figure out how to embed a facebook video? It's public - supposed to work - dunno

[facebookvideo]https://www.facebook.com/facebook/videos/10153231379946729/[/facebookvideo]

Some photos courtesy of Tammy Clark

http://tammyclarkphotography72.pixieset.com/texasstolroundupset1/

http://tammyclarkphotography72.pixieset.com/texasstolroundupset2/