Planned route. Depart Monkeytown and fly directly over Alliance Airport. Scoot out around the airspace around Navy Dallas and then directly to the corner of the MOA surrounding Fort Hood and then direct Burnet.

Looks like 4,500' will give me a 11kt tailwind. This screenshot from Garmin Pilot on my phone.

Looks like 4,500' will give me a 11kt tailwind. Garmin Pilot.

3/2/2017. About to launch. 0930.

The route out of DFW class B (yellow route out - blue route back). Talked with KAFW tower to go through their airspace. Image courtesy http://www.AirPRS.com .

Near Granbury on the way down. If you click on the picture you'll see another option down on the bottom right-hand corner that looks like some cards stacked on top of each other. If you click on that you can select 'Original' to see the image actual size.

Enroute. 4,500'. Autopilot on. Between VORs. 174kt GS.

At the top of the screen on the right you can see I'm getting 18.6 miles per gallon.

On the ground safe at Burnet, TX. Early enough to crank up the iPad and work for a bit before Jeff arrives for the transaction/lunch. I sat here for 30 minutes and did some work. There are worse office views :-).

In front of the airport. I think I'm required by law to take a pic of this...

Jeff, the gentleman from the ad in craigslist, showed up at 11 AM and we went to a burger joint down the street a local at the airport recommended. Bill's Hamburgers. What was nice about this place was the owner was a woman named Jeanette, maybe in her 80s and wonderfully sweet. She walked around the dining room checking on everyone, giving some of the regulars shoulder rubs.

After lunch an RV-8 was parked on the ramp next to me. Looked around but never found the owner.

Deal made. Hands shaken. About to put the Kirby Avilar in the RV for the return trip.

The launch out of Burnet (blue line). Jeff works for the Inks Dam Fish Hatchery, and I promised I would overfly it and get a picture. Pic courtesy http://www.AirPRS.com .

You can click on the picture, then click on the little icon in the lower right corner that looks like some cards stacked on top of each other. Select 'Original' to see the image at full rez.

Pano on the way back. Level 6,500 above the bumps. 44*F OAT.

Lowering back down under DFW class B. NAS at left, downtown Fort Worth (Funkytown), beyond Jerry World, then downtown Dallas off in the distance.

Back on deck USS Monkeytown, going through the hardware. Note carpet shampoo attachment hasn't been taken out of the box. Never used. The brown tape was from Jeff's move recently from New Mexico to Texas. Note 'Zipp' head to the right of that (a $70 option).

Very good deal, very fair price ($400 me - $1,100 Jeff paid) from a very nice person.

This vacuum cleaner will easily last three decades.

Read https://www.greatvacs.com/education/KirbyVsDysonVacuumReview.html if you want a comparison between a 2004 Kirby and a 2007 Dyson.

The entire route. 53 min down. 1hr 2min back.

Sis worked her tail off squaring away our late parent’s estate these past couple of years. She did way more than I did, and this is the first of many gifts from me to her. A way to say thank you.

You have to know my sister to realize how excited she is about this.
Her idea of ‘clean’ and yours might be different. She C.L.E.A.N.S.

I’ll add another pic down the road when I deliver it to her.

She’s a great sister.

v/r,
dr

Polished up a bit.

The 'Zipp Brush'.

The internals of the 'Zipp Brush'. Some might think it looks similar to a 2-stage axial flow jet engine .

March 25, 2017. The story picks up with my sister's 'new' vacuum cleaner ready to be put in the airplane and flown down to Waco. My sister had planned to drive up from Houston and spend the weekend with her old college roommate. We agreed that if the weather looked flyable that I would meet them for breakfast.

March 25, 2017. This taken in Waco, actually on the ramp at nearby McGregor airport, with the cargo safely removed. In the background you can see the A-20 featured in the movie 'Always'. This is the actual aircraft from the movie.

March 25, 2017. An overview of the flight down and back. On the way down I stopped in Hillsboro as fuel was $3.57. In Waco it was $4.67, so no-brainer.

March 25, 2017. I grabbed this off the http://www.AirPRS.com website after I got back home to show my route out of the DFW airspace. We usually head to the Ranger VOR at 1900 feet and then you can gradually start to climb as you get further south.

March 25, 2017. Nothing special about this picture, it's just the arrival at Hillsboro for cheaper gas. One interesting aspect of using an APRS tracker is that it sometimes doesn't draw your line exactly over your ground track. Sometimes it is shifted a little to the side.

March 25, 2017. A close-up of the A-20 on the ramp at McGregor.

March 25, 2017. My childhood home. It was about five blocks from where we ate breakfast. I broke that large picture window with a soccer ball around age 12. My parents room was the far two windows on the right. One of my hamsters is buried under those bushes. I remember having dreams as a kid being able to fly by flapping my arms. In those dreams I would fly up to the top of that power pole on the left and stand on the top of it. Isn't it interesting the things you remember…

My first business venture as a 10-year-old was selling Gillows balsa wood gliders from the concrete step there at the far left. Also parts from the gliders that I had broken...

In the one-day that business was open I had no customers and no sales.

March 25, 2017. My older sister Donna about to get her very first ride in my airplane. She is a very special person and am lucky to have her as a sister.

This photograph was taken by Cynthia Collier.

March 25, 2017. Speaking of Cynthia Collier, here she is about to get her first ride in my airplane (after my sister went). I worked at Leland Collier Electric company as a teenager (Cynthia's parents started it). She still works there, and of course that's where we went in the air so she could see it. Cynthia and my sister were college roomates.

March 25, 2017. The ground track of my arrival, departure, the flight I gave my sister, and of the flight I gave Cynthia.

Same ground track except with the satellite view on. You can see McGregor airport on the left side and the lower portion of Lake Waco in the center. My childhood home is in that clump of trees over at the right, and my dad used to set me on his lap and let me drive his truck as a six-year-old across that bridge on the lake (how terrifying is that?).

McGregor airport is where I had my very first airplane ride. My father worked at the Owens Illinois glass plant and somebody there had an airplane. My dad got me a ride in that person's Cessna 150. I believe I was 10 years old. I wish I knew the name of the gentleman who gave me a ride.

March 25, 2017. My sister insisted we take this picture. Will close on that note and name it "Mission Accomplished". Enjoy your new toy, Sis!