It has been a month since the tremendous rains that caused flooding in central Texas. Lake Travis, which was 50 feet below normal only a few months ago, is now 100% full. During the rains, it went to over 106% full and necessitated the opening of 4 floodgates. Here is a picture of our dock, about 3 feet underwater, as a result of the opening.

If you read my previous post about the flooding, you can see a swim ladder on the left side of the picture which is completely underwater in this one. You will also see that the boat, that was in the slip, is now tied off and floating downstream. The picture above stayed this way for nearly 2 weeks.

So what happens when the flood waters recede you might ask? A muddy mess is what is left behind.

Had I been quicker, I could have been on the dock, sweeping mud into the water with a broom as the last of the flood waters washed over the deck. Alas, I was not quick enough and I spent the better part of 4 hours washing mud off. Hot, nasty work.

Things are pretty much back to normal. There are still some areas of grass that are just now rising above the muck but all in all, we survived it pretty much unscathed.

While we have had some rain over the past week, I think we are now headed into our next drought as that’s the way life is in Texas. Feast or famine, drought or floods. More drought than floods though.

What do you get when you ride in an open cockpit biplane? A thrilling ride, that’s what!

I nearly let this one slip away. How many times do you get a gift certificate for something and then either forget about it, lose it or just never take the time to use it? That almost happened to me. My wife gave me a gift certificate for a biplane sightseeing tour of Austin for Christmas. I set it on a shelf in my closet and on the occasion when I would see it, I’d think, oh yeah, I better book that. Winter, even in Texas, can be cold and I let time slip away until a week or so ago when I remembered that I had better get on it. My certificate was due to expire on June 30. I didn’t let that happen and am I ever glad I didn’t! What fun!

Here I am with my son, Travis, about to climb aboard a Waco YMF-5 biplane, for our 20-minute flight over Austin.

We only look close in the picture. In the cockpit, we were really scrunched together but that didn’t come close to wiping the grins off our faces. We each had a GoPro to shoot video from the cockpit and there were 2 other GoPros shooting video of us and the plane. We have a lot of editing to do to cut all that footage down to an enjoyable video.

Our pilot, Robert Whiteside (Capt. USAF-ret.) graduated from the US Air Force Academy in 2003 before becoming an active-duty Air Force pilot. He was assigned F-16s out of pilot training and traveled to Aviano Air Base, Italy as his first duty station. Robert also flew the U-28A for Air Force Special Operations Command, executing surveillance and reconnaissance missions for military special forces. A decorated combat veteran, Robert has 9 deployments and 480 flying missions in hostile territory as both active-duty and civilian contract pilot. Rob is a great guy and I am honored to have had him as our pilot.

The Waco YMF-5 was originally produced in 1935 and is currently the only open cockpit biplane in production. As you can see, it is a beautiful plane with a 7 cylinder, 300 hp, radial engine. Those cylinders are huge! (I still want to fly in my personal biplane favorite, a Pitts Special)

Flying in a taildragger is a different experience. The pilot sits in the rear cockpit while we sat up front, side by side. The upper wing is right over your head so climbing in is a bit of a challenge. Taxing requires S-turning down the taxi way to see where you are going. Take off is smooth as silk with the tail lifting off at 40 mph and then taking off when we reached 60 mph. It was hot, which usually means lots of bumps, but it wasn’t bad at all. As we cruised our way to see downtown, we had great views of central Texas. Lower and slower beats the airlines for sightseeing.

We got to experience 2g turns, the first was unexpected. I guess I should have been paying more attention. I was too busy enjoying the view as I was squashed into the seat. We circled over downtown, saw UT, Auditorium Shores, Lady Bird Lake, Barton Springs and everything in between. It was fun seeing things from the air that I have driven around on the ground so many times. Think Camp Mabry.

It was over way too soon but I am so happy that I got experience the flight. I may even have to do it again and take my wife. Maybe a sunset flight. I like the sound of that!

I’ll post a link to the video once I have it edited. They will edit it down for you, which I may go back and take them up on.

Go have Rob give you a ride. Support our veterans and have the time of your life. http://www.austinbiplane.com  Nope. I have no affiliation nor receive any remuneration.