J G 927 Posted October 28, 2015 Report Share Posted October 28, 2015 Leg 43 - KACT Waco Regional Airport to KIAH George Bush International Airport. After the end of Leg in Beatty Nevada, and having used a well-endowed barmaids …erm, well-endowed bits to break my fall, I found myself in the clink again. On my second day, in the middle of my morning shave, one of my minders turned up and told me that the charges against me had been dropped. I hadn’t been expected that. Perhaps the barmaid fancied me. I glanced into the mirror to check my shave and then dismissed that notion immediately, I guess I owed Jas another one. I left the nick and saw Jas waiting for me. “Come on, hurry up, we have a plane to catch.” We hurried off in the direction of the airport. I mused that the hotel bill for Mutley for our stop over would please him, I had had a two day stop over with bed and food for free. On the way to the airport Jas told me that our pilot was a ranch owner. ‘What kind of farming does he do, livestock, is it?’ ‘Kind of’ replied Jas. ‘you can ask our pilot, he owns the Shady Lady Ranch.’ ‘Must be a good business if he can run an aircraft’ I said. ‘I believe it is’ stated Jas, and said no more about it. She changed the subject to our next leg, Micky had contacted Jas in my absence and let her know all about our next leg. We were to fly from Waco to Houston. On arrival at the airport and quickly found our ride, a Cessna Citation M2 or something or other (I am not good with civil aircraft). I was introduced to our pilot, Brad, the aircraft owner and the Shady Lady Ranch owner. We were soon on our way to Waco. The Citation M2 It was a long 1,200 mile flight, so I thought I would make polite conversation with the pilot. We covered sport, and he baffled me with an explanation of American Football, and I got my own back with the rules of Cricket. I think I won that round. I asked Brad about his Ranch. ‘Do you have a lot of cows on your ranch?’ I asked. He smiled and replied that he did have one or two cows, but most of the fillies were a good natured lot. He added that he was a second generation Rancher, his word not mine, and was proud to be continuing the family business. Cottoning on quickly to the fact that our new friend was a horse breeder, I asked how many stallions he had. Grinning, he replied he was thinking of branching out into that sort of thing, but there was a ranch just a mile or so away from his that had plenty. For some reason Jas was desperately trying to smother a giggling fit. ‘How often do you breed the fillies?’ I asked. ‘Oh the fillies get plenty of practice but we wouldn’t want to them to breed’. Now he too was holding back a laugh. The Shady Lady erm… Ranch. I was completely confused. They both burst out laughing. Jasmin held up the “Twat” sign she had used at Sweetwater and Brad handed me a photo and then flipped me a coin. The photo was of his ‘Ranch’ and the coin, well, the coin left no doubts. Silver tart coin ‘Oh’ I said. ‘So that is allowed in Nevada is it?’ For once I felt like a twat. I handed back the photo and the coin. ‘Keep the coin’ he said. ‘You can spend it later if you want.’ I politely declined and we flew on to Waco. Approaching Waco Regional Airport We landed at runway 01 and taxied to the gates via taxiway A. Waco Regional Airport On arrival at Waco Jas left me as she was needed elsewhere. She said that I should be OK on my own for this leg as she had intel that looked like Putinfeld was lining up an accident for me in a week or two. She was goint to sort out a ride for her and I in the next leg so that we would be able to counter anything he might throw at us. I made my way to the pilots lounge where I grabbed a tonic water with ice and a slice. I was turning away from the bar when I literally bumped into Steph. We said our hellos as she ordered a burbon and ice. The lounge was crowded with all sorts as there was a WW2 veterans reunion. In fact thaat is why I was there. No I am not that old, but a WW2 veteran who was had decided to sell his pride and joy as he had to stop flying. He had come to a deal with an Englishman, who wanted to ship the aircraft back to Blighty. This is where I came in. The purchaser couldn’t get to Waco and was looking for a ferry pilot to fly it to Houston where it was to dismantled and container shipped to the UK. The aircraft was an Avro Anson Mk 1. I was going to enjoy this. Steph and I enjoyed a swift drink and, after handing over the baton to me, she retired to her hotel to rest up. I went in search of the agent who was handling the Anson sale, to make the arrangements for my ferry flight. As the aircraft was an exhibit at the WW2 veterans meet, I was to wait a couple of days until the reunion was over and then fly it to Houston. I set off into Waco in search of a Hotel. This was harder than you might think as many hotels were full with attendees of the reunion. Eventually I found a place, not full as it was not the best hotel to say the least. In fact it was grim. Waco at night The following day I had a late breakfast, had a wander around the airport and the WW2 Veterans displays, and went out late to see the sights of Waco. After nightfall the main drag was lit up with a Christmas tree. I had a wander around for an hour or two and grabbed a bight to eat. With Jas gone I was a bit of a billy no mates so I went back to the hotel for an early night. I was out of bed at a reasonable time and as today was a free day I went in search of the history of Waco. What I found was interesting to say the least. Waco was named after the original inhabitants of the area, the Witchita Native American group which were known as the Waco. Life was made difficult for the Waco and eventually they moved out to what is now Fort Worth. After the departure of the Waco the village of Waco flourished and grew and after bridging the Brazos River became an important place and further so as cotton plantations grew up around it. At the start of the 20th century the area around Waco was renowned for it racist lynchings of African Americans and the popularity of the Ku Klux Klan. The authorities in Waco attempted to respond to the call for more protection for African Americans. Waco was a training base during WW2 and an Air Force base was established there until its closure in 1966. Other interesting things about Waco are that id the home of Big Red cream soda, and more familiar with Europeans, the Dr Pepper drink. Finally, Waco is known for its infamous siege. A religious group known as the Branch Davidians was involved in a shooting in February 1993 an then a subsequent 52 day siege of the groups Mount Carmel Centre ranch, which ended with the FBI attempt to storm the ranch. The end of the Waco Siege. As a result the ranch caught fire and this resulted in the deaths of 76 people from 7 different countries, including 33 British citizens and the group’s leader David Koresh. The subsequent search of the ranch unearthed large quantities of weapons, including machine guns, grenades, and ammunition. It is thought that many of the deaths were suicide by arsenic ingestion and a few by shooting. An interesting place Waco. Billy no mates had an early supper and returned to the hotel to pack for tomorrow. I was up at sparrows fart and after an early breakfast I set off for the airport. The entrance to Waco Regional Airport. The taxi drove past a flat and rather dull landscape with some areas of flat grass, some light industry and a few grids of new build bungalows, with road names like North 25th Street and Herring Avenue. We eventually turned into the airport road and just short of the terminal buildings we stopped outside the Texas Aero building. Texas Aero I wandered into the Texas Aero where I found the Anson’s new owners agent in the lobby, we introduced ourselves, “call me Jim” he said, and walked on into the flight planning room. There we went through the paperwork, there was loads of it. It took an hour or so to complete but as it included the submission of my flight plan, when it was done I was ready to go airside. The flight plan was simple, VFR head due east until I pick up the Interstate 45 and follow that in a southerly direction to Huston. Piece of cake. Flight Plan As I was about to leave the agent said to me. “By the way, you will have two passengers, myself and a radio operator, he is another European like you” “OK” I said, “where is he?” “He is on the aircraft already, checking the radios as we speak.” “Good, I replied, lets go and join him.” After a short walk to the terminal building, I made my way to the allotted stand with my small case wheeling behind me. There was the Anson parked out in front of a hanger waiting for me. I lobbed my case into the back of the aircraft and secured it with a couple of straps and slid the precious baton between the case and one of the straps. I nodded a hello to the Radio operator, a Pole called Bogdan, “Call me Dan” he said. The Avro Anson – Ready for my walk around. First I had a leaf through the aircraft’s log. Nothing dubious there, so I started my walk-around. Nose cone, no damage, Pitot tube not blocked, tires and undercarriage looks ok. Control surfaces were free and easily moved, the engines showed no damage or signs of oil leaks, and no nicks in the props. The bomb doors closed and secure, and all aerials are ok. All lights have no signs of damage. All looks good, and so back the cockpit. Check that the controls are free and fully functioning, fuel level ok. Instruments checked, and all switches are where they are supposed to be. Dan reported that the radio was in good order. All good to go. Contact the tower and get start up permission, this is given. Set the fuel cocks, open the throttles ¾ inch, mixture to normal. The Anson’s dashboard. Refreshing simple after that of my last leg. (The Eurofighter Typhoon). Thumbs up to the ground crew so that they may prime delivery pipes. Check magnetos, main off starting magneto on. Signal the ground crew to crank the starboard engine. Engine fires, and ground crew screw down the priming pump and turn off the priming cock. Then the same is done for the port engine, and soon she is running. Switch on main magnetos and switch off starting magnetos . Open the throttles to 1,000 rpm and warm up the engines. Scan the instruments, check temperatures and pressures, and when the engines are warm, set mixture to take-off and open the throttle momentarily, check boost and rpm. Mixture back to normal. Starting the engines. After obtaining the ok from the tower I taxied the aircraft to the active runway. Once at the threshold, I moved the trimming tabs to take-off and set the mixture to take-off. Given the ok I taxied on to the runway and lined up for take-off. When I was ready, I opened up the throttles and we sped off down the runway. At 78 knots we floated into the air. I set the mixture back to normal and used the rudder to compensate for the aircrafts characteristic swing to port. I increased speed to 87 knots before I started the climb. Take-off I trimmed the aircraft and began the tiresome job of hand cranking the undercarriage up, no hydraulics on this aircraft, the raising of the gear is a manual chore. It’s no wonder that short hops in an Anson were done with the wheels down. After the gear was up, I relaxed and began to enjoy the flight. Hand crank the wheels up We had been flying about XXX minutes when Interstate 45 came into view. Once over it we turned southward and started to follow it. Picking up the interstate. The weather was clear and so following the road was easy. This flight was a doddle. An easy aircraft to fly and a simple. What could go wrong? Following the road down. Suddenly I was startled by Dan on the radio. He was calling in a mayday from our flight! There was nothing wrong with the aircraft! What was going on? I turned around to see Jim with his hands up and Bogdan ( i'm buggerd if I am calling the bastard Dan any more!) pointing a gun at both of us. He got on to the radio again and called in that we had an engine out and were diverting to Madisonville airport. This was small airstrip only a couple of miles away and would probably be deserted. It was so near that we could be on the ground and parked up before the emergency services got there. We were being hijacked! Bogdan had had to unbuckle his safety belt in order to turn sideways to cover us both with the gun. Jim was still buckled up. “You”, Bogan motioned to Jim, “stay where you are and keep that belt buckled up.” it was clear that this would help him cover us both with the gun. I had to act fast. Jim was reaching for his safety belt buckle so there was no time to loose. I hope the old bird can take this I thought to myself as I threw the aircraft into a barrel role. The Struggle. Instantly Jim and I were hanging from our safety belts, and Bogan, out of his went crashing to the cabin roof. He dropped the gun that went off with a loud bang, intensified by the confined space of the cockpit, the round punching out harmlessly through the side of the aircraft, making a neat round hole in the canvas side. I couldn’t keep this old bird upside long, she wasn’t built for aerobatics, in fact as the engines started to splutter I was reminded that gravity fed engines weren’t designed to go upside down. The aircraft rolled back to the right way up and Bogan crashed to the floor. The gun went with him, but didn’t go off as it was no longer cocked. Bogdan, dazed, was trying to get to his feet whilst looking for the gun. As luck would have it the gun had slid toward Jim who quickly snatched it up and pointed it at Bogan. Apparently Bogdan was a Russian name as well as Polish. We had caught us a Putinfield goon! Jim forced Bogan up to the cockpit at gunpoint where I held the stick between my knees and duck taped his hands together behind his back whilst Jim continued to point the gun at him. Jim then took Bogdan to the back of the plane and belted him into the gunners seat. This allowed Jim to work the radio and covered him from the Radio Operators seat. Picking up the radio mike, Jim reported the attempted hijacking and asked ATC for advice. Having described the situation to them, and fact that by this time we could see Houston on the horizon, it was decided to push on to Houston to give the law enforcement agencies time to sort out a reception committee. Houston in sight With Houston in sight and give priority to land we were instructed to line up for runway 33R. George Bush Intercontinental Airport. On finals As we were on finals we were told to exit the runway to the starboard side as quickly as we could an and to contact ground for special instructions. Taxiing In spite of the stress I managed a three point landing and turned right onto a taxi way as soon as I could. Jim thanked ATC for their help and tuned to ground. After identifying ourselves we were told to taxi to a nominated stand, to shut down the engines and to make the aircraft secure. Under no circumstance should we attempt to leave the Aircraft. On stand Having obeyed the ground handler, we found ourselves sitting in the Anson, all was silent except for the sound of the engines cooling. It was kind of weird, just waiting for something to happen . The suddenly the world was full of sirens and the aircraft was surrounded by police cars. A whole bunch of cope spewed forth from the cars and took up position around the aircraft, pointing guns at us. Reception committee Being a Brit, I always feel uncomfortable at the sight of police with guns. In the UK, outside an airport, the sight of a cop with a gun means the brown stuff has already hit the fan. The sight of Cops with guns that were pointing at me was just a little disconcerting. A cop with a loudhailer ordered us to throw any weapons out of the aircraft. Out went the gun. After retrieving the gun the police instructed to exit the aircraft with our hands on our heads and to kneel on the ground. Needless to say we did as instructed. Dan couldn’t put his hands on his head as they were gaffer taped behind his back. There followed a lot of shouting at Dan to comply with the hands on head bit until Jim made the cops aware of Dan’s gaffer tape problem. We were all separately bundled into three cars and driven off to an airport building. This building was the airport’s Nick. Here, at last, the wheat was separated from the chaff and we were asked to make statements before we could leave. Jim said his goodbyes and set off to sort out the shipping of the Anson back to the UK. I headed to the bar to find Kasper. He was there waiting patiently, and after a quick drink, a hand over of the baton and a rendition of my adventure we parted company. The entrance to Houston’s major airport. Intercontinental? Well everything is bigger in Texas. As we left the airport we passed a sign that welcomed us to the George Bush Intercontinental airport. After all the shouting and gun pointing I experienced at it I thought, no you’re bloody welcome to it. I had decided to stay in the best hotel I could find. The interweb introduced me to the Hotel ZaZa so that’s where we headed. In the Taxi I thought back on the ATWC so far, and was pleased that at the end of this flight I wasn’t the one in jail. So to finish, some pics of the ZaZa hotel that Joe is paying for…. ZaZa Hotel Link to post Share on other sites
stu7708 244 Posted October 28, 2015 Report Share Posted October 28, 2015 Just can't get a break can you J G! Good job handling that armed cretin mate, and extra points for managing to snap some great shots of the events as well!! Link to post Share on other sites
hurricanemk1c 195 Posted October 28, 2015 Report Share Posted October 28, 2015 Excelent story and shots as always John! Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Coffee 2,030 Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 You really flipped the table on that PuttinAgent...bold move in that lovely but NOT aerobatic Anson. (I have it too...a sweet flying plane). Great PIREP J.G. and a well deserved break in a Swanky Cell after putting up twice with the Puttinfeld gang. Link to post Share on other sites
Bruce (a.k.a. brian747) 142 Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 Great PIREP, John! My word, though, you are accident-prone — but I'm happy that everything worked out OK for you in the end. Loved the background stuff, too. Cheers, bruce a.k.a. brian747 Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,493 Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 Great PIREP JG always entertaining, I was shocked to see the Anson inverted, a genius move! Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,302 Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 I'm starting to think you are an agent for the secret secret service JG, 008 maybe? Well done and an exciting PIREP for sure, glad you made it down safe. Had a little trouble seeing the cockpit shot though without EZDock. Link to post Share on other sites
hlminx 301 Posted October 31, 2015 Report Share Posted October 31, 2015 Brilliant PIREP John, loved the quick thinking manoeuvre and putting the Anson on its back. Classy move Glad to see that you and the baton made it in one piece Link to post Share on other sites
Kasper 14 Posted November 1, 2015 Report Share Posted November 1, 2015 Great story! Now I have to fly because I am late already ... Link to post Share on other sites
hlminx 301 Posted November 7, 2015 Report Share Posted November 7, 2015 Great story! Now I have to fly because I am late already ... Actually, I believe you've got till 1st October.. although, I'm not sure I can wait that long to read it I think my trip to Avenger field has disrupted the space/time continuum 1 Link to post Share on other sites
stu7708 244 Posted November 9, 2015 Report Share Posted November 9, 2015 Great story! Now I have to fly because I am late already ... Actually, I believe you've got till 1st October.. although, I'm not sure I can wait that long to read it I think my trip to Avenger field has disrupted the space/time continuum Perfect, I can blame your time traveling from now on, because of course I couldn't have made a mistake updating the board Link to post Share on other sites
hlminx 301 Posted November 9, 2015 Report Share Posted November 9, 2015 Great story! Now I have to fly because I am late already ... Actually, I believe you've got till 1st October.. although, I'm not sure I can wait that long to read it I think my trip to Avenger field has disrupted the space/time continuum Perfect, I can blame your time traveling from now on, because of course I couldn't have made a mistake updating the board .. I was just wondering how fast I'd have to get the Expeditor up to in order to reverse the effects... 88mph worked for the DeLorean but I think I might need a bit more 1 Link to post Share on other sites
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