Flying Padre Island, and...

Monday, June 26

Today we we flew the length of Padre Island, a barrier island 113 miles long. We also flew from island to island to island; I hope I can remember all of them. After a while, it all looked the same.

But first...

South Padre Island, where Tony and Carol live, is a tourist paradise. Hotels, motels, AirB&Bs, tourists and t-shirt shops and extended golf carts everywhere. Carol told me that there are only a few thousand permanent residents, but over 250,000 beds! 

Dennis, Tony, and Sam (Tony's son,) left for an early (5:30 a.m.) flight around South Padre Island. Tony has a Sea Ray that he bought recently, as well as a Challenger. Tony is an incredibly detailed pilot who sent me a lot of information about flying from Texas to Tampa, FL, where he bought his Sea Ray and flew it home. I got up, intended to join them,  but I was so bleary that I decided to go back to bed and get a little more sleep. Besides, we'll be flying the same route when we leave today. And how good another two hours of sleep felt! This heat really wears me out. 

Carol took me to the airport at 8:00 a.m., and when the men came back from their flight, Dennis changed the oil in our planes. The planes had already been refueled and after many thanks to Tony and Carol for their hospitality, they left to go to work, we went into town for lunch (they had left their truck for us to use,) and then we were wheels off about noon.

I never thought I'd hear myself say that I got slightly bored flying the beach. The Washington, Oregon, and California beaches are so varied, with headlands, steep cliffs, forests, as well as actual sand beaches, that there's always variety. Not Padre Island. The 113 miles didn't seem to change much. I am sure that Tony and other local pilots see more variety as they fly. I flew at 1000/ and then at 500-600' along the ocean side of the island. People and cars everywhere, (it's legal to drive/park on the beach,) and then long stretches where there was no one. If you look closely, you'll see Dennis' plane in the lower left corner of this photo.

Miles and miles with no one around. There were stretches where I thought "If I go down here I'll die of heat prostration before anyone comes to rescue me, even with the water I'm carrying." 

Then a little way farther and people and cars again.

 It was so hot that I was afraid that my tablet would conk out again, so I reverted to my old open cockpit ways and strapped the tablet to my left thigh with a thick rubber band. When I wasn't looking at it, I covered it with my ball cap. I hadn't taken the time to search out a store with ice packs (or the Peltier packs that someone mentioned,) but this worked fine.

When Padre Island was behind us, we flew past island after island after island. There are seven barrier islands, of which Padre is the longest. Mustang Island, San Jose Island, Matagorda Island, Follet's Island, and finally Galveston Island...we flew past them all.

The we turned northeast to get to KAXH: Houston Southwest Airport, where we'd be spending the night with Jimmy and Carrie Young. Jimmy, Carrie and I had met 14 years ago when I flew to Sun 'n Fun. He has had a number of different airplanes and now flies a Zenith 750. The airport director, Len Franklin, and his staff were astoundingly welcoming and put our planes in a large hangar for the night. Then we went to Jimmy and Carrie's for the night.

Here's our track for Monday.