Austin friends. I like some info. on where I can fly my jets within 1/2 hour from the city of Austin, also which area is a good to rent a house for a family with kids, I'm looking for an area with a good elementary school, shopping centers and posibly a near by hospital ( just in case it is needed ).

Thank you

PS: The wife and I will try to visit the area this weekend ( before the California jets event, I hope )

cars.......................are you moving to TX?

there is an Austin club.......................you'll also get to become a Waco regular!!! [8D]

All I know for now is that I will be coming to Austin with my wife to check out the city and about moving, you'll have to ask my wife.

Carlos, is your wife the bread winner in the family? I'll have to ask you about your trip down there at CA Jets. I've been to Austin a few times, its a nice city. Round Rock is just to the north, that's where I stayed while on business. Talk to you next week.....

ken, ken body LOL, my wife is actually reading your post right now ( move away please this is for jet pilots only, thank you ) I'm not sure about the move, if it happens it will take some time for me to completely go there but I may show my face at the jet fields in Austin from time to time with a jet to fly. If we move I may have to split my fleet because I'm never leaving Ca, ever.

Smitty, I was looking at the Waco thread, the field looks nice for jets.

Hey Cars,

I've noticed in my neighborhood that there is a house for rent. Not sure if it is still available as this neighborhood is highly desirable because of the schools close by. It is also centrally located. There is an elementary (Hills), middle and high school all within walking distance. You can also walk to numerous shopping, everything is here. Email me if I can help in any way. I know the best realtor in town as well if that helps. The local field is www.austinrc.org.

Cars

the arca field is a jet friendly club. www.austinrc.org it is located just northeast of downtown. we are subject to burn bans but regularly meet with other jet pilots in waco, about an hours drive north. their facilities are outstanding. in this district there is a jet meet a month from april through september so you can wear yourself out on meets all within a few hours drive enjoying a great group of pilots company.

as far as schools and hospitals. there is a bunch of development continuing on with a new childrens hospital under construction just north of downtown, and expansions at a number of others around the area including in the suburbs. traffic is a bit of an issue, but nothing like the major cities. there are some better school districts, but i do not think any of them are ones that you would particularly want to avoid. it is a pretty amazing place.

if i had to choose where to live all over again i would look at a subdivision called Travis Country just south of mopac and 290.

The house next door to me is for lease. Email me at [email protected] for directions. Coming from California, you'll love this area. Prices are right, schools are great, and while I'm not sure I agree that ARCA is as jet friendly as some would say (seems to me that some of the older fellas have nothing better to do than sit around thinking up new rules all day long), I sit at home all day long building jets every day and am as proactive in promoting jets as anyone you've ever met.

PS, I know Jimmy Tam and Dave well.

Sean...thought you got out jets and went to boats? Unfortunately I'm working all the time and get little chance to fly. Hope to have a new Avonds F15ARF ready to fly by the Southwest.

Q: How many days can you float on the lake, drink beer, jack, stare at gals in bikinis through binolculars, et al before you get bored and start looking for something else to do?
A: For me 384 days

Then bought four new jets and engines. Summer will be back soon enough, Sea Doos and boat are tuned ready to go, all we need is an ex T-38, F-4, crusty old pilot to help find the bottom of another bottle, Tom, know where I can find one of those?

and a few feet of rain to top off the lake! its getting narrow out there

Sometimes I just love a pina colada...

I respectfully disagree with you and Sean about the friendliness of ARCA. If you're the type who likes to stir the sh$t pot, then reap what you sow. I have never had a problem with the good folks of ARCA...and I have flown hundreds of turbine flights there since late 2004! I have always felt welcomed there.

Pepperoni Pizza is Gooood...

yikes.....ask the wife???/that sounds kinda ominous carlos.....we are all gonna miss you arround northern calif!!!or are considering becoming bicoastal??????regards kp couch

Tim, to be more precise, a rule was made to ban jet flying while a burn ban was in affect. Why weren't you and Sean there when the vote was taken? As a responsible jet flyer, I voted for no turbine flying during burn bans. Being that we are on city property, one good fire out of control during a burn ban could cost us all the right to fly jets at the field or maybe lose the flying site altogether.

Tim, you mentioned a bias toward jets, let me remind you a couple of years ago the club spent $11,000 to extend the runway 125 feet mainly because of the jets.

The rule is here and I don't think it will ever be overturned, so live with it or find another place to fly during a burn ban.

do you guys fly where there is a lot of dry grass in the summer time.....can you cut it back and show fire dept a fire response plan???I remember riding a harley xcountry in late may.....everything looked green{compared to calif)but climbing out of the hills west towards el paso it got dry fast.........great city though.....loved river walk.......kelly

I planted some tomatoes last year and they never grew well.

Tim, sent you a PM

My point remains the same as it always has. There have been many turbine crashes at ARCA and surrounding fields to our flying site (wherein the pilot flew considerably off ARCA's property and crashed the jet causing massive fires). None of these crashes ended up with anything negative happening to our flying field.

The only problem I have ever had is a bunch of guys making speculative arguments based on dooms day scenarios that have NEVER happened.

Every month our club has an award for someone who has crashed an airplane, and this month, the guy who won crashed into the electrical company that is adjacent to our property. How come there isn't any fear that they will notify the parks office of what we are doing? In fact, that should be brought up at the next meeting, I'm officially saying we need to worry about them going and saying something and getting us shut down.

I have always agreed that what we fly is dangerous, and on any given flight, it can all come tumbling down. If the field is so afraid that we'll lose the site over the crash of one of our jets, they should NEVER be allowed to fly at ARCA. To do otherwise does not seem to make sense to me. There are many times that the county is NOT in a burn ban that the conditions are exactly the same at our field. Why is that ok? The risks are exactly the same!!

To arbitrarily pick the county burn ban (Which by the way, I spoke to a fire marshal and asked him directly about what we are doing, and he said that what we are doing is not covered by the ban) does not make sense to me.

I spoke to Robin about this and one of the Fire Marshals may be willing to come to one of our meetings, I'm still working on that.

Regardless, it's not even that I have a problem with the rule, the majority rules, and I'm ok with that. 13 jet guys will never be able to pursuade the overwhelming number of prop guys. Interestingly though, wasn't it the jet guys that donated several thousand dollars to the extended runway project? i don't think that was all club funds that achieved that.

My problem is and remains the decision making process, that somehow there is more risk to the club losing the field on one crash vs. another crash because they happened on different days.

I'm still looking for a good explanation to that, I asked our club president, and there was no good answer.

And above that, I agree that most people at our field are overwhelmingly helpful. It's guys like Lloyd Ligon that get in your face pointing fingers, and screaming at you for flying your airplane, telling lies about rules that do not exist as if they do. I guess I should have been more specific. I'm still, a year later, looking for an apology.

Joel, I have always reaped what I sow, it's a function of having never gotten good at keeping my mouth shut when I probably could have approached a situation differently. To some people, that's the best way to handle issues, to some, they get offended. In politics, that might be a 50% approval rating

To me, this type of debate is a lot of the fun I get from the hobby. If someone has to have an alka seltzer after arguing with me, I sleep better, and I recognize that that is a massive personality flaw.

Sean, 50%? You have been away for awhile, but I don't think you up to 50% yet

Good to see you back!

George

Hey bud, really looking forward to you guys getting the stuff going when you get back!

50%?, I was happy when we were the 1%'rs, remember that?

See you in Fl. later this year, I'll make you some Frito Pie!

Enough chit chat Sean get back to work on the Lightning
Mark

Since i was the president who was in place when this burn ban action was put into place, if anyone has any questions about how it came to be please contact me. A good percentage of the jet pilots of the club were contacted and supported the measure.