N815DG

Flew down to It’ll Do Airfield at my folks place and did a little runway work. Seems some of the recent rains dumped 5” of rain in a minimal amount of time causing lots of runoff that our 2 13” culverts couldn’t handle. Eroded soil from around the culverts and underneath them. Water was flowing over the runway at one point I was told. This was the most water my parents have seen in 10 years.

I first started with packing the runway since it was prime moisture in the ground. When the packer was over the top of the culverts it became very apparent we needed to bring in fill dirt after both culverts dropped 6”-8” from the weight of the packer. A little fun tractor work and we had it filled in and ready to be packed. Most all the solid used was of the clay type and moist from the recent rains to I was not able to smooth perfectly yet. Will do that next time likley if the rain will ever stop long enough to smooth and pack it again.

Mean while my daughter is having fun picking out freshly hatched quail, only a few hours old. She was helping nana move them over to the brutter pins. She didn’t want to stop helping. We finally got her away and headed back home. Dodged the rain showers on the pay back to Polly Ranch. Overall a fun quick trip.

Hurricane Harvey from my wife’s point of view.
The Koenning Harvey experience (for distant relatives and friends from other places who have been worried and have reached out)

I had no idea from one minute to the next how this would all play out. My husband has a broken heel, and cannot bear weight for another week, and my children are 3 and 6 years old. I said a prayer and pretty much peacefully said goodbye, to our home, which houses my business as well. What’s most important in life to me are the non material such as family/children, relationships, general health and livelihood. Livelihood being my two hands to work with to do what I enjoy, to provide for my loved ones.

The majority of unrelenting rain fall occurred Sunday through Tuesday. On Sunday morning our neighbors got together and organized a refugee plan for those who resided on lower level properties on our street. Our home is about midway to the creek in Polly Ranch. We packed up our things and escaped to Holly and Jeff Mickler’s beautiful home. We rode out the first night together. They were so completely hospitable! We visited, ate, drank, and the kids played. We have been blessed to get to know this beautiful family.

The next day we went back to check on the house and everything was still dry. The water levels were beginning to recede. We got a little bit of confidence and packed up our things and went back home in hopes of staying for the night, with generator in full force. However, throughout the night, the water levels just kept rising and the rain kept falling. I tried to sleep next to Casey’s window in order to listen to the sound of the rain and frogs and wake up every once in a while to check the status of the front yard. Things were not looking good. I felt like the men on the Titanic who just sat there wide eyed as the water rose. Then, at 1:30 AM we decided to flee to higher ground. It was so hard getting the cars out of the driveway but we made it! Gaylon thankfully coached my driving from the Kubota behind me. We went to our neighbor Norma’s, only to find a locked premises because they had gone to their friends house for the night. They had left the generator on but the doors locked. Therefore, we started to sleep in our truck running with diesel, Disney movies for the kids, snacks and AC. We tossed and turned for two hours! With Norma’s permission, I jumped her fence and got in to the house through a secret entry ?dd23. Going from the truck to her comfy leather couch was such a relief!

We were sure that our home had flooded as the water levels were rising everywhere even to some of the areas that we couldn’t imagine would begin to flood were already under. We slept about two hours. At 6:30 AM the next morning I put on my water clothes and ventured out to see the neighborhood. Not knowing what to expect I stood from a far and watched as I was sure my house was under water. To assess damages, i went ahead and waded through the swampland to the house. I stepped onto the front porch and immediately saw the waterline. I discovered that the water level, even at the worst point, had gotten ONE INCH away from coming in. We did suffer a few roof leaks but nothing major. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. So many around us lost everything. I glared out the window at the water surrounding and felt as though I was aboard a house boat. I prayed for so many around us who lost everything. I then broke the news to my husband.

Once Harvey rain had moved on to torture another community, we decided to come home. We kept our guns close since this was about the time looters start intruding. We are still without power but we have a generator that we use frugally. I have felt a connection with a life like the good ole days, as I hand washed dishes, and hung clothes to dry on our homemade clothes line. Watching my children play hide n seek in the hanging sheets reminded me of my childhood with my mother, who is now deceased.

The memories of helping one another on the airstrip, such as pilots bartering AVgas for generators, trading gas cans and other equipment, Norma and Raul Saenz hosting cookouts, Raul Saenz for wading to our home to get Brooklyn’s medicine, and Debbie hosting a pizza party after massive cleaning efforts, will forever be in my heart. Even with Gaylon’s hurt foot we have managed to help out in some areas. I was able to help get an elderly woman trapped in her home to safety. The PR runway had turned into a temporary pass through for people on feet and in motorized vehicles. That is something we will not get to do again as this is normally forbidden due to safety reasons.

I’ve never been more proud of the people in my surroundings. When I ride up and down our streets I don’t see people crying or being depressed. I see people coming together. I will never fear a natural disaster as much as I used to after what we’ve experienced. Everyone will recover and be made stronger.

Water has receded by 4-6″ by the time the pictures were taken.

Jonathan at Evoke Aviation/Plane Schemer delivered an outstanding RV10 with a fantastic paint scheme like no other RV10. The paint is matched perfectly to our liking and the finish work is phenomenal to the point of a factory finish. The fiberglass and window trim finishing work alone makes the airplane complete compared to how I delivered it to them.

The team at Evoke Aviation handled the schedule nicely as I personally had a few bumps along the way changing the production schedule but Jonathan managed to make schedule match up nicely. Once we finally arrived Jonathan’s and Mo’s hospitality made to assembly process go smoothly over the course of two days. A big thank you to Mo helping me to hang the doors. Also a big thank you to Dave Forster (my neighbor) who helped with flight controls and other important items, plus the transportation.

As I mentioned in another post Jonathan’s team did an amazing job and it started with his design, paint scheme. Top notch service with great hospitality and one heck of a great experience. We still can’t believe the results. .

Now that the RV10 with Jonathan at Evoke Aviation for paint we decided to make over our hangar. While this sounded easy, it wasn’t. We used spray in insulation on the dealing and walls. We tore out the old rotten walls and replaced them with new walls and used bat insulation. Added new fluorescent lights and replaced a few old mercury vapor lights. We painted the entire inside of the hangar with Sherman Williams DTM paint. We built storage above the apartment and replaced the old main electrical box with a new one.

As mentioned in a prior post I injured myself so work on the hangar came to an abrupt halt. We still have a garage door to install and finish up the project with an epoxy floor. Sadly the RV10 will be back prior to us completing the hangar project and the airplane will need to live outside while the epoxy is worked. Regardless updating the hangar has been rewarding and proved to be beneficial in this summer heat as a very notable difference has been achieved with the addition of the insulation.

I delivered N815DG on 23 April 2017 to Jonathan at KGAD and had my neighbor followed up in his F1 rocket. I departed 20 minutes prior and he caught me about 20-30 minutes away from KGAD. We both filed Instruments to get to KGAD and as luck would have it my neighbor backed off the throttle and staid in trail by 10 minutes so I did the GPS-24 approach and Dave was cleared for the hold. We were both on the ground shortly thereafter with freshly washed airplane.

We met Jonathan and started to dismantle N815DG. It was a long first day so we put in a couple ours removing the easy parts from the RV10. We headed for the hotel and awoke early the next day to finish the tear down and fly back home. The Rocket made a quick trip back home as we departed instruments once again.

Jonathan and his crew has several projects in various stages being worked in a very precise manner keeping the guys busy. I knew I had three or so airplanes in front of me but didn’t really have a solid idea of when N815DG would be finished. I have been optimistically watching as the airplanes have been pushed out the door (Facebook). As air venture is now upon us I know N815DG will be next inline. There was a F4 Rocket that was to be completed prior to mine and it flew out the week of 10 July, soon to be seen at Air Venture 24 July.

A few weeks back I made a very bad decision and ended up fracturing my calcaneous. I am now post surgery 7 days and doing well but still not 100%. I contacted Jonathan when this all occurred and told him to ‘slow down’ to give me time to get back in the seat. I don’t really think he changed his schedule since it’s not in his nature to slow down!

The first ever landing at my folks property occurred on October 2, 2015. It was a family effort to construct the grass runway and took several months.it still needs to grow more grass but is useable now. It is registered with the FAA and we are awaiting the sectional identifier and comm frequency assignment. It’s smooth and seems pretty good compared to other similar grass strips I have landed on in the past. The RV10 does an excel any job on the 1800′ runway.(1XS0)