Gaston's Fly-in 2018!

eman1200 said:
crikey, that could be a 5-6 hour flight, I might have to make a fuel stop.

if I went to the gastons fly-in I'd kinda feel obligated to try and outdo the last fly-in I went to. to recap the last fly-in, we had an extra large, extra hairy redneck fella dressed up in celine dion man-lingerie whilst jamming on the guitar and chugging jack daniels without using his hands. well he used his hands to play guitar, just not to chug the JD. anyways, now that I'm thinking it thru I kinda feel like we need to outdo that one. but man, a 6 hour flight and HEAVY penalty for cancelling a reservation? wait, in October? my annual is due in october. hhmmmmm, got some thinkings to do.
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If you are considering, don't book a room. you can have our couch or I am sure others are willing to lend you a couch.
Would be really cool to have you at gaston's.
 
timwinters said:
Last year I cancelled 4 months in advance. Plenty of time for them to rebook. Lost the entire deposit. One night's charge, which, for this cabin, was $175, that's a tad bit onerous when given 4 month's notice.
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Ok, I agree that's a bit ridiculous.

JCranford said:
I think if they had to rely solely on fly-in business they would have been out of business years ago.
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Sure, totally agree. But I do have sympathy for them being totally exposed on the handful of weekends, like the topic of this thread, where much/most of the hotel will be aviators and a big weekend would turn into a goose egg if they had a more liberal cancellation policy.

Hell, it's true for the "normal" fishing clients also. Many people would just walk away from a rainy weekend on the river if they could get their money back.
 
I had forgotten to make a reservation when I left last year, so I corrected that error yesterday. Cabin #4 is where its at! Or al least its where *I'll* be, maybe not *it*...
 
I'll be back in Iraq that weekend, damn.
 
Put us down for 4.
Kids seemed jazzed when I said "fishing, hiking, bird sanctuary, and party til we puke"
 
denverpilot said:
Anything we can get our dipshits in DC to do to get out of there, so you can do something else, let us know. :)
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It's appreciated! But, I'm working in natural gas, getting equipment in place so we can stop all the gas flaring. Once we're done there should be much less pollution, and a decent income stream for Iraq (selling the gas instead of burning it). My job is way easier than the guys in the military have it.
 
Katamarino said:
It's appreciated! But, I'm working in natural gas, getting equipment in place so we can stop all the gas flaring. Once we're done there should be much less pollution, and a decent income stream for Iraq (selling the gas instead of burning it). My job is way easier than the guys in the military have it.
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Ahhh okay. Or as we used to say in the oil biz...

“Well, well, well... three holes in the ground!”
 
bumping my request. i'm super serious about going Seattle to Gaston's for a fun couple of days. If I can get loggable time, I'll pay (ideally Multi instrument, but i'll take anything).

@GRG55 are you going?
 
Katamarino said:
It's appreciated! But, I'm working in natural gas, getting equipment in place so we can stop all the gas flaring. Once we're done there should be much less pollution, and a decent income stream for Iraq (selling the gas instead of burning it). My job is way easier than the guys in the military have it.
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What’s the market for natural gas and NGLs in Iraq? Can the income stream even touch the payments on infrastructure cost? Qatar makes some money on gas, at least they say they do. I couldn’t make associated gas attractive in the Bakken, the cash flow would have been literally nickels and dimes compared to the oil revenue. Tough to imagine Iraq associated gas is much different with no natural market. Now if they burned gas for electric generation, that might work.
 
Clark1961 said:
What’s the market for natural gas and NGLs in Iraq? Can the income stream even touch the payments on infrastructure cost? Qatar makes some money on gas, at least they say they do. I couldn’t make associated gas attractive in the Bakken, the cash flow would have been literally nickels and dimes compared to the oil revenue. Tough to imagine Iraq associated gas is much different with no natural market. Now if they burned gas for electric generation, that might work.
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It's the export NGLs and naphtha that drive the commercial value in those associated gas streams. I was involved in an earlier assessment in the mid-2000s, after Gulf War 2, when I was living in the Gulf. The volumes were enormous, the liquid product value substantial as waterborne exports ( using VLGCs) for badly needed US$, even if all the methane and ethane were flared due to lack of market.

Unfortunately the security situation was hopeless at that time, even in Southern Iraq (which was far better than Baghdad, with Iraqis were killing Iraqis, and kidnappings rampant. A very dark time). At that time we had to fly INOC staff engineers to Amman, Jordan to be able to get any work done in safety. The stories I heard from them about going to work (don't get paid otherwise, so how do you feed your kids?) and not knowing if they would return home at the end of that day, I'll remember for a long while.

Sorry for the thread drift, but that experience drove home how thin the veneer of civilized behavior over violence really is for us humans. Some of my UK expat associates were personal friends of Margaret Hassan.

Nice to hear there's continued progress being made regarding the flare gas in those fields.
 
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Clark1961 said:
What’s the market for natural gas and NGLs in Iraq? Can the income stream even touch the payments on infrastructure cost? Qatar makes some money on gas, at least they say they do. I couldn’t make associated gas attractive in the Bakken, the cash flow would have been literally nickels and dimes compared to the oil revenue. Tough to imagine Iraq associated gas is much different with no natural market. Now if they burned gas for electric generation, that might work.
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The production agreements between the government and the IOCs mandate the IOCs to make the associated gas available free of charge (the payment structure is oil only). That gas is then passed to a joint venture between Shell, Mitsubishi, and the government for processing, compression, liquids extraction and so on. Can't give any specifics about the financials of course but it does end up making good sense financially.

The best result in my eyes, though, is that we're shutting down most of the flares, it all used to be just burned. Now the air is way, way cleaner, and the gas can be used for power generation to help the chronic power shortages the south has. Southern Iraq has been a net importer of gas which is crazy given how much is available.
 
denverpilot said:
I’m so sick of missing Gastons that I’m going to do drastic things this year to try to get my butt there.
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I missed last year, going to try to make it this year. Let me know if you want to join forces (same plane or caravan).
 
Calendar marked, reservation not made. Will just show up and see what's available. I will probably pull the back seat out of the Comanche and if I have to I will sleep in the plane. They say there's no camping on the field but I'm not camping I'm just sleeping in the plane.
 
Hope to see ya there @EdFred.
I'm bringing the whole family still our cabin will be full but you are welcome to the floor.
 
I'll bring down a sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and a Realdoll in case that's my option.
 
We *may hav an available bed in our cabin. We’ll know someone sooner to the date
 
Oh and I will remember to bring Vernor's. Because I know how much @jesse loves that stuff.
 
JCranford said:
We *may hav an available bed in our cabin. We’ll know someone sooner to the date
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Add me to list for that bunk. I booked 55WB for Gaston's... now need shelter.
 
timwinters said:
Yeah but...

Last year I cancelled 4 months in advance. Plenty of time for them to rebook. Lost the entire deposit. One night's charge, which, for this cabin, was $175, that's a tad bit onerous when given 4 month's notice.

But it's their policy and we all know what it is.
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There website says if it’s 15 days or more prior, they will refund your deposit minus a $75 cancellation fee. Is that new?
 
I'm so sorry you guys. Okieflyer can't make it this year. Not that it's a great loss to you.
 
OkieFlyer said:
Oh wait. I accidentally had the wrong tab selected. I meant to tell the Celine Dion Fan club that I wouldn't be able to attend the annual Celine 4Life Crepe and Molson Mixer this year.
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Damit.
 
We’re in. Cabins > camping so we will both be there. Okie, you got guitar for this one? Everyone else should bring drums and we can make a circle or something awesome like that.

Anyone got beer style preferences? Time to plan out a recipe and brew it is unusual but we’ll see how it goes.
 
How lucky am I? I live in central Arkansas and am still working on my PPL. I hope to be able to fly myself up to Gaston’s for this event. I had no idea this was an event until I found this site and found this thread. Super lucky!

Tips?
 
((( no one tell Jake about the tradition that the pilot with the least hours pays everyone's bar tab after the event is over )))
 
AggieMike88 said:
((( no one tell Jake about the tradition that the pilot with the least hours pays everyone's bar tab after the event is over )))
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Where do I enter my credit card info? I’m SURE you will each individually pay me back next year, right? I can trust you guys? Lol
 
AggieMike88 said:
Talk your instructor into make this your "soft field landing and takeoff" lesson.

Practicing on pavement helps, but nothing is like the real thing.
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There’s a spot down by Little Rock where I am from called Cluntry Air. Small private grass strip. I’ve been there once, but I hear Gaston’s is a bit more tricky.
 
Jake Arey said:
but I hear Gaston’s is a bit more tricky.
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Which is why I suggested it... once you've got it figured out with an instructor, it's easy. Just be mindful of your density altitude items when departing... that ridge on departure can get big in a hurry if it's a hot day and you're heavy

And it's a good spot for lunch too.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Which is why I suggested it... once you've got it figured out with an instructor, it's easy. Just be mindful of your density altitude items when departing... that ridge on departure can get big in a hurry if it's a hot day and you're heavy

And it's a good spot for lunch too.
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Ok, you bet. Thank you for the extra tips. Looking forward to having a burger there very soon.
 
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