Work Out!

Saturday-usually it's a day Steve works all day and Kaylee and I stay home and do nothing basically. Chill out, relax, watch cartoons (not me), play with a friend outside maybe, but other than that, nothing interesting. Today Kaylee and I headed out to Glenndale around 9:30 a.m. and we just got home at past 9 p.m. She played outside all day long, got sunburned (didn't expect to be there all day like that!), got tons of exercise, and had a blast.

Me, I really enjoyed the day too! More flying stuff. Went and got the Baron and brought it into Glenndale so it could be washed, and practiced 3 take offs and landings there...something I don't typically do for one of the first times in front of a group of people. A bit later I took up the Citabria and did about 6 takeoffs and landings in it. The winds were kind of wonky today and I actually had to work at these landings, and that was great practice for me. After one landing, a guy inside got on the radio and said "Kind of long and floaty, wasn't it" and I said something like "tell me about it"...then went around again and landed it right at the end of the runway. When I got out, he said something about it being one of the shortest landings he'd ever seen out there, and I said "Float That." ;)

All that concentration wore me out, actually, and I relaxed for awhile, until it was time to take up a couple of guys for a short ride in the Baron. We took off out of there, I showed them how some of the equipment worked, then I did a low pass at Glenndale. Man, that was funny. The guy in the front seat was saying something like "holy crap" when we got down low, and then I said "hang on" and pulled it up pretty heavily and banked it around, and they were both screaming/yelling. Completely cracked me up, and it was fun. Landed that, and then I got the chance to go up in the Decathlon and fly it from the back seat-something else I really did need practice in. You can't see squat from the back seat of these taildraggers.

But while we were getting ready to go up, Greg A. had out his PJ and we did some loose formation flying down the runway to say hello. Then I went over to Sheridan to practice my back seat takeoffs and landings. Which thankfully went very well also. Came back into Glenndale when it was over, and I now sported a tension headache from focusing so much and concentrating, but a Diet Mt. Dew and 3 Tylenol later, and after a bit of hamburger for supper, I was doing well and it was finally time to take the Baron back to Kokomo. Chuck and I were "racing", and he took off first in his Citabria, and I followed close behind. Of course I blew past him and landed first, but he tricked me--I landed nice and short so I could get off the runway so he could get in right behind me, but instead, he landed halfway down the runway and pulled off of onto the taxiway in front of me, so he ended up pulling up to the hangar first. Technically the Citabria beat the Baron home. :) So all in all, it was a fun flying day for me, I got to practice some things I needed to practice, and I had a great time in the process.

Meanwhile, Kaylee was running around on a 4-wheeler (kid size, not adult size!), playing with friends when they'd stop over, running around with the guys, playing in the grass and in water and with everything around, and she just had a blast of a day. Steve flew with some students, did some groundschool for a guy's checkride, and tried to work as best he could! It was about a perfect Saturday!