Weekend II

What a great weekend. It's nice to be able to be with friends, accomplish some things, and get to have a blast while you're at it. Good company, good food, good planes, good memories.

Kaylee spent the day running around on her scooter, and alternating playing and fighting with Jamie & Gwenie. Day 1 everybody (the kids) had a blast all evening. Day 2 everybody had fun until they got tired at the end. Day 3, I think they were all wiped out and a little annoyed at each other. But they made it with very little blood, so all is well. ;)

We took breakfast out to the hangars, and had McDonald's and Hardees stuff. Did a little clean-up from the Bonanza Society event, put some stuff back together, and then moved the RG out of the way, the Cheyenne out of the way, and pulled out the Twin Beech. Nathan and I climbed in, and he started and ran up the engines for awhile to make sure all was well. Shut them down, we got out, he checked the oil, etc., and then a few minutes later we took it up for the first flight. It's hard to explain, it feels like you're transported back in time, sitting in there. The giant radial twin engines, the tail wheel, the oil, the rumble, the view, the feel of the plane. Sticking your arm out the big open window, a little "Casablanca"... little bit country and a little bit rock and roll. ;) It just lumbers down the runway, lumbers in the air. Nathan did a low pass over Glenndale, and I got to fly it around quite awhile. We came back in, did a low pass over Kokomo, brought it in for a landing. We all cleaned up the oil from Nate's hangar, had some food, and relaxed for awhile. The kids kept playing, and finally after we were all about ready for a nap, we woke up by going flying one more time. Chuck left us, but Charlie Brier, Nathan and the kids, and Steve and Kaylee and I all went up one last time in the Beech 18. I did a semi-low pass over Sheridan. Being rather new at that aircraft and having both our families on board, it seemed like a good plan to keep it up just a tad. ;) We flew over Kevin's house, flew over Nathan's house, just looked around a bit. Finally the kids were bored and Kaylee was claiming to feel ill, so we headed back to Kokomo. After landing, I knew it would probably be my last time in the plane, so I sniffed it and patted it and enjoyed it for a moment before disembarking.

I put up two pages of photos. Day One is the Mustang, Day Two is the Twin Beech. I doubt many of my friends are very interested in it, but then again, this is as much for my own posterity as it is for anybody's actual interest. ;) I really feel fortunate, it's something not too many pilots will ever get to do... I really enjoy hanging out at Glenndale and/or Kokomo with good friends and fellow pilots; it's a terrific community, and over the last couple of years I've gotten to know some good people that I'm proud to call friends.

After we flew, it was time to head home. Kaylee was exhausted, Jamie had homework, Steve had yard work to catch up on, and it was time to get ready for Monday. So we put all the planes back, closed up the hangars, cleaned up the toys and food, and called it a weekend!

I can't remember if I mentioned that Kaylee lost her second upper middle tooth yesterday. She was just eating a donut, and pop, out it came. Last night we were both too tired to remember to put her tooth under the pillow for the Tooth Fairy, but tonight we remembered, so I have to sneak in there and stick some money in before I go to bed and hopefully she'll be so exhausted she won't wake up on me and I won't have to let her keep another tooth. ;)

p.s. I got Mustang oil on my white Baron shirt, and I can't get it off. Normally it wouldn't please me much to ruin a good shirt, but at least when I look at it, I'll know where it came from!