This was a fun Friday for Kaylee, because when she got to Glenndale for our Friday lunch, she had her friend Maggie to play with. She hasn't seen Maggie in ages, and they had a great time together, for hours.
Shortly after lunch, I went out to Kokomo, and Nathan and I went in the T-6 over to Huntington after a low pass at Glenndale. The weather was still moving through up there by Huntington, so we just flew around and watched the rain and clouds move through, until the airport was clear, and came in to land. Nathan's plane has been run, and they are basically buttoning it up and getting it ready for the FAA to come do their thing, after which it will be legal to fly. I got to relax and ride in the back for the trip over, and there's just very little I find more peaceful and...pleasing...than cruising along looking at the wings over the fields, with the canopy cracked open and the rumble of the radial. I even get a kick out of looking at my own reflection in the back of his red helmet. Of course, I am easy to amuse. ;)
It was my turn next, and I flew us back to Kokomo, from the back. You know, the T-6 has been called "The Pilot Maker" for 70 years now? I find myself a little...aggravated; I've flown it I think six or seven times now, and it's not hard per se. It's not super fast, or overly sensitive. It's a little squirrely on the ground, and it's different from what I'm used to, but it's not like it is alien or anything. And yet... I can get it in the air, fly it around, and get it back on the ground. I can even do so so that it looks fairly decent from the ground the majority of the time. I've only had to have the one landing saved (so far), and only had one embarrassing bouncing-like-a-basketball-down-the-runway landing which I recovered myself (so far), both in the first few flights. But man, consistency and smoothness is evading me. I don't have it, and I should have it after this many flights. At least it's feeling more comfortable, and I can tell that once it clicks in, it'll be fine. I just want to sit out there and do it until I start nailing it. My tally for today is two "okay" landings, one nice takeoff and one truly sloppy landing. The back is a little tougher for me down final as unfortunately I'm not very used to landing planes where I can't see the runway until I'm fairly close to flaring, but that is a definite area of weakness of mine and I need to just get "seat" time and get comfortable with it. Anyway, that's my gripe at myself, but I enjoyed the flight all the way up to that last landing. ;)
When we got down, Charlie Brier drove me over to Glenndale so I could take the 172 out of the wet field there and take it over to Sheridan. The last time I'd looked at the runway, it still had some standing water on it, so I expected it to be a wet and true soft-field takeoff, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. In fact, I was well in the air before I even got to the threshold markers for the runway. I got it put away and tied down at Sheridan, and Nathan came and got me, and we went to Outback for dinner. Steve and Kaylee met us there, and Jamie and Gwenie came along too. I was hungry, and we did the whole ball of wax. I ate most of my salad, I had a slice of warm bread, I had a few "bloomin' onion" peels, I had steak, baked potato, a side of crab legs, and even a "Chocolate Thunder from Down Under". They make those MUCH smaller than they used to, by the way. Best of all, they were out of whipped cream, so they gave three out of four of us who were supposed to have whipped cream our desserts for free. Why, thank you. :) I almost never eat that much there, and I'll probably be full until tomorrow around noon, but hey, it was really very good and it hit the spot.
I came home and printed off some stuff for tomorrow because my laser printer cartridges came in today, and I came home to a freshly cleaned house too. Tomorrow is going to be a busy one with our Meet & Greet, and I'm fading fast for the night...
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