Thunder...

It may not officially be summer yet, but don't tell the weather that. It got up to 88 degrees today, with pop-up thunderstorms that grew very large, very loud, and very powerful in a very short period of time. Nathan and I were going to go flying. I got to the airport first, and I was just sitting there with the doors open when I heard the rumbles and saw the dark wall outside. About then I got up and started closing the one hangar door, when I got a text that just said "Close the doors!" There was hail and everything. I got everything buttoned up. When it hit, it hit hard. Hail, heavy winds, and it kept getting worse. We were going to wait for that cell to go through, but there was just wave after wave of them, and it was obviously so unstable that it soon enough became "tomorrow will be another day".

Before we got hit, it went through Glenndale, and a lot of Kokomo was suddenly in the midst of a flash flood, including our little airport. The picture to the right is the lake by (and in) our hangars. Kaylee took this photo with my cellphone-I thought she did a pretty good job of it. :) Anyway, the weather came in so fast and so strong that we had several pilots stranded for awhile. Two people were on checkrides; one couldn't fly and the other couldn't get home for a long time. A third guy was only a few miles away from Glenndale and couldn't get in because the storm blew up and dumped a flood on the runway. It was a bit of an unusual day. I'm just hoping that Saturday doesn't end up like it's looking like it will end up, since we are having our Meet & Greet out there, and it would be nice if it wouldn't storm, if we could have the event and a good turn-out and decent weather to go with it...

One of our people was on his CFI (Flight Instructor) checkride. This is The doozer of a checkride, which currently has a 13% pass rate the first time. Yes, there is an 87% first time fail rate on this checkride, and that's an improvement from what it was a few years ago. The Federal examiner that our guy went with is the same one that has done another of our guys, and he just has a serious attitude problem. He took 7-8 hours to grill our guy, and he didn't come close to approaching nice. He was rude, mean, sarcastic, and pushy. He even went through our guy's logbook, inspecting every endorsement he had ever been given, to see if he could 'nail' any of his former instructors or examiners. "We're the FAA, and we're not happy until you're not happy." Indeed. Much to this examiner's dismay, our guy was quite well prepared by Steve and did pass the oral part of the checkride. Next he gets to fly on a day without storms and finish off the ride. I don't know why some people feel their lives aren't complete unless they can terrorize others...

Anyway, I'm just glad I don't have to do that again. ;)

Speaking of authority figures, I was coming out of Glenndale and on my way to the bank, and it was 4:30 and I had to be at the bank by 5. There's an area on one road where the speed limit drops from 50 mph to 35 mph. I didn't get slowed down fast enough for the officer who was waiting on a side street, and as I was looking at the back of the check I needed to deposit, I saw the lights in my rear view mirror. At the time, I actually did not know why he was pulling me over, because I glanced down at my speedometer and I wasn't speeding. The nice officer asked what my hurry was, and when I said I hadn't realized I was in a hurry, he told me he'd clocked me ten miles over the speed limit. When he told me what intersection, I knew it right where he meant, because it drops to 35 there, and I looked at him a little funny. I was slowing down-trust me, or I'd have been a lot more than 10 over the limit-but hadn't made it to the 35 when I passed the sign, but I was at the speed limit right afterwards, and he knew it. The not so funny thing is I got a ticket out of it. The funny thing is that HE kept apologizing to ME. "I'm sorry, ma'am, I have to be consistent here." "I'm sorry, ma'am, but I have to give you a ticket." "I'm really sorry, ma'am, but I put this is the lowest bracket I could, and you can come to court if you like." I ended up saying things like "It's okay." and "I understand", and "That's fine"...and then I stopped and cocked my head to the right in confusion as I thought "Shouldn't HE be comforting ME here??" Then I realized I had forgotten to cry. ;) I'm just kidding.... :) But he really wasn't overly comfortable giving me a ticket. Either he is new to the ticket-giving business, or he felt sorry for me. Regardless, I now have a ticket to pay, a potential increase in insurance rates, and I have to be very careful with driving for awhile, because two tickets in a short time frame is grounds for Defensive Driving School, which is a place I don't care to visit. Phoo. More good news--I wasn't actually driving in a hurry, and I still made it to the bank before they closed. Hey, you have to take the good news where you can get it sometimes, right? :)