ABS Day Two

My internal alarm went off at 3:30 a.m., and I couldn't go back to sleep for about an hour or so, at which time I then had about 45 minutes of sleep before I had to get back up. Kaylee and Steve didn't sleep very well out at the airport either, and neither did poor Chuck and Judy. So we were all a little (okay, a lot) worn out by the end of this day. I have pictures to put up, but it's going to wait for tomorrow!

I got out to the airport at about 6:40 a.m., and everyone was already up out there. The classroom being held on 4-ship formations began at 7 a.m., lasted an hour, then we broke for breakfast, and came back and had the group safety briefing, then broke into small groups and did the individual small formation group going on its own briefing. I went on (riding, not flying) two sorties today, the first one of the day and the first one after lunch break. The first one, I was #2 in a two-ship formation, and the second one I was in #4 of a 4-ship. I took a few photos, but mostly I was just trying to see and recognize the signals, pay attention to procedures, etc. I've actually ridden along on several formation flights, and sometimes kept a hand on the throttle and one on the stick and tried to get a good feel for what's going on, but I didn't really know details like where the fuselage should be on an eschelon turn or whatever. I did pick up some good information today that I hope to retain. I found that in the 2-ship formation, I could keep up with what was happening, see the signals, at least recognize what needed to be done, etc. But in the 4-ship formation, I kept missing things-they would just start happening and I'd never even seen the signal, etc. I was probably just watching everybody else and enjoying the view too much and not watching #3 enough, which you wouldn't do "for real"...

After my last flight with the Bonanza guys for the day, I took up the T-6 with Steve for awhile, who turned his seat around in the back of the 6 so that he was facing backwards. He said it was a great view, but crazy windy. Bob in his RV joined us for awhile, after which I just did a few TOLS, until the next round of Bonanza guys took off to go practice and there was other traffic out there too, and we ended up with 8 Bonanzas doing formation takeoffs on the longer but crosswind runway, 1 Cub using the downwind runway, one guy in the pattern coming in to land on the runway into the wind, and me sitting there waiting for my turn to take off on that same runway. I decided to get out of everybody's way at that point, and came on in. :) I enjoyed the flight though-it was a beautiful day for it!

Next came the clean-up. All the tables, chairs, food, trash, putting everything back in order, etc. That took awhile, then a group of 12 of us went out to Applebees afterwards. Dale, Dawn, Charlie, Ty, Sheryl, Chuck, Judy, me, Steve, and three kids got a couple of big tables pushed together and had dinner. Nathan texted in while we were sitting there, and hit us all at once, so a few of us each sent him back one different word to complete a sentence, just to be irritating. :)

Kaylee, Maggie and Hannah played outside all day long, and when she got home tonight, she crawled in her bed and went to sleep without even saying goodnight to any of us. She is Wiped Out, which is pretty funny. I love what fresh air does for kids. Well, Steve sat down in the chair and passed out too, so it's not just kids. ;) I almost went out when I got home, but I got up to do one thing, and then I wanted to see my pictures, and then I found my second wind. But when I go to bed here shortly, I don't think I'm going to be spending much time tossing and turning, that's for sure. In fact, I think I just hit the wall. I'm going to bed! Pictures tomorrow. :)