Fun Things

This morning arrived as it was supposed to-warmer with blue skies. The three of us picked up some fried chicken and potato salad and went out to Kokomo, where we enjoyed lunch with quite a few people who stopped in on the nice day. By the time we'd finished with the apple and cherry pie, the day had warmed up a little more, and the "shuffle" began. We had our own personal airport set up in one spot for awhile there, with Dale's Cub, Jim's C-150, Chuck's Citabria, the T-6, the Cheyenne and the Mustang all out; plus we had a parking lot full of cars, Nathan's Corvette, and his Bus all out too. Meanwhile the kids were riding their bikes and scooters around. We'd never be able to do that if we weren't at the back of the airport and mostly out of the way, but it works nicely. For awhile there we even had hangar neighbors out on a segway and golf cart and playing the drums in their hangar. It was...busy!

I rode in the T-6 with Duane flying, and other than some takeoffs and landings, we did rolls (because mine were sloppy and I wanted to figure out why) and accelerated stalls coordinated, then in a slip and a skid, to the left and right, because I hadn't done many of those before and it wasn't something I was comfortable practicing on my own. I've practiced standard, normal, coordinated, unexciting stalls and recoveries on my own. I was glad to see a load put on the wings in an uncoordinated turn and let it do its thing because what Budd Davisson said about T-6 stalls holds true (of course)-they may not be gentle, but they become fairly predictable once you know what to expect. We ended up doing several rolls to recover as the plane went on its back when the stall broke. Kind of fun, actually. As long as you're up at altitude and doing it on purpose, naturally. I enjoyed that and picked up some things I'd needed...

Trey and Duane went up next, and Trey turned his seat around and shot This Video of a loop and a roll being performed with the canopy open, facing backwards in the plane. That just had to feel strange. Click on the "HQ" button at the bottom right of the video box to make it "high quality", and turn down the volume as all you'll hear is the wind noise, loudly. I'm probably not keeping it up long enough to put music to it-just wanted some of you to be able to see it. :)

While all the stuff was out of the hangars, Trey set up a photo shoot, climbed up on a scaffolding platform, and took pictures of the T-6, Mustang, bus and Corvette all arranged in front of the hangar. I look forward to seeing how they turn out, because at ground level it looked good.

When it was time to start putting some of the stuff away, they got several things in, then Nathan took me for a ride in his 'Vette. Did I mention it's not a stock Corvette, but in fact has 950 HP, which is somewhere around 200 more horsepower than the NASCAR boys have at their disposal? I've never seen anything like it (on the ground), as the faster it went the more power it produced and just a tap on the accelerator produced an amazing amount of torque. It got up to...the posted speed limit in the blink of an eye. I do not need one of those. No sir. I couldn't help it, I had an actual grin and giggle every time it would roar. In fact, I am smirking as I type this.

One more quick ugly flight on my part, and it was time to refuel, put everything away, get some food, go home and relax. Kaylee was still awake at 11:30, proving that even when she's exhausted she's a night owl, unfortunately like her mother.

I finished the 4th book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn. It was actually pretty good, including a nice epic battle, strategizing, and anything else I say could be a spoiler, so I won't. Overall, the series is made for teenagers in my opinion, and anything that can get tweens and teens to read over 2200 pages worth of novels is an accomplishment of some sort. It also actually promotes honesty and forthrightness, handling conflict appropriately, waiting until marriage even if you are with your "soul mate", doing the right thing even if it is a personal sacrifice, courage and strength of character. They package that up with good vampires and werewolves as the protagonists to make it more attractive to young people, and the writing is aimed at younger people (again, just in my opinion), but it wasn't as bad as I feared; other than book 2 (which could be skipped without missing much of anything) I wasn't bored, and I actually got into the last book. Kaylee wanted to see the movie when it came out because she heard so much about it from people, and I emphatically said no. I still don't change my opinion of that for her at this age, but it was admittedly not the vampire love story I expected. End of the brief and uninteresting book review. ;)

Speaking of movies, I am going to take Kaylee to see the "Hannah Montana" movie soon. A friend took her daughter to it on Friday when it opened, and said it wasn't too "old" for the girls, but was a pretty good movie they enjoyed. I'm sure Kaylee will like it too.

Tomorrow is Easter, and while it doesn't feel like it is actually here already, I wish you a Happy and Blessed Easter. Me-I'm going to go get a basket ready for Kaylee to find tomorrow. It is not the reason for the season, but it is still fun for her. :)