...And Boy Are My Arms Tired...

Steph, Todd and Gabe left this morning, after we took some pictures of the kids in Ann's gardens. I took Kaylee to swim lessons while they headed back to Iowa, and she had a great time. She's swimming into the over-her-head range without any help or devices, and for her that's a big deal. She's doing well and having fun in the water, and that is really what we wanted to accomplish almost as much as her actually being able to swim. She's not a fish yet, but she can do it, and that is what our goal was for her for this summer. :)

Steve is sick. He's been fighting off something since the morning after the air show, and it's kind of hit him harder last night and today. Deep cough, stuffed head, etc. So he spent today at home trying to not push it so he could hopefully recuperate.

Nathan and I flew formation again twice today in the two T-6s. That makes four flights we did in two days. That's just more fun than a person should get to have. ;) It's a lot more work than just "hold her steady", too. I was so sweaty afterwards that I had to come home for repairs. There's a reason to keep the flightsuit on longer than I did today-you stay hotter, but at least you're not visibly so sweaty. I suppose guys don't care as much about that. I don't normally care much about being perfectly coiffed by any means, but this level of...disheveled...gets even my attention. ;)

So how'd it go? It reminds me a little of when someone first starts flying IFR. You grip the yoke, think too hard about the scan, focus on one thing a little too long, tense up and fight yourself more than anything. Until suddenly it clicks in and you relax, loosen up your grip, focus in on the scan without even thinking about it, and there you go. I think the thing that I fought the most today was turns with me on the inside (or turns towards me). I didn't remember having that much trouble yesterday with it, but I did several times today. Dale at Huntington said that was what he'd fought as well. And consistency in being mentally in the "zone". It's hard to force that. "Stop thinking, grasshopper, just do!" :) I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so it's easy for me to pick apart everything to do better, and harder to talk about what went well, but let's see. The last join-up was in about 120 degrees and felt pretty good at just sliding in on the line. I seem to be able to get to where I'm supposed to be relatively quickly now, and the majority of the time I stayed pretty close to where I was supposed to be. If I hadn't had this morning's flight, I could have said that more authoritatively, but this morning's flight had a couple of times that left me gritting my teeth as I got back to where I was supposed to be. I really like the formation takeoffs. Actually, I just like formation flying in general. It's fun, looks good, is another piece of the history of the plane and its former military uses; and while a workout for us newbies at it, that makes it an enjoyable challenge. I wish there were two T-6s here all the time so I could actually get some good time in and get proficient. And stop sweating so much. ;)

We did a pass over Glenndale, though I had no idea until my peripheral vision caught some trees on short final. I truly hadn't known we were that close to the ground (500' at least of course) or where we were. That's a strange feeling, but that's what you're supposed to be doing. That's why the guy in the front is called "lead". He leads, you follow, and you have to trust him explicitly. (Nathan joked that a good wingman will hit the same side of the mountain lead does. I know, there's a lot of dark humor in aviation, but that's okay with me. ;)) It doesn't come naturally to me to not pay attention to where I am and what's going on around me. In fact, that's what Steve "yelled" at me for doing when I went up with him, so I'd been mentally working on that, and was actually glad to find I could shut that pretty ingrained part of my self-preservation gene off in the right circumstances after all...

I got my last formation flight of the day in while following the plane on its journey back to its rightful owner (Tim Savage, to whom I am grateful for letting the plane come down to our air show and for letting Nathan use it to fly with me) up in Huntington; then I got a nice relaxing flight home, doing nothing in the front while Nathan flew us home from the back. For the first time, I realized it was really a very pretty day outside. :)

I enjoy flying with Nathan. We have a lot of similarities in how we think and what we do in regular ole flying, trips, IFR, multi, etc. And when it comes to me learning something new that he's already an old hat at, he's never thought that just because something is new to me that suddenly I've lost all previous 19 years' worth of piloting skills and judgment.

I was supposed to go do a Discovery Flight at Sheridan this evening as well, but they cancelled on me, so instead I went out to Glenndale where I tried to finish the end of the month billing stuff, yes, from June. On my way home I stopped for fuel, I mean gas (when I slid behind someone and switched lanes in my car, I also thought "cross-under", so I guess I know what gear I'm in). Anyway, at the gas station I heard someone really complaining about the price of the gas, so I looked up and saw $2.59/gallon. I realized, I don't even look. I don't care. It doesn't matter. I need gas. I have gas cards for two places-Marathon and Shell. Marathon is cheaper and there are more of them, so that's where I go. Whether the gas is $3.00 a gallon or $1.95 a gallon, I still need gas. It's not like I'm not going to get gas if it's over $2/gallon, like I can walk while I hold out for prices to drop, or like I need to stress out over something like that which I cannot change. So yes, I hate it when prices go up too, but I don't even bother looking at what it is most of the time. Why?

Well, I have some photos of the kids to put up, and Trey's photos came today from the air show too, so I'd better get busy. I love this one. Ty in the background in the Cub coming around to race the Model-T car. :)