Weekend Randomness

Saturday we were supposed to fly the 65 hp Aeronca Champ down to Westfield, Indiana's grass strip for a Light Sport Aviation event they host each year. My job was to be there for up to 5 hours and give "Discovery Flights" in the Champ, which is a legal Light Sport (LSA) airplane. That day was already supposed to be windy, gusts originally forecasting 20 knots, and ending up 25 knots. That's a lot for a little, lightweight tailwheel airplane, but fortunately it was going to be pretty close to down the runway, making it bumpy and windy (and a slow flight home), but doable. And then we woke up that morning to rain, bad visibility and low clouds. It finally cleared off here in Kokomo, well, "cleared off" is a misnomer...it finally got good enough to legally and non-stupidly go, and when I did one last check, now it was IFR down by that area. Their event ended at 2, and the weather didn't make it good enough for me to go before then. And their food vendor didn't show up. I felt really bad for them--we know what it's like to prep for and host events, and the worst outcome is bad enough weather and nobody comes.

Instead we spent the day out at Kokomo at the hangar. Kaylee & Jamie played all afternoon, Steve brought some burgers out and threw them on the grill, Nathan brought chips and pumpkin pie, we brought ice cream, and we had ourselves a little meal out there. Folks worked on airplanes and paperwork, cleaned up and straightened up the hangar, hung out, read, watched a good long dvd called "Tailwheel 101" to see if it was good to recommend to others (it is--excellent job), while I also watched the weather to see when/if I could make it down to Westfield.

Sunday was a much nicer day, though still windy. I had a Discovery Flight down at Sheridan at noon today, so I took the RG, flew over the top of Steve & Chuck as they were working on some siding, and took awhile to get to Sheridan. The winds were up to 21 again for awhile there, and it was bumpy for someone's first ride in a small airplane, but he was eager and ready to go, and his whole family was there, about 10 of them, loaded with cameras and coats. I chatted with them for awhile, answering questions, and then I got the question I almost always get...and if someone is too polite to ask, I'll usually offer the information up on my own: "So how long have you been doing this?" I responded with "About 20 years now." Three people at once piped up with things like "no way!" and "twenty years?!" and one I hear more often than not, "How OLD were you when you started flying? Five? You don't look look a lot older than than now!" I had to laugh, because the thought that ran through my head there was "Boy that's a lot better to hear than 'Twenty years? Yeah, I can tell.'" ;) I just said "Thanks!"

By the time I got down there, got the flight in, schmoozed appropriately, got the plane back home and put away, stopped at the store to pick up draino (there's another story), grabbed food and got home, it was almost 3 p.m.

So last night, something Kaylee ate did not agree with her at all. She said her tummy hurt before she went to bed, and she wasn't kidding. At midnight she woke up and made it to her sink before losing the nice dinner of peas, grilled shrimp & veggies & noodles I'd made for her. She had no fever, was just fine after that, but she left quite an impression on the sink. As of 9:30 p.m. Sunday, Steve still hasn't gotten the sink back in order. He took apart some pipes and got it cleaned out and put back together and now it leaks. That poor sink needed help anyway, but whew! Poor girl, but at least she felt better and is fine now. :)