Mishmash

It's a good thing Steve Cusick and I started this day bright and early. As soon as I dropped Kaylee off at school, I went to Kokomo where Steve C. hauled me over to Sheridan in the 172RG. Originally the plan was for me to take the Chief (small
taildragger) back to Kokomo for some maintenance. This should have taken about half an hour. An hour later, we still hadn't gotten the airplane started. It was juuuust cold enough that without having it pre-heated, it did not want to fire. Poor Steve about wore himself out throwing the prop around, but the more we did it, the warmer the engine got and the more frequently it would try to run. Finally it got going, and we actually cheered. :) I took it around the pattern a few times there at Sheridan since I hadn't flown it in ages, then wandered my way, very slowly, back to Kokomo. I did a few more takeoffs and landings there on the concrete before putting it away. I got an hour in, and got done just in time to make it over to Glenndale for lasagna lunch. That's why it's a good thing we started all this at 8:30 this morning--who knew it would take all morning to go to Sheridan and back...

Later I stole the Baron and flew it over to Lafayette, arriving right at 5 p.m., which happened to be when a vast wad of Purdue students were coming in to land all at once. There were 7 airplanes in the pattern at once, and I was #2 out of 3 planes all on final. I had a Cirrus in front of me and a Cirrus behind me. Fortunately they fly them so fast, I didn't have any trouble staying behind him in the Baron. ;) I was over there to fly with a gent in his 1955 V-tail Bonanza, and we went up and had a good time and a good learning experience for about an hour and a half before I got back in the Baron and headed home.

It's kind of funny that in one day I went from a single engine complex training 172
RG to a no radio, hand-propped taildragger Chief with nothing but a handful of basic instruments in it out of a grass strip (see how fancy it is?) to a twin engine Baron with three GPSs, an Avidyne and an iPad into a busy Class D airport, to a "classic" 1955 Bonanza with old piano key switches, etc. Variety is the spice of life, you know!

Meanwhile, Steve was such a good daddy, he took Kaylee to a bouncy house jumpy event for kids for a couple hours tonight while I was gone. She ran into our former neighbors' daughter, one of her first little friends that she first met by looking through a hole in our back yard fence. :) They hadn't seen each other in years, so that was kind of neat!

The worst thing to happen today was how Kaylee left the house this morning though. It was "Support Your Team" day (for basketball). I didn't have any Purdue clothing, and Steve had an IU hat and an IU banner thing, so he gave those to her along with one of my red shirts, and Kaylee went to school as....*sniff*...I almost can't bear it...an IU fan. It's awful, I say, awful. Worst of all, now that banner is over my closet door and Kaylee has decided to team up with him against me. Ugh! I'm going to have to go get her a proper Purdue shirt. ASAP...