Thankful Thursday

I still couldn't fly first thing this morning--I got Kaylee ready then went back to bed until 11 again. But this time when I woke up I was feeling close to human, and made it to lunch for the first time all week.

Today was another beautiful one. I had a flight at 4 p.m., and it was sort of my test flight to see how my head would do. It was turbulent down low, almost a direct crosswind gusting up to about 18 knots or so, so it was good practice for the student. As for me, my ears popped a bit, but that's a good thing. :) I was fine.

We had a Flying Squirrels meeting tonight-meeting up with the teenagers and some of their parents and a few of us instructors who will be working with them over the summer. Kids ages 14-18 can get 6-8 hours of flight time in a J-3 Cub for free flight instruction, free ground school towards the written exam, and basically the cost of fuel per hour on the plane. Nobody can learn to fly cheaper than that. Anyway, the meeting was to start at 7, and after sitting there awhile I was getting sleepy and bored, so I got the Citabria out to take it up for a break-it-in-for-another-hour flight. Alas, I got a bad mag check, so I shut her down, pushed her away, and texted Chuck to let him know, hoping it was just a fouled plug and nothing serious with the new cylinders. Less than an hour later our meeting starts, and I see Chuck walking through the door and out to the plane. He was like an Indy Car Pit Crew, man; showed up, zipped through, cleaned the plug(s), buttoned it up and done before the meeting was over. :)

We were done at 7:30, and the sun didn't set for another hour, and the plane still needed another hour on it, and...I grabbed my iPod and headset, and this time got a good mag check, and away I went. I found all of the little grass strips again, so I could be sure to not forget where they are. I had to laugh though-they seemed kind of far apart in the Chief, it felt like it took quite awhile to get to each of them, but at 2000', I realized that I could see all of them all at the same time if I knew where to look, and that I was arriving at all of them quite rapidly in the Citabria. That extra 43 horsepower is really nice. ;)

When my hour was up and the sun was going down, I came on in to land, but as soon as I got down to about 1600' it got surprisingly bumpy. I glanced at the wind sock and it looked like it was a pretty much direct crosswind, like when I left. The lower I got the more I was tossed around until on base to final I realized I was going from this nice, peaceful sunset flight to actually having to concentrate. :) I hit what felt like wind shear coming over the wires and down, airspeed fluctuating 25 knots up and down, felt like I was dealing with a pretty stiff tailwind when I leveled off, glanced at the windsock again, and had one of the more interesting-feeling approaches to landing I've had in quite awhile. I could see I'd make it down so I didn't go around, but it was definitely quirky. After we put the plane away I called AWOS, which was saying the winds were 070 at 18 gusting to 22. While the windsock was showing 090, reality down there was a little different. I'm glad it was the Citabria and on grass though, because a 22 knot quartering tailwind in some taildraggers would be...let's just say "extra interesting".

At 9 p.m. I got a text that the T-6 was now back together, buttoned up and ready to be test flown. Jon and Trey worked on it all day long, into the evening. I'm supposed to do that test flight tomorrow, but the weather is calling for 80% chance of thunderstorms and rain, and high winds. It looks like I might have a rain-free window fairly early in the morning, if I am able to function properly in the morning after Kaylee goes to school, but the forecast is also calling for moderate clear air turbulence and winds anywhere from 25-35 knots, and of course it's not supposed to be down the runway. Urgh.

It felt so good to not feel so bad this afternoon. I hate being sick. I'm glad to be almost back. ;)