Indy Air Show II

And that's where the weather luck ran out. :) We woke up this morning to low IFR overcast gray skies spitting mist and rain. We still made it out to the airport just after 8, and this time just I went to the briefing, as I had the chance to fly in the show if the weather held out. It was in the briefing this morning that I learned about the fake calls on the radio yesterday, which made the Air Boss come up with a new frequency he didn't want let out to the public, and a new authentication protocol for anyone who did call an emergency or an issue on the frequency. Just what everyone needed--more rules at an air show. Dumb people who do dumb things and make life harder for everyone...

Air Boss was in a mood today, putting three (relatively famous) pilots on the "Naughty Stool" up front of the "class" for infractions from talking, to talking back to him, to being late. Me? I'm just quiet and behave myself. ;) Today there were three of us T-6s still flying, which made for two in formation and me as Tail-End Charlie. You know, most of the time any more I don't think nearly as much about having that formation card as I do about having the skills available. But there are times it would be handy, and not having to fly behind the rest of the class like a pesky little sister would be a good reason to have it. ;) Anyway, we went through the long briefings today, then broke up into our individual groups for the last brief, which is exactly what YOU will be doing with your group. Duane was our "Lead", and he looked at me and said "Okay, here's your brief. Follow me, and we'll debrief at my airplane afterwards. But I'm never gonna see you." We all knew the weather wasn't going to magically break, but the air show organizers couldn't "call" it until the last minute due to insurance reasons among others. So that was the shortest pre-formation briefing I've ever heard, but what's funny is that's about right. As tail end Charlie, all I have to do is follow Duane wherever he goes until we shut down the airplanes, then get out and talk about it at his airplane. That pretty much covers it. ;)

The organizers sent up a couple of test pilots to see about the ceilings. We had a few at 900', mostly around 700-800'. We had to have 1000' and 3 miles visibility to legally do the show, and it just never got there. And yet the people came. They sat out in the flooded grass in their lawnchairs with their umbrellas, they walked all over the ramp looking at airplanes, asking questions, hitting the vendors, they were at the kid area, they were just all over. There were a lot more people there than I expected to see, that's for sure. Yesterday I had spent all morning in the briefing, lunch at the warbird tent, then took Kaylee to the kid area for a couple hours while the show went on, and after the show it rained and we hung out at Judy's hangar, so I didn't really get a chance to hang out at the airplane. So I did that today. Answering questions, hanging out, sometimes with an umbrella, sometimes without, and having a pretty good time. Except for the little kid who had rocks he was throwing at the T-6, then trying to scrape the bottom of the wing with one. Kaylee saw him first and told me about it, and his parents were oblivious, so I walked up to him and with my nicest shark smile told him not to touch the plane with rocks, please. Little kids aren't dumb-he saw my face, and he went by his parents, minus the rocks he dropped quickly. We handed out several business cards, answered questions on T6 rides and training (including a fellow with no tailwheel endorsement that wanted a sign-off on the T-6. Yeah, right.) We ran into several people we know, as usual, and had a pretty nice time all in all, gray skies and all. They finally "called" the air show off sometime after 3 p.m. when the Blue Angels did a final cancel as well. It took awhile to clear off the ramp, but eventually it was all clear.

I couldn't fly the Six home because of the weather, and can't file IFR in it right now because I don't have an attitude indicator. (Well, I suppose I could, but let's just say I'm not going to.) So the guys tugged it over a little for me, tied it down, buttoned it up, and Steve, Kaylee and I drove off back home without it.

The one thing I forgot this weekend? My camera. I did bring my little camera, and took over 100 photos with it, plus I have photos from the Grissom fly-over too, so I have a lot to do. But it's midnight, and I'm tired, and Steve's already asleep, and I have more plans for tomorrow that involve warbirds. I sure do like those airplanes...