Monday

I'm not sure why it amuses me to write out what was supposed to happen and then what actually happened. But it does. So skip this paragraph if you wish. ;) I was to go to Glenndale, pick up an airplane and meet a student at OKK by 9, and fly from 9-10 or so, another from 10:30-11:30, lunch, go to Sheridan from 2-4, hoof it back for a 4:30-6:30 in the Champ, and then run out to my school board meeting that's supposed to start at 6 pm and will last until 8 pm. I made it to Glenndale, got the plane, got to Kokomo, and did the long cross-country solo prep work, sign off, and two quick local flights. Got down and picked up victim number two and did stalls, stall recovery, then spin entries, spins and recoveries. Next Steve said I had a guy who needed to squeeze in over my lunch hour in the Champ, so I booked it back to Glenndale and waited for him. He didn't show up, which was curious, but right then my Sheridan guy canceled. I called Champ guy, and he was able to come out an hour later. He wanted calm winds to work on a few things and instead got a direct crosswind of 15 knots, which isn't much...except maybe in a Champ. ;) So we had fun doing slips, slow flight, and crosswind takeoffs and landings. It sort of helps that the Sheridan guy canceled, because it takes an hour at least to get down there and back, for just one quick flight, and makes the rest of the day run-around-ish. After that Champ fellow, I had one more Champ fellow, and we went over to Kokomo to work on concrete TOLS, then over to Duncan's short grass strip for a short field adventure. I landed with him and ran right over to the school where I got to attend a school board meeting until about 8 p.m. Home to check Kaylee's homework, fix dinner, and sit down and yawn. Busy day.

Spins are always fun. You can have all the book knowledge in the world, but until you see the sky tilt sideways and the planet rotating rapidly beneath you, you just can't really prepare for that. I've had lots of reactions to first-time spins from screams to laughs to people grabbing onto whatever they can find to grab on to. A few who felt ill after one spin, though that's more rare, and a few who thought it was a riot from the get-go. I'd say that more people don't really like them all that much than do, and I don't blame them as it is a little strange the first few times. I'm a little twisted, I know, because I always get a kick out of them. As long as I chose to do it deliberately, anyway. ;) It was actually a taildragger day. I had four Citabria flights of various lengths and two Champ flights. I instructed spins, short fields, and pretty stiff direct crosswinds, okay, and one quick flight in the 172. ;)

While I'm at it, I'd appreciate it if you if you could take a second, whenever you think of it during the day, to go to this link and vote for "Miracle for Madison & Friends". There are two groups that start with "Miracle", so make sure it says "Madison". :) You don't have to sign up for anything, don't have to join anything, don't have to allow any "apps" access to anything, it's just a website you go to as often as I dare bug to ask you to, and vote for these guys. They're friends of mine, a good group that doesn't get a lot of exposure, who will be able to help out SMA families a bit if they win, and it would mean a lot. You can vote once every two hours, but even I'm not that ambitious. Whenever I'm at a computer lurking around on the internet, I'll hit the link and hit a quick vote in. It goes through the end of September, so as many votes as we can get for them would be appreciated. I only ask because it's friends, and because it doesn't require any sign-up or effort other than going to the site and clicking on their name. :) Thank you!