Had a checkride prep flight this morning, then lunch out at the airport. Kaylee woke up, and tried to go to school, but she hadn't been feeling well the night before and she woke up with circles under her eyes, refusing to eat breakfast (the girl never refuses to eat a meal), warm and exhausted. When I laid her back down in her bed, she was asleep before I was out of the room. So I called her school and bus driver to let them know she wouldn't be coming to school today. 45 minutes later, she was up, dressed, and in my room telling me she didn't want to miss school. I sent her back to bed anyway. I checked on her throughout the day, and she had circles under her eyes, her stomach hurt, her head hurt, and she wasn't herself. Around lunch she got bored and wanted to come to Glenndale with me, but I wouldn't let her. I told her she didn't need to infect all those poor older folks out at Glenndale with whatever she had (which was also stomach issues). After lunch she wanted to come to Kokomo Airport with me, and I wouldn't let her do that, either. I told her to rest up, recuperate, get stronger, and we'd see about tomorrow. She hates being stuck at home with nowhere to go. ;) By the end of tonight, she was looking and feeling better, thankfully.
After lunch I came home to check on her, then went out to Kokomo to run up the Mustang. We had to pull out a C-150, the T-6, and the Cheyenne before we even got to the Mustang to pull it out, but Jon helped. :) We got the Mustang pulled out only to have the guy whose hangar we were in front of say he needed to get his plane out, now, and leave. So Jon tugged the Mustang back out of the way, we waited for him, and then we tugged it back up so that we wouldn't blow back on any of Nathan's other planes. My headset didn't work in the two-plugger, so Jon went and got an adapter for me, and this time I moved the pedals full forward so I could reach the brakes without a cushion. She started up the 2nd try, and seemed to run pretty smoothly. I taxiied out to the run-up area, made sure it was good and warmed up, ran it up, checked it out, ran it some more, made sure all the temps were good, back-taxied down the runway, did a half take off, settled it back down onto the runway, and came on in. Both things "people" say about the Mustang are true. It's way easier on takeoff as far as stability. It tracked perfectly straight, unlike the T-6 that makes you dance on the rudders just to go straight. And the power is fierce. In the manual it says "Advance the throttle to 61" manifold pressure and HANG ON." It's not kidding. I didn't get to 61" because I wasn't trying to actually take off, but even if I was, I doubt I'd have made it to 61". At 35", where I stopped, it was fast enough, accelerated and lifted off briefly, and that's just a bit more than half the available power. Amazing...
That is one sexy airplane. Just sayin'.
Justin G. and Jon T. took some photos of me running around, and I put a few up on my site. I briefly lifted off at the other end of the airport on Runway 5, which means 1. no pictures and 2. no proof, which is not a bad thing--but I put it right back down, I promise. I have rarely been so tempted to do the wrong thing in my life. But no insurance, no permission, risking too much and not just for me, but for a friend who trusted me not to...it would have been the Wrong Thing. Not worth it. So I enjoyed starting it up, running it up, taxiing it around, running it around, and bringing it back safe and sound. :) Odds are pretty good that's as close as I'll ever see to soloing a Mustang. I'm lucky to have the 20 some hours in it in the air that I do, and lucky that Nathan let me play with it on the ground. Most people don't get that. :) Taxiing around in that thing, even on the ground, you can't help but feel the history, feel the power of the beast under you. The brakes won't even hold past about half power. Too awesome, man. ;)
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