Potpourri

Pilots Warned to Avoid Flying On Empty.

Well, DUH.
That is all.

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(Scary dream alert) Last night I had a dream that I was flying along, at night, IFR, alone, and it was a pitch black. I could barely see my instruments, and it was bumpy. Suddenly I looked over and saw that my attitude indicator was sideways, and had failed. I stared at it too long trying to see if I was sideways or if it had failed, and I started hearing the airplane engines winding up, and I knew I must be diving down--but I couldn't see my altimeter. I pulled the power back and pulled up to recover, but I knew I must not be level any more--and the AI was just stuck there sideways and I couldn't see anything else. I brought power back in and tried to feel if I was level or not, but of course you can't, and everything felt all wrong--I heard it winding up again and I didn't know which way was up, couldn't see anything, it was just black. At this point I woke myself up, heart racing. It was a twin in my dream, but not one I recognize. Not the best dream I've ever had, but not the worst, either. ;)

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It took me two days working off and on in order to get my logbook caught up. I hadn't updated it since August 22nd. Yikes. I'd started out well with a logging thing, but then I lost it and didn't get it back and time went by before I knew it-again. But I finally got it all together and entered, and 133 entries and 7 pages later, I was done. It was a busy year, though not a record, but I ended up with 571.6 hours from Jan 1, 2011 through to Dec. 31, 2011. I'm up over 150 hours in the T-6, and have over 20 hours in the 340...I didn't add up how many hours I have in a 172 now. ;)

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I was supposed to go to Illinois early this morning then be back in time to fly with three different students from 1 pm straight through to 9 pm. First the 1 pm student canceled, which made life easier on the trip. Then the trip canceled. So I ended up flying on this most beautiful January day, warm and sunny, from 3:30-7 pm, one in the 172, one in the RG. It really was a prime day to fly--you couldn't ask for anything better in the Spring, let alone the middle of winter. It was really nice, and it's rejuvinating to have such bright warm days in an otherwise dreary season.

I watched the sun go down in the RG and I'll end up watching the sun come back up in the RG on my way to St. Louis tomorrow morning.

Kaylee decided she would like to ask four friends to do something for her birthday, then have me fly them to Muncie for dinner at Kacy J's. It's a normal thing for her, but when I mentioned that we'd have to make sure it was okay with the parents, Kaylee looked confused, like why wouldn't a parent be okay with that? Well, because sometimes they just might not be, and that's okay...we'll find out and go from there. It's a different idea, anyway. :)