I Needed That

I had a lesson this morning in the 172, but about an hour before I had to get up, I woke up to the sound of rain. I was too sleepy to look, so I went back to sleep figuring the shower would move on. An hour later I got a text from my student, pushing us back to 1:30 thanks to the continuing rain. So I slept in, and I did not get out of bed until 10 a.m. And I needed that. I felt a lot better when I finally got going!

I worked a lot today on putting things...back. Laundry, dishes, unpacking, email catch-up, a few letters I needed to write, some errands, all the daily things that really pile up on you when you're gone. I'm still not done. In fact, I've done laundry all day, and haven't even gotten to the laundry that's actually in the main laundry basket. Now that's a lotta laundry!

Kaylee still has control over my iPad as she's re-reading the Hunger Games. At least she's on the last book now, so I should have my iPad back by tomorrow...

This quote was from a warbird guy, a truth worth listening to: "I often tell our upcoming young adults that success can be related to the game of Golf. Everyone hits it out of bounds or into the rough. It's how you recover that makes you a professional." Of course, if you hit it out of bounds too frequently, you might want to consider a different game. Unless you're a weatherman. ;)

Watching Olympics, still working on laundry, sending some thank you notes and sending on some pictures to people, finishing up putting away from Oshkosh and getting ready to pack for the next adventure--Arkansas!

Not Quite Back

Well, we are sort of back, but I still have bags and suitcases not unpacked, laundry not done, and not a whole lot caught up. I did have a flight out of the gate this morning at 9, for about an hour. Kaylee got to go play over at the airport where Maggie was hanging out, so that eased her back into life in Kokomo. She also has spent the last day re-reading "The Hunger Games". She's almost done with Book 2. She read Book 1 yesterday, and is mad at me tonight for making her go to bed at almost midnight instead of finishing Book 2, because she played for several hours instead of finishing it. I don't blame her, really I don't, but you gotta go to bed sometime when you're 11. :)

Other than the usual, I also worked on pictures today. That's what I hit the hardest. I got five pages of photos up on My Site, and I'm sure I'll be adding more as other people get their pictures to me. :)

Found this video on Youtube. It's not very exciting, because we didn't do anything at that air show other than make passes, but here it tis anyway: me doing a few passes at Lost Nation, Ohio.

Day Nine

No wonder I'm so sleepy today, staying up like that! :)

This is the least favorite part of Oshkosh--the packing up and heading home part. We're ready to go and be home for the most part, but as Kaylee's friend Alisa said today, "I hate this day. There's nothing but sadness about it. It's depressing." Once we got everything loaded up, a lot of us played Frisbee in the open area where our canopies used to be until it was time to go. We were back at Glenndale by 7 p.m., and home by 8. I'm really tired, and have a lot to do, and should have marked myself off of the schedule for tomorrow too, but oh well. ;)

I have about 400 pictures of my own to go through and put up, and I'm sure others will have some photos for me too, soon.

On a random note: as I said, my flip flops broke, so I got another pair from Dollar General. They only had one pair in my size, and they were black with a lot of sparklies. So I couldn't help but laugh as I'm standing in the shower stall, dirty looking concrete floor, wearing fancy looking cheap flip flops with a bit of a heel, and a smile. It was just...you just don't wear bejeweled shoes to take a shower.

The quote for the week comes from one of Zak's friends, Nate, who, when I asked him if he was ready to go home yet, responded with "What I'm really looking forward to doing when I get home is taking a shower. By Myself. No curtains, no old dudes walking past me naked, who insist on talking to you. Nope, I'm looking forward to my own bed, and to showering by myself." Cracked us up.

Some things were different this year, and that's fine. You have to enjoy and appreciate the good things while you have them. I remember feeling that way sitting in the pilot lounge in Peoria when I flew for Pizza Hut, because it was so darned easy. They only wanted to go when the weather was decent, they went 2-4 times a week, it was easy flying, just an hour away, I had everything I needed, had a great view over the ramp, and got paid for it. I remember thinking "Some day I'm going to miss this", and I did. I have to work a lot harder on most trips these days. ;) Oshkosh won't be like this forever. Kaylee will get old enough that unless she turns into an airplane nut, she won't want to go any more. Our group of folks who go won't always want to go, and when the group fades out, a good portion of the fun of it will be gone. So I appreciate the fun that we have as we have it, and we'll see where it goes. Anyway, this year Kaylee decided she didn't want to go to Kid Venture or the museum. So no pictures of her as a fighter pilot or making a t-shirt or doing any of those things that I take yearly progressive photos of her doing since she was tiny. The kids didn't play on the hill this year hardly at all. The signs were hammered in too well to get out and the hill was more closely monitored, so the kids did other stuff. That was weird, because they spent SO much time up there in previous years. The kids rode their bikes around, hung out with their friends at the campsites, and still had a fun week, just not nearly as much exercise without going up and down that hill so much. ;) I made it to a movie for the first time ever, and I enjoyed that one. We'll see what changes next year will bring...

Kaylee kind of cracked me up a little. This year card games ruled as entertainment. At one point Kaylee was sitting over there, herself and three college guys playing some "put the card on your forehead" game, and she's holding her own pretty well, then demonstrates for them how she can burp words, and I just had to shake my head. Greeaaaat. ;) She's playing Kemps and poker and go fish and about three other card games, the cheapest form of entertainment we've seen in years. ;)

There are probably more random "finish it up" clips, but I'm really, really tired and getting fuzzy, so I'll see if I can remember anything tomorrow.

The cats were glad to see us, the fish babies are no longer babies, in one week they got huge, and it's good to be home. Pictures to follow in the next few days, hopefully!

Day Eight

This morning's AirVenture paper had the women pilot group photo in it, and Kaylee and I spotted ourselves in the masses pretty easily because of our location to FiFi. I wonder if we saved a copy or if it's online. Hmmmm...

I took it easier this morning, ate my bacon and eggs in the trailer, read a book and had some Diet Coke, just felt a little worn down and in need of some peace and quiet. Turns out, I wasn't the only one. Most of the folks had a morning where they just chilled out. :) Sometime around 1, Kaylee and I went with Nathan and Jamie to Ardy & Ed's to get lunch and a shake. When we got there, one of the vendor planes was sitting in the parking lot--it's an airplane that can drive around like a car, too. The news/press was there too, taking pictures of this thing. We ran into it again at a gas station shortly thereafter, but it was being towed, not driving on its own this time. Kind of weird to see an airplane driving around on the road like that.

Then the day got a lot busier! I took Kaylee and her camp friend Alisa out to the flight line to watch the warbird air show up close and personal. First up was "Tora, Tora, Tora!", a neat reenactment. The announcer had a lot of passion for the topic, and he went through the whole thing. The bombing of Pearl Harbor, our response, the Doolittle Raid and what it meant, and finally, the dropping of the bomb on Japan. The whole time he was unapologetic, respectful, and, well, patriotic is the only appropriate word. Watching the swarm of airplanes up close in a neatly choreographed pattern dogfighting, bombing, etc., along with this man's voice and the music, air raid sirens, etc., well, you don't get all that back at the camp. It was great. Next they had fly-bys of various airplanes from L-birds to trainers to fighters to bombers, talked about that, and then lit off the warbird show with a wall of fire. Two, actually, since they did a small one during Tora Tora Tora too. But the big one...Kaylee and Alisa ran for the front, and they got 3 rows away from the front, dead center, when the pyrotechnics lit off. KaBOOM! You can feel the heat smacking into you like a, well, wall of fire. ;)

We cleared out after that, as we didn't care about the wah wah airplanes (the aerobatic guys) as much. When we got back to camp, a police car with a large speaker on top came cruising by, with two guys dressed up like the Blue's Brothers in the back seat. They got out and I took pictures of Kaylee with them, and Doug. It was funny-they were advertising for the show they were doing tonight.

A group of 13 of us went out to Red Robin for dinner, and then came back just in time to go back up to the flight line in order to watch the night show up close and personal too. Two words: Love It. Or maybe one word: Awesomeness. Still one of the best things I've seen at an airshow. I tried to take pictures and was half successful. None of the pictures of airplanes turned out, but most of my pictures of fireworks did. My camera has a "fireworks" setting, and I'll be doggoned if it doesn't work REALLY well for that. But I tried it for airplanes with fireworks coming out of them after that since nothing else worked, and it didn't do any good. I cannot capture night shots of flaming airplanes for anything. But I really enjoyed the view, that's for sure. A Canadian skydiving team did some stuff I've never seen at an airshow before, doubling and tripling up and making shapes and forms and...I don't know how to describe it, but it was tricky and it was good. They did that at sunset. The Aeroshell Team is always a favorite of mine, but their night show is just great. They look like a big UFO out there en masse. The fireworks show is fantastic, all set to music of course, as is the rest of the show. Just really neat. When the last note faded, the mass exodus began.

I accidentally ended up staying up until 2:40 a.m. (3:40 our time!) around the camp fire with a couple of people. We didn't know how late it was, we were just finishing off the last of the firewood and letting it burn down and chatting...it's the last night at Oshkosh, the finale...

Day Seven

Man it was pretty today. Cool, breezy, sometimes you wanted long pants, sometimes you got a little warm, but all in balance, it was a really comfortable day to go do Oshkosh stuff. So off we went!

The first thing Kaylee and I did was go to the Women Venture Photo Shoot. Every year they take a photo of all the women pilots they can get together, all wearing the same color shirts, which change each year. This year was bright orange. I've never made it to a single photo shoot. First, honestly, I don't really care all that much. As I say, I'm not a "woman pilot", I'm a woman who is just a pilot. But secondly, I'd had other stuff to do the previous years, other than one year when I tried to go and they moved the photo shoot to an hour and a half earlier than it was originally scheduled, so I showed up too late. This year, I made it there, but they only had small shirts left. I don't wear a small shirt. I got one for Kaylee, which they allowed because she's flown and intends to fly, so she's a female student pilot. I got myself a shirt that I just held up in front of me for the picture. We were standing in front of FiFi, a sea of orange, lady pilots. As we were walking away, Kaylee said "Why don't they do a picture of all the pilots, not just the girl pilots?" She doesn't know why I laughed out loud, but I did. She said "It's nice that they do the girl pilots, I get that, but I feel kind of weird, like being a girl pilot is weird or something and that's why they single them out. I think they should to an "OSHKOSH pilot" photo." I told her they probably couldn't fit all the pilots together, even in Aeroshell Square, but I appreciated her thought process. ;)

Next we went shopping for our annual Oshkosh shirts. Usually I get "FLYING" shirts with warbirds on them. I try to avoid the ones that make me laugh, because I am a 40 year old woman who should not have quippy t-shirts. But this year I couldn't help it. I got one that said "I love the smell of AvGas in the morning", because, well, I say that. A lot. And I got another one that said "To Fly or Not to Fly. What a Silly Question!" Because that's how I feel. And then I got a red FLYING shirt with a warbird on it too. ;)

When we got back to camp, we took the car over to the Seaplane Base and had a good and highly expensive lunch. $30 for three of us and I brought my own drink. :O We sat and ate at a picnic table, watching the water and the clouds. It was a blustery day, high winds, but we always enjoy it over there. It's just...peaceful. A little oasis of calm in the middle of Oshkosh...

Tonight was "leftover" night. What this means is that whatever food is leftover after tomorrow goes in the trash, so all our leftovers from our camp meals were put out in one night and everyone tore into them. Steak, ribs, pork, burgers, dogs, mac and cheese, potato salad, all of it. We did a good job, polished off all but a few hot dogs of it, and tomorrow is eat out and don't generate more food day. :).

Most of us watched the show from the campers, and today there were pyrotechnics. The whole trailer shook and rattled as the "bombs" went off. Pretty great, but tomorrow we'll go out on the flight line and enjoy the big warbird show, then later the night show, up close and personal.

We had our fire tonight, and Kaylee and I went over to the movie theater in camp where I got to see "Redtails" for the first time. Seemed appropriate to see it under the stars at Oshkosh. I liked it. At one point there was a little romance going on, and Kaylee leaned over and whispered "I wish they'd get back to the planes!". Again with me laughing... ;). At the end though, she did lean over, look at me and say "You're not going to die in a plane like that, are you?". I told her that was not my plan, no, but none of us knows how/when our time here is done. But that I am no fighter pilot and I'm not flying in a war, so no, getting shot down is not high on my list of concerns, to which she laughed and said "yeah, I know, and there's really no GOOD way. Except if somebody tells a joke and you just start laughing and keel over.". Ah, kids. ;)

We were under a tent getting shirts today when something noisy took off. Kaylee said "That sounds like a Blue Angel jet.". When it got above the trees, I could see she was right. About five minutes later, an airplane blows by, and Kaylee, without looking up, says "And that's a Mustang, of course.". Yep. She recognizes T6s too, but that's about it as fat as I know. Still not a bad start, though. ;)

Well, tomorrow is our last day...it should be a good one, though. :)

Day Seven

Adventures in Oshkosh!

My clothes from last night were still wet this morning when I got up. The humidity is way too high these last two days! I got up and at 'em and headed into Warbird Headquarters for the T-6 safety forum. When you attend the safety forum, you get a certificate in the mail to give to your insurance company for a decent discount on your insurance rate for the next year, which is neat. This and last year's forum were good--the one two years ago was all maintenance, as will next year's be, which is a really, really, really mind-numbingly boring way for me to spend an hour and a half. I'm not a mechanic, I'm an operator, and the maintenance stuff they go over is not anything practical for an operator. Some maintenance stuff would be great, but this stuff...not so much. Anyway, this year was about how accidents in the community aren't caused by maintenance but by operations, which is true, and then went into practical ways to operate safely in various parameters and support others who were trying to make good, safe, solid decisions too. They also touched on how they can get new people into the fold, and I couldn't stop smirking, as I was sitting in a hole. Where I had sat down, nobody sat on either side of me, the one guy I borrowed a pen from was decidedly chilly and didn't say a word, and out of the group there, one man came up to say hello to me, one of the NATA guys I did already know. I just really enjoyed the irony of them talking about how the group was getting older and they needed to bring in new people, be mentors, how many of you are mentors to a new T-6 pilot etc., and there I am, I've been flying this airplane for four or five years now, and am just now building any kind of relationships in the community--and not a whole lot of it, yet. I told myself to sit there and shut up on ideas of how to bring in new blood, because what was coming out of the guy's mouth is obviously in opposition to how the group actually feels about newcomers. All you had to do was look at me sitting in the middle of a room yet by myself to see how friendly they were towards newcomers. ;) But hey, I got my insurance thingy met, and it was a good forum led by a good guy, and I still made my presence known again this year. Other than trying to give Nathan any kind of break on insurance I can, that's the next real reason I attend those each year. Yep, fellas, I'm still out here. ;)

I came back to camp by way of walking through warbirds and tram, and when I got back, Steve wanted to go see warbirds and do the tram. Everyone else was gone, Kaylee didn't want to go, so she stayed here with Zak, Jamie and Billy, and we went off. We found a warbird tram that does tours, and they slowly wound their way around all the various sections from L-birds to jets. We got about 2/3rds of the way through when it started raining out of nowhere. We huddled under the tram next to a building. Steve and I were in the middle of the seat, and the man and woman at either end got soaked. I got wet from a hole in the roof dripping and splashing onto my legs, and my rear got wet from the back of the seat. Steve stayed bone dry. We huddled there for awhile until the rain dissipated some, then finished the tour, and decided to go to Warbird Cafe which has since been renamed to Fightertown Cafe, meet up with the kids, and have lunch.

As we are sitting there, Zak says "look at that". I look off to the west, and it is almost black. Not good. We debate on running for it or not, but my vote was we wouldn't make it and to ride it out under the tent and stay dry. And then a wall of almost icy air hit us, followed by wind and rain that was so strong it took out the umbrellas at the cafe outside of the tent. People were sitting under there, and they were instantly soaked, huddling up. Within just a moment, the huge tent we were under started to collapse on us. We made the kids get under the table. The west wall of the tent collapsed in first and people started screaming "GET OUT! GET OUT!" Some folks ran for it, but we stayed under the tent. As the center poles started sagging, and some of the east wall started collapsing, a group of people ran for the giant poles holding up the tent. Groups of guys on each pole, keeping it in place. One guy took a big sign attached to a cemented tire and a pole, and swung that tire at the stakes, pounding them back into the ground where they had been pulled up. There was another guy holding the stake while this guy pounded a big sign onto it--trusting fellow to leave his hand there while another guy used a cement tire as a sledgehammer. Other folks grabbed chairs, signs, whatever they could, and started pushing the water off of the tent in a wave from back to front in order to stop the collapse. Steve went to help with one of the center poles, and I stayed by the kids, who were scared to death under the table. Kaylee was crying--later I found out she thought it was like the Indiana State Fair Sugarland concert stage collapse where people died. I told her she was safe under that table under a tent, and I wasn't going to let anything happen to her. We weren't in a wood and steel frame, but a tent, and we would be okay. Jamie started to call his mom, and I blocked that ASAP, telling him he'd just scare her to death and there's nothing she could do about it anyway. So I stayed down and made sure the kids stayed put and calm, while bit by bit the warbird guys, veterans, a lot of older folks worked at getting the tent back up and stable. As soon as it was, everybody started giving themselves a round of applause. If most people had just run from the tent, it would certainly have fully collapsed, on top of burning grills and other things and who knows how many people. As it was, nobody was hurt and the tent will be back and solid shortly.

When the worst of the rain passed, we walked back to the golf cart, which was all the way across the field. The reenactors area was hit really hard, tents and pop ups were down and twisted, umbrellas and signs were torn here and there, there was at least one row of Port-o-Pots knocked completely over (hope nobody was in there!), garbage bins knocked over with trash scattered, big forum signs encased in concrete knocked over, and worst of all, a little vintage plane was flipped upside down onto another little thunder mustang fighter replica airplane, damage unknown. A few minutes later the marines arrived in jets, and the show went on like nothing happened. But it was certainly quite the adventure we had here at Oshkosh this year, a first. Fortunately the ultralight area didn't get the high winds like the warbird area did, and fortunately the areas that did get high winds mostly had folks tied down really well. I don't think anyone was hurt, and I don't think any other airplanes were, either...

Happy Birthday to Chuck today! We called and sang to him en masse. It's the first year he hasn't been up here in...decades, I'd expect.

The Goodyear Blimp showed up for the first time this week today, and we'd missed seeing it circling around the campsite. We had burgers and brats and dogs for dinner, and may get to light our first real fire of the week shortly.

Quite a day!

Day Six

I'm typing this as everyone else is sleeping off an Ardie &Ed's big lunch complete with real ice cream milkshakes. We just sat in the car, air conditioning running today, look out over the water, and watch planes buzz over our heads on their short final for landing on Runway 27.

Today was Laundry Day. Kaylee was out of clean socks, and we can't have that. ;) We wouldn't HAVE to do laundry, but it also helps keep your trailer a bit fresher. Besides, for once, laundry is a nice break in the day. While it as going, I walked over to a nearby Dollar Store to pick up some stuff, including a cheap pair of flip flops since mine broke. I've been using Kaylee's second pair, and yes, they work for me too, but that's been driving her nuts. So today I was nice and spent a whole $4 on my own pair. The laundromat has great fast wifi, but I wasn't there long enough to do much. I thought about downloading my ForeFlight charts while I was there, but then I couldn't do anything else with my iPad the whole time, and it's not like I need them right now anyway, so I just caught up on a few other things instead.

It was steak night, and we had ribeye steaks, baked potatoes, bread and butter, salad, and all manner of good stuff. Ice cream and root beer floats for dessert, our fake fire, and lots of good company. At the end of the evening, a friend from the CAF stopped by to chat, and I gave him a golf cart ride back way to the other side of the campground up by the main road. He walked away, and I waited for traffic to subside, then went to turn around and go home...but the golf cart was dead as a doornail. I couldn't get it to go forward or reverse. I waited about 5 minutes, kept trying the golf cart, then came to the unpleasant realization that I was stuck. It was just supposed to be a quickie trip, so I hadn't brought my cell phone with me, and I also hadn't worn any shoes. I waylaid a stranger and asked to borrow his phone. I tried Steve first, and he didn't answer. I tried Nathan second, and he didn't answer. I didn't know anybody else's phone number memorized, so I had struck out there. I took the cart key and walked over to the bus stop, where I learned that there was going to be one more bus leaving to take me to the campground area somewhere at least close. As I was sitting on the bus stop bench, the skies opened up, and it started raining really hard. At this point I started laughing. A lot. I probably sounded like a crazy person, but the irony was just too much. ;) I hid under a wooden area for awhile, where I learned that the bus was delayed a lot because of a concert that was just letting out. Unfortunately I also had to pee before I left, so now I got to go into a port-o-pot BAREFOOT. Think about that one for a bit. Ick ick ick. Eventually the bus made it, and I got a ride to one of their stopping points, after which I walked, barefoot, in the rain, the rest of the way back to my camp site, arriving looking like a drowned rat, soaked all the way through.

One of the things I like about Oshkosh, we were all sitting there in our chairs, and a truck stopped and asked if we knew of a pop up for sale somewhere around there. The guys invited them over for a drink, and next thing we knew, we had two new visitors for several hours, sitting and talking. Here's to new friends. :)

Day Five

What a beautiful day--I'm so glad it cooled back off. Last night we all went to sleep to the sound of a cool, steady rain, which in these dry conditions didn't leave any kind of mud behind. Kaylee had a late night water gun fight, the girls went on a bike ride with these flashing LED lights on themselves and their bikes, and then Kaylee played cards with Zak, two of his college buddies, and Dave E. Kaylee actually held her own just fine there. ;) It had been kind of a tough day for a vacation, but the best part was in the evening when the good showers were temporarily closed down for some reason, so we went to the next ones and they were closed for cleaning, so we went to the third batch of showres, and these were the ones that had made my decision to never take a shower at Oshkosh so easy. These had no benches, nowhere to put your stuff, just hooks at the far end, so you're supposed to get naked in the main room with everybody and walk down to your shower, which is so tiny that your elbows touch each side of the curtains when you're standing in it, there are no walls, just curtains, so you can see everybody around you showering, and there's not room to stand, let alone dry off or get dressed or anything else in private. We went after midnight so I cheated, and just moved the curtains to the next place too so I had two "rooms". But it was still hard to keep clothes dry flung over the top of the shower and getting dressed and I didn't need to see the lady behind me showering when the curtain moved and I don't need her seeing me, either. So...no. It was a long, hot, sweaty day, so a shower was a must, but from now on, if that's the only available shower, I will stay in the trailer shower. We're not in the Army, man, those are most uncivilized quarters. ;)

But today did dawn beautifully, and everyone hit the grounds running. I ran folks to their various activities, then Kaylee and I went to a Ford display, where they have a Ferris wheel set up, of all things. We rode on that, and it's not huge, but you got a pretty good view of the grounds from up there, which was kind of neat. But then we hit their other Ford display where they have this bungee launching thing. You get harnessed up, then they stretch you out with giant rubber bands, and cut you loose, to go shooting up, pretty darned high, really. Kaylee wanted to do that, so after about a 40 minute wait in line, she got her chance. I got some pictures, I think, so hopefully they turned out, because that was funny. It tore a little shriek out of her in surprise, but she loved it. She can go any time this week, free, now that I signed the paperwork and gave permission and she got a wristband. Another wristband. ;) We walked on and went shopping, where she got a little backpack she can use while riding around on her bike. We started to get lunch, but at $3 per bottle of water and $4 per piece of old pizza, I not only didn't have enough cash on me, I couldn't justify it with all the food back at the campsite. So we got one very expensive bottle of water to split for the long walk home, and we just walked and talked and had a nice mother/daughter morning.

We were close to "home" when Kaylee said "This is where we ride our bikes. But yesterday I tried to turn too sharply on this gravel, and my back tire slid and spun me around. I groundlooped my bike, man." Made me laugh...

We went to Wendt's by the Lake tonight as a group of about 18, had way too much food, enjoyed a sunset on the lake in view of Warbird Island, and are sitting in a circle watching the powered parachutes at sunset. :)

Day Four

Today was the official launch of Air Venture, and it was hotter than nobody's business. I heard 97 degrees, and I heard 102 degrees. I don't know which is true, but it was lousy hot. Fortunately there was a good wind, and if you were in the shade with that breeze, it wasn't so bad. I woke up with a headache so bad I was about to throw up. It took awhile to kick, and left me feeling weak so I missed most of breakfast, my stomach didn't feel good after all the medicine, but finally I was human, so we went out and walked in the heat for quite awhile. We went down and saw all the Cubs that had flown in, at least 75 of them all lined up in a row, which is a pretty cool sight. We hit the ultralight field and enjoyed watching some of them fly, including a black Kitfox that could take off and land like an Alaskan Bush plane. We wandered through some of the vendors, where I bought an excellent EAA flopy hat, enjoyed the "Rise Above" movie in air conditioned comfort in their trailer, saw a couple of folks we know, and had a nice ice cold Diet Pepsi that may be the best drink I've tasted in awhile. The guys wanted to go through the hangars and vendors, and I was feeling pukey again, so I came back to the trailer to try to recuperate. The generator was out of gas so I had no air, so I fixed that, then laid down for awhile, and it took awhile to cool off.

The airshow today kicked off with the Aeroshell team, and we sat and watched back at the camper. I won't watch all of the air show every day, but there are definitely parts I don't get tired of watching.

We had BBQ pork tenderloins, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, bread, all sorts of good stuff for dinner. There's a burn ban in Wisconsin too, so we haven't been able to have a camp fire. Steve fixed that by putting real wood in the fire pit, and putting some chili lights down in there. It looked like a real fire glow, and we all sat around in a circle and enjoyed it. ;)

The rest of the week is supposed to be cooler, and it's looking good, as we already hit a fair amount of stuff we wanted to today, and it's just Monday!

Day Three

We woke up this morning in perfect time for an early manly man's breakfast. It was bordering on hot and muggy up here today, but not unbearable. I watched the RV and T-6 mass arrivals come in, and looked around a bit on the line as I dropped a guy off. I could still get past the gate by bluffing my way in, but this time on the way in I was stopped, and they told me to get my wrist bands for the week. Nathan and I went and did that, and all of us are now banded up and ready to go for the first official day of Oshkosh 2012. We had Philly Cheesesteaks for dinner, and bananas foster for dessert, back at the camp site, and we mostly went our own ways and did our own things today. Kaylee found a new friend named Alyssa just down the row from us, and all is well in her world. She ran off for awhile, disappeared in the campground to go play for a few hours. I still really like that we can do that with her here. She, Jamie and Nathan tried to fly the Mustang kite today, but there just wasn't enough wind to successfully launch it. Doug (Opie) made it in today, and Hollywood, Dawn & Charlie are here, Ty and Walt stop by each day, and we're having a nice little gathering of friends. :) It's supposed to be unpleasanty hot the next two days, in the mid-90s, and then it drops down and becomes beautiful the rest of the week. Supposedly. We shall see. Kaylee ht the Fly Market today, as did Steve, and the adventure really started to begin today. We even played Euchre. It's an Indiana thing. ;)

I'm glad to be here. Sometimes I kind of wish I could be flying on some of these beautiful evenings, and other times I'm glad I just don't have to worry about it. Maybe a little bit of both feelings. It's nice to not have to worry about a few things though, like the storms that will roll through, like buttoning up the airplane each night, like rain on the radios, like some of the tension of an Oshkosh pre or post show formation flight, etc. It's more of a vacation this way. And yet, one of these years I'll do more. And after I've done more, I'll probably go back to doing it this way again. By choice. And that'll be even better. ;)

Day Two

Per usual, for some unexplicable reason I was awake before 6 a.m. I didn't get up until 6:45, but I was awake well before then, trying to pretend not to be. But I heard people laughing and talking, and the sun was shining in, and eventually I gave up, got up, and ate a big ole chocolate chip pancake with bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, and OJ. Hello, Oshkosh. ;)

The kids ran wild, the adults did whatever they wanted, a few of us went out to watch the Bonanza mass formation arrival on the flight line today and look around, I played a game of KEMPS (and lost), a college card came, we sat around and talked about the hazards of tailwheel instruction with a couple of friends, went to the shower house sometime around 11 p.m., and everyone's ready for bed by 11:30. We don't usually go to sleep that early, but we also aren't usually up at a time frame that has a "6" as the first number. Other than this place, where you can't seem to help it, like it or not...

It was good driving around, seeing the city build up around us, watching the display planes come in and land, and just having a nice time. It was a nice weather day, and all in all, Day Two was quite pleasant. Kaylee is still looking for a friend to hang out with, but she and Jamie did run into a kid named Billy that they played with last year. Funny how that works. They're off and running. Meanwhile we have a couple of Oshkosh Newbies at our campsite who are already overwhelmed and Oshkosh hasn't actually started yet. This should be fun. ;)

Day One

We arrived at Oshkosh around 2:30 p.m., after an uneentful drive. Nathan, Jamie, Steve, Kaylee and I all rode up together. Traffic wasn't bad, construction wasn't bad, all in all a pretty easy trip. We arrived to find our campsite all set up, trailers set up, most of our stuff sitting on a table waiting for us, banner up on the tent, and a couple of hard-working friends to welcome us in. The kids settled in right away, and of course hit the hill first thing. We relaxed for awhile, then decided to go for it and hit Kodiak Jack's for our first night in town. And then the horror set in. Kodiak Jack's is not serving crab legs this season, because their sellers doubled the price of crab. NO CRAB LEGS. It was a tragedy. Kaylee pouted at the table, and got in trouble for making a big deal out of it, but frankly, we all felt the same way. However, the night was saved with steak and lobster and calamari and jumbo shrimp and stuffed mushrooms and.... Even Kaylee got a filet dinner. After she ordered, the waitress paused and said "Very nice job ordering, that was very adult of you." Kaylee always orders, so she was surprised by the compliment, but it was nice.

The campground is already filling up fast. We have a good view, can actually see the main tower from here, and are close enough up on the hill to see the airplanes from the campsite nicely too. Should be a good airshow spot. The weather was gorgeous today, cool and sunny and comfortable tonight. We listened to the tower frequencies while sitting in lawn chairs and having a beverage, and as we hear the tower say to everyone, every year, "Welcome to Oshkosh!"

Life

My day was scheduled full of students, but the beautiful rain we had all day took out all but one of them. This gave me time to do a few last-minute things I needed to work on anyway. The last flight of my day was in the Cub, and we were just out in the pattern. As the student, who is real close to solo, concentrated on the landings, I just kept watching the storm. When it got as close as I wanted it, we made it a full stop landing. Only a half hour of flying, but it was worthwhile, to give a student on a different day in different conditions a chance to make sure they're still "getting" that whole flare and landing thing.

As I posted elsewhere:
"Redbird Flight Simulations has come up with a realistic, full-motion, Cub simulator. The sophisticated, computer-controlled, electronic box with a 180-degree wrap-around view mimics the low-tech Cub's flight." You could spend money on that, sitting in a building with fluorescent lighting somewhere. Or...hmmm...you could just go up in a...I know, an actual Cub. Over the fields. Low and slow. Open door. Breeze on your face. $80/hr. Just sayin'. A Cub simulator. A simulator to simulate a stick and rudder "seat of the pants" airplane. A sophisticated, computer-controlled, electronic...Cub. What will they come up with next? That's just wrong.

The rain today was great. Kaylee slept like a rock to the sound of the rain, and I could have. The ground was thankful, and there was even a rainbow afterwards. Here's hoping we get lots more rain while I'm gone anyway. ;)

Kaylee was really clingy yesterday, wanting to touch me, be on my lap, constantly be just on me. So I said "Hey Fred, what's your deal?" She sighed and said "I don't know, Mommy, I guess my Cuddle Meter is low." Awww!

Packing Rain

Packing for Oshkosh has begun in earnest. The campsite is up, the trailers will arrive tomorrow, our bags here are filling, and we are working on some loose ends before we leave.

I was supposed to take the T-6 over to Muncie today for something, and when I woke up I thought it would be fine. Within 30 minutes I saw a bunch of storms popping up and the forecast changed for the worse. So I canceled the flight, only to have every bit of weather clear right off, making it a perfectly fine day until about 5 p.m. Figured. We did get a little rain, however, which I'm sure some folks will appreciate. I think I saw on the news that we're now a disaster area for drought. As little as it rained, it won't be enough to do anything, but it's better than nothing.

Ants attacked in Kaylee's room last night, so today I got some more of that stuff that took them out in our kitchen, and they are busy swarming it in there right now. Eat up, you nasty little buggars. By the time we get back from Oshkosh, they should be long dead. They still haven't made it back to our kitchen, even if we leave food out. Kaylee had a mug of hot chocolate in her room, and some cough drops, and they found those. *sigh* But, this ought to take care of it...

I was re-reading my blog from 2009 and 2010 trying to find which year had the Presidential TFR right at Oshkosh time (I can't believe it's been 3 years already!!), and I decided that I have gotten really boring this year. Ah well, I'll have to try to do something about that. ;)

Marching On

Our Advance Crew is up at Oshkosh as I type this. :) Camping spots are being staked out, trailer slots are being planned, and things are coming together. I haven't gotten excited yet because I've been too hot/busy/tired/sweaty/didIsaybusy, but...I'm getting there. I got the first tingle of excitement hearing the guys up there talking about the camp space and the storm moving through. UNfortunately it looks like it's going to be hot and stormy up there. I don't enjoy hot, but the stormy part at least makes me glad for sure that the T-6 won't be sitting out in it.

My Cub flight was canceled due to a maintenance problem this morning, so for the first time in a very long time, I didn't have a flight during a weekday. It was kind of a nice break, although bad timing for the student who is close to solo and now will have to take a 2 week break.

Instead I did boring, mundane things like the BMV and the store and paperwork and emails and billing and banking. Kaylee started packing for Oshkosh, and I got a few things at the store for packing myself. Are we there yet? ;)

Sizzle

Kaylee has spent the time since back from camp sleeping in, staying up late, reading, playing on the computer, messing with her cats, and goofing off. Heavy duty. Maybe I should have her enrolled in five different types of kid functions, but she's busy enough most of the time that I don't think it's so bad to have a few days of just bumming around and doing what you want. Isn't that half the fun of being a kid? Not having to worry about schedules and appointments? I remember reading a stack of a dozen books over a couple of days in the summer, getting up just long enough to get more food, reading Agatha Christie and scaring myself so badly I wouldn't get off the couch for hours one time. Anyway, we leave in a few days for Oshkosh, so she'll get plenty of exercise and Great Outdoors there. :)

What's in the news the most lately is The Drought. We are breaking records left and right. Heat records, and of course drought records. We've had less rain than any time prior to 1908. Lawns are brown to full out dead, crops are struggling, there are water bans in effect all over to conserve city water, with $500 fines for folks who ignore it, local reservoirs and lakes are closed due to low water levels, etc. The only effect it's had on us personally so far is that the guys haven't had to mow the runway nearly as much, and I haven't had to cancel a student in...gosh, ages. But the heat and humidity--this week the temps have gone back up, but the humidity is worse than it was a couple weeks ago when we had the 104 temp terror. The humidity makes it worse. My sunglasses fogged over when I got out of my car this morning to start my flying day at 9 a.m.

I was scheduled from 9-11 a.m., 1-3, 5-7 and 7-9 p.m. The 1-3 canceled, the rest didn't, so it was still a busy day, all in the Cub, all in the pattern. I also ended up taking the Cub myself over to Kokomo to get some fuel and so that Jon could grease up my tailwheel, as it wouldn't kick out; well, I'm sure it would if you built up enough steam first, but that's not a good plan... Anyway, I rarely fly the Cub from the back seat, and I found it downright roomy back there, and I could stretch my feet out and everything. ;)

I had one of the kids I was flying with today hand prop the plane for his first time. I could say that I taught him that today because after 5 hours of flight time I figured it was time he learned how to start the plane. Or I could say that it's because if I get in the front seat first, I can get in with a minimal amount of fuss, but if I have to get in last, I sometimes get stuck in awkward positions. Whichever answer you prefer is fine, because both are true. ;)

Back to dead lawns. Our lawn is used to fending for itself. It doesn't get pampered and watered. As such, so far it's actually not doing too bad. But one guy made it on the news after he painted his lawn back to green. The lawn next to his is as brown as straw, totally dead, as was his, so yep, he painted his lawn green. Made me laugh, anyway...

Welcome Chuck and Judy to your new home, taking possession today, living on the airport, and starting the mooooooving in process. Congratulations!! We're excited for you!

Kokomo Air Show 2012 Video

Cool! :)

Day of Unrest?

That sounds like a vampire movie or something, though!

Usually Sunday is our day of rest, but today wasn't restful for anybody but Kaylee. At least she had a nice day off though. :)

Steve woke up early and went out to Kokomo, where he and two others started packing the big trailer going to Oshkosh. It's 6:20 p.m. and he just now got home; he's been working hard all day outside where it's good and hot and muggy. He said they packed that trailer for over 8 hours with only one small break. Eight hours to get everything in properly, securely, etc. Yikes.

I got up not as early and went out to Glenndale for a flight lesson in the pattern in the Champ for two hours. Also hot and muggy, but I get a breeze with the window open. :) Then it was time to come home and take a bulldozer to the house. Laundry had piled up, dishes had piled up, clutter had piled up. So I've been working on that ever since lunch. I've at least got a good dent in it, and things are looking much better!

Talking to the Yak formation leader, he told me I ought to fly up to Oshkosh because they go fly once to twice a day, morning and evening, formation stuff, and I could join them. Unfortunately it's a whole lotta gas to get up there and back, plus having to worry about it during the storms that always blow up, plus having that water/radio issue. So I paused at that, because I know they actually DO go fly a lot, and a week or so of straight flying every day would more than finish me up per what he said; but based on the above, I told him not this year, but I hoped to maybe fly it up next year.

By the way, that reminds me. We just had three of us flying around for the trainer section of the Sheridan airshow, the other two had smoke and I was #2. As the #1 T-6 would pop smoke on and fly around, I'd fly through it, and I had to laugh, because there's something else I can add to the list of oddities of Laura. I really like the smell of smoke oil. Smoke oil and 100LL. I'd get a big whiff (of the oil, not the fuel, which would probably not be a good thing to smell while up flying around) flying through it and find myself smiling. Hey, I'm easy to please sometimes! :)

Happy 65th to Nathan today--older than dirt but still young enough to git r done. :)

It was also a good day to sit down and order some stuff for SMA Support and get some of that taken care of. I took our Oshkosh bedding and put it in big plastic bags and took them out to the airport along with lunch for the guys working out there. It's just now time for me to finish up two last loads of laundry, run one more load of dishes, then maybe kick back a bit before tomorrow, when I'm scheduled off an on from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., four students doing pattern work, three of them in the Cub. Yikes! :)

Best Laid Plans

Not much gets me up at 4:45 a.m., and when my alarm went off this morning, I wasn't sure if flying was going to cut it this time either. The weather was iffy where I was going, it was still dark out, and I was really, really sleepy. The thought of pulling out a bunch of airplanes, meeting up with two other airplanes, flying to Ohio in formation, then worrying about the weather and getting home and not getting the Six wet the whole time just didn't appeal. I almost canceled, but I need the flights, and I'd just deal with the weather as it came, even if it meant I just flew locally and didn't go to Ohio. So before the sun was up, I'd pulled out the 340, pulled out the Cheyenne, pulled out the T-6, put the Cheyenne back in, put the 340 back in, locked everything up, checked my email and texts one last time just in case of a weather cancel, then launched, right exactly on time.

The plan was for me to meet a Yak and an RV in the air over Portland, on a certain frequency at a certain altitude at a certain time. I was about five minutes early, and I was wondering why I didn't hear anybody calling in on the frequency yet. I circled around out of the way for a few minutes, and I got a bad feeling. I'd kept my phone up front with me (I often put it in the baggage compartment in my purse), so I pulled it out and looked, and I had no texts. On a whim, I checked my email, and there I had a message from the Yak telling me he couldn't find my phone number, but that he thought maybe we'd go to Sheridan instead due to weather. The email was sent at 7:05...well after I'd had to leave in order to be at Portland by 7:20. Fortunately technology won the day. I sent an email back, from 3500', then sent a text. Plans were rearranged, and I flew over to Huntington to meet up with them there. Thank goodness I was able to check my phone, that I had a smart phone that could get email, or I'd have just circled there until I gave up and went home--angry. ;) Instead, it worked out just fine. We did a 3-ship flight with me as #3, then came in to do a few passes and land at Sheridan. A small break later, two Yaks, an RV and I took back off for some four-ship practice, with me as #4. We hit every possible formation hand signal, radio call and position. More passes at Sheridan at the end, then in to land just in time to hit the airshow briefing. Good flights, lasted about an hour each, went well, and I got to do several things I'd not done yet but needed to. I kind of like being #4. It's more work, but the view is good. :)

The Yaks decided to stay for the airshow too, so we had a couple of L-birds up doing one set of circuits, we had two T-6s and a BT-13 doing our trainer circuits, then the Yaks did a formation circuit above. Rain kept threatening, but it kept missing us, so the show went on. After the warbirds were done, we all left and split up our own ways. The Yaks went north, the other T-6 went south, and I went back to Kokomo to do the airplane shuffle again.

I am surprisingly tired for sitting down most of the day in an airplane, but it was a productive day for me. Steve was Air Boss for Sheridan. The turnout was pretty light this year on cars, planes and people, but I think the weather forecast kept some folks home, but it was a good day...

We ended up hitting Outback for a post-airshow wind down with a few folks, after which Steve came home and fell asleep, Kaylee still goes on like an energizer bunny, and I'm trying to figure out how to stop tensing up my leg muscles so much that my whole lower body hurts after just a few hours of formation. I'll be ready for bed tonight too. :)

Reverse

The irony in today is that unlike the last two times we went to get Kaylee from camp or take her there, when the weather was forecasting clear, and it ended up storming like crazy, this time the weather was forecasting storms, so I made plans to drive, and then it was clear. I drove anyway, because I figured about the time I launched to fly, the weather would move in like it did the last time, and because I already had a carpooling date. Naturally the weather stayed perfectly clear, alllll day long, but that's okay-we had another kind of adventure. It was a nice and easy ride down there, about an hour for me to get to Noblesville, then a little under two hours to get to camp from there. Once we got to camp, we picked up the girls' bags, then checked out and got a green tag to give to the counselors, hit the Lost & Found to look for anything familiar, and at one point we ran into Kaylee & Maggie. I went up to Kaylee and she stood there stiffly, and I kissed her cheek and asked how she was doing, and she whispered "I'm not supposed to talk to you." So we backed away carefully, went to the amphitheater, and waited for the Big Rally to occur.

The Big Rally was fun, they did a lot of camp songs, had a band from Cedarville University (where I went to my year of Bible college), did a good drama skit, had a few testimonies from the kids, then went over some stuff from the week. The kids then went to their separate areas and we were finally allowed to go collect them. The girls had to stop at the camp store and buy one more thing, where the line was all the way out the door, but they were happy. Kaylee looked hot and wiped out, but as soon as she and Maggie got in the car, they spent the next several hours singing the same camp songs over and over and over. And most camp songs are by nature repetitive individually, too. Ally and I decided we might need to stop for some sort of brain killer soon. ;) Driving home was a bit more of an adventure, and not just because of the non-stop camp songs from the hyped-up twins. There was an accident that slowed traffic down, it was Friday afternoon which meant lots of traffic, and there was construction on the highways too, causing even more slowdowns. At several points we were stopped, or barely crawling along, for miles, and miles. It was a pretty long drive, and I made sure not to think about the 40 minute flight it would have been or look at the blue skies above me. ;) I think the girls enjoyed having each other as company anyway. We stopped to eat at a Culvers, only to find it packed out with campers and counselors. Who knew it was a popular post-camp stop! It took us a long time to get back to Noblesville, but we eventually made it, and then Kaylee and I wandered on back to Kokomo.

She did have a good time. Something I found also ironic is that she said there were so many activities to do that they were never still, always walking from one thing to the next thing to the next thing. She did something called the "Gusher", which is a giant water slide, and horse riding, and the "Blob", whatever that is. The one thing she was really bummed about was that she was in line to do the big zip line, and they decided to shut it down an hour early, and she didn't get to go. She also didn't get to do the "Solo Challenge", where you climb a telephone poll, stand on top of it, jump off while reaching for a trapeze bar swinging your way, then let go of the trapeze bar and fall to a net. She was going to do it. I was very impressed. But the counselor said they were running out of time to do those two events today, and a lot of kids didn't get to do them. Kaylee was really upset, as she'd been looking forward to that zip line all week. But, se la ve, such is life! One other thing I found interesting is the the kids all had to take showers at an outside, side by side facility, wearing swim suits, in a public place. I wouldn't have much cared for that one, myself. She's taking a long, hot shower tonight. ;) But she got to do a ton of cool stuff, made some friends, loved her counselors, and had a great week all in all. I took a few pictures today, and with an assist got some photos off the camp website, so I'll get those up at some point, hopefully before we leave for Oshkosh...welcome home, Kay!

Tomorrow I'm doing something crazy. I'm getting up at an inhuman hour so that I can be in Portland, Indiana by 7:20 a.m. I have to pull out the Cheyenne, probably the 340, pull out the T-6, then put everything else back away, alone, and be off the ground at Kokomo in the T-6 no later than 6:45 a.m. to meet up with two other guys in the air over Portland, to head over to Ohio together. The things I'm willing to do for formation! This is pushing even me, though. Like I want to be moving expensive and tightly packed airplanes around at 5:30 a.m. by myself. I'm SO awake and cheerful at that hour, you know. ;) At least I'll have time to wake up before getting really close to other airplanes in the air. ;) The weather seems to be better than it was supposed to be, even for tomorrow, so we shall see. But as of now, it looks like Wright-Patterson, here we come.

Thursday

Two hours in the pattern in the Champ this morning. I've been doing a whole lot of pattern work lately-it goes in cycles like that. Monday I've got about eight hours of pattern work scheduled now, almost all Flying Squirrels. It's very rewarding when the kids break through and start nailing this landing thing. :)

Only one more picture of Kaylee from the week, and it's another group cabin shot. They posted 105 photos of the kids from her group, there were 3-4 pictures each of several of the kids, and none of her except one group shot at the end. I'd almost wonder if she's hiding from the camera. :) Tomorrow I go down and get her, and I'm looking forward to seeing her and hearing all the good camp stories!

Well, I didn't get much done the whole time Kaylee was gone to camp except flight instructing, errands and billing. That's a bit drab, but we certainly have been and are about to be plenty busy with other things, all the way through to school starting in a month. :O Ack. Anyway, this Saturday alone was an air show in Ft. Wayne to participate in, an airshow at Sheridan to go support, and the formation practice in Ohio, which is the one I was going to go to. Except now it's probably going to rain, which means if I'm lucky I can make it to Sheridan by plane, and if unlucky, drive down. Then we pack...for Oshkosh. That'll keep us occupied for awhile. ;)

Hump Day

Almost two hours in the Cub today, more crosswind takeoffs and landings. It was pretty bumpy out there today too, with some odd wind currents at the tree line. That's a long time for a student to work on one task, and for me just to keep the airplane somewhere on the actual runway, for that matter. ;) Ty was up for a little while today in the Luscombe, and he commented at lunch how it must have been an interesting day for the Cub. When I said we were in it for two hours doing take offs and landings, I got an eyebrow raise. It wasn't *that* bad, but I admit I was ready for a break, and maybe a nap...

My Saturday plans are looking iffy. All of ours are, actually. Steve is airboss for the Sheridan Airshow, and I was going to head to Ohio and get formation flying in. The weather is now forecasting a 40% chance of storms on Saturday both here and there, which could be an issue for everything going on that day. Urgh.

Kaylee's camp finally posted five pages of photos. There aren't any of her, except one distant one where you can see part of her head, but at least they posted pictures of the kids having fun, so you know they're still down there. ;)

Back at it...

Routine

It was a good morning to practice light crosswinds in the Cub, so that's what my student and I did for an hour and a half today, along with a falling leaf stall series, some ground reference maneuvers, and a landing over the trees at Indian Hills. Them trees are just getting taller all the time. ;)

Kaylee's camp is not doing a very good job of keeping parents up to date. They put up two photos from Monday, one each of a girl (neither Kaylee), from the whole cabin for the whole day. No blog update, no nothing since the campers have arrived. Not real impressive there, a little irritating. Yes, I know back in my day kids just disappeared for a week and parents didn't know or probably want to know a thing, but these days camps put up photos each day, do a Facebook entry on some activities, Facebook photos, blog entries daily, etc., and the kids have been there for 3 days now with no updates. Not cool, man. Not that I'm worried about her, I'm sure she's fine. I just like to see pictures and see what's going on, like most other parents out there with campers. :)

The rest of the day was pretty routine. Paperwork, errands, dinner with a friend, answering emails, yadda yadda!

Break

The heat finally broke today--well, sort of. When it's 88 degrees and you feel like it's downright cool outside, that tells you something has been very wrong for awhile. But that's exactly what happened. I thought it was cool outside and then happened to look at the temp and see 88 degrees. That's about 16 degrees cooler than some of these other days have been. Crazy.

I had two flights, one in the 172 and one in the Champ. Unfortunately, at some point during the day I had run over a giant screw, and now had a flat rear left tire. Chuck put some air in it for me, we all went to lunch, then Steve dropped it off at a discount tire place, who fixed it completely free of charge, even though we'd never bought anything from there before and were not buying anything today. I thought that was a mighty fine customer service plan on their part.

We finally finished up June's billing today, nine days into the next month, but at least it's done.

Kaylee's camp, like her last camp, puts up pictures of the campers that parents and approved friends/family can look at. UNlike her other camp, they put a giant stamp across the whole photo, don't let you save them off, and charge you $3.00 PER PHOTO if you want to buy them. Well, now, that just honks me off. After what it costs to go to that camp, that doesn't make me real happy to get ripped off on photos. However, I did see two photos of her so far, both with her cabin-mates. In one they are all making goofy faces and she's doing that silly chipmunk face she makes, and in the other they are all smiling nicely. Those photos went up Sunday, and they haven't done any today...she looked happy on Sunday, when she first got there, anyway. :)

Jinx

Here in central Indiana we are in the midst of a several month drought, correct? In the last month or two there have been exactly two times that storms have blown up out of nowhere. Did that happen on a day when a poor CFI could use a break? Nope. How about in the evening hours to break the heat? Of course not. No, one happened when we were trying to get Kaylee home from camp in Ohio, and it came up unexpectedly and caused us to be hours late to pick her up. The second? That happened today, when we were trying to get her to her second week of summer camp. We did not end up late, but it was still a bit of an adventure. Kaylee sat up front with me and I put some music on, while watching the storm scope light up and the Nexrad display some unpleasant things down where we were going. The weather was ugly enough, and aimed for the airport we were going to, that Steve and I came up with a plan. When we landed, he would take Kaylee in the truck and get her to camp, registered, etc., and me, I was going to re-launch in the airplane and get it out of there. There was no hangar space available, and the storm cell was big, hot pink, lots of convective activity, and a strong enough potential for big winds and hail that we couldn't leave the airplane sitting out on the ramp in that. So that's exactly what we did. I had to deviate around a bit to get there, and once we landed, I didn't have a lot of time. So I did my hugs and kisses and goodbyes, then beat it out of there ahead of the weather, went to an airport to the north that was clear of everything, tied the plane down like Fort Knox, got a hangar set up there just in case Ugly got too close, and then hunkered down to wait out the weather down where Steve was. It shouldn't take long to move through, after all. Right. It started dissipating, and then all of a sudden it was back, not as strong, but still lightning strikes, rain, convective activity.

The FBO I was at had a restaurant, but it closed 30 minutes before I got there, so I ate a bag of chips and a candy bar for lunch, something I'm sort of used to by now. ;) But the line guy there, he was a little short on brain cells. We had a misunderstanding on a rental car, and on the hangar, which I helped him overcome, and he thought that a couple of rain showers off in the distance were tornadoes, and then he let me know that at 7 p.m. he was going to lock up and leave and I'd have to leave too. I could have argued that fairly effectively, but luckily for him, I was planning to leave one way or the other around then anyway, because I didn't want to try to pick through the weather in the dark. So either I was going to be able to get in to get Steve, or I was just going to get out and head home and Steve would have to hunker down where he was until I could get back down tomorrow. A bit later, the radar still didn't look great, but all the weather was now reporting good solid VFR, and radar was better anyway, and very little convective activity showing, so I took off on a look mission to determine if I could safely grab Steve or not. I could, I texted him from the air that I was coming, it was fine, he hopped in, we flew home, and we were in the complete clear in less than 20 minutes. It would have been a six hour round trip drive, was instead about a one hour round trip flight, plus a couple hours of waiting on the ground. We still came out ahead, but man, Mother Nature needs to give us a break! Rain tomorrow morning, or any morning this week for that matter, why don't you, so I can sleep in and not go fly the Cub! Then on Friday, be nice so I can pick up my daughter without hassle for once. That would be great. ;)

Meanwhile, Kaylee is off at a new camp with no idea of the drama to get her there, and it's a big camp, too! 750 acres of land or so, a huge lake with one of those inflatable things on it you can sit on, someone else can jump on it from a big ladder thing and throw people way up into the air then the water, they have buses taking the kids to their cabins because it's too far to walk, etc. Way bigger than the one she just came from. I hope she has fun, gets to experience new things, make friends, enjoy having her friend Maggie there, and just have a great week.

When Steve and I got back, we went out for a steak dinner. It's back to quiet in the house, but mostly we're so busy, I know from last time that the week flies by! I look forward to seeing some pictures from camp and hopefully hearing what a great time she's having. :)

Colonel

How do they get the pronunciation of "Kernal" out of "Colonel"? There isn't even an "r" in there at all.

This morning was a CAF (Commemorative Air Force) meeting at Sheridan Airport. I was going to try to make it, and I was going to fly into it; then I wasn't going to make it at all; then I decided to make it, about an hour late, but drive down, because it was 104 degrees today, and the thought of getting an airplane in and out of the hangar was way more effort than I wanted to put out in those kinds of temps. So, bottom line, I agreed to join up the CAF today, and be an instructor for their two airplanes, an L-2 and a PT-26. My first victim/student is waiting in the wings for the PT-26, whenever I get officially checked out and approved as an instructor. Anybody know anything about a PT-26? ;)

Everybody who joins the CAF (which used to be called the Confederate Air Force but was changed due to political correctness, which rubs me the wrong way) is given the title of "Colonel". Some people in the CAF take this a little too seriously, and end up offending real military personnel by doing dumb things like wanting to be saluted/recognized by the real guys. Like every organization you have your Tools and your Wannabes and your guys with more money and self-importance than common sense or ability. But there are good guys too, and the local guys I've met are for the most part good guys who need a little help. Furthermore there aren't a lot of organizations out there that are actively working to keep historic airplanes flying. The CAF does, all around the country. Not perfect, and don't worry, I haven't drank (drunk?) the Kool-Aid, but I don't mind donating some of my time to teach for the local group for now. As long as I don't have to tuck in my shirt, wear a uniform, refer to myself as Colonel Stants, or salute anybody, we'll get along just fine. ;)

Meanwhile, Kaylee spent today packing up her bags for camp, and as of tonight she's all ready to go. She'll be with her friend Maggie this time, and hopefully the girls will enjoy themselves even though it's going to be hot. This camp looks like it's a lot bigger than the last one she went to, and I guess we'll see how it goes!

I spent some time this evening cleaning up computer/photo files and getting caught up on photos on my websites. So, on Kaylee's site I put up the pictures they took of her at her first week of camp. I added some photos to the Indy Airshow page, a few Young Eagles photos, a page of Holiday World pictures, and a few from the car parade and Mummies concert. NOW I think I'm caught up. :)

Steamed

Today will be a balmy 103 or so, without heat index factored in, and no breeze. It's nuts when it is 15-20 degrees cooler in Las Vegas, and in Miami, then it is in Indiana. Nuts. So I flew for 1.5 in the Cub with a student who is on the downhill slope towards soloing. When we got down, my shirt was soaked, which is disgusting, and Chuck had an extra one, so I got to change. I need to remember to bring my own extra shirt from now on. The plastic seat combined with 100 degree heat index with plenty of humidity and staying perpetually low, slow and hot, is just not a pretty thing.

Mom & Ernie bugged out this morning, I kept working on billing, and tomorrow is Kaylee's last day here for a week, as she packs up and gets ready for Camp, Round II.

The heat index hit something like 112 today, so it was a good day to take Kaylee and go watch "Brave" in the theater. When the lights came up, I turned around and saw a bunch of moms and daughters there, and many of the moms I saw were all wiping their eyes. The kids enjoyed the movie, as did Kaylee, who just said "That was the best movie I've ever seen", and the moms were touched by it. I am coming to enjoy the Princesses they are coming out with these days. I enjoyed when these three goobers were shooting arrows (badly) at three targets to see who would win her (unwilling) hand in marriage, and she threw off her fancy headgear, ripped her tightly corseted fancy dress, and said "I am the first born of the clan xx and I will be shooting for my OWN hand" and went down the line and nailed all the targets. ;) But the movie was more about mother/daughter relationships, about selfishness and consequences, growing apart, sacrifice and redemption and love along with a fiery, brave princess, fighting for herself and then her mom. Pixar did a nice job. :)

Brief

I had my morning flight in the Champ w/Leslie today, for about 1.5, take offs and landings. It was the first time back in a couple of months, so it was good for her to get back in the groove.

Kaylee, Grandma & Grandpa went shopping for bedroom accessories while I stayed home and worked on billing and Steve stayed home and worked on other billing. I guess Kaylee knew exactly what she wanted and how she wanted it, was decisive and picked out her stuff, even coming home with a pre-thought-out negotiation on a radio clock with an iPod docking station and an audio aux port that cost more than her current budget was. She's fun. I enjoy her. :)

The guys hit Harbor Freight for some man shopping, we watched "How to Train Your Dragon", which I think is a pretty good little movie, Kaylee set up her room accessories, and I was fairly rude and just sat there and plowed away on the billing all evening long, being almost a week behind now...

Independence Day

It may be Independence Day, but that doesn't mean some of us don't still have to work. ;) I just had one flight today, in the 172 this morning. When I got there, the student said "Sorry, I didn't realize it was the 4th of July when I scheduled it or I wouldn't have done that to you." Eh, it's okay. I have someone just about every morning these days, and most folks are ditching in the afternoon time slot out of self preservation in this heat.

After the flight I needed to pick up some staples for the house, then came home and passed out for a few minutes while Kaylee disappeared in her purple room with Grandma, and I'm not sure what the other guys did. Not much, I don't think. :) In the afternoon, we all went down to Tipton and spent a few hours with Nathan, Tre and crew, and had lots of good food before wandering home and watching the fireworks display on TV. With the burn ban and the fireworks ban, even Kokomo and Tipton have canceled and/or postponed their fireworks shows. Which stinks!! No personal fireworks, no big shows, it does NOT feel like the 4th of July without fireworks. So we watched some on TV, and then once the ban is lifted, Tipton will hold theirs, and I have some sparklers and stuff we'll let Kaylee play with too. Every kid (and adult) needs to be able to play with fire at least once a year. ;)

Holiday World

We're in the midst of a drought. Tonight's news said we'd need 4-6" of rain over a couple of weeks to pull out of the drought, and so far, July is forecasting more hot and dry. Part of that drought means that it is really, really hot. I mean, *really* hot. With temps around 105 (who knows what the heat index was), it was downright dangerous out there. The air conditioning in the cabin couldn't quite keep up, but it was good enough to stay comfortable as long as you didn't do a lot of activity. So we took our time this morning, ate breakfast, hung out on the deck, slowly got ready and packed up our stuff, checked out of the cabin, and then we hit Holiday World. We ended up on two of the four roller coasters, including the "Voyage", which has been voted the #1 wooden roller coaster in the country for five years running, with 24 seconds of zero g time. The only problem with the wooden roller coasters is that they are so violent. It actually knocked the ponytail out of my hair, and you have to hold yourself really stiff, or you'll get beat to death. I enjoyed them, actually, I like roller coasters, even the rough ones--but I also remembered that the last time when we hit all of the rides, I had a headache at the end of the day from my brain getting beaten around in my head. We didn't hit them all this time-most everybody was done with the roller coasters after those two, so some of us went on a water ride, where I was the lucky one who got soaked all the way through. This felt pretty good at the time, but I admit, walking around in wet clothes where it was too humid to dry ended up truly uncomfortable. By the time we got home at 1 something a.m. (after a stop at Glenndale, don't ask), some of my clothes were STILL damp. Mental note to self-swimsuit on under clothes, perhaps? :)

After the rollercoasters, it was time to let the kids hit the Splashing Safari. We'd all brought swimsuits, even the adults, but none of us adults actually got geared up to do it. The kids ran loose in the water park while the rest of us found whatever shade we could, stuck our faces in whatever breeze we could find, drank water, and watched the folks going by, looked out for the kids, relaxed. Steve found us some lawn chairs on grass under trees by the wave pool, and most of us hung out there until a thunderstorm with a lot of lightning activity came by within a few miles and closed down the shop. At this point it was a mass exodus, and the crowd was massive and all headed to the same places at the same times. Yikes. Fortunately the kids were all contained, though one adult after the other got separated from the herd, but finally we were all back in one place at one time and heading out for dinner and home. :)

Holiday World has a lot going for it. Nice, clean park. The free sunscreen stations are smart, and the free oasis (drink) stations are awesome. You can stop anywhere and grab a glass of whatever beverage you want, free (minus the price of admission, of course!) It's very family oriented, the whole place, and they do a great job with it.

We decided that next time we'd consider keeping the cabin to go back to, and that we grown-ups would hop in the water too. And that we'd need to carry cell phones, even if it's really inconvenient on rides, both coasters and water. So it was a recon mission, we had fun, there are a few ways in which we can make it even better, and the biggest way for me would be the one thing we couldn't control anyway--to go on a cooler day. I hate sweating! ;) But it was a good adventure. :)

We ended up home sometime after 1 a.m. after the 4 hour drive or so, in bed by 1:30 for me, I was back up by 7 a.m., and had a flight lesson in the Cub at Glenndale by 9. I'll admit to not being in the mood, but it was a good day for introducing crosswinds; enough of a crosswind to make them do something about it without making it so gusty and strong that they're just flailing around and hanging on for whatever happens-so it was time well spent.

Our family took the rest of the day to pick up around the house, straighten up from being gone, start some laundry from the last few days, etc., and then Grandma & Grandpa were here for a visit for a few days! Kaylee was most pleased to show off her new room and have a playmate handy again...

Holiday World

When Kaylee went to bed last night, we were worried that the next few days wouldn't come off. She did not feel well, but fortunately, the Claritan I gave her really helped, she got a good night sleep, and by this morning she was well enough that we could figure that it wasn't something contagious and could go for it. So we packed up, packed the car, and we drove south to Santa Claus, Indiana. :)

We're staying in cabin 524, and while it's not one of their huge cabins, it has a nice, really large porch. It was 102-107 degrees down here, so air conditioning isn't powerful enough to overcome that. That's just not good hot.

The kids went swimming for awhile, and Tre and I went to the store to buy dinner and supplies. Steaks, potatoes, salad, rolls, stuffed mushrooms, fruit, veggies, key lime pie, drinks, you know, good stuff!

Sitting on the deck, having a drink and a chat. Tomorrow? Tomorrow we ride. ;)