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. :)