Best Laid Plans

I'll admit that yesterday it was nice to wake up to the sound of gently falling rain, both because we need it, and because that meant I didn't have to go fly at 8 a.m. That's a bad thing to say, but I was tired, and that rain sounded really soothing. This morning there was nothing but sunshine--actually, starshine since I was up before the sun. So I flew from 8-10 in the Champ with someone, then 10:30-11:30 in the Cub with someone else, hit lunch, then had an IFR ground lesson from 1:30-3:10 when it was time to pick Kaylee up from school. She and I went to get some ice cream before coming home and starting the Homework Battles. We now have social studies and English done, with three pages of math to go. One of those pages she already did and turned in and her teacher said he never got. This happened last year several times, making her redo work we all know she already did. So from now on we will be taking photos of her homework pages so that we can just print it back off if the teacher loses it again. In the meantime, she has three pages full of math to do, which is a lot. Boo. She's taking it fairly well, though. Maybe the mint chocolate chip ice cream helped. ;)

Today is Sidney's birthday/death day. Thirteen years. That would be two teenagers in the house at the same time right now, both boys. Weird thought. But, thinking of our littlest son...who wouldn't be so little at 13!

This weekend was supposed to be kind of a nice, last big hoopla in formation flying. Saturday and Sunday, lots of people coming, flying out of Huntington, whole ball of wax. Except now Hurricane Isaac is going to rain all over that parade. The forecast has held pretty steady, overcast and 80% chance of rain that day, taking out Marion's annual fly-in, Ft. Wayne's air show, and my potentially finish up formation weekend. Not that Indiana can't use the deluge it's about to get, but man I wish it would get it Friday. Or Monday. Even Sunday. Just not Saturday. If I believed in formation gods, which I do not, but if I did, I'd say they were laughing at me again.

Speaking of laughing, much to the amusement of some of my local pilot friends, I have been drafted as the person to fly a Cub, purchased sight-unseen by someone I haven't met yet, from somewhere, Arkansas back to Kokomo, Indiana. Ty is conveniently gone, and I was left under that bus. "But you take trips all the time", you might say. Yes, I do, but not in a Cub. If I'm going on a trip, I take a trip airplane. If I'm flying a Cub, it's for instruction or local low and slow relaxation. Not a trip I'm going to have to thoroughly plan, can only go in good enough weather, with no instruments or navigation systems other than whatever hand held thing I can figure out to strap in somewhere in there, in a tiny seat, in a very slow airplane, where I can only fly about 2 to 2.5 hour legs at a time, will have to plan appropriate fuel stops and hope for the best on Mother Nature. And did I mention slooooow? I don't really know the condition of the airplane either, though it's supposed to be in good shape, but I've not heard of too many people selling a plane and saying "There's lots wrong with this thing, but it looks good!" So I'm going to need to pack a hydration pack, a piddle pack, an emergency pack, and definitely an iPod and a camera with which to record this folly. Oh, and there's not really anywhere to put these things, either. Some people like a major cross-country adventure in a Cub or a C-150. For the record, I am not one of those people. ;)

By the way, the new owner would like to come along. He will need trained in the plane, and would obviously like to see it, but...I don't want him to come. I am not riding from Arkansas to Indiana in the front seat of a Cub. The back seat is bad enough, but the front? No. Plus, I don't need stranger company for that long, either. So hopefully he can be discouraged from that. I think maybe Ty needs to re-work his schedule so HE can have this adventure! In the meantime, people are having fun at my expense on this one, coming up mid-September.

We're going to try to do things a little differently this year for the BBQ Bash. Steve was talking about it, and I'd already had thoughts in that direction. We need to shake it up a little bit--it's getting a little stale. So he's been thinking of some changes to make, and we'll hopefully make it a little different, not a lot, but enough to keep it fun and interesting for our locals. It's coming up fast, Sept. 22nd, which will only be a few days after I get back from my Cub Adventure. ;) Here's hoping for good weather, a good turn-out, and a good time!