Weekend Warriors

When I woke up Saturday, I wasn't feeling any more like going to Kentucky than I was the night before. I didn't want to get up, and then I went to take a shower and the hot water heater had quit. After Steve got it re-lit and I was waiting for 30 minutes to take at least a warm-ish shower, I was looking at the weather and forecast, and man, it was just beautiful. It was definitely a day to do SOMETHING. There was a breakfast at Noblesville I could have gone to, and a fly-in at Westfield, and another at North Vernon. Or there's this formation clinic. I hadn't heard back on email or text as to what time to be there, so I planned on being there around 9, originally, thinking they were an hour behind us. Nope. Delay after delay after delay, then getting to the airport to pull all the planes out, then I needed gas, I was later and later, and I still thought "I feel like being home." But once I got the T-6 fired up and taxiing out, I couldn't help but perk up. ;) I sent a text to the organizer and told him if I shouldn't come, let me know now, otherwise I'd be there in an hour, and I left. The flight to Louisville took me right past every single other fly-in going on. So I did a fly-by at Westfield. Noblesville's pattern was packed out so I just waved from a distance, and I didn't know anybody at North Vernon, so I just looked at them from above. About halfway to the airport I was going to, I checked my texts and had one the organizer that said "Come on down, but we're not at Kxxx any more, we're at KLOU. Park by the L-39." It's a doggone good thing I can check my phone in the air, or I'd have gone to the wrong airport (again), something that gets changed on the fly, apparently.

Of course I hadn't looked up KLOU, and the iPad doesn't fit in the T-6 cockpit or map compartment, but God bless Garmin. ;) After I landed, tower asked me where I was going, if I was maybe going to Hangar 5, and I'm all "I Dunno, I'm supposed to park next to an L-39. You know where one of those is?" So he directed me there, and I taxiied up just in time for the first formation flight of the day to be leaving. Said hi to everybody then watched them launch while I got my stuff together.

The next flight they wanted to do was tactical formation, basically dog fighting. They had 8 maneuvers they'd done ground school on that morning that I missed, all things I'd never even heard of. Hook and Cross and Scratch and 90 Right Lag and so forth. They asked if I wanted to go do that, or if I wanted to save my gas for actual route formation. Right then a guy with a Tucano (this Tucano) said "If you'd rather, you can come up with me. We'll go Yak Hunting." Well, that's a much better offer. I'm not there for tactical fighting, I'm there for FAST card training, and I'll always take an opportunity to fly a different airplane. So we loaded up in his Tucano, he took off, got about 100' off the ground and said "Your Airplane". That thing has something like 1200 hp; it was a hoot. I climbed up, did some 60-80 or so degree turns and wingovers, and the weirdest thing is that the rudder trim on the throttle stick is what you actually use for rudder in the air, not your feet. That's a little tough to get used to, but it works. Then he did some rolls, slow rolls, loops, two tail slides, all that good stuff. The plane reminds me of the Mustang on aerobatic maneuvers...it's just very smooth and powerful. Then the Yaks were up, and it was time to go bust into their tactical formation practice with some real "application". It ended with Yak Lead saying "I can't see the Tucano" and the Tucano saying "I'm on your six, and you're dead. Now...look up" as we went on past him inverted right over the top of him. Now that was fun. *grin* I flew us back to the airport, he did the landing, and then he gave me a flightsuit patch. Super nice guy, I really appreciated the flight, that was a lot of fun. It was also the limit of my stomach. I have just got to start admitting I really, really can't do what I used to do. But I did do that, and I really, really liked it, too. ;)
Next up was my first formation flight of the day, and there were only three of us, so we we did a Phantom 2, meaning I was #4, we had a Lead and a #3, and a space where 2 would be. My (personal) gyros were a little tilted, though I didn't admit it, but fortunately it went pretty well. We came back in and did a 3-ship "vic" ("V") pass over the field, then an echelon pass, then an overhead break to landing. The guys on the ground said the vic pass looked dead on, the echelon pass I was a little wide, which is par for the course, because I never did do a really nice echelon this weekend for some reason.

That was the last flight of the day, the sun was going down, and I still didn't know if I was going to come home that night or if I had a way to get to a hotel or what, but then the guy whose hangar we were in said he was bringing us all home to his house instead of a hotel. That felt a little...different...to me, kind of personal, ya know? But there was a group of 7 of us staying, including another lady named Katie, not a pilot, and the room I was in (by myself) was much nicer than any hotel. We all sat up until 1 a.m., had a delicious dinner of ribs and side items, had some beverages, and just sat around talking. He has a beautiful house, 5000 sq ft in the woods out in the country, a lighted pool, and the house was just built a few years ago, so it's all brand spanking new. Steve would love the woods it was in and the layout of the house, with the big open windows facing the trees, etc. Really lovely, and REALLY nice of him to let a bunch of people crash at his house instead of making us all get hotel rooms. And feeding us! And refusing to take a dollar for it...

This is so long, I'll divide it up to give you a reading break, all you fascinated people out there. ;)