Sunday morning was clear, calm and cool, which was a pretty nice combo. The winds were forecasting to get to a 20 knot direct crosswind again, but as of the morning it was just lovely. Church started at 10 a.m., so my plan was to fly the T-6 over to Glenndale after 9 (when the airport opened and could get me gassed up) and attend the service. Then Trey and I decided to get together and fly over in a two-ship. Then he ran late, and then he had helmet problems, etc., until bottom line we didn't even get to take off until almost 10. I sent a text apologizing to the folks in the church service for the interruption they were about to receive, and then Trey and I flew over and in. Somebody told me that as we flew over, people in the church service started clapping. That made me laugh, because I know how they feel--Saturday was blown out because of weather, so it was really good to hear airplanes flying today. The little church in town lost so many of its members to our BBQ Bash service that they moved the whole church service out to our big tent, which was pretty cool, actually.
Sunday morning started off kind of slow, but soon the helicopter arrived, and then the PT-26 arrived, and some transients arrived, and the regular rides started up, and each airplane that came by made me smile and think "This place is starting to look like an airport! Here we go!" By 11 a.m. I had my first two riders lined up for the T-6. We wanted to have three in a row before firing up, and that last rider took a little time to get. However, once the Six started flying, people started signing up like crazy, and there was usually a two-hour wait time to get a ride in. I started flying at 11:30 a.m., and I didn't finish until sometime after 6 p.m. Around 2 or so, Chuck came up and started motioning at me about food and water, and I thought I was okay there, but one more circuit later I did decide to quit and hit the bathroom. As soon as I got out of the plane, I realized it was good to get out of the plane--I needed a drink, and a snack, and a restroom, and to stretch my legs, which were getting a little wobbly. I had to stop once for gas, but I never even unbuckled, and they fueled up the two tanks at the same time with two different pumps, and I was back off and running. Chuck had given me some tootsie rolls, chocolates and a water bottle though, so as they were loading and unloading my next victim, I'd sneak a snack. :)
That morning I was my usual graceful self, and as I was hopping up on the wing to get the fuel caps for the line guy, my right food slid off, and I landed on my right ankle with it smashed against the trailing edge of the wing walkway. This made a loud noise and hurt a great deal. My whole foot was numb at first, before the pain kicked in. The line guy said "Was that your Shin??" Yes, yes it was. I couldn't talk without clenched teeth for a few minutes. I figured hey, at least I won't need to use my FEET today or anything. Especially not that right rudder. ;)
All of the rides stayed pretty busy, not just me. That meant the traffic flow was important. Fortunately our guys are good and professional about handling that, and it worked out really nicely. All it takes is for one guy to be "That Guy" and gum up the whole works, and you can have a real hairball with all those planes up in the sky at once. But they did a great job; it went smoothly and safely. The winds weren't overly friendly again, but at least they were doable this time. Lumpy, a little gusty, and a little variable, making at least us taildraggers concentrate each time we came in, but doable. I was really thankful, because Sundays are usually our slow finish-up day, and this Sunday was almost as busy as our usual Saturday, and was way busier than any Sunday we've ever had at the Bash. It was great to see all the airplanes flying, all day, pretty much non-stop. The regular rides in a C-172 had an hour and a half wait time. That's just...neat.
Around sunset I took off in the Six with our master cook (Steve T) in my back seat, and the air was perfectly calm and still, and the sun was going down, so I turned on every light on the T-6 and did the only low pass I'd done all day. I waited until there were no cameras, no visitors, no other airplanes around, just a handful of guys down below, and I did a strafing run all lit up like Christmas. *I* enjoyed it anyway. It was nice to make a landing back at Kokomo in calm winds and on a level, smooth surface, too. Nice way to end the flying day. The other enjoyable thing is that after this weekend I just broke 200 hours in the T-6, and that's a nice number. :)
We spent the rest of the evening in the tent under the heaters, snacking and chatting and relaxing, until Kaylee said "But I have to go to school tomorrow! I want to go to bed!" This was about two hours before she normally goes to sleep anyway. But she was tired, and we were tired, and we had a busy day coming up, so eventually we came home and went to bed pretty quickly. Long weekend, long day, but a good one.
On Friday Nathan brought out some grilled cheese sandwiches that Tre made up, and John Dale brought out some homemade chili, and together we had a deeeeelicious meal. We sat out in the tent with a pretty good-sized group for a Friday evening, and hung out in the heated area and talked and relaxed after the guys spent the whole day (and the days before) setting everything up. A lot of work goes into that..
Today, Monday, was still put-away-and-organize day. Chuck, AE, Steve, Mel, lots of guys were working their butts off getting things put back the way they're supposed to be. I counted money and organized that, and put away a few things, came home and tried to put things back together around the house a bit, took Kaylee around to a few errands like returning Pizza Hut's delivery hot bags that they'd loaned us, etc. The tent guys came and took down the tent and bouncies, the port-o-pots were driving off on a truck as we drove up, Chuck returned all the propane tanks, and Glenndale almost looks like it did before the bash began. Next up, we all try to recover while still keeping a little busy. I have flights scheduled tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., making it a little tough to get caught up, but that's the way it works! Besides, it might weather out on some of those...
Well, I didn't take a single photo, but I know some guys who did, so I look forward to seeing what they got. I'll post 'em when I got 'em. :)
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