All Hallowed Eve

Happy Halloween!  This is one of the few commercial holidays that I actually enjoy. It only lasts a few hours, there's not a ton of work or money to go along with it, and Kaylee has such fun with it that I can't help but enjoy it with her.

Originally she was going to go as Katniss.  This would have been an excellent choice considering it was 40 degrees outside and Katniss wears a leather jacket, jeans and boots.  Instead, she went as Isis the Egyptian goddess.  With the sleeveless white Egyptian gown.  ;)  So for the majority of her trick-or-treating she wore her white coat over her gown to stay warm.  It negatively affected the whole look a bit, but not freezing to death is more important.  (In our defense, it has been a lot warmer than that and we didn't know it would be that cold tonight until it was too late to change outfits.)

I drove Kaylee down to Noblesville where she got to go trick-or-treating with her friends Maggie and Hannah.  The ladies got pounds and pounds (and pounds) of loot.  Several houses down there give out full sized candy bars.  There's very little "fluff" candy--most of it is good stuff, man.  The one major disappointment is that the "Oreo Man", as he is known, moved.  The Oreo Man worked at Nabisco and he would hand out entire big store-sized packages of Oreo cookies to every kid who came to his door.  His place was well-known, and when we got there and his light was off and we heard everybody talking about how he'd moved, there was much angst amongst the neighborhood!  One other place had a basket on a chair, and the kids came back each holding an open Skittle.  Not a bag, just a green Skittle.  I told them to toss it into the yard where it could grow into a Skittle tree, but no way were they eating that.  ;)

After much walking in the cold and a little wind, we made it back to home base and had some pizza for dinner before Kaylee and I drove back to Kokomo so she could do her English and Math homework.  Kind of mean to assign homework on Halloween night, but at least there wasn't a ton of it.

I took some pictures, not a lot.  It was gray, and cold, and windy, and she had a coat on, and it wasn't the best "Get Great Halloween Photos" evening, but I did take some I put up on her site. Here are a couple...

Mother Nature

Hello, Sandy.  The East coast is bracing here, lots of wind, lots of water.  But ironically we have higher winds in Indiana then they do in some of the Hurricane Warning areas out east.  Today we had gusts up over 30, and tomorrow they're calling for gusts around 50 mph.  Ironically some of our servers are out in New York, and Steve got an email warning us that they had to evacuate their personnel, they had sandbagged the place, and suggested we have backups and hope for the best.  I'm glad we're not down in the blizzard area.  I'm not ready for that mess yet.  ;)

As I was typing this, some of our servers went down.  Emails, websites, scheduling system, etc.  Our servers are hosted in New York City, just a skip away from the New York Stock Exchange, which I just read is over 3 ft under water right now.  Greaaaat.

I've been having this weird arm pain, for awhile now.  My right arm for about two weeks now, when I raise it above straight out, or when I try to push myself up out of a seat with arms, or twist and push downward to lock or unlock a seatbelt, I feel a stab of pain that goes from just below my shoulder to just above my elbow on the outside of my arm, and sometimes my arm will actually give out. I can't tell if the muscle weakness is from the pain or in addition to the pain.  I'll wake up sometimes during the night with my arm aching pretty bad if I'm lying on it.  After the formation day last weekend, that arm was killing me, and then something popped and it felt better for a little while, now it's hurting again.  Last week when I went to close the canopy on the PT-26, I couldn't pull it closed over my head--I had to use my left arm to get it.  So yesterday my left arm started hurting too.  Bringing in groceries this afternoon I couldn't lift the bags straight out with either arm.  Weird.  I asked the Internet Gurus, and bursitis came up, along with a couple other things. I have to look these things up and see what I can see...

Tonight we had just a drop dead gorgeous sunset.  I looked out the window above the computer, and the sky was purple and the sun was hitting a tree, lighting it almost on fire.  I showed it to Kaylee, we looked for a minute, then I sat back down.  I glanced over to the other window and saw the whole sky was gold.  When it turned burnt orange, I grabbed my camera and went outside.  That is one of the coolest sunsets I have seen in a LONG time.  I did not adjust anything on these photos.  I didn't have to!  These are straight out of the camera, and how gorgeous is this??

Snapshot

Little Tabitha passed away last night.  These are her parents, and five siblings, all with their hands on her as she leaves this world. There has been a lot of sadness in the SMA community this week.

I spent the day trying to catch up around here, and not allowing myself to nap, considering I was awake until 4 a.m. this morning, and need to be able to get up early tomorrow for school.  I did get a book read while I was at it too, at least...

Workin'

I was up early on this Saturday morning for a flight in the Champ out at Glenndale.  We are quickly coming up on the time of year that I dislike the most, when the taildraggers get tucked away for the season, and the grass strip flying is pretty much done.  But not yet. It was 36 degrees out, but she started up like a, well, champ, and we had a nice morning, a bit of a breeze, lots of sun.  When we took off, I saw a bunch of smoke, so we flew over to investigate, and found a house or building on fire.  The fire trucks were already there out front, but the roof was gone already and it was a burned out husk.  We finished up doing some takeoffs and landings, until it started getting a little too bumpy out.

 

I brought home breakfast after that for me and Steve, who is staying home working on his CFI renewal this weekend.  Every two years you get to spend a good solid day and a half taking quizzes and such.

Then it was time for me to drive down to Noblesville and pick up Kaylee from her fun two night stay-over with a friend.  She had lots of fun, and was also glad to be home.  When we got back to the house, we laid down on the couch together, and promptly both passed out for a couple of hours. Apparently we were both worn out.  My plan had been to go back out to the airport and go work on a couple things in the Six, once it got later in the afternoon and the winds had died back down.  But I slept until it was almost dark.  Well, I'm awake NOW!  Whoops...

Cycles of Life

This morning a family put to rest a mother and grandmother.  Ms. Emogene was, like her sisters, a force of nature of her own.  She was smart, sharp-tongued, active, curious, independent and I think the word "feisty" sums it up pretty well. I truly enjoyed her, and I know her loss is a painful one for her family.  It's nice that she lived a long and healthy life, but as a son or grandchild, I'm sure you're never ready to say goodbye.  She, like my grandma, was on her own terms, living in her own home.  She was on her couch, and passed away.  She is loved, and she has left a legacy behind to be proud of.

Today a fourth little girl with SMA has died this week alone, and a fifth is in the hospital, unresponsive and surrounded by family who are going to have to decide when to remove life support.  This family has already lost one daughter to SMA, four-year-old Taleah.  Their daughter Tabitha is five years old, was doing fine, spiked a fever, and the next thing they know she's fighting for her life.  The family is all there, holding her, taking pictures, doing a hand mold, loving on her and praying, while planning to remove life support tomorrow after a sister can make it there to see her.  I was doing okay until they posted a photo of her young brother lying in the hospital bed with her, looking at her and holding her hand, and the look on his face...  I'm supposed to be going on a flight lesson, and now I'm getting a machine gun barrage of mental images of our own family in a hospital room, our own child slipping away, the sounds and smells and sights and feel of him in my arms, and all the emotions that come wrapped up with it.  You can be around it every day and be okay, but thirteen years later you can still get blindsided, too.  Please pray for these families as they go through one of the hardest things they'll ever have to do.

Meanwhile, our friend Ty became a grandpa today.  A beautiful baby girl, Viviann, with long skinny legs.  She came into the world today as another beautiful little girl with SMA, Harper, left it for the next.

Days like these are when it's tougher to get on Facebook and see people talking about how stressed out they are by their boyfriend, or gloating that Mitt Romney said "a binder of women" instead of "a binder of information about a group of women"...and so what?

It's Friday night, Kaylee's off at her friend's house, the boys are on the deck relaxing, and I'm going to do a little of the same in here...

Thursday

Originally Kaylee wanted to be Katniss from the Hunger Games for Halloween.  She dressed up that way for a school party, and I ordered the rest of the "real" outfit online--early, even!  On the entire internet I could only find the thing in adult sizes, so I got Adult XS, which upon measuring her, seemed like should fit.  It got here, and she didn't like it, and it didn't fit her well, so I sent it back.  I was about to get another when she said she changed her mind, and wanted to be Isis, an Egyptian goddess.  Okay.  So we went to the Halloween store in town, where we found the costume--which only came in adult sizes.  Please insert my yearly rant here about how Messed Up it is that you can get any costume--mostly inappropriate ones--for adults, and have a hard time finding a variety of decent costumes for KIDS.  For Halloween. Anyway, she loved the gown she found, even though it's too big for her, and that's what she went with for Halloween.  She started off as a bow and arrow carrying fighter and ended up in an Egyptian goddess dress and gold hair piece. Somehow neither one surprises me.  ;)

The flight in the 172 this morning was bumpy and breezy.  They closed the runway into the wind, leaving everyone with a 50-60 degree crosswind gusting up over 25 knots, which was a good challenge for folks.  I flew for 1.2, had a quick lunch, and then headed to Sheridan to give an IPC (Instrument Proficiency Check) to the chief pilot of a competitor's flight school; he also flies King Airs and a C-414 for a local business.  Their insurance company approved me or Steve to provide his annual checkout as opposed to him having to go to a three day course (like I used for the C-340), so that's what I did, in the C-414. I'd flown that exact C-414 before, many years ago, but what was kind of funny about it was that back when I flew it, I sat down in it and felt like it was a very large airplane with a lot of stuff going on.  Today I climbed in it, looked around, and...it was a lot smaller than I remembered.  ;)

Kaylee is on Fall Break right now, and she got to start off the break by sleeping in.  I woke her up this morning to let her know I was leaving to go to work, and she she couldn't even open her mouth to say goodbye.  It was cute.  She later got to continue her break by going down to Noblesville and spending tonight and tomorrow night with a friend, and that excited her greatly.  I forgot to tell her to behave, but hopefully by now she knows that without me telling her. Right?   Surely...

The quotes that came to my inbox today were all about fear:

You are frightened of everything. You call it caution. You call it common sense. You call it practicality. You call it playing the odds, but that's only because you're afraid to call it by its real name, and its real name is fear.
~Mick Farren

The only way to get rid of the fear of doing something is to go out ... and do it.
~Susan Jeffers

The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
~Nelson Mandela
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Kaylee loves to cuddle, in the mornings, and in the evenings, and tonight I wouldn't mind having her here lying on my shoulder with her arm around me, this time for Me.  Tonight one of "my" SMA families is in trouble.  In this last week, three SMA children have died, two of them who were otherwise healthy and fine and doing well, whose hearts then just stopped out of the blue.  Two days ago a little girl named Tabitha was taken to the hospital in distress.  Several years ago her mom & dad lost Tabitha's big sister, Taleah, to SMA.  Taleah was 4 years old, and Tabitha is 5 now, and has been fighting hard these last two days, going in and out of consciousness.  Her mom posted this today: "I told her that as long as she wants to fight, we are right by her side supporting her, but if she decides she is done, we will be right by her side in that choice as well. We are doing our best to let her lead the way, this is her life, her body and her choice. I love her so much."   The mom and dad went home to try to get some rest, and left grandma to stay with their daughter...and were only home for about an hour when they were called to come back because Tabs is failing.  I've known this family for over ten years, known them through the lives of two daughters with SMA, and tonight they are likely losing their second little girl.  It makes me so angry. This picture was posted of Monica hugging her unresponsive daughter.  Look at it.  I don't suggest you talk to me about any more political bickering right now...

Stuff

This morning I was heavily asleep when I heard Kaylee whispering by my bed.  She had gotten a new alarm clock last night, and Steve had set it to go off at 6:15 this morning.  Instead, it went off at 5:15 this morning.  Kaylee assumed it was time to get up and ready, and I wasn't up yet, so she came to get me.  I said "It's only 5:23, baby, go back to bed.  I'll come get you when it's time to get up."  So I go into her room an hour later, an hour in which I never did get back to sleep (grr), and she's awake in there, and irritated.  She couldn't find the off switch, so she just had to keep hitting the snooze button every 8-10 minutes.  This did not make her happy.  I do not blame her.  I'm surprised she didn't come in and get me again, or throw her clock into the other room, or something!  That extra hour made a difference on both of our tired factors though. :o

It was still dark when I got out to the airport this morning, and I watched the sun rise while waiting for the PT-26 to come on in.  After he landed, we looked over the plane, I crawled in and looked around the cockpit and made sure I knew where everything was, and then away we went.   The cockpit is set up very similarly to the T-6, so that's easy enough.  The visibility from the front seat is so good it's like you're not even in a taildragger.  This is the first plane I've flown that the range is limited by oil consumption, not fuel burn.  He said you get no more than 180 nm out of the airplane before you have to land and refill the oil.  It holds 4.1 gallons of oil. Just sitting on the ramp it left multiple puddles of oil behind, and it was only on the ramp for about 20 minutes.  It's an anemic climber, but it has pretty responsive controls.  Stalls are docile, landings are docile, it has wide gear, and when you land, it just...stays.  It's a pretty basic airplane, easier on ground handling than the Cub.  The gentleman who is to be my first student in the airplane has zero taildragger time.  At first I wondered at someone learning tailwheel in something bigger like that, but then I read the manual--it IS a PT, aka Primary Trainer, and after flying it, I don't picture it being a problem.  In fact, I'd say that someone learning tailwheel in that would need more time in something else before hopping into a lot of other tailwheels.   I enjoyed the flight though-I always like flying new-to-me airplanes.  :)

Next up was a trip to Muncie, and I'd been flying for a few minutes before it occurred to me I was having to hold in a lot of left rudder.  I actually reached down for the rudder trim, before the fact that I was in a 172 without rudder trim sank in.  My left leg got tired by the time we got home, because if the choice is fly along with the ball all the way whacked out or fly along with the left rudder pushed in for 30 minutes, well, I can't fly along sideways. ;)  After landing I noticed that the rudder pedals weren't even when I was taxiing straight, either, something I hadn't really noticed earlier.  I don't know if it was that way before and I didn't notice, or if it became worse later, but it seemed pretty obvious when I landed at Kokomo.  We had three other students scheduled in the plane that afternoon, so I got to cancel them as the guys found a broken spring and had to run around to get it fixed and back online.  My supposed five flights today ended up being no revenue flights, but at least I got to try out the PT, and later we did get one student back up after it was fixed, with another CFI, so that was good.

As we were taxiing into Muncie, two A-10s came on by and did a low pass of the runway.  This is why I didn't notice anything with my feet on the ground there--I was busy looking around for the A-10s.  ;)  That was neat though-those look like they'd be awesome to fly.  Low to the ground, always in pairs, powerful, can blow things up if need be...what's not to like?

I picked up Kaylee from school, and she'd had a Halloween party today, had eaten a ton of junk food, came home and cuddled with me for an hour, then fell asleep on Steve for awhile.  She is now officially on Fall Break.  :)  She also came home with a math test on which she'd gotten 16.5 out of 14 points, (yes, extra credit) all working with manipulating fractions.  I was pretty happy with that one!

So, Happy Wednesday...

Salute

Errands, chores, paperwork, cuddling with a kiddo, Chinese dinner delivery, and studying on a rainy day.

I've been reading up a little bit on the PT-26, as I'll be going up in that for the first time tomorrow morning.  Unfortunately it's at 8 a.m., but it had to be because the rest of my day is Packed Out Solid.  I originally had a gap from 12-1:30 or so, and a student filled that in too, making it so that I was flying from 8 a.m. through to 3:30 p.m. straight, no breaks.  I convinced him to go in my other open time, so now I go until 6:30-7 instead, but at least I get to eat lunch now.  ;)

My CAF paperwork came in today.  My wings, my name badge, my pin, my membership card and letter to "Colonel Laura S.", my bumper sticker that says "MY OTHER RIDE IS A MUSTANG". I can't help but find myself a little leery here. Hopefully my cynicism will have no foundation this time.  The guys here seem to be a good group. Anyway. Here we go.

Somebody put this together and put it on YouTube.  It's only a minute and a half long, has footage from the Kokomo Airshow and the Glenndale BBQ Bash, one clip from Oshkosh and one from Mt. Comfort.  I'm just posting for posterity.  If you don't like Kid Rock, I suggest you turn down the volume.  :)

Monday

This certainly was a Monday.  Last night the 172, which is an extremely busy airplane right now, ended up with a flat nosewheel tire.  The guys came in this morning and ran into a few problems, pushing my 10 a.m. flight back to 11.  That ran me late for lunch, which is a personal tragedy.  ;)  After lunch I went out to Kokomo to get over to Muncie, but as I was driving over to the airport, I saw some darkness off to the west, so I pulled up the radar, and saw a line of weather that was already close enough that making it to Muncie was no problem, but making it home would be.  We decided to hold off and wait for the weather to pass, so went and ran errands until Steve and I had a Parent Teacher Conference to go to.  I got out of the conference, went back out to the airport, and another line of storms had popped up off to the west, right where my student and I were supposed to be going on a dual cross-country trip.  So hey, instead, we'll go back to Muncie, and she'll get to listen in on a tower controlled field, and fly home with me in the RG and do something different.  Muncie ended up not working out, so last but not least we stayed in the pattern for awhile.  It seemed like everything was trying to be a Monday.  A drive-through that got the wrong order, construction that wasn't there before blocking me when I was late to get to the airport, a person that had to drive 35 mph in front of me and was going the same place I was, with nowhere to pass.  And so forth.  After awhile it's kind of funny!  But worst of all, tonight all the good stuff on TV has been replaced with yet another Presidential Debate.  Bleh!  ;)

The Student Teacher Conference was good.  We were the first one of the class, the first appointment right after school got out.  The teacher is very nice, and she said this was her easiest conference, because she had nothing.  Kay's grades are excellent, she doesn't have any behavioral issues with her, says she's a great kid, an excellent reader, and her biggest problem is sometimes a lack of organization, which she said she's been working on and doing better at.  Mrs. H had a folder full of bad papers to show parents as examples of what needed worked on, and she looked in it and laughed and said she didn't have a single bad paper to whip out for Kaylee.  We talked a bit about some things with the school, events, what was coming up next year, etc., and it was a perfectly nice and relaxed and positive conference.  Originally she'd said Kaylee could wait in the hall during this.  Kaylee wanted to know why she couldn't be in there, because she said "You guys are talking about me, I'd like to be there."  She's got a point, so Steve asked if she could join us, and the teacher said okay.  I think that's a good thing--in fact, last year they did "student-led conferences" where the student themselves read through the notes and such, and I like that idea better, precisely because it IS about them, so they should be involved.  It's also good that she was in there because I think it's a little nice positive reinforcement on good grades and good behavior.  One of her friends does not get good grades and does sometimes have behavior issues.  That can be an influence that we can't do much about.  But sitting there listening to your teacher and your parents complimenting you on those good grades and good behavior have to make it a lot more attractive to keep doing, you have to see the benefits of the positive attention over the negative attention...

Well, I had to mute the debate again.  But I can read the subtitles.  Blah blah I killed the bad guy, blah blah you flip flopped, blah blah...let's get this over with, vote, and move forth.  And bring back the good shows!  ;)

Unwind

I'm not expecting any violins playing here, so this is not a complaint, just a conversation. ;)  When I got home last night, after 3 flights encompassing almost 8 hours of the day "door to door", I was really pooped, and just about everything on me hurt.  That's a situation in which you never really relax.  (Just bombing along and having fun and relaxing with another plane is a different scenario than the four ship training stuff.)  It's not that flying along itself is hard, really, it's that your mind can't take a vacation, and neither can the rest of you, and you're constantly making adjustments, you're being moved around, doing different maneuvers, and there's a lot going on.  Even landings, which are usually not all that interesting, can (should) now be a high focus time.  Yesterday it was a little gusty and we're going into a place with a direct crosswind, and I'm supposed to do a wheel landing on my half of the runway and fast taxi with the tail up to the end, moving over to the other half of the runway, behind one guy I can't otherwise see and in front of another I can't see, which leaves you sorting through your options as we all get ready to come down.  There isn't one time from before you start up the engine until after your airplane is parked that you can let your focus drift or relax, which is different. In most things, except talking on the phone, I'm a multi-tasker.  I can think about lots of stuff, fly, talk on the radios, listen to music, etc.  So for me it was hard to let go of that in formation.  I'd wonder where we were, I'd wonder if we were high enough for the obstacles, I'd wonder about traffic, I'd want to look at my gauges, I'd be thinking about where we were going, I'd be yelling at myself, I'd be thinking about how cool it looked out my window, I'd be wondering how long I'd been running on that fuel tank (I still need to do that), I'd be thinking about the paint job on the plane I was looking at or the clouds around us that looked like an animal, I'd be telling myself to quit thinking about stuff...and I'd be all jerky because of it.  While learning anyway, there isn't room for much of any thinking at all.  You don't look around, you don't take your eyes off of the plane you're supposed to be watching, you don't think extraneous thoughts, you let Lead worry about all the other stuff and you just focus. Get in the Zone. The "Zone" is key.  Ironically, once I was able to start doing that, and I got better overall, then I found I could think about other things too and not lose the groove.  Sometimes. ;)  Having said all that, I do really enjoy it.  It's different.  It's neat.  It's a lot of work. It's not something you see everybody do every day. It's a challenge to be smooth.  It's fun.

So today most major parts of me are in various stages of soreness, but a nap and a self-induced chiropractor session helped some of it.  ;)  I was supposed to go back out and do another one today, but he canceled and I was glad for once. I put up some photos from the BBQ Bash and various things we've done in October.  Steve and Kaylee are taking on the "totally scrub out the fish tank" challenge, we're watching football, napping, snacking, relaxing, piddling, Steve's working.  Nothing too important, just getting ready for the upcoming week of much busyness...

Blah Blah Flying Stuff

Today I was supposed to do some formation flying, a flight or two, starting at 9 a.m., figured I'd be done by early afternoon.  Fog this morning pushed us back to 10, and even then while they straggled into Kokomo, it was still not really good enough to go anywhere until noon. Flight #1 was a 4-ship, and I was #2 off of a Yak.  That went smoothly for the most part, and we ended up at Greencastle for their chili fly-in.  They were also doing a bunch of Young Eagle rides, so it was really busy down there.  We were given homemade cookies and free chili for flying in, and then people started coming up to me and wanted photos. The Young Eagles rides all seemed to be girls, and the lady in charge had them come over to me in groups and ask me questions about flying, about myself, etc.  Then someone from the city counsel wanted pictures to put up on their community website, and then I had maybe a dozen or more folks who wanted photos taken with me in front of the T-6, including a couple of older gents.  I can't say that I've gotten that much of a reaction anywhere before. One young lady was asking about logbooks and flight times and said her grandpa had been a pilot and she was going to be one too.  She was the first one who wanted a picture with me at the plane, and that started an avalanche.  :)  The funniest part of it was we were leaving that airport as a five-ship, as we picked up another Yak, and the guys were in the planes, ready to go, and here I am in front of the Six with a group of people, there's even a photographer climbing up on my wing (she asked first) to keep taking pictures of me as I was finally strapping into the airplane!  I halfway expected to get some grief for that later, but nobody said anything.  :)  That was different.

Flight two was out of Greencastle and down to Clark Regional down by Kentucky.  This time I was #3 in the five-ship, and I was flying off of the RV.  That one was a little trickier, and didn't go quite as smoothly.  It was a bit windy and bumpy and the RV is a little and easily tossed around airplane, so it's harder work to do a good job on it, which makes it good practice.  At one point we did the "extended trail" again, where everybody sets their power and starts maneuvering using angles to stay within a certain distance and position.  Unfortunately, the two in front of me took it full aerobatic, and the ceilings weren't high enough, so neither were we, for me to want to do that.  The RV could go vertical, gain instant altitude, go inverted quite tightly, etc., and I couldn't do as much, so I'd just watch and wait to see which way he was coming down and I'd cut him off then.  That wasn't very popular with the boss.  We landed at JVY, debriefed that one, had a drink and a break, and then we launched for Flight #3.  Still a five-ship, and this time I was #5.  This flight went well, and I think we had fun.  We did a low pass over Bowman Field (Kentucky), then our Lead peeled off to land there and we became a 4-ship.  Sometime around Columbus, another Yak peeled off, and we became a 3-ship.  The sun was going down by now, and it was a beautiful sky.  I wished I had a camera and the ability to use it without getting in trouble.  It was a truly gorgeous view, looking out at the airplanes with the sun going down.  Finally it was my turn to peel off, and I headed for Kokomo.

I put the gear down a little early while I could still see the pins, as I wasn't planning on being out after dark so hadn't packed a flashlight.  I did have a flashlight app on my phone though.  Gotta love smart phones. ;)   It was nice and dark by the time I landed, with just a hint of light in the sky, a beautiful sight...

I left the house around 9 a.m. and didn't get home until after 8 p.m.  I didn't expect to be gone all day, but that was good experience, good flights.  I got to work in positions  #2, #3, #4, and #5, and we did it all except element takeoffs because the crosswinds were too high early on and the last flight was off of too skinny of a runway.  But other than that, we did every maneuver, including telling me to "overshoot" a rejoin on purpose so we could practice one of those.  I'm glad I had to botch one on purpose at least--I'm starting to buy into the "I'd rather be lucky than good" philosophy. ;)

Here are some photos from tonight...

Four of us on the way back from Kentucky, spread out for a few minutes to do an "ops check".

 

 Just the view out the front.

 

 Kokomo's lights as the last of the light fades

 

 Turning down final, coming in to land, finally home.

Happy Rain

I was supposed to be busy all day, but the low clouds and the rain made sure that wasn't the case.  Some of that I wasn't real happy about, as a couple of those people haven't gotten to fly in awhile, and my schedule is getting really busy and hard to get on.  But I have to admit to not being sad to not having to fly the early morning flight.  I have found my day goes much better when I get up at 6:15 and get Kaylee ready for school and then get another hour or so of sleep before having to start the day for good. Nine a.m. flights work fine for me.  Anything before that, other than the occasional trip, is asking for non-verbal Laura.  ;)

On to a busy Saturday...hopefully.

Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It...

Tonight was our monthly EAA Chapter meeting, and it was held at the Grissom Air Reserve Base at the new Huey restoration hangar.  First some of us met up at the Amish restaurant across the street where most people ate too much of a good thing.  :)  Next stop was at the Grissom Aeroplex where we learned about what this Huey group is doing, how they're doing it, and why.  The gentleman giving the talk/tour is certainly passionate about what he's doing, and they are doing a good thing.  Everyone needs a mission, and he has found his.

Speaking of everyone needing a mission, there's a blogger who has a mission to get people to stop buying chocolate because all the major US chocolate producers get their chocolate from places who get their chocolate by using child labor in foreign countries.  So the blogger wants everyone to only buy chocolate from the one place that does not do this--a place called "Endangered Species Bug Bites Organic Milk Chocolate" at about $40 a box online only.  No Hershey, no Cadbury, no Mars, no Nestle, etc.  She suggests people buy other sugared treats for Halloween instead of chocolate, and then goes on to say that the sugar industry has its own problems with this too though.  As does the coffee industry.  And about every other industry.  She showed pictures of African children  and said they were working to farm cocoa for your chocolate, and how that should make us all stop eating chocolate, like she has done, until all the chocolate manufacturers stop using sources that use child labor. She mentioned how selfish we all are, how we won't take a stand on this.  She's right.  I am, and I won't.  I wonder how many children in Africa being paid minimal wages to farm cocoa have families that are probably grateful for those wages, not that it makes child labor right.  But this, this is not my mission.  And I don't blame her for her mission, but where do you stop?  If you won't eat at places with practices you don't like, you'd better leave out all fast food.  And don't buy food at most grocery stores either.  Slaughterhouses and treatment of animals, chemicals used, all that.  Children are used in labor to manufacture clothing, jewelry, sugar, cotton, chocolate, coffee.  Better not do any of those, either. Don't buy most makeups, as they have been linked to animal testing, cruelly, and by-products.  Have you heard of the conditions of the workers in China who produce everyone's favorite iPads?  Not good At All.  Shall I continue?  And just not learning anything else bad so you don't have to boycott it too is just a cop-out.  So...live on your own farm, sew your own clothes using the wool of sheep you raise yourself with a needle you make from a rock while eating the food you grow in your own yard.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, and if you can do it, man, go for it!  If you can't do that, I suppose you can pick one and make that the hill you're going to die on, so to speak.  I can't really defend my position, because tis more noble to pick that one hill to die on than it is to say "it doesn't matter anyway, forget it", like me.  But regardless, I'm not giving up chocolate for a political statement.  Nobody would want to see me on no chocolate.  Things do need to change for the better, and peer pressure via consumers is slowly doing that in many arenas.  But I'm still not giving up chocolate.

Kaylee was up until 11:45 p.m. doing homework tonight.  She started in on it around 4:30 p.m.  She had Math, Science, Reading, Accelerated Reading, and Social Studies all due tomorrow.  THAT seemed really unnecessary to me.  Poor kid spent her entire day in school, got home and spent the rest of her entire day doing homework, is going to bed, and will be right back up at 6:15 a.m. and headed back to school for the day.  That Stinks.  :(   She did dissect shrimp today, and they did squids earlier.  Today they also watched a film on a tarantula molting, squeezing out of its hairy body and leaving the shell behind.  I. Did. Not. Know. That.  I also did not WANT to know that.  I have a serious case of the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.   I gotta think about something else now.

So I'll end on pictures from tonight.  Back to aviation where nothing has 8 legs and 8 eyes and jumps and molts and eats bugs and is out to get me and has hairy legs...well, maybe hairy legs, but not 8 of them anyway...

Blowhard

Blustery, tempestuous, whatever you want to call it, that it is lately.  High winds are posing problems for students trying to get flight time in before the winter really socks us in.  My schedule will be really full if the weather cooperates, particularly since our other main active instructor is leaving for the next several months.  I have a couple folks trying really hard to finish up here, and I'm hoping to get them done.

Kaylee and I had an after school bonanza of girl-time.  We started at DQ, hit JC Penney next, then on to the other mall where we visited the new Justice store along with several others.  She needed a new coat, some new jeans, stuff like that, so we got her taken care of, and we had fun, even if she did have me running clear across the store over and over to get different sizes of things. ;)  Dumb jeans.  In one store, her size was way too tight, and I thought, wow, she just grew another size??  So we go to the next store, and her original size was baggy!  Nice consistency amongst sizing there.  But get this.  On this one wall of jeans, you have boot cut, skinny, flare, and what, regular I think. No problem. Then within the skinny jeans section, which was the style Kaylee wanted so she could tuck them into boots, they had every size, and then within every size they had that specific size in "slim, regular, and plus".  Seriously, this is a mess.  So say you're going for somewhere around size 10 jeans.  You go in, and choose your type.  Hey, we want skinny jeans.  Okay, now what?  You have to figure out what fits better, a 12 slim, 10 regular, or 8 plus, or maybe a 12 regular in this brand, or maybe...and none of them fit the same?  Good grief...

While we were in the dressing room, the skies opened up and started dumping rain.  With the wind, it was a mess outside, so Kaylee and I tried to wait it out by the door before trying to make it to the car.  Unfortunately, we couldn't stay there forever, because we had other stuff to do, so we ended up running for it, and getting completely soaked.  Well, I guess we got completely soaked more when we got back out of the car to go to the next place...  It was fun though.  Kaylee of course had a great time, and I finally got her some of those things I'd been telling her we'd go do when I had time.

Today Kaylee's school band played a bunch of songs for the whole sixth grade, as sort of their first concert.  Here's Kay with her friend B getting ready to go do that with their saxophones.  She said it went pretty well, and she had fun doing it...

Roles

Steve needed to leave early today, so I got ready and took Kaylee to the bus stop before heading out to the airport.  This morning I was scheduled to take the 340 to Muncie for about 3 hours of work, and I was going to wait there, while Steve C. waited there with the RG for about 3 hours too.  While we were there, we ran into a guy wearing a "Plane and Pilot News" t-shirt.  Steve asked him if he was a reporter for them, but instead it ended up being the owner/president of the company.  We ended up having brunch with him, spent some time talking about our local flying programs and such, and he took our information to maybe do a story on things like the Flying Squirrels, and hopefully get other places to take up a program similar to that as well.  The next couple I ran into had an airplane with the AOPA logo on the tail there for maintenance.  I think he was the winner of an AOPA sweepstakes.  He started asking me questions about the iPad, ForeFlight, Wing X, Garmin app, etc., so I showed him what I had and told him what I knew of the others.  He was fine with all that, but when I told him he could get every VFR and IFR chart, every approach plate, always current and up to date, for $79 for an entire year's subscription, vs over $10 *per chart* which expires every couple months, he pretty much said he was on his way to the store to get his iPad as soon as he could get home.  I've had that effect on more than one guy in a pilot lounge over the last couple of years.  ;) 

Next up was another business owner who was really, really, really into politics, and got on a fine feathered roll about it with a perfect stranger.  This leads me to a side bar.  Two of the three guys I talked with today spent time talking politics, and I understand it's a hot topic right now.  But have you ever noticed that whoever is talking politics is so sure that theirs is the logical and only correct opinion, therefore they assume you'll agree with them, so they feel free to just say what they will?  No matter what side they're on, they just assume that if you're a halfway intelligent person, you'll naturally be agreeing with them.  I did agree a lot with these two--both guys were business owners and both had the same opinions about a lot of things as most of the business owners I know.  The difference between those that sign the backs of checks vs the front of checks...

So I got to Muncie at 8:45 a.m., and my three hours of wait time ended up being 7 hours of wait time.  Had I known this ahead of time, I'd have dropped the plane off, gone and done something productive with the day, and come back to get it when they were done with it.  However, I did not know this ahead of time, so I spent it an hour at a time waiting to hear back, until finally around 2:30 p.m. I started hunting them down and telling them I had to go, as I had a flight student at 4 p.m.  I finally got out of there and taxiied up to the hangar at 4 p.m., where my student was waiting for his first official flight lesson.  By this point I was tired, really tired, and cranky.  Not just because I was at an FBO for an entire work day, but because that whole time I was in constant forced socialization and hand-shaking and business representing and politicking mode, and while I know that wears Steve out too, at least he's good at it in the first place.  ;)  I didn't do too bad, but afterwards I was just done being around people--except for that whole brand new student first flight thing, which requires a lot more socialization and high energy, moreso than regular flights.  After that was done, I got in my car and I didn't even put music on.  I just wanted to sit in silence for awhile and unwind.  I know, wah wah, nothing bad happened or anything, I just find that stuff very draining.  :)  I did get to meet a couple of interesting folks, though, and eat at the Sunrise Cafe for breakfast.  When I finally climbed in the 340 to come home, I heard somebody yell, and when I looked up it was a group of guys over at Kacy J's restaurant sitting outside on a break.  I waved at them, was too tired and late to go talk, but when I called up the tower, I requested a left turn-out off of Runway 20.  He said "You want to go left to go north west?"  Yep.  He cleared it, so I took off on 20 and swung around the restaurant to say goodbye.

I got home about 12 hours after I left it, and Kaylee was working on homework and practicing her sax.  Apparently she's playing with some of the band members for something at school tomorrow.  Wish I could go see her play, but this isn't a public event thing.  Steve was helping her out with some form and air control things that I know nothing about considering I only played piano, which did not involve drool and spit and air and honking.  For which I am actually sort of grateful, actually.  ;)

I "watched" this debate by muting the TV, reading the captions now and then because I couldn't handle bickering tonight, and then watching everyone's reactions online to what was being said.  That was actually sort of an interesting and less stressful way to do it.

I think the bed is calling my name, and I think I have several students who are going to be awfully out of luck these next few days on weather and winds for what they're trying to accomplish. One is on a school Fall Break and needed to try to get as far as possible during those days, but the winds are forecasting to the 30s, and this person needs to do pre-private solo cross countries.  That ain't happening in 30 knot gusting winds.  Maybe they'll be wrong again--they are often enough that I shouldn't even be thinking about Thursday and Friday yet...

Dawn Patrol

Normally 5:20 a.m. is a little on the early side for me, but this time I woke up on my own at 5.  As I was getting ready to leave, Kaylee came walking in the kitchen without me dragging her out by her feet, which is also freakishly rare.  Not sure what was in the water this morning...

It was one of those dreary, overcast morning, spitting a little moisture, so I got to take off in the dark and hit a little night IFR to play with.  I think I broke out on top around 6,000' or so, and I cruised along with the stars until the sun started coming up.  It was clear in St. Louis, and today they decided to be trickier than usual with extra routings and such.  The ground taxi clearance came so fast as I was still rolling out, and it was on a different runway than I usually end up on, so I didn't have the route memorized and it was a 7-step clearance, which I know because I just looked it up, and that's about two more steps than my brain was ready to remember, let alone at 7 a.m.  ;)  But it worked.  I dropped off the guys, then I was on my own for the flight home.  So I plugged in my new iPhone, turned up the volume, and cruised home.  It was still overcast at Kokomo, so I got to shoot an approach in, and though I broke out pretty high, it was still good to get in a real one, with a decent crosswind, and Justin A. talking to me over the unicom asking about the weather. ;)

I picked up Kaylee from school, got her an iced mocha coffee drink for a treat, which I hope we don't all regret, set her up to do her homework and chores, then went back out to the airport for another hour of 172 time in the pattern.  I cut that just a tad short so that I could run home, grab Kaylee and take her to see "Hotel Transylvania" in the theaters as promised.  We spent $20 on two drinks and two snacks (sheesh!) then sat back and enjoyed the movie. We had a good time together.  I always enjoy our time together when we do stuff like that.  She's fun. :) One thing the movie really focused on though was this thing they called "The Zing", where two people's eyes met for the first time and they felt a zing and you only get one of those in your whole life and you'll magically live happily ever after.  I debated with myself and finally decided not to talk about that right now. Yet.  But I will be further discussing this concept of expecting the perfect fairy tale Prince Charming with the Zing and perfect ever after. The main story was about a father's love, protecting his daughter, learning to let go, etc., and that'll work.  ;)  It was a cute movie, and perfectly G-rated, which is nice these days.

Here's a series of photos from this morning...

Descending in for the ILS 23 at Kokomo.  It was still gray and overcast below, and as you can see, quite lovely above.  :)

Techno Staring

It's the Great Phone Shuffle around here today.  While the wind howled, we stayed cozy and warm inside, but we spent the day staring at cell phone screens.  :)

My new iPhone is, I think, almost completely ready to roll.  I can tweak in some things, find some apps to put on it, I need a protective cover before I break/scratch it (although I like it a lot better without those covers on there), I still need to change around some screen photos and that type of thing, but it's now fully functioning with all my contacts, music playlists and all that good stuff.  So far not bad.  It's easy to use, because it works just like the iPad.  So, while usually the phones I've had do things I haven't figured out how to work, this one doesn't.  That's both good and...okay.  Siri is excellent.  Love Siri.  I can send voice texts and emails really easily with that, something my Droid never did very accurately.  I'd say something and it would get it wrong and I'd have to correct it, taking longer than if I'd just typed it in the first place.  It's also excellent on providing accurate info without having to use exact phraseology.  So Siri is a big plus.  I now have live ForeFlight on my phone now, another big ole plus.  It's a great backup for navigation, weather, etc. if my iPad dies for any reason.  It has my charts and plates as well as tracking, frequencies, etc.  It's nice to have.  Another nice thing is that my music playlists just automatically show up thanks to The Cloud, so I can use this as my iPod now and not have to worry so much that my other iPod has something wrong with it.  So, there are some definite pluses to go with it.  The minus is that it doesn't have as many options and choices and things you can do with it as the Droids do.  I'm not really sure I need those other things anyway, because I can't come up with a specific, other than cooler texting programs and stuff that doesn't really matter. I'll see what all I've got over the next few days.

Meanwhile, Kaylee now has my former Droid, which is way more phone than a kid needs, but there you have it.  She still needs to work on her contacts, but other than that, she's all set up.  Richard is getting Steve's former Droid, and it's pretty well set up for him, and Steve's new Razor is the last one that's not really very set up yet, because it stinks when you're the tech guy and you're working on everybody else's stuff when they get stuck on something.  ;)

Those paragraphs took up our entire day, and I get to go to bed early here for another 5 a.m. rise and shine show time.  Not that I'm complaining.  If the weather works out, I may be working on the formation stuff this Saturday, which means I need to help offset the fuel bill.  ;)

Seymour

My new iPhone 4s is up and running.  Did you know that phones these days are so smart that if you so much as turn them on, they deactivate your other phone and start activating themselves?  Yeah, I didn't know that either.  You used to have to call in and go through some rigmarole to get them activated. So I thought I'd turn the iPhone on and just LOOK at it...and then was without any phone at all, and basically locked out the phone contacts, texts, voicemails, and photos, making it so I can't just transfer them over.  However, Steve told me not to touch the thing until he was ready to set it up, so I've already heard enough about it to keep me from complaining and hearing more.  ;)  It's all set up now though, it's basically my iPad with a phone and a smaller screen, so using it isn't too tough so far; tomorrow Steve will probably set up his new Razor.

Here's how today was supposed to go.  I was going to fly the T-6 with Jon in the back down to Seymour for their fly-in, and we were going to sell rides at an event.  Then Nathan was going to fly the P-51 with Chuck in the back, and Steve take the RG and take the 3 kids down there.  Sounds fun, and no sweat!  Then that wasn't going to work, so we needed another pilot, but when we needed another pilot, we added a butt that we didn't have a seat for.  And then AE was going to take his airplane down so we were all covered again.  Yay!  And then AE decided to drive because of weather.  Phoo! So now, no matter what we did, we didn't have enough seats again.  All last night and all morning Steve was trying to arrange it to work out, calling other people who were all busy and couldn't come fly one of the other planes, and there just wasn't a good solution.  So instead, Nathan took the P-51 down with Steve in the back, and I took Gumby (the Aerostar) with the three kids, Justin and Jon. 

We flew down together, and the Mustang would be on the left, then the right, then behind, then around, etc.  Steve spent most of his time heads-down staring at the iPad in his lap and said he'd look up sometimes and he'd not be where he was the last time he looked.  The kids laughed, waved and made faces, and then didn't really think much about it after that.  They've been in the warbirds in formation more than once.  Now there's a sentence to ponder that I don't think a whole lot of folks could say.  :)  As we were cruising along, I spotted a Cessna not too far above us.  Nathan and I talked on the radio for a second, and then the CAP plane (it was close enough I could see it was a CAP plane) got on the radio and said "That's quite a sight." He asked where we were going, and then asked if we'd consider stopping at his home base to give him a ride "in that P-51".  Right.  ;)  We flew over the city of Seymour together, did a pass, then came in to land.  When I taxiied in, I saw the Tocano that I got to fly in Louisville, and a Christian Eagle that was at that same formation clinic, and a bunch of our Sheridan/Glenndale/Kokomo folks, and that was neat to catch up with some of those guys.  One older gentleman I didn't know came up to me at the Aerostar and asked if I flew that in, and I said yes, and he said "I wondered what on earth that was flying with a P-51. Never seen that before." I said he probably wouldn't see it again, either, as it's not exactly a normal configuration...

The photos are a little off on coloring and such, because the windows in the Aerostar don't have the best tinting for taking pictures through.  But I worked on them a bit, and you get the idea.  I like this one because you can see the window curtains and the wing, so you know it's not really zoomed in all that much.  :)

We didn't stay at Seymour long.  The weather was moving in to Kokomo, and while I'd be okay in the Aerostar, the Mustang didn't need to be rained on or flown actual IFR.  So we boogied out.  Nathan gave them a nice fare-thee-well, and we went our ways, making it home in time to fuel up the 340 for Monday's Dawn Mission, put everything away, and get settled in before the clouds moved down and the rain moved in.  The rest of the day was dreary and cold and gray, and after hanging out for a bit, we ended with too much food at Chili's, including a Chocolate Chip Paradise dessert, which has coconut and walnuts and chocolate and ice cream and...yum, man.  Good stuff.  I'm still full and it's been like 2.5 hours...

So, it was the Saturday that didn't go according to plan, was a little messed up, but it was good to support George and Karen, good to get out of the house and do something, good to get a little flying in, and it's never a bad day to watch a P-51 off your wing.  :)

Random quote for the day:
"Smart alecs seize the moment while others are busy being uptight.  Lighten up!"

Friday's Brief

Flew 1.2 this morning, and these mornings are starting to get chilly.  It's a little too early for that, too!  My after-lunch flight in the Champ canceled, which wasn't bad since it was a blustery crosswind, which he didn't need.  The final flight of the day was to St. Louis and back, and Steve went with me this time in the 340.  We had an empty plane to St. Louis, and he left-seated that, and then I left-seated the trip home while he did the talking.

It's Friday, but I didn't get home until 8 pm, and we'll be back up pretty early tomorrow morning, so it doesn't really feel like a weekend yet...

Some quotes:

A lighthearted one that any true reader will understand. :)
"That moment when you finish a book, look around, and realize that everyone is just carrying on with their lives as though you didn't just experience emotional trauma at the hands of a paperback."

A not-lighthearted one at all is next.  I don't know what this source is, but their description of going through a trauma is spot on as far as I'm concerned, not feeling anything at first, just a giant pause while your whole world stops for a second.  I'm not sure if it's good or bad that after the first one or two tragedies, that suspension comes to an end a lot faster than the first time it happens:
"In the presence of real tragedy you feel neither pain nor joy nor hatred, only a sense of enormous space and time suspended, the great doors open to black eternity, the rising across the terrible field of that last enormous, unanswerable question."

This quote, embarrassingly, came from Kathie Lee Gifford on Good Morning America.  Regardless of the source, the quote rings true:
"Love makes room for the other person’s dreams."

Bluster and Bluff

It was blustery today, but I got two out of the three flights in, both for 1.2.  The third person is working on the last five seconds of learning to land, and 25 knot wind gusts are not conducive to that point of the learning curve.  So...we waited that one out.

I took a political quiz at "isidewith.com", and ended up 88% in agreement with Gary Johnson.  Who on earth is Gary Johnson, you may ask?  Well, he's the Libertarian candidate.  Let me restate that I wish there was a way for more candidates to have a real shot at the White House other than just the usual D or R.  I don't know that it's going to happen anytime soon, though...

We watched the VP Debate, partly out of curiosity, partly out of force because there's nothing else on TV.  We only had to mute it at the end there, with the last stupid question of "What can you bring to this country as a man?"  Somebody online said they'd answer "A Pony!" which made me laugh.  One analyst said that Biden was acting like a guy sitting in his recliner at home sneering and shouting at the TV, while he was participating in the debate too.  That also made me laugh.  I swear somebody slipped him a note or something, somebody told him to chill out, because he was spazzing like a Junior-High Debate Teamer for the majority of the thing, and then at the end all of a sudden he quit smirking and laughing and huffing and interrupting and rolling his eyes and being all juvenile and started being quiet, serious, sincere, and mature.  I would just about bet that somebody caught his eye and waved their hands at him and made the symbol for CHILL OUT at him.

Kaylee wanted to cuddle when we got home, so we laid down on the couch, and we were talking and laughing for about half an hour...and then she passed out on me.  I didn't have a remote or anything to do, so I went ahead and went to sleep too.  Two hours later Steve came home and woke us up.  Yikes!  I guess we needed that, because I'm still yawning now, and I've even had caffeine since then.

Speaking of Kaylee, she re-wrote her essay, and it's in the post below this one, if you'd like to give it a read.  :)

Touching the Sky II

Kaylee had to re-write her paper for school, make it more first person, so she revised it thus, and got a 97% on it with a note of "Excellent!!  Good use of sensory details!"   So for grandparental reading pleasure...
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Touching the Sky

 

My breath caught in my throat as I looked up to the sky.  Being up here, it was a dream.  Then the view started to roll sideways, and for a moment I panicked.  Then I remembered; it was a dream.

 

Blinking open my eyes, I rolled over in my bed.  My hand crept out of the covers ever so slowly, searching for the lamp beside my bed.  Flipping it on, I crawled out of bed and jumped to the floor.  My bare feet were chilled to the bone by the coldness of the floor.  I was excited; we were going to the airport today!

 

About an hour later, we were at the airport.  I kept thinking of my dream.  My mom had told me the day before that we would be doing a barrel roll.  While they were setting things up, I went to the hangar and got out my scooter to ride.  Then I rode around the hangars of Kokomo Airport.

 

When everything was set up, Jon, who helps with maintenance on the airplanes, boosted me up to the wing of the T-6, a warbird that fought in World War II.  I opened the canopy and climbed into my seat.  Jon stepped up next to me, outside the canopy, and started buckling all the complicated straps and locks.

 

Finally, when my mom was in the front seat and had started it up, we were taxiing down the runway.  The next thing I knew, we were high above the city of Kokomo and climbing.  Once we had reached an altitude of 5,000 feet, she asked if I was ready.

 

"Ready as I'll ever be." I replied.

 

She maneuvered the plane upside down and did a small loop.  Expecting to see the clouds drifting across the sky, I looked up.  I saw small specks of black and white grazing in a field of lush green grass.  'What is that?'  is the only thought I could process before the scene changed back and we were level again.

 

As we were coming in for a landing, I realized they were cows.  I still tell jokes about it today.  I'll never forget the day I looked UP in a plane and saw cows staring back.  After that experience, I am always thinking of the clouds and the wide open expanse of sky.

Resistance is Futile

Well, I can say that my plan to fly an approach off of the right side instruments only in the 340 yesterday showed a...weakness.  From my seat, I can't read the little numbers on the Aspen very well at all.  I can't even see the first digit of the airspeed, as it's blocked by the angle of my seat and the instrument, but if you know in general where you are and squint and stare you can get the last two digits of the airspeed that are "big", the active number, and the rest I can't see.  The altitude on the other side is just as bad, I can't read it.  So.  To see my airspeed, altitude, and heading, I would have to do one of two things: look way in the left corner of my panel at the Trilogy, then look back over to the right side of the panel for the ILS needle, and I can tell you how well THAT goes, or skip the airspeed altogether and assume it's close enough, ignore the heading and just follow the needle, and just look down on the lower right side of the panel for the manual altimeter, and go back and forth between that and the ILS needle. The DG headings are also too small to read over there.   The ILS/VOR/GPS needle is sort of hard to watch from the left too, though doable.  Thaaaat's an awkward set-up.  It would be fine in a two-pilot environment where then the right seat guy could just take over, but if you're single pilot, IFR, and you lose the G500, (and after everything that's failed on me in aviation, nobody's going to convince me that this couldn't happen), you have a bit of a workload on your hands.  I did it--VFR at night with no real problem to actually have to contend with--but it sure wasn't smooth, and I wandered some.  I'd not like to try it to minimums.

A.) Stephen King has a novel out called "Cell".  In it, a "pulse" goes out across the cellular network, and anyone who uses their cellphone gets basically reprogrammed and turned into mindless violent zombies who then begin to congregate and organize.  The only people spared were those who didn't use cell phones.  Children, old people, hermits, and "eccentric" folks, basically.  When I first read that, I thought to myself, "self, I don't know the practical application of that vs silly zombies, but there's actually something there, considering the number of people in America using such technologies."
B.) So, my phone is due for a free upgrade, and we've been looking into what to get.  I like my Droid, and I like my keyboard, but I have an iPad and an iPod and if I had an iPhone, I could sync them, I could put ForeFlight as a backup unit on my phone, and it would have some benefits for me.  Since I'm not a heavy duty phone-function-user, in other words I mostly look at my email, text, and look up stuff on a browser, and that's about it, nothing fancy, it doesn't really matter what phone I have, as long as it does the above just fine.  So, I now have an iPhone 4S on its way, and it should arrive on Friday.
C.) The first thing I thought about was how I was now being fully assimilated into the Apple Sheeple Factory.  Which made me think that if a bad guy was going to do something to a group of people via cellphone, a massive market to hit would be the iGuys.  I then told myself that I read too many books.  Which I then acknowledged to myself, while still being unable to wipe out the thought of being mind-programmed by my new iPhone.  Sometimes a vivid imagination isn't always for the best.  ;)  Darn you, Stephen King!

When I picked up Kaylee from school, she was hungry, so we drove over to Culvers for a corn dog and some ice cream.  I was in the drive through line, and a song came on we liked, so I jokingly started dancing around in the seat.  Kaylee says "Mom.  Stop that."  I looked at her and said "Why?"  She said "That is really Not Cool."  I said "But you do it."  And she said "Yeah, but it's a little more awkward when you're, like FORTY."  HAhahah.  I made it until she was almost 12 years old before she started getting embarrassed by me in public.  Cheers, folks!!

Hard at Work

Two sleeping passengers, 250 knots groundspeed, smooth air, quiet radios, XM tunes to keep me company, the glow of the panel in the dark, two perfectly humming engines, and clusters of city lights and stars twinkling all around. Peace.

Back To It

I'm so drowsy I'm having trouble focusing long enough to write.  I guess Mondays can do that to you, particularly Mondays where you get up at 5:15 in the morning after having trouble falling asleep the night before.  :)

The stars were still out and bright when I got the 340 out for the trip to St. Louis this morning.  The sun was just coming up and hitting the Arch when we got there, and it was a clear, smooth morning, just really pretty flying.  I was home by 10:15 a.m., in plenty of time to get the plane ready for tomorrow's flight back out there.  I used today as a good practice day--on the way out of St. Louis, I decided to hand fly everything until I was up at altitude and bored.  They kept me busy enough with heading and altitude and frequency changes almost constantly, usually at the same time, then had me intercept a leg of the departure, all good stuff, and easy enough. There is only one time that it's tougher to hand fly that plane, and that's when you're switching fuel tanks.  The selectors are on the floor, I can't see them without bending way over, and you can't just feel them real well because there aren't any indents, and if you miss, you'll kill your engine.  So being bent over sideways with your eyes on the floor is not a great way to stay straight and level. Not the best fuel management system, particularly since you have to switch tanks so many times in there if you're going any distance, but it works.  On the way back into Kokomo I had them give me the ILS 23 so I could get one of those in too, set it up to verbally announce "minimums", all of it.  It's still really really hard to goof up an approach on that G500.  I think next time I'll turn off the G500 and try to fly off the right side instruments...in VFR conditions first.  ;)

This afternoon I had a flight in the Champ out at Glenndale, doing a little crosswind learning-to-land take offs and landings.  The winds weren't real strong, but they were very variable and lightly gusty, and down by the trees it was throwing the poor little Champ around a little bit.  I kind of enjoyed the thought that I started off the day in the IFR system in a pressurized twin in busy Class B airspace and ended the day in an airplane I had to hand prop, no radio at all, off a grass strip.  Two different ends of the flying spectrum, and both fun in their own ways.

There was something else I was going to talk about, but I'm so sleepy I've been staring at this for an hour and drawing a blank.  So, flying it is for today, sorry, and on to tomorrow.

These are two good quotes for the day, one old and one new to me, good reminders if someone is feeling...small...unsure...not quite themselves...
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"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength." ~Author Unknown

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."

Ahh

I didn't get up until oh-I-needed-that-thirty this morning, and when I got up, Kaylee was still asleep on the couch.  She and Steve camped out in the living room last night, falling asleep with the TV on, something they like to do together every once in awhile on a weekend.  It's getting harder on his back, but he enjoys the time together, and we all know that's not something she'll want to do for too many more years.  She turns 12 years old in just a few months here, and the quality time we get to spend with her like that is going to start being fleeting.  That's the goal, for her to grow up and lead her own life, but that doesn't mean you won't miss things like her hanging out and playing at the airport on a Saturday afternoon, or cuddling on the couch.  It's such a cliche to say they grow up too fast, but...they do!

I got my logbook back caught up, it was a whopping week behind, ;), and filled out the rest of the CAF paperwork.  This was the paperwork where they wanted to know every airplane I've ever flown, the date I last flew it, how many hours PIC and how many landings in each of those airplanes.  It took me hours to come up with even a reasonable guestimate.  I did not enjoy that.  I saved a copy of it too, so if I have to update it over the years, I have somewhere decent to start with.  This is also the first time I've ever listed P-51 time on anything.  It bugs Steve that I won't list P-51 time on the NATA forms.  :)  I just don't want to claim something...lamely.  But the time I have actually flying the Mustang from the back seat and a brief period of time where I was the legal 'instructor' in there does technically count as legal PIC time, even though I'm not checked out in it, because I'm sole manipulator of the controls and rated in the plane (Single engine land, and though you don't need them to log PIC any more, the high performance, complex and tailwheel endorsements).  So for this form I went ahead and listed those hours, along with the last time I flew it, which was four years ago this month, and how many landings I have in it, which is zero.  (Some day before I have to hang up my pilot license for good, I'd love to be able to make that a "1", make it a little more...legit...I guess.  One for the bucket list. :))  Anyway, I got the paperwork all filled out, sealed up and on its way, and now we wait to see what headquarters has to say about what they need to do to get me officially signed off to fly and instruct in there.  Normally you have to get a checkout from a specific guy in Texas, of all places.  They're hoping to shortcut that because of my overall experience level, because there's already a student for the PT-26 who has been waiting for awhile, but...we'll have to see what they say.  Honestly, if I were them, I probably wouldn't do that.  Just because someone has a fair amount of time doesn't mean they're any good.  I'm proof of that.  ;)

We all got a fair amount done today, while still relaxing.  I watched the Colts come from way behind to win, and watched Peyton Manning come back from getting creamed to just losing respectably.  We're going to play a game of Yahtzee, and then I'm going to have to hit the hay early, as I have to be up at 5:15 a.m. for a trip to St. Louis...

Plans

What I was supposed to do verses what I actually ended up doing today were two different things, but I'm good with how it went.  I was supposed to fly the T-6 to Terre Haute for their fly-in.  It didn't work out.  Instead I was at Kokomo Airport for the day. 

A gentleman from Arizona that I met on a pilot forum on the internet who was in town anyway for a different reason stopped in to fly the Cub, and I sent him off with Ty, because Ty still folds up better in there than I do.  ;)  (Actually because I didn't think I'd be there, since I was supposed to be in Terre Haute, and once I figured out I wasn't , it seemed too much hassle to change.)  I did a quick flight in the RG by myself, then went with Nathan in the 340 for a half hour or so flight.  I woke up on the wrong side of the bed for some reason, had trouble shaking it.  Even the flights didn't totally fix me, though it helped.   Eventually what did it is that we went out to Indian Hills for dinner, and man, we had a ton of good food.  Cheesy potatoes, baked potatoes with all the "fixins", BBQ pork, pork tenderloin, corn, veggies, tons of desserts, my plate was full, we sat around and talked "stuff", and flying stuff, and tailwheel stuff, and teaching stuff, and by the time we got home I was actually back to my usual good mood.  ;)

Kaylee played out at Kokomo for the day, while Steve piddled, organized and messed.  Tomorrow I don't think we have anything planned but relaxation.  There is a fly-in lunch at Noblesville, which we like to support when we can, but I highly doubt I'm going to want to pull out the 340, pull out the T-6, fuel up the T-6, push back in the 340, fly to Noblesville, eat lunch alone, then fly home, pull out the 340, put away the T-6, put back the 340, and lock up.  An awful lot of hassle there.  ;)  Seriously--it's good to take a day off and just unwind in peace...

Brrr Rah Rah Brr

We arrive, in the cold, the dark and the rain, sitting on wet metal bleachers, we huddle under our umbrellas and we watch the first half of the game, with wet butts and slowly going numb extremities.  Ah, Friday night football!

 

 

The rain comes down pretty hard for most of the evening.  I really feel for the boys out on the field! 

When it came time for the girls to start cheering for the third quarter, this is part of the Wall of Moms who went up to the fence, blocking the view for everyone else, taking pictures of their kids cheering.   Nobody on the bleachers could see past the Wall of Moms.

Hard to see, but Kaylee is in the green Gortex water-proof jacket and the Eastern shirt in the middle center of the picture, in the midst of a cheer.  It was too cold for even the cheerleaders to be wearing anything but sweatsuits.  It started at 45 degrees and went down from there, with that nice icy steady rain.

However, Kaylee had a good time.  She did a nice job with the cheering, a smile on her face, nice and loud, nice energy.  She enjoyed the game, she liked everything except sitting in the bleachers freezing up to the point she got to go cheer.  It took some parts of my body well over an hour to dethaw, and I layered up and prepared as best I could.  Since I knew all their chants and cheers, I almost went down there with them to keep myself warm, too!  :)

We came home and she made us some hot chocolate, and thus ends Laura's First Football Game and Sixth Grade Cheer Clinic, 2012.  :)