Ramble

We played with some crosswind landings in the Champ this morning for about 1.2, and then I took it up by myself, just because. I've only been the one flying it myself a couple of times, so I figured it would be good to go up and do some stuff, lean it out a little, exercise it a bit more than just running in the pattern all the time...

After lunch was an instrument lesson, shooting VOR approaches.  I do think it's kind of funny that an instrument instructor gets to log all of those approaches for their own currency, even though they're not under the hood, not actually doing the work, just sitting there watching somebody else do it.  I'm current on my own doing real approaches anyway at the moment, but it is kind of ironic.

Tonight Kaylee is at a Youth Group event at a friend's church, hopefully enjoying herself.  It's a 3-hour event, so we'll see how it goes, her first time at this particular church.  The last time she went with a friend to a church function, it didn't go very well.  It was a Mennonite church, but the girls in the group were really, really mean to Kaylee, among other problems.  Totally took me by surprise coming from such a conservative sect, but it really hurt her, and I can't think about it too much or I'll get mad all over again, which nobody around here needs.  ;)  But I just got a text from her five minutes ago and she was all "smiles", so that's great.  People are disparaging about kids with cell phones, but it's helped a lot as she goes to functions, events, trips, etc., even school, to keep us in touch.  The other day she texted me from the bus to let me know that there had been a car wreck in front of them and the bus was going to be really late.  I texted another mom to warn her, and she went to all the cars in the parking lot and let the moms know.  Otherwise there'd have been some worried or angry parents when the bus was 20 minutes late.  When she was at a sleepover and feeling weird, we could talk for a little bit in private, and she was then okay.  When she goes somewhere and needs picked up early, she can let me know.  So...it has its definite advantages.

It's not quite the end of the year, but it's close.  I did not have the best year, and no, I'm not expanding on or explaining that.  But I hit a rough patch with some things important to me that lasted about six months.  One of those things where the hits keep on comin', until you're sort of just...hanging on.  It took another 4-5 months before I really added it up and fully realized it, but when the realization clicked in, that in itself was immediately helpful, and over the last month or so I've been able to mostly...recover. That's life, right?  In the meantime, I've been grateful this year that our family has been healthy (I don't think anybody's even had a COLD, even Kaylee in the germ-factory called school), that business has been pretty busy, and that so far we've had another mild fall-headed-into-winter, which I personally highly appreciate.  ;)

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Country Bumpkin

It was 27 degrees again this morning.  This morning's flight was in the Champ without the starter, and it hadn't been pre-heated either.  I was running through options in my head and none of them worked well.  I can't be the person to hand prop the airplane, because my arms/back won't let me right now.  But I can't reach the primer from the back seat and hold the brakes at the same time.  And if I sat in the front seat until we got it running, then I'd have to get out and we'd have to switch seats with it running.  All bad choices.  So I called Ty, and he and Chuck both came out and helped us get started and on our way.  :)  The winds were a little bumpier than they looked, ended up moving around from down the runway to being a 30-40 degree crosswind, at 12 knots, which you actually do feel in the Champ.  It was hard to get consistent, comfortable landings in, and it was at the edge of solo conditions, but finally the landings were there, so I hopped out and off he went.  It was really neat that he got to solo--he's been working on this for awhile, had some struggles, and it was a dream come true for him.  He told me that once he got off the ground, he whooped and yelled in the airplane.  I thought I heard something.  ;)  The flight was stopped a little shorter than planned because the engine started sounding rough and I saw black smoke coming from the exhaust--only to find out it was a simple fix, the primer hadn't gotten locked in.  That's easy to do when you need to use the primer to keep the engine running on the ground when the throttle is back right after you land.  But he did well, and was very excited, I even got a hug out of it, and I was glad to be able to send him some photos of his first solo take off and landing.  In fact, here he is on his first takeoff, going by overhead....and another pilot is set loose on the world.  :)

I've said this before, but it's good to know who you are. I enjoy flying into any airport.  I like them busy, I like them small, I like IFR, I like severe clear days, I like grass strips, I like about all of it.  But when it comes to flying for a day to day living, I like wearing jeans and sweatshirts, I like flying into small places and playing Courtesy Car Bingo, I like traveling into town and finding somewhere new and different to eat, I like working with students, I like being relaxed and under the radar.  I even liked the funny look I got from the line guy last week when two of us got out of the plane but I was the one to get back in and taxi it over to the fuel pump and start filling it up.  I don't like dealing with TSA, with red tape, with uniforms, with crowds, with formal...hububub.  Every once in awhile I revisit choices, revisit the thought of flying for the bigger boys as the industry cycles around to more positive, etc., but I really don't think I'd enjoy it very much, and it would take away all the fun things I do enjoy about flying.  Always good to remember and know that...

Tripping

Steve's alarm was the one that went off at 4:45 this morning.  For me, sleeping in until 6:15 was almost a luxury after the last couple of days.  ;)  He and Nathan and several other folks loaded up in the Cheyenne and went to Florida for the day, making it back around 8 p.m. after getting a little sunshine and good food in.  Steve brought back some beautiful seashells, starfish, etc. for Kaylee (thanks Nathan) and she was thrilled.  They're still spread out on our floor, where they should not be, because I am the most likely person in this house to trip on and/or crush them.  But they're beautiful...

I'd had a student who had scheduled me both Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, and then I had to bump them for MBros flights.  So today I took him with me in the 340 to Aurora so he could get a little twin time, a new experience, etc.  We flew up to the Chicago area and left the plane there for its annual inspection, and a guy came up in the RG and picked us up.  I got back in time for lunch, then was back up in the 172.  An instrument student felt their regular flying skills were rusty, so wanted to go up and do some stuff.  We hit emergencies, full slips to landing, and a bunch of different stalls, and had a good time. 

My arms were feeling better, so I hadn't done the electric probe thingy (TENS unit) on my back for a couple of days.  The doctor who gave it to me saw me today and said "When you start feeling better you're going to quit doing it--don't.  Reduce the frequency, but keep it up until the pain is completely gone and your strength is back."  I laughed, because that's exactly what I had done.  So tonight I hooked it back up, but also tonight I'm hurting pretty good again.  I'm not sure if it was yesterday's workout or today when I had trouble locking the door on the 340 the 3 or 4 times I had to do it and really strained, but just sitting here they ache greatly, hurt to move again.  What a pain.  (No pun intended.)  The day or two of relief helped though.

This morning when it was time to leave for school, Kaylee was snuggling up to me in bed, and when I said "It's time to go", she said "But Daddy hasn't come in and told us it's time to leave yet."  I told her "Daddy's gone, remember, to Florida?"  She said "Are you going anywhere today?"  I said that yes, I was going to the Chicago area, but I'd be back to pick her up from school.  She huffed and said "That's not fair.  You guys are off going places and I'm stuck here.  Doing math."  I told her that we weren't off on vacation or anything, we were working, and she shot me this look of disgust and said "Yeah.  Right. Florida. Working."   She's right, there, I was the only one workin' today.  But I just laughed.  I should have said we've already done 6th grade math class thank you, and when she's 40 or 52 years old she can go on a day trip to Florida too if she wants.  ;)

Everyone but me is asleep and I should be...

Still More Missouri

The first time I have to get up at five something a.m. I'm usually okay.  The second time, not so much. That held true today as I struggled my way out of a really heavy pre-dawn dream.  I get all ready for a shower only to find that there's no hot water.  Not even residual warm water by which you could do a quick dunking.  It was COLD.  Not being a Marine or a masochist, I can't do that.  This is not a real pleasant start to the day, but at least when I got outside the stars were still out and the temps were well below freezing.  ;)  We had a nice 40 knot headwind on the way there, but the weather is nice enough, the heater works, I have plenty of gas, and we were quite early for his mandatory bid meeting, so, no problem.  We listened to music, talked, flew, read up on a few things, and had a nice flight to Boonville, Missouri. 

The airport at Boonville does not have mirrors in any of the bathrooms, which is probably a good thing considering the last time I saw my hair it looked a bit like frizzed-out straw.  I knew they had fuel here, and it said "self-service after 2000", so we parked in a normal spot only to find out they don't have a truck for prior to 2000 either. That was a bit of a bummer as it is about 0 degrees C here and my back/arms are an issue and I didn't want to stand outside and fuel up my own airplane today.  Of course you don't always get what you want, so I taxiied it back over to the pump, which like a pump is supposed to do at least allowed me to choose to fill up all on one card swipe for over 100 gallons at a pop, put on my gloves, grabbed the ladder, and went to town on four fuel tanks. By the time I was done, my hands-in gloves-were frozen and I couldn't feel them. Fortunately my arms are better today than they have been so I didn't have to wait for D to get back and do it for me and put us 20 minutes or more behind.  Unfortunately it probably didn't help any, either, hauling and lifting and twisting and pushing, minor things you never think about until they hurt to do them.  But so far I'm okay, so hopefully it's on the mend now anyway.

I had a couple of hours to kill, so took their courtesy car, and he gave me directions to the nearby McDonald's, Taco Bell, etc.  Now I am not going someplace new and eating at McDonald's unless it's the only thing in town.  That's just wrong.  Today's Courtesy Car Bingo Contestant had a "check engine" light that wouldn't go out, and some other amber symbol lit up that is probably not good, but the car ran okay and had a police-style spotlight on the left side that you could control via a handle inside the car. That works!  I went driving around, bypassed McDonald's, and found a little place called "Route B Cafe". From the outside it looked small, but once you got inside you realized the building was larger than it looked.  The main room had high ceilings, and vents and ducts like a factory up there.  The walls were covered in license plates and rows and rows and rows of ballcaps.  The sign by the door said "If you are a non-smoker, go around to the room on the left."  The main area was for smokers, and the non-smoking room around the corner was small, had maybe six tables or so.  Heh.  But they had real food.  Real bacon, extra crispy, real hashbrowns, perfectly over-medium eggs, and real butter, and all for $6 including coffee.  The place was packed out with the older generation, the coffee was really good, and all was right with my world again.  ;)


The flight home was modocking.  We went up to FL210 (that's 21,000' for you civilians ;)) and had about a 70 knot tailwind. I took pictures of our groundspeed up there, and once we started our descent it went up to 299 knots, which I think I got a photo of too.  When I get my own computer back, I'll download the photos and see. It was so cold out there the windows were getting a nice frosting of ice.  It was a really nice, and fast, flight home, arriving as the sun was just going down...

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Two hundred and ninety nine knots, man.  It was in a descent, but still pretty.

 

 

Little ice crystals on the window, looks like a pretty winter wonderland.  :)

More Missouri

Up just after 5 a.m. this morning, heading back out to the airport in the dark.  We took off for St. Louis again, and I watched the sun come up while D did all the flying, which is actually tougher to do than doing the flying yourself.  When I get up early and it's dark and you're droning along and not having to do any radios, any flying, anything, it's tougher to stay awake and alert.  We had a nice tailwind on the way home, doing 227 knots.  I had another flight this evening, ending after dark and right as it began spitting a little bit of snow, doing instrument stuff.  I'll have to head to bed early again here tonight, because I'll be getting back up after 5 a.m. tomorrow morning for a longer trip to central Missouri, some place called Glasgow.  Which reminds me, I ought to go look up the airport and see what we've got.

Kaylee got to sleep at a reasonable hour Sunday night, and she didn't do too badly getting up at 6:15 this morning.  She came home happy from school because she had no homework at all, and got a grades update that showed she still has all As.  So, she was pleased.  I'm thinking tomorrow might not be as nice, getting up early that second day in a row is tougher, and they'll probably have a lot of homework to make up for the holiday and break they've had until now.  I might have to take her out for ice cream tomorrow after school.  Well, if I'm back by then, anyway, which is iffy.

I'm tired, haven't felt well today, and ought to go file a flight plan for tomorrow and think about getting to bed.  Exciting, huh?  ;)

Hodge Podge

We arrived back home around 7:00 pm or so, which gives me about 12 hours before I'm back wheels-up and heading back to Missouri.

We enjoyed our stay in Missouri, spending time with family and relaxing and eating too much and sleeping in and watching movies and reading books and playing games and hanging out.  Kaylee decided she needed a little white noise to sleep, so we gave her the fan out of our room, but we like to sleep to white noise too, so after a few minutes of silence in our room, Steve pulled out his phone and we found an app for that.  ;)  It had a fan, a train, rainfall, thunderstorm, and an airplane engine.  The rain made us feel like we'd have to go to the bathroom, the train was too clackety, and the fan wound up and down which wasn't white noise enough.  But the airplane engine worked just fine, which we found some irony in.  So the rest of the nights we'd plug in the phone, turn on the airplane engine noise, and get a good night's sleep.

My mom and Ernie have moved into the era of high speed internet!  Woot!  They even have wireless...next step, figuring out what their password is so they can share it.  :)  See--once you go fast, you don't ever go back!

When we got home, the kitties were happy to see us.  Kaylee gave them hugs and petted on them, and then said "Hey, it's nice, these cats will let me pet them!"  Her kitty cousins in Missouri are a little more shy of her, of course, as they don't know her as well, so she had some kitty snuggling to make up for.

The weather for today was severe clear and no airspace, so I just flew us home VFR with a nice little tailwind, putting us at about 210 knots groundspeed. We flew over Nathan's house to let him know his airplane was back home, and called Kokomo's FBO to make sure they stayed so I could fuel up the 340 for tomorrow morning's flight, and we were back in business.

Yesterday we went to a couple of gun shops, where we looked at and handled several options on a carry-and-conceal weapon that might work for me. I have kind of small hands, and I'd want something lightweight that packs enough of a punch, so we found several options that look pretty good.  On to a little research...

On the topic of guns, Kaylee's had several firearms 'lessons' over the years, including doing a little shooting a few times, and tonight she had another lesson on a couple of the guns that we have.  The biggest lesson of all is not to touch them, but since too many firearms accidents happen due to kids playing and uninformed (and unsecured firearms), that's one of the things to address, ground rules to reinforce, and like anything else, repetition on what to do and not to do.  She seems to have the right attitude thus far.  Willingness to listen and learn, and distinct respect for them.

I did get a few photos, didn't take a lot, but here are some...

Taking off out of St. Louis Wednesday night at sunset to head back to Kokomo, before heading back out of Kokomo to Cape Girardeau for the holiday.

 

 

 

A sign on mom's wall that I enjoyed.  There's a whole discussion waiting to be had on this one, but I'm not in the mood, so I'll just post it.  ;)

 

 

 

Painton Airport in Painton, MO.  That's the hill at the end of the grass strip, and that little yellow experimental "Cat" is one of few airplanes I don't think you could pay me to get in and fly.  I thought that after just looking at it, but after hearing it's sat for years, well, definitely not.  It's almost smaller than I am, which violates Laura's Flight Rule #1.  It's also sat unflown for years, which violates Laura's Flight Rule #2.  See, Laura likes flying, but Laura does not like crashing...

 

 

 

The boys working on the C-150, tweaking in the carburetor, looking at the flames that occasionally shoot out, or the black smoke, or the fuel dripping.  Then we swapped places and I took over cockpit duties while Steve stood outside, observed, and tweaked. 

 

 

 

So you go away on vacation, and where do you end up?  A quiet, pretty grass strip airport, of course!  ;)  It's really pretty, peaceful country out there.  Here's an oil train going by on the tracks right by the runway.  It looks a little barren, but it's actually lovely.  At least to me.

Mom & Kaylee playing checkers, after Parcheesi (sp) and checkers and a bunch of other games.  Kaylee wore that multi-colored robe all weekend, I think!

Mom, this is not Facebook, so you're pretty safe.  There are probably only about three people who read this blog and who will see this picture, one of whom is you.  But personally, I think it's awesome.  :)  :)

Turkey

I hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving holiday break! We spent a quiet, peaceful Thanksgiving Day at home, watching a little football, eating too much good food, which got on the table all at the same time, which is a resounding success and perhaps modern miracle, and napping. I'm not sure that I "napped" as much as that I went back to bed for awhile there. I was exhausted, slept for hours, and then still went to bed by 1 a.m. again. So I guess I needed that. I read a book, we watched a movie, and all in all spent the day nicely. Kaylee & Mom have been baking cookies and playing games today, and Steve, Ernie and I went out to Painton Airport where the C-150 lives now, to "tweak" a problem, take it up and around, go to a gun shop and look for something, and come home. Instead we spent hours starting and stopping and "tweaking" the 150 to no avail, finally giving up as the sun went down. By then we were cold, tired and hungry, so we just came on home where there were fresh homemade cookies and a warm room to relax in. On the other hand, I am completely caught up and refreshed on how to operate a C-150 on the ground. ;)

A friend of Mom & Ernie, named Phil, painted a picture of me, for me.  I've never met Phil, but he cares about my parents, and through them he has taken an interest in and, well, pride of, me.  So he looked at a few photos, and sat down and painted a portrait of me standing in front of the T-6 with a flight suit on, and then up in the sky he put several cracks...cracks in the proverbial glass ceiling.  What's even more sweet about what he's done is that he has Parkinson's Disease, and has a difficult time doing much of anything. I'm honored--how cool is that??

I was reading the story of one of the top German fighter pilots of WWII, and it was interesting because he was average in his class, wasn't a quick learner at all, and was kept back a time or two on missions and such.  And then one day he decided he was going to master the aircraft, and he did.  He said it was like there was a rope between him and the Lead airplane, and no matter what they did or where they went, he was there, a few feet away, right side up, in a dive, upside down, didn't matter. But nobody would give him a chance in combat because of his history of slow learning.  He was transferred from group to group where his reputation would precede him, and they'd make him sit out missions.  And then a new commander came in who didn't know him, let him fly, and told the others that he was the best guy he had flying for him.  This pilot said "All you need is a break."  A little later he said it again, regarding something else. "All you need is a break."  Isn't that the truth? A chance, a break, an opportunity, a little luck, a gift.  By the same token though, you have to be ready for it. It doesn't do you any good to get a break if you have to stand there and watch it go by...he went on to fly wounded, with an amputated leg, got the most kills of any pilot in the war, etc.  And his Mom wrote the forward for his book, where she said "For all mothers out there--I had to hold his hand during a thunderstorm until he was 12 years old. He was afraid and cautious of everything. You never can know..."  Made me smile, anyway, and it was interesting reading about a pilot from the other side of the war...

Well, back to food, family and relaxing, for another day.  :)

Wednesday

Instead of having a very busy morning of flying, I woke up to fog again. Steve got a message on his phone that Kaylee's school was having a 2-hour delay, so I just cheered and went back to sleep for another 2 hours. I had just gotten Kaylee up and fed some oatmeal, when I went on Facebook and saw that her school posted six minutes ago "School canceled due to fog, travel safely and have a good holiday!" I told Kaylee she was free for the whole day, and we were all had a little happy dance over it.

Every year, the day before Thanksgiving, one of the hangar guys hosts a lunch for airport folks. The Board, some local politicians, friends, us, etc. He told me last year and this year both that I'm the only woman he's ever invited to this thing. I joked that it may have something to do with the fact that I fly more than the rest of them put together. :) It's always excellent food, and we always enjoy!

My student was able to resolo even with a bit of crosswind, and then I had to chase all the guys parked in the taxiway off so that I could get the 340 out to fly to St. Louis. D and I flew down and picked up a couple guys to bring them back to Kokomo, and the sun was setting over the city most beautifully. We landed and there was a little fog starting to form at Kokomo. Steve put away the 340 for me while I preflighted the Aerostar, then we pulled that out, loaded it up, and launched right back for Missouri. When we took off, the visibility had dropped to one mile, and you could see the fog around the runway lights. It was pretty cool looking, honestly. The flight was smooth and uneventful, and we finally made it to Cape, got some late dinner, and are now divided up and relaxing. Kaylee's playing cards with Grandma, Steve & Ernie are talking airplanes (of course), and I'm writing this (of course). ;) But now it's time to do the muscle thing on my back because it's really hurting right now, and go to bed soon...

Spaz

That TENS unit feels pretty weird on my back muscles.  I've got four electrodes stuck on, upper and lower back, and I'm sitting here typing with it going. It's impossible to relax though because my muscles keep contracting.  I hope it helps.

All my flights today went off as planned, weather held off, lots of good stuff accomplished.  Tomorrow's 8 a.m. flight in the PT-26 is canceled due to Dennis's busy work schedule, but that's okay, because my schedule is packed out for tomorrow too, so I won't mind starting a little later.  I want to fly the PT, but doing it right as the sun comes up and right at the start of a day flying straight through until 9-10 p.m. is a little rough for this not-early-bird.

I think I'll catch up on my logbook and go pack a bag for Thanksgiving.  Let the holiday begin--after a very long day tomorrow, anyway.  :)

Boringly Busy

Today and tomorrow are basically booked up with students.  I started at 9 something a.m. and finished at 9 p.m., and tomorrow is the same.  Well, sort of--today I had a lunch break and tomorrow Chuck's bringing me a sammich because I have no breaks in between flights all day.  That Chuck, whatta guy.  :)  Wednesday starts with a flight at 8 a.m., students until it's time to pick up Kaylee from school, then hopping in the 340 and flying her and Steve to Mom & Ernie's, then me over to St. Louis at 6 pm to pick up a MBros fellow and take him back to Kokomo, then maybe hopping in something else and coming back down to Cape for Thanksgiving late Wednesday night.  Yep, just a tad busy!

One of my students brought me a TENS unit to use on my neck/back to hopefully help with the "nerve impingement".  Steve is a little too eager to get his hands on the controller unit.  :O  :)

Fun Flights

I took the T-6 out this afternoon for a formation flight, and man was it a gorgeous day for it.  We briefed via text message, then met up in the air over another airport.  I was the third of four to arrive, and as I joined up on the other two, I looked up at the airplanes off my wing and the blue sky behind them and couldn't help but smile as I slipped into place.  That's a pretty cool feeling.  We flew for about an hour, and their plan was to do another flight after that with a different Lead, but I headed home instead.  I'd gotten a flight in with all the maneuvers to keep myself from getting too rusty, and so that I wasn't turning down too many of the invitations that I'd been getting, but doing it for another hour today wouldn't have gained me as much as it cost.

I enjoyed today.  No pressure, friendly banter, it all went really smoothly, I didn't hear my gear horn once, ;), and even better, after the 3rd or 4th time in a row now, I think I may have finally regained my nice smooth 3-point landings that I'd been missing.  Just for that I'm going to have to toast myself with a mini chocolate bar from Halloween candy leftovers and a Diet Coke and enjoy the feeling of success however briefly it lasts.  ;)

I took this picture because it shows how little my feet are.  The rudder pedals in this plane are big, and there's a gap between them and the floor.  If I keep my heels on the floor, which you sort of need to do most of the time, then only the pad of my foot and my toes reach the rudders.  That's why my ankles, shins and feet will hurt after a day full of flying.  (They'd hurt worse when I used to shove both my feet against the pedals really hard the whole time in tension.)  So on takeoff, landing, and anytime I may need full rudder travel, I pick up my feet/legs and hold them up on the pedals, like a little kid. It doesn't affect me any that I know of, it's never been a problem or anything, just kind of funny.  Whatever works, right?!

Okay, if I were a guy I probably couldn't post this without sounding like a girl.  But since I am a girl, I'm going to post it anyway.  I just got a text from "Lead" on the formation flight from this afternoon, and he said "Thanks for coming. You are a great addition to our group.  Love your flying!  You are a great stick.  One can really tell you have a good grasp of everything."  Now don't get me wrong--I've flown with a guy or two who makes me look like a kindergartner in the airplane and in formation, and I know I have a ways to go.  But that still gave me a feel-good warm-and-fuzzy smile for the day.  :)

Richard & Ann departed the area to the South today, heading for warmer pastures.  Prayers for a safe trip for them--I'm sure they are looking forward to meeting up with their friends and family and working on their projects down there!

A couple of Physical Therapists agreed on it being the nerve impingement in my upper back.  I've been doing the stretching exercises, and it'll help, but it's not cleared up yet.  If I do something to aggravate it, it is pretty painful and I can't seem to do anything to make it feel better for quite awhile.  Right now it hurts from several otherwise mundane things I had to do--the twisting force involved in taking off a difficult oil cap and two fuel caps, parachute and shoulder harnesses, etc.  I can feel the sharp pain in the back of my neck/spine down by my shoulders, and feel shooting pain in both arms.  I suppose I ought to take a pain killer/anti-inflammatory, come to think of it.  They suggested massage, a chiropractor familiar with sports medicine, or continuing to do the stretching/range-of-motion exercises on my own.  It's going to really feel good when this thing finally breaks loose and lets go!

Well, here are a few photos from the last couple of days...

Welcome to Harbor Springs, Michigan, land of Fog and Ice.  It has just cleared up when I took this picture, and within an hour after we left, it was fogged over again...

We had a pretty sunset on the way home.  My camera never caught a good shot of it, but it had very vivid colors of dark red, orange, gold, etc.  Beautiful.

The city of Kokomo below, sunset above.

Fingernails in a T-6, it just seemed photo worthy at the moment. ;)

Bingo

First the boring flying stuff:  I went to bed last night with a sense of unease about today's weather.  I knew the forecast was calling for 600', but when I went to bed, a couple of areas in central Michigan were already low IFR, and I doubted that I'd get lucky.  I set up my phone to show me Harbor Spring's weather, and went to sleep.  I woke up on my own at 5 a.m., pulled my phone over, and it said my airport was VFR.  I was shocked, and pleased, and then I thought "no way" and I looked at nearby airports--and they were all low IFR.  As in 100' and 1/4 mile and fog kind of low.  There were three airports that were still VFR, and they were three right by where I was going.  Problem was, the dewpoint and temp were less than one degree apart, the humidity was 96%, and there was no good reason whatsoever for those airports to stay VFR.   When launch time came, our airport was still calling for VFR and forecasting for no lower than 600', but I told them I didn't think there was any way that airport was going not going to drop below minimums too, and if it did there was nowhere within the entire state where we could land, as it was even below ILS minimums.  We'd have to turn around and come home (which I did have the gas to do.)   It would have taken us about an hour and forty minutes to get there.  Forty-five minutes of us sitting on the ground later, that airport was still VFR and I felt the pressure of them wondering if I was blowing it, though they didn't say so. An hour into it the ceilings started coming down, and by an hour and twenty minutes into it the field was down to less than 1/4 mile, 100' and fog, where it stayed.  And stayed.  And stayed.  The forecast never did catch up, never did even say it was bad, let alone when it would let up.  A few other airports would go up for a little bit, then come back down.  Finally around 11:30 some of them started getting up to almost ILS minimums, but upper Michigan was still socked in pretty hard.  Around noon it was still below minimums, but the visibilities had gone up a smudge, about 1/2 a mile's worth, and stayed up, and I felt like it should be good enough by the time we got there, so I told them we'd slowly work our way there.  We took off around 12:30, and had a ferocious tailwind, so I powered way back and still ended up doing 195 knots groundspeed, on low fuel burn.  Weather still showed our destination below minimums, but a nearby airport with an ILS (Pellston) was right at ILS minimums, so I figured I should be able to get into there if nothing else.  Seventy miles out it was reporting 300' where we wanted to go but still 200' vertical visibility, 1/2 mile and fog at Pellston, so I slowed down even more, and then eventually when ATC called me and asked me if I had the weather there and what approach I wanted--I listened to it again and it was still 200 and 1/2 at Pellston, but Harbor Springs was at 500' and 1 mile, which were the minimums for the non-precision GPS approach into our destination.  (Irony--both airports were at their exact minimums for the lowest approaches they each had.)  Runway 10 had 600' minimums, Runway 28 had 500' minimums, and winds were calm, so...perfect.   I shot the GPS 28 approach down, came out of the clouds and there was the airport, right where it was supposed to be.  One of my passengers said, after we rolled out, "Okay, now I see why they want 500' for this airport."  Trees...lots of tall trees...and poles.  They mention the poles in the Airport Facility Directory, but they actually are pretty close there.  Anyway, we'd arrived.  It was a long, tiring morning of waiting and watching and waiting and socializing and waiting and watching, but at long last we made it into that stinking airport.

So the folks I flew in took the courtesy car, and the airport didn't have any vending machines or food of any kind.  The guy behind the counter said "Well, I do have a car you can drive, but, well, it's been wrecked and it has some problems."  I don't care, I'm not picky, I just want food.  Well, Courtesy Car Bingo won the day again today, because this one was awesome.  It was a big purple and wood station wagon that had hit a deer, so the hood was all crumpled up, headlights were missing, and you couldn't open the driver's side door, so you had to crawl in through the passenger door.  The key was attached to a half-sheet-paper-sized sign that said "DO NOT OPEN DRIVER'S DOOR" in big letters on it.  Now that was fun enough. But where I was going was downtown Harbor Springs, which is more "People who arrive here in their own Gulfstreams" type.  No fast food chains allowed there, all specialty privately owned stores, you parallel park downtown and walk around the scenic area. I come rolling up in my purple and wood station wagon with the crumpled up hood, and I couldn't see the parking lines over the hood and couldn't open my door to check, so I ended up too far forward, encroaching on the space in front of me, then scooting out of the passenger side door to go find me some vittles. My lovely ride was next to giant shiny Humvees and other similarly nice and chromed vehicles.  I have to admit, I really enjoyed myself down there.  I also have to admit I was a little embarrassed to walk up to that station wagon, pull out the key with the big sign, and scoot over into the driver's seat to drive away. I still couldn't stop laughing though. Talk about a Griswold Moment.  It's one thing to be wealthy enough that you don't care if you are not dressed in finery; it's pretty much impossible to be seen getting in a purple buggered up station wagon and be mistaken for anything but a McDonald's employee...or a pilot.  ;)

Labor

Way to go, Hostess union workers, on taking a business that had been operating for 80 years and sucking them dry until they have no choice but to go out of business.  Because having to face pay cuts during tough economic times is SO much worse than, let's see, NOT HAVING A JOB AT ALL.  Because the company was just rolling in the money and trying to screw you over, right?  So you showed them that they couldn't take take advantage of you workers.  Brilliantly done.  Of course now they can line up for that insurance and unemployment that everyone else is still struggling along to provide...works great until you run out of other people's money, right?  Unions used to be needed to protect workers from unethical bosses/businesses.  These days business owners need protection from the unions.  Thugs.

It was foggy this morning, but the sky was clear, so once the visibility got to two miles, L and I launched in the Champ to do some pattern work at Glenndale.  Glenndale is in Class G airspace, so I just needed 1 mile visibility and clear of clouds to be legal.  Since our patterns are only 500' in the Champ and close to the runway anyway, it's no problem.  We got a lot done in the hour and a half that we flew.  After lunch I had a checkride prep flight in the 172 at Kokomo, going over unusual attitudes, hood work, VOR tracking, that kind of stuff.  Unusual attitudes can be fun--you can do them as mildly or as not mildly as the person you're with would enjoy.  I've had one guy that every time he'd hand over the controls to put on his hood, I'd always do some gyrating around and hand it back over to him all buggered up.  He was pretty good at unusual attitude recovery though.  ;)  A CFI has to get their fun where they can, you know?

Tomorrow morning is my trip back up to northern Michigan. On the good news front, so far there isn't a forecast for any significant icing.  On the not-as-great news front, the forecast is calling for 600' and a mile there, which happens to be the minimums for the non-precision (only) approach into there.  Not that it's a huge deal, but it's always nicer to not be forecasting right at minimums when you launch.  I can always skip over to a nearby tower controlled field that has an ILS if I need to, but that won't make these guys very happy.  Happier than last time when I had to land clear on the other side of the state, but still not happy.  So hopefully it'll stay good enough to get into...  It's a bit of a bummer having to go to bed early on a Friday night, to not be able to relax a little, because you have to be up at 5:00 in the morning on a Saturday for an I'm-actually-going-to-have-to-work flight.  But since I'm not in a union, I guess I better suck it up and be glad for the income heading into these winter months.  ;)

Flying

My schedule is filled up all next week from sunrise to past sunset.  This is less impressive when the sun comes up at about 8 a.m. and goes down at 5:30 or so, but it sounds good.  ;)  Got one real close to solo, one getting closer to solo, and one about ready to go for a checkride, another who has a limited amount of time off and is trying to get to solo by flying as much as possible, and several other students in normal progressions.  Busy!

So my flight this afternoon went until it got dark, and then we had an EAA Chapter meeting at the airport with a guest speaker from the local CAF chapter.  Dennis is the name of the gentleman who came to give the presentation, and he's the one checking me out in the PT-26.  I went into the group a little hesitantly, but after meeting with the local members a time or two, it's pretty clear that it's a good group of nice guys, and that makes a lot of difference.  Sometimes these groups-any groups-can be divided, cliquish, have a few power hungry jerks in charge, etc., and I don't have the time or energy to deal with that.  Fortunately it doesn't seem to be an issue with the current crop of local members, and I am starting to look more forward to getting more involved.  After all, I'm not busy enough, right?  ;) The meeting was well-populated, but I'm not sure if they came for the guest speaker or for the chili; either way, I was glad we had a nice turn-out for it...

The flight in the Champ was a little drafty.  I put some tape over an opening in the door handle that was shooting icy air onto my knee, but I couldn't do anything about the flow of air coming in through the door, aimed at the right side of my face.  These airplanes aren't that well insulated.  I guess we'll keep flying until the snow gets too deep and as long as I can still feel my feet and fingers, all of which are kind of important for tailwheel flying.  Brr!

Well, tomorrow's another day, Friday for some, but not for me, as I'm busy earning a paycheck as of before dawn on Saturday, too.  Gotta cover those heat and 100LL bills, you know.  :)

Hump Day

I flew with one of my students today in the 172, for a business trip he needed to make.  He brought a co-worker with him, who had never been on a small plane before today, and we launched for Danville, Illinois.  I really like it when students can take real world trips during their lessons--it's the best way to actually learn.  The rest of the time we basically need to teach towards the Pilot's License, not the practical application of it for afterwards, so it's good to get your hands on them for more.  Lots of people used to learn to fly that way, like D did for the company I fly for, but it's not as common these days.

The last time I was in Danville, it was in the T-6 for one of my last photo shoots, and the ramp was full of P-51s and T-6s.  Today when I was there in the 172, there were six Cessnas on the ramp. A C-182, some little Cessna that looked like an old taildragger that had been converted to a nose dragger, if someone would do such a thing, and four C-172s.  It was a herd of them! When the last guy flew in, he walked in and said "It looks like a Cessna convention out there."

I made it back in time to grab a late lunch, swap out vehicles at the car shop, and fly with my student, who is rapidly approaching solo.  Today the light bulb went off and he nailed about 8 of them in a row, one of them so pretty the wheels just literally rolled on.  We need to find a crosswind to work with and I need to see some different days/different conditions good consistency, but he was just killing it.  That's always a lot of fun to see it click in.  :)

*Yawn*

Onward

Sunday night I looked at the weather for my upcoming trip to Upper Michigan for the next morning and saw a wall of severe ice (due to a batch of precip) in a swath from where I was to where I was going. I could have tried to find an altitude that would make most of the flight possible, but no matter what, it was also overcast up there, meaning I'd have to shoot an approach in it.  I called it off right there, and woke up the next morning to the sound of sleet hitting my window. I heard later from a friend who was up there that morning that it sleeted up there enough to accumulate some pretty significant ice.  I always appreciate it when I call a flight off and the weather is indeed and obviously not doable.  We got our first light snow of the season out of it as well...

The consequence of canceling that flight is that it's now been rescheduled for Saturday...the day I was supposed to go to Louisville and maybe finish off my formation stuff.  The next weekend is Thanksgiving and then we're into December, so I'm guessing that's the end of the season here, but that's all right, that's how it goes. At least there was progress, I got a lot of flying in, and when Spring hits, I presume I'll be able to get back in the swing of things.

My arms are still a problem.  I can't push a grocery cart around a corner properly, can't push myself up out of bed or a chair, etc.  Today I couldn't push an airplane back into the hangar without help.  It feels weird to not be able to do what I'm used to being able to do!  I'll go to do something without thinking about it, like wrestle Kaylee or buckle my seatbelt or roll over in bed, feel this sharp, immediate, stabbing pain, and my arm(s) will give out.  So anyway, I talked to a doctor who talked to several sport medicine doctor colleagues, and based on all symptoms, they feel I likely have an impingement on a nerve in my upper spine, showed me just where, probably caused by how I sit leaned way back in my chair with my laptop on my lap and my head sticking way forward to see it. An injury caused by repetitive stress on the Q4 or whatever they called it.  So I have to put some heat on it to relax the muscles causing the impingement, then start working on stretching and range of motion exercises.  They all agreed I likely do not have thoracic outlet syndrome.  I am going to go look that up now to see what it is they don't think I have.  ;)

I had three flights today, two shorts at .7 and .8, and one long at 1.4.  It was pretty and sunny but man, really cold, wind chills as low as 27 degrees. Oh winter, how I despise thee, and it's not even technically winter yet...bleh.

Veterans and Veterinarians

The flyover went all right today.  I was supposed to be there at 10:35 a.m., and I came over for my first circle right when the clock hit 10:35.  They had a firetruck down there with a large American flag hoisted on the ladder, a limo, and rows of motorcycles in the parking lot.  I circled about 5 times while they performed the Star Spangled Banner, and then they started their parade down 31.

It was windy and gusty, and I thought of the students I'd just been doing turns-about-a-point with, and here I am doing one, trying to make a nice tight symmetrical circle over the ceremony, and I wanted to call them up and tell them there could actually be real world application from the maneuver.  ;)

Well, in seriousness, I consider it an honor to be able to participate in events like that, and I appreciate all who serve/served.

This will be a bit of a subject transition, but this was on the door of the veterinary clinic.  I got caught taking this picture of it, but I couldn't help it.  I'm not really sure why, of all things, this would be what they wish to advertise on a hot pink poster.  I can think of lots of things that might be useful.  Tips to know if your cat/dog is sick.  An ad on the importance of certain pet vaccinations.  Pet adoption clinic numbers and ads.  I dunno.  But this?  I have a hard enough time when the vet's name tag says "Dr. Hiss", and I just want to crack a joke that I am quite sure he won't find remotely funny any more. But when I'm looking at him, and in the corner of my eye I see this, well, it's too much...

Click on it, blow it up and read it.  I'll wait.  I particularly appreciated the close-up and graphic photos.  And on that note, I'll leave you...

Happy Friday

Yesterday I was supposed to pick up Kaylee from the bus, take her home, then go right back out to the airport for a flight lesson.  For some reason the bus was way late, which made me way late, which doesn't make me happy. The rest of the story was even worse though.  Apparently there was a 10-11 year old boy who was mouthing off and being inappropriate, so the bus driver told him he'd earned a seat in the front row, and told him to come sit behind her.  He refused. She insisted.  He refused.  She pulled the bus over, got in his face and told him to pack up his stuff and get UP there.  He said "Oh HECK no!!"  She said they weren't going anywhere until he moved.  They sat there for a long time and he said "No.  I don't care."  Finally she had to go, so she drove off and told him he was off her bus.  He said "Whatever. I don't care!"  First, this is where I interject that it's a good thing I was not that bus driver, because I'd have been fired before I even got home. Happily, in fact.  I was halfway expecting the kid to be on the bus today, but he was not, and his name plate was taken off the seat, too, so maybe, for once, the school backed up the driver and didn't give in to the little darling's parents who are probably and hopefully very inconvenienced at having to drive him all the way to Greentown, and home, every day now.  Perhaps on the car commute to school they can discuss respect and obedience, something they've apparently slacked off on a little bit in the first 10-11 years here.  For shame.  I'm glad we still live in a rural area where that is the exception more than the rule, and that when the exception occurs, the school didn't tolerate it.

Kaylee fell asleep on me tonight.  I was sitting in my usual chair, and she climbed up to cuddle, and passed out.  The only problem is that she's almost as big as I am now!  Her feet were hanging down past mine, and she took up my whole lap.  And I still stayed still for an hour straight, until my arm was numb, watching her sleep.  I used to hold her with her head on my left arm like that when she was a baby, and I could still see the little curl in the shape of her ear, an ear that used to be on a much smaller head!  Almost 12 going on about 18, but she's still my baby.  :)

I took Roadie to the vet today. Poor thing is such a sweetie, she was scared to death but didn't make a peep, didn't hiss or bite or do anything but curl up and wish to be left alone.  We used to call Roadie "Tubby", because she was, well, portly.  She ate like food wasn't going to be available any more, and just plumped up seriously, over 11 pounds.  Well, she's lost weight, and recently it was noticeable that she's lost a LOT of weight.  She's still seemingly happy and healthy looking, just skinnier.  So today I took her in.  The vet agreed with the concern, as she weighed 8.5 pounds now, which is a significant loss.  Of course, he also said that this was actually a perfect weight for Roadie anyway, but that we needed to make sure she didn't have a health issue or continue to lose too much weight.  He did a blood draw on her, as he said the things that concerned him with the symptoms I gave him (there were others) was diabetes, hyperthyroidism, kidney or liver issues, and cancer.  She's a little young for some of those, but it's obviously possible.  What I thought was ironic was that as he was telling me these things, I recognized his tone of voice.  It took me a second, but it was the same tone of voice the doctors used to tell me various things about Devon.  It's that "I'm going to try to tell you this in a super gentle voice and then step back and look you in the eye and wait and see if you fall apart or go hysterical on me."  Now, I do care for Roadie.  She's a sweet kitty, and she's good for Kaylee and Dulcie both, and if she had any of these things, I'd be sad.  But it's all a matter of perspective, and if I held it together calmly and dry-eyed in a doctor's office when told my child wasn't going to survive, I'm sure not going to fall apart in a vet clinic if my cat has diabetes or something.  The way he spoke I could tell that he does have pet owners go hysterical on him...  Anyway, so he called me tonight with the results of the blood work, and said that it was great news, that everything was reading perfectly normal.  No cancer, no diabetes, no parasites, etc.  So that was good to hear, of course.  Next up we have to go back in for a urine specimen that they have to get right from her bladder to check for a couple more minor things, and then he suggested we monitor her food intake and make sure she's getting the calories we think she is.  Wouldn't it be funny to spend $200 (so far) on tests for your cat who just isn't eating as much and lost weight the good old fashioned natural way?  ;)

I got another text to do another formation flight today, which I also couldn't do.  My schedule is really full right now--I might be able to schedule something in, but I'm rarely free to just go for it in under an hour.   I'm also not going to make the morning formation flight.  That's four in a row I'll have missed, so hopefully they don't give up on asking me.  But it might run into the Veteran's Day flyover we committed to do awhile ago now for a Kokomo thing.  Originally the Mustang and the T-6 were going to do it together, and they've advertised it; it's a big deal to them.  The Mustang can't make it, so I don't want to risk running late and missing it.  There will be a flag raising ceremony at a store on the south side of town, and then a parade down Hwy 31.  They'll text me in the air to give me a 2 minute warning or so, and then I'll come over and circle them and the flag as low as I legally can, fly up 31, back down, then break off over them to the west.  We tried to find another airplane to go over with me for them, not even formation, just out there, but 1) there aren't that many around, and 2) none that are around were available.  We even tried the CAF guys.  So, it'll just be me, but hopefully it will be meaningful for them...

Thursday's Thoughts

I got a call today about taking a trip, and I had to half laugh and half groan when I heard that it was to Harbor Springs, Michigan.  In November, with a 50% chance of rain there, overcast, and nice cold temperatures forecasting that day.  For those of you not already on the same track I am, the last flight I had there, well, I never actually made it THERE, but it ranks as one of my top five worst flights of all time.  This time I will have working approach plates, working synthetic vision, fully working boots, and a skinny-ish runway that is NOT (supposed to be) covered in over 1" of "un-plowed and rough ice and snow, braking action nill", which, while not solving all the former problems, will be a small improvement over that last flight, anyway.  But Upper Michigan grows itself some mean ice up in the air, so we'll have to see.  I am dating myself here, but MacGyver always used to say "Heights.  I Hate heights." and Indiana Jones is known for "Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes!?"  For me it's ice.  Hate that stuff. Can't see it on radar, can't predict it as well as you need to be able to, and while a rule of thumb is that an altitude change will probably improve it, that rule is like every other rule and has enough exceptions that you can't rely on it or know when it'll work or not until you're in it. Every winter in the mid-west, every flight becomes a chapter in The Ice Games.  Altitudes, times, precip, probabilities, percentages, planning, and then still playing it a little by ear as you go.  Sometimes it's forecast and never shows, sometimes it's not forecast that bad and whams you.  It's workable and doable most of the time, but every once in awhile it'll still take you a little by surprise. Bleh.  Yet another reason I like summer better.  ;)

I got a text today at lunch that was a group text saying "Hey, let's get together at 3 and do a formation flight, meet up at Richmond, I'll send a text briefing to whoever's 'in'."  Five minutes later I got a phone call from the other Red Star lead about a formation fly-over for a Veteran's Day event this Saturday.  I had to turn down today's flight because I had students from 2 pm until dark, and Saturday I already have a Veteran's Day fly-over event in the Kokomo area, but they may be at two different times, so I may get to do both of those.  The only problem is that this new one means I have to be AT Huntington by 7 a.m.  That's an early Saturday, man.  :O  But it's nice to be invited, and nice to keep going on the practice a little while longer even though the season's about over.

This morning I was supposed to take Kaylee to the school bus then go over to Glenndale and meet the PT-26 there to fly for an hour and a half before my 9:30 a.m. student.  Instead, I got out of the shower, and Steve told me he'd sent Kaylee back to bed because he got a late call from the school about a 2-hour-delay due to a "late rolling in freezing fog".  Freezing fog is bad.  It didn't burn off all morning, so both my morning flights were canceled, but my afternoon flights went on as scheduled.  One fellow is almost ready for his checkride, and another is just getting started on learning how to land.  The last landing of the day it was getting dark, so for the fun of it I turned on all the airport lights, which he thought was extra cool and beautiful.  By the time I picked up dinner and got home, it was good and dark again.

Kaylee was interested in acting classes that started today--until I got details and she learned it would be memorizing and "delivering" poetry, along with "stage directions."  As soon as I said the word poetry, she looked at me and said "Oh yeah, because I just love poetry.  And I already know stage directions--we did that during drama at camp."  So, on to another way to get her involved in drama or acting...

Kaylee was also pretty pleased to tell us tonight that she was the only one in her class that got a 20 out of 20 on a math test today.  She said one other girl got 19/20, but that was the only close score.  She was pretty pleased with herself.  :)  She's also pleased with herself because she started a Words with Friends game with me, and got a string of big words, and the kid was beating me by 45 points--legitimately.  Last night she had just gone to bed, was up in her room, and my iPad dinged that I had a new word. I look at it, and it's a triple word score with the word "Varies" and "Silts", for 50 points.  I looked at it and said "wow", and from clear across the house you hear Kaylee yelling "OH YEAH!  GIMME SOME SKIN!!"  Cracked us up.  :)  Right now she's only beating me by 5 points, and I'm seriously considering letting her win this one.  She was doing a heck of a job, and she sort of ought to win this one, I think.  But I've never thrown a game to her, and I sort of don't want to do that, either, so I can honestly tell her that when she beats me, she beats me for real.  Hmm.  We'll have to see how it goes.  There are only 4 tiles left and I don't see anything for any good points for me anyway, so it would be nice if she beat me.  Won't hear me say THAT too often, and probably never with anybody but her.  ;)

Champ

Morning scuzz and a broken airplane killed off the morning flight, but by the time the afternoon rolled around it was another beautiful tailwheel flying day.  Light winds and cool temps made it perfect for some learning-to-land-in-a-Champ practice. I left there and went out to Kokomo to do a dual cross country in the 172 which also went well.  I love it when there's good progress on a flight!  I didn't get home until dark again, but that's not as late these days as it used to be.  When I pulled out of the airport at 6 p.m., it was already dark.  Ick...

Here are some photos from the Champ flight today:

If your wing's not over the road, you're not far enough back.  ;)

 

Just me.  Cheese.

 

L. adjusting the trim

 

Coming down final with an SUV stopping on the road to either watch, or to make sure we don't run into them like that poor student pilot in Texas...

Voting Day

Started the morning with another hour and a half in the Champ at Glenndale, making progress, then out to Kokomo for an hour of checkride prep.  Afterwards I was going to go vote, but decided to wait for Kaylee.  She'd expressed an interest, so I picked her up from the bus then took her over to the voting place.  The lady who signed me in said that she thought it was a "good example" that I was bringing Kaylee, and she was able to come back to the voting booth with me.  We talked about the candidates, how the ballot worked, and I let her fill in the President line for me.  She also fed the ballot into the machine for me, so the guy monitoring the machine gave her an "I VOTED" sticker too.  Just think, not the next Presidential election, but the one after that, she'll be able to vote for herself...

In the meantime, I am SO excited at not having to hear another single solitary dadgum political ad again for hopefully at least a couple of years.  I don't know if people on Facebook will know what to talk about now, what will replace negative ads on TV.  I can't remember what life was like on TV before these elections.  I'm almost giddy that this thing is over with, however it turns out.  Hallelujah and Amen!  (Still hoping this doesn't drag out in a big ugly fight for days and days...)

Kaylee's school held an election too.  She said that at her school, Romney won, but they didn't say by what margin.  So she got to vote twice today.  ;)

I'd like to come up with something deep and philosophical to say, but I don't feel like it.  So instead I'm going to go do laundry, and dishes, and have a drink, and see how it goes tonight.

Monday Again

My 9:30 a.m. canceled on me, which was helpful because 1) the plane had a vacuum pump failure and it needed fixed anyway and 2) I woke up with a headache and didn't feel much like flying.  So instead I slept in a little more, took some Advil, and woke up feeling a little better later.  My student probably wasn't happy, as it was a beautiful morning, but we wouldn't have been able to fly anyway, so all's well that ends well there.

After lunch it got busy, and I flew for 1.6 in the Champ doing takeoffs and landings, drove over to Kokomo to do a dual cross-country to Monticello in the 172, then shoved that plane in the hangar and left the student to close everything up while I ran to my school board meeting.  I arrived 7 minutes late, but they hadn't started yet, so it was all good.  I got home around 8:30 p.m. or so, so like I said, after lunch it was pretty non-stop.  This whole week is like that, and that's a good thing; everybody's trying to get in what flying they can while they can, and this week's weather looks really nice so far.

Tomorrow I've got two flights in the morning, through my lunch hour in fact, and then I'll grab some fast food and go vote.  I'm betting I won't get to watch NCIS tomorrow, though if I'm lucky the election results will just show up on the bottom of the screen and not force me to watch news coverage of it All Night Long.  Considering that a lot of the east coast is still in disarray, doesn't have power, they're searching for old style voting booths, etc., I can well imagine that there's going to be another "Hanging Chad" snafu, that this could get dragged out, questioned, recounts demanded, the whole ball of wax.  Lord I hope not, but can't you see it now, particularly if this is close?  Ugh.

Kaylee's report shows all A's so far this quarter.  She's done some extra credit in a couple classes too, and actually has over 100% in math, for one.  Kind of funny for the kid who keeps saying she's no good at math and doesn't like math.  Sorry kid, you actually are good at math, like it or not.  ;)  Better than I was at that age.  And this year she hasn't been having us check her homework, either.  She'll ask questions if she has them, but then she does it all on her own and doesn't have us go over the answers.  That's great for us--it saves us time in the evenings, and we already went through 6th grade once.  Besides, pretty soon that math is going to get harder than I remember how to do.  ;)  I'm glad she's falling into a decent study/homework groove though.  Last year was kind of rough.  This year has, keeping my fingers crossed, been very uneventful for the most part on that front!

Sleepy...

Social

Another mom took this picture of Kaylee with the science guy at the Children's Museum down in Indy last Friday and tagged me with it on Facebook.  I thought that was pretty neat!

Thank heavens there are only two more days of these election ads to go!  Evenings are brutal; there will be 4 anti-Murdock ads in a row, every single commercial break, all night long.  His opponent apparently has a whole lot of money to spend.  And that's just one guy.  The worst offenders of the attack ads make it REALLY hard for me to vote for them even if I agree with their stated policies or "side of the fence". It's disgusting and I will be so glad when it's over with.

I read two novels today.  Yep, two, and they weren't short stories, either.  That tells you that I didn't do much else today.  And I liked it.

Slippery

I set my alarm early enough this morning so I could get up and get out to the airport in time to fly something down to Sheridan for the CAF meeting.  But when the alarm went off, I decided that lying there for another 30 minutes and then just driving down to Sheridan was a better plan.

The meeting lasted for almost two hours, a little long, but they had quite a bit to cover. They have a couple of new members, their airplanes flew more this year than they had in several years together prior, and they're feeling pretty good, particularly since three other not-too-far-away chapters have folded.  One kind of funny thing, they were talking about getting a twin, and said that the problem was they didn't have anyone with enough multi time to be able to be PIC or instruct in it.  I stuck my hand up, and one guy said "Do you have much multi time?"  When I smiled and said "Almost 3000 hours", they figured that ought to cover it.  :)  Not sure that would happen, not sure they know how much it would cost to operate, insure and maintain, but it would be kind of cool.

We got our first sleet of the season today.  As I was driving home, the rain hitting my windshield suddenly was a little more solid. It was cold, and gray, and dreary out, but soon enough the rain/sleet passed on and the rest of the day was dry, at least, allowing a little flying.

The flight today was all about stalls, starting off nice and easy and ramping up to more exciting--or as exciting as it gets in a 172, anyway.  Power off, power on, turning, falling leaf, accelerated stalls, cross-controlled stalls ("you want me to do WHAT??"), and an attempt at a spin entry, just to get the break and recover right away, but the airplane was highly reluctant.  You have to give Cessna engineers some props, because it takes a LOT of deliberately bad flying to get it to do much of anything.  I have spun 172s before, but this one was less willing than some of the others.  Anyway, that stuff is fun.

Did have a guy give me a call sign today.  He's a pilot for the "Condor Squadron", a group of T-6s with a lot of history, based out of California, who grew up around warbirds, flying with Sammy Mason and his family.  We've only met online, on a pilot forum I hang out at, and I enjoy his stories and such.  Anyway, there was a thread that diverted into call signs, and he gave a couple people on the board call signs, some flattering, some not so much.  Mine was "Nag".  He explained "Nag for 'Not A Guy'. Hanging out in the warbird community and flying a T-6, that name is an honor."  So I put "NAG" under my login name.  Steve might even agree with it--and I KNOW Kaylee would. ;)

Tonight Steve is doing a sleepover with Kaylee in the living room.  I'm not sure who will give out on doing this weekend ritual first--her, growing up and out of it, or him, with his back/neck/hip unable to take the couch any more. ;)

"Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things."
~Ray Bradbury

Reset

Yesterday I was restless all day, couldn't get to sleep, irritable...it occurred to me at some point that I was basically twitchy.  This morning I woke up at 6:15 a.m. feeling the same way, so I decided I'd go flying this morning.  No lessons, no rides, no passengers, no group/formation, no tension or socialization or work, just me.  It had been awhile.  Except because of my poor night's sleep, I fell back asleep and I didn't wake up until after 10 a.m.!  I must have needed that, but it blew my morning. 

Lunch was chili today, and a whole lot of desserts.  All the ladies were out in force today because of a new member to the community, Jim's new wife of two days, Ginger.  I love it when the ladies come out in force because we have lots of good desserts.  ;)

Kaylee had a field trip today to the Children's Museum, so when I picked her up from the bus she had a few stories to tell.  They did some science experiments, filling balloons with various gasses and then letting the kids take a long arm holding a candle at the end touch the balloon to burst it and see what happened.  Some just popped, some went up in various fireballs.  Obviously the kids thought that was awesomeness.  I would have loved it too!  They did several other experiments too, threatening to pour some water over a girl's head, but after swirling it around for a few seconds it froze solid at the top of the thing before coming out.  They made soap, too, shaped in a mold. Anyway, like I said, the kids had a blast and Kaylee was full of chatter about it on the way home.  That's a pretty cool way to spend a Friday!  I told her, "Science is cool."  She said "Yeah, it is.  It would be cooler if you could just do the cool stuff and not the hard stuff."  Well, true, but we have to hook you somehow. ;)

After I got Kaylee home, I was ready to go out to Kokomo and do some flying.  Steve had told me at lunch that it was out of gas, and when I said I'd fill it up, he said our gas credit line was cut off for now, and by the way our credit cards were all topped out too.  Nice try.  ;)  I got out there, and the belt came off the Cheyenne tug right off the bat. The T-6 is trapped behind it.  I stood there with my hands on my hips for about 30 seconds, then figured I'd give it a shot, killed the motor and got flat on my back to try to weave the belt back in place.  Without someone to prop it up a little bit it took me a minute, but I got it, and once I did I felt quite masterful.  ;)  I next had trouble getting the Cheyenne to move, but finally got that too.  No problem with the Six at least, and it had enough gas.  I guess it figured if Steve couldn't talk me out of it and the Cheyenne tug couldn't stop me, it might as well give up and be nice.  ;)

It was great, I went up nice and high, up over a cloud deck, turned up the music on my iPhone (which I zipped into my pocket so I would not be able to lose it) and for awhile instead of trying to perfect various specific maneuvers, I just threw it around the sky, fairly violently, until I almost tumbled my own gyros, and that felt really good. I didn't even realize I was grinning for awhile.  Then I did work on a couple specific maneuvers before coming back in to do various take offs and landings.  Couple of the maneuvers aren't looking too bad, two still need work.  I have something I need to work through, then once that's out of the way I'll be in good shape.  I'm not far off.

As I was waiting to take off in the pattern, the Luscombe called in on base, and I recognized Walt's voice.  As I watched them come in, suddenly Ty was on the radio saying "Walt is alone in this airplane.  Yep."  I snickered, but there was nothing I could do from the ground while they're on short final.  So after they landed, they taxiied off the runway and I said "Hey Luscombe, where you going?"  Walt sounded confused on the radio when he said "Uh, back to the hangar?"  I said "I thought you might like to do another trip around the pattern?"  Ty gets on the radio and says "NO. No, we do not!"  I'm all in the mood to play and he won't play with me.  ;)

I'm wondering if my sore arms problem has to do with the T-6, as crazy as that sounds.  I had a little trouble tonight, raising the gear, pulling the stick all the way back or all the way to the left, anything where I had to reach out and exert force.  A couple times I used both hands on the stick to help.  Those exact movements hurt, more than usual, and I only stopped because my strength was giving out, not because I was otherwise done.  Maybe I was so blasted tense that day I flew all day that I pulled something?  Heck, I've been a lot more tense than that on solid day formation flying, and it's never happened before.  But those specific movements definitely were in the 'ow' range.  My arms still feel like noodles with needles a couple hours later.

But I still needed that.  I feel much more centered.  When I got home, the first thing I said to Steve was "Hey, good news!  The T-6 wasn't out of gas!  Although...it is now. ;)"  Here are some photos I took prior to zipping my camera in my other pocket so I wouldn't lose IT either in case the map case popped open again...