As I'm typing this, the winds are gusting up to 30 knots here, and are at a 50-60 degree crosswind gusting up to 25 knots where I'm going. Not un-doable in the T-6, but kind of sporty to just jump into cold if you don't have to. And I don't have to.
Kaylee is off on her grand school adventure, as she and all of 6th grade are spending the night at Camp Tecumpseh. This is one brave set of teachers. Kaylee's cabin has 10 girls, and they're off on some kind of educational trip. I don't know how the public school system managed to pull off taking over 100 kids on an overnight trip, but they do it every year. May the force be with the adults, and may the kids have a good time!
My Explorer is in the shop with lots of $problems$, and the Suburban is in the shop getting $somethings$ replaced, so we're down to the Jeep and the Corvette. I drove the Corvette today, and as I was cruising along listening to tunes, on my way out to the airport to go fly a T-6 to a formation clinic, I thought to myself, Self, you should feel like a cool person right now. Most people would think they were a cool person if they were doing that. Me, I feel like a fortunate person, especially the T-6 part of it, but I do not feel cool, and that feeling of Not Cool is just emphasized when you see me trying to get OUT of the car. How do those chicks in high heels get out of that car looking all graceful and attractive? I look...painful...trying to wallow my way out, trying to jerk out in one big move so I don't fall back down into the seat. There's gotta be a secret and I'm just missing it, like usual. ;)
So I held out for awhile this afternoon, waiting for the winds to be a little kinder to me. Finally they calmed down a bit in Rockford, and more aligned with the runway, so even though it was still blustery at Kokomo, all you gotta do there is get off the ground safely, which is easier than getting ON the ground safely. ;) I had some nice headwinds all the way there, and some decent turbulence as low as I was, but it wasn't a bad trip. Rockford's a TRSA by the way. Don't see too many of those around any more. God bless Garmin. ;) I finally made a lovely squeaker landing at Rockford with winds only 30 degrees off at 18 knots, and I was here.
This is where it got a little awkward for a little while. I was the only piston person here. The Hoppers (L-39 jet team) were all here, and two other L-39 drivers, so it was a group of formation jet guys, and me. They were nice enough guys though, and as the evening progressed we started getting along fine. For awhile there it was...well, awkward. It's not a lot of fun going somewhere alone when everyone else has a group they're with and have known and gotten close to. Especially if you're not a social person in the first place. And have little in common with them. But like I said, by the end of the evening, we were getting along just fine. Even if they all went to the Hilton Hotel and I went to the Day's Inn for $43/night. ;) Aviation in general is an equalizer if you run into other people who have also drunk the Kool-Aid. You can tell.
One of the jet guys offered to fly with me tomorrow in his other airplane, his T-6, so that I'd have someone to knock off the formation rust with in a two-ship prior to the rest of the piston people arriving. Which was really nice of him. Apparently Vlado is coming in tomorrow, and they're thinking of putting him in my back seat for that flight. So I don't run into anyone, and stuff. It's supposed to be pretty windy tomorrow, which won't affect the jets much, but I'm just going to have to play that by ear. I hope it's fairly close down the runway--I just want to fly formation and not have some big bugaboo landing at the end of it. :)
Well, it's late, I'm tired, and tomorrow's going to be a busy one. So...I'll let you know how it goes.
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