It wasn't a super relaxing weekend from one standpoint, but it was still good. This morning I got Kaylee and her friend up and fed, and her friend was picked up by 10 a.m. After that I went out to the airport again, where I stayed until about 4 pm again. This time I was alone out there for the most part. I opened up both hangar doors wide, sat two seats out, put my butt in one and my feet on the other, read a book on my iPad, and watched the aerobatic competition going on for as long as they could do it (fog stopped them in the morning and clouds lowered down into their box in the afternoon, but they went gangbusters for awhile there). I was actually out there to clean up a couple things, put back the GDL-39 I had on me, and waiting for my student to finish her checkride. I got there right after the oral was done and she was heading up to go fly. I wasn't too worried about her. You know if someone's ready, if they're good, and she can fly just fine. Of course anybody can have a brain fart or mess up at any given time, so it's never a full relax until it's over and done with, but I wasn't too worried--there was no good reason for her not to pass. But they started at 8 a.m., I saw them get done flying at 1 pm or so, and by 2:30 p.m. she still wasn't out of there. I thought, good grief! But finally she came out and gave me two thumbs up, and everything went great, and she passed with flying colors, so to speak. She hung out for awhile and we talked about where she was going next, and we spent an hour debriefing the ride, her prep, the flying, life in general. I chatted a bit with the FAA gent that was camping out there too, and had a couple folks come up now and then to say hi. One of the aerobatic competitors had a maintenance issue and came back to the hangar to see about getting some help. I told him nobody was there but me today, and he was distinctly out of luck getting maintenance help from me... The week before Oshkosh we watched the four national champions perform hard-core aerobatics. Up at Oshkosh we watched a bazillion aerobatics. This weekend we have the IAC competition aerobatics. I have learned I'm not a great observer. Most stuff, if I like to do it, I want to do it, not watch other people do it forever. If I don't want to do it, I don't really want to watch other people do it. There are some exceptions. I like watching NFL football even though I have no desire to do it myself, for example. ;) Anyway, I about decided to go practice my own, but by the time her checkride was done, I was hot, sweaty and tired and ready to go home. Besides, I'll have an opportunity coming up soon enough anyway.
Today Steve brought in the stuff he'd emptied out of the Oshkosh trailer yesterday. This included a bag of dirty laundry from the camp site. A bag of dirty camping Oshkosh laundry that has been sealed in a plastic garbage bag, sitting in a black, enclosed trailer, outside in the heat and humidity, for a week. Yeah. THAT was pleasant to open up. So needless to say, I've been doing laundry this afternoon, as quickly as possible.
Justin G. took this picture yesterday of me and Nathan coming in to land in the 340. I'm usually on the inside of the plane snapping photos out the window, so it's nice to see the plane flying from the outside of it this time. :) On final, Nathan joked something like "There are a bunch of judges down there, so make it a good landing for them." I didn't see any score cards, but I guess I did get a "crossing the finish line" photo. lol
No comments:
Post a Comment