Round Two

I was up until about 1:30 a.m., so I didn't much feel like getting back up at 7:30, but I had places to go and people to see.   This morning was the monthly CAF (Commemorative formerly Confederate Air Force) meeting.  They meet the first Saturday of the month at 9 a.m. alternating between Sheridan and Terry (Indy Exec) Airports, which are 40-60 minutes away from me respectively.  That's early to get up for a Saturday morning, so I don't make most of the meetings.  But this one I made because tomorrow is my official checkout by the guy from Virginia, who flew in tonight, for the PT-26.  So I went to the meeting to make sure everything was set and good to go. It's good I went.  I needed a hangar key, an airport code, to find where the hangar was down there, where the oil is kept, how to get to that third sump that nobody uses but a guy on an official checkout might want to see, I mean, all sorts of stuff.  I sat in the cockpit and went over the checklist, because it's been almost a year since I flew it the two times I ever flew it.  Tomorrow is going to be extra early.  I get to get up at 6:30 a.m. so that I can be all the way down to Indy Exec before 8 a.m.  It's going to be 32 degrees, too.  So adding this together, I'm getting up early both days of my weekend in a row (and Monday morning it's 5:30 a.m. by the way), and tomorrow it'll be dark and literally freezing when I get there to start this checkout. That should be fun!  ;)  If he is amenable to the whole thing, the plan is for us to do ground time first, then fly with me in the front seat so he can decide if I'll kill us or not and permit me to be officially PIC in that airplane.  Then I move to the back seat, and he has to decide if I'll kill anyone else or not and permit me to be a CFI in that airplane.  If he so decides and can do both in one day officially, then the saga of the guy who has been waiting 2.5 years to get to fly the PT-26, and me who has been waiting over 1 year, will finally be concluded.  I'm not holding my breath until I see the paperwork done.  Weather, maintenance, and an airline pilot official complete with Red Tape for the organization all have to come together all at the same time.  We'll see how it goes.

We spent the rest of the day out at Kokomo Airport, Steve piddling with cameras and helping Nathan with a couple of projects.  I got to help a little bit too, and I learned I can loosen screws a lot smoother than I can tighten them back up...I learned where several things are on the Cheyenne, a couple of them that I didn't even know existed. My goal of not learning anything on the Cheyenne until the PT was done failed, which is good, because I really don't know what else I can learn about the PT right now anyway.  ;)  After some maintenance, Nathan pulled it outside and walked me through a manual start, we went over about everything on the panel and how it worked, and I taxied out to the ramp and back...where I learned that where I think the centerline is is not where the centerline actually is, so I've probably taxied to the left of the centerline every time I've ever been the one operating it on the ground.  lol  Not sure what the difference is--the height maybe?  Wider cabin?  Hmm.  But I think I got it now.  ;)  Most airplanes I fly have a few emergency procedures that are pretty standard no matter what  plane you're in, with a few airplane specific details.  This one has lots of things that are outside of my normal, so it's not really about actually operating it as much as knowing all those...things.  There's a fair amount going on in there, at least it seems so at the moment, but I know it'll start falling in place.

Dinner was "Hawg Heaven", a nearby little BBQ hole in the wall place that has won a bunch of taste awards for BBQ of all kinds.  Brisket, pulled pork, ribs, etc.  I had a Cuban sandwich because fatty meats are just not my thang.  ;)  But even the Cuban was delicious.

Steve is having his guy's night out that he couldn't do last night because he was taking two pre-teens trick-or-treating, and me, I'm going to finish this dumb 5 page quiz and get ready for tomorrow as best I can.  And one of these days coming up, I'm going to sleep IN, too.  ;)