Mother Nature was kind(ish). Getting up at 6:15 wasn't so bad for the first time I've done it since before Christmas, and it hadn't snowed any more, or blown over the hangar door again since yesterday. Of course it was still butt cold. Driving out to the airport, there was an area of ground fog, just a stripe of it across the road, not much higher than the roof of the car, and clear everywhere else. I snapped this photo, but I had gotten too close to it by the time the photo took, making it kind of hard to see. You can see the other car's headlights through the fog, anyway.
The sun was just coming up as I got there, but you could see the ramp was still in okay shape. I was pretty pleased to see that--I'd gotten there early in case I had to shovel some more.
When my passenger arrived, he was a little nervous, moreso by climbing in the back of the airplane that felt smaller and tighter to him than the 340. I had him get in while the plane was still in the hangar, and only then did I open the door, haul the plane out, close the door and hop right in and get going.
You have to love the Aerostar. It's sort of a hot rod. And yep, still fast. I did have trouble with the N# again. I have to say the whole thing, or I goof it up at first. So when I called Grissom initially, I was fine. I know the N#. But when he handed me off, I said "123.85, 94JM" 9JM and 94J just goof me up at first; I probably stumbled three times before I started getting it right again. But I haven't flown it in what, six months or better. So I remembered the procedures, I just forgot to go back over the N#. ;) We had a pretty good headwind, and I was still getting 184 knots groundspeed. I went to Rock Falls, Illinois this morning. On the way, I looked down and saw thick areas of ground fog on top of bodies of water, with enough wind down there that it was blowing the fog pretty far. It was interesting looking from the air, seeing 5 or 6 spots like that around, and when I flew over one, you could look down and pretty much see the fog forming on the water.
See it under the spinner there? Pretty neat.
We were alone in Rock Falls. My guy was supposed to be on the ground 2-3 hours and give me a 30 minute heads-up when he was coming back. A mechanic stopped in and showed me where the courtesy cars were: two Toyotas and one Ford Explorer. Neither of the two Toyotas would even turn over. Did I mention it's butt cold out there? The Explorer, however, did start. It was leaking antifreeze badly into a puddle on the ground, but it ran. It had only classical music available to listen to, but it ran, and it ran me all the way to town to get some breakfast. I was about halfway through my breakfast when my guy called and said he was 5 minutes away from the airport and headed back. It hadn't even been an hour. So I got my check, finished my tasty hot coffee, filed the flight plan home, and ran back to the airport.
This worked out for the best, because they didn't have any hangar space available, and I was going to go out and start the airplane up, warm it up good, etc., about every hour or so, because, yes, it's butt cold out there, and now I didn't have to.
We get into the plane, she fires right up, I turn on the heater, smell it kick on, tell him it's nothing bad, just the heater working, warm up for a bit, smell goes away, I look up, and the "Heater Fail" red light is on. You don't fool around with combustible heaters in airplanes if there's a problem. I immediately shut it off, tried a couple things, then left it off and circuit breaker pulled for the trip home. Now. Did I mention that it's butt cold out there? It's colder the higher you go. ;) I told the fellow in back he was about to get pretty chilly, heater quit, sorry, but the engines and everything important is working just fine still. And then I spent the flight home stomping my feat, wiggling my legs, banging my feet together, doing everything I could to keep my feet from going dead. I had thick gloves and a thick coat on. It was several hours after I was back in warm turf before my legs and feet quit radiating cold. In fact, they still feel kind of funny. I had some of Steve's thick wool socks this morning but changed my mind because they didn't fit in my brown shoes, and I didn't want to clunk around in uncomfortable boots all day, so I just wore my normal socks. Ah, well.
When we got back, I needed the airplane topped back off, for tomorrow's trip. The fuel truck wouldn't start. I told them I needed the gas. They piddled with it for an hour, and finally got it going, and I got my gas. So tomorrow morning is St. Louis. And after all that, we're leaving the Aerostar behind and taking the 172RG. :) With 50 knot headwinds down low, this is going to take us awhile. But it does have heat. I think I might be more interested in bundling up and getting there twice as fast, but...I might not think that way in the morning, so we'll just go with slow and warm.
Meanwhile, Steve got right on the hot water heater thing, and we have a new hot water heater which the repair guy just finished installing a couple of hours ago. Kaylee is in there now taking a long, hot shower, and surely using up all the hot water. I'm just trying to stay awake--I have to get up too early for me to be able to get away with a nap and still get back to sleep on time. But it's not easy, because now I'm full, and have a warm blanket on me, and it's quiet in the house, and there's nothing on TV to watch. Zzzzzzz...
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