Westward

I think somebody must've been praying for me, because today was Much better than I expected it to be. Last night I couldn't get to sleep, and then I woke up at 4 a.m., drifted a little until I had to get up at 5, and while I wasn't 100%, I was sure a lot better than I'd been for the last three days. I was alive again, even at 5 a.m. My head was only lightly stuffed and I could think and didn't feel wobbly.

The trip to Oklahoma was a long one. With headwinds and distance, I had to power way back to economy cruise (which was still faster than stopping halfway for fuel), and it was a 5 hour flight. That's a long time to sit, in case you are wondering. It's a longer time to manage your fluid intake properly. Just enough water to sip on to stay alert and not get dehydrated, but not so much you have extra you then need to dispel. We had some weather in the beginning, had to deviate, and the fuel management was non-stop until the last 90 minutes. I had to keep tweaking it to keep my hour reserve until the last bit there. For awhile we were doing 136 knots groundspeed, which is C-172RG speed...no winds. Of course if we'd had these winds in the RG we'd have been doing 90 knots, maybe. ;). But after we got through the precip, it was smooth--slow, but smooth--sailing from there on out.

When we got to Lawton, the last thing I wanted to do after sitting for five hours was sit down in the pilot's lounge. So I walked to the main terminal to get lunch, then went on a 1.5 mile walk afterwards. That's when I felt the weakness kick in. I haven't been off my couch in three days, and even that small amount wore me out. THEN I felt like sitting down for awhile and having some more water. :)

A five hour flight out ended up being a 3.5 hour flight home.  Gotta love tailwinds.  We had a sunrise behind us on the way there and a sunset behind us on the way home.  Unfortunate choice of directions, but couldn't be helped.  We had some pretty good rain on the way out, some night IFR, and on the way home we had a brilliant moon on top of a layer of clouds.  Everything was white and gray and black and silver and we were right on top of the clouds, which had big peaks and valleys and looked like an alien landscape. The clouds broke up right as we hit the city of St. Louis and flew dead over the top of it, giving us a wide view of the city lights.  We had every condition possible today, all in one flight.  Blue skies, IFR, day, night, ground fog, sunrise and sunset, rain, ice, strong winds, lightning from storms nearby, seriously, just about everything. 

Originally my guy was supposed to be home in plenty of time for me to make Kokomo by 7:30, and thus make Kaylee's concert.  Then a $5 million dollar piece of equipment broke down, and he had to stay and get it up and running.  I landed in Kokomo as they were doing their last song and Steve texted me to just head home.  Kaylee had forgotten to buy tickets when they went on sale at school, and the tickets sell out.  Steve was sick.  He went anyway and stood in line and he got the LAST TICKET AVAILABLE.  It was in the handicapped section--he got a wheelchair accessible seat that nobody else had needed.  He took phone videos of her, and she did great. I texted her, and I was more sad than she was that I couldn't make it.  Which is good.  I was worried she would be sad and that would have made me feel even worse, but she was just excited, and happy, and had a great time, and her dad was there and could show me the videos and of course we have a dvd coming.  I still wish I could have gone, but I couldn't, so, so be it.

Here are a few photos from today...

The 340 in its' temporary home.  I like the black and white and lines and angles.

 

Speaking of black and white.  It's very early in the morning.  :)

 

After we broke out of the precip, the day started looking a little prettier.

 

Just a couple cloud shots.

 

Sunset on the way home...

 

A little Oxygen hit is just what the doctor ordered!  Also known as "Let's randomly test out the Oxygen system and make sure it and the masks are still working properly."

 

This doesn't do justice to how it looked.  There were mountains of clouds and everything was lit up so beautifully.

 

Also doesn't do it justice, but the rest are of St. Louis.

 

 

 

The Arch is in between my wingtip and engine, but ya can't see it here.

 

Cloud layer, city lights, moon on top...

 

 



And if you ever wondered what precip in night IMC looks like, this terrible video will give you an idea. It's two clips, one when it's pitch black and one when it's lightening up a little, put together.  The second clip has terrible quality for some reason.  So watch closely. Don't blink. I left the strobe on just for you (too fast to hang out my landing lights to get the cooler Star Wars effect...)