I know there is a lot of catching up to do on here, but probably there is more catching up than I'm going to do, plus I'm not sure what I should or shouldn't post publicly, so we'll see.
Richard's surgery went very well. It took a long time, like 5 hours, and he was on bypass for something like three hours, which is a long time. When the surgeon came in to talk to us, he said he was amazed that Richard had been able to walk or breathe at all, that he was surprised that he made it to the surgery. Apparently he had 2.5 liters of blood in his lung. The surgeon said lung, and that he was surprised Richard could even breathe. Later, someone else said "chest cavity". Either way, that's a LOT of blood to be filling up an area it's not supposed to be filling. Surgeon also said the heart valve that shrank and was completely useless, had failed, and his heart was just leaking blood like crazy. Before the surgery began, Richard's blood pressure bottomed out and they had to perform CPR on him and bring him back so they could operate. He was in the right place at the right time, in a specialty heart hospital with the best vascular surgeons anywhere nearby, willing to do a risky procedure on a delicate patient. A lot of doctors didn't want to take a chance on an 80 year old man who'd had a valve replaced once and was also dealing with cancer, in part because if it wasn't a successful surgery, it hurts their 'numbers'. But this guy did take the chance, and we're all very grateful.
Richard came through the surgery with flying colors, was successfully extubated the next day, and the day after that (today) was up walking short distances with help and eating small amounts. He's doing the breathing exercises (to expand lungs, etc.), and everything they tell him they want him to do, he's attacking it, and he's getting stronger faster than they expected. He's doing great!
Steve came down with a cold, so once he figured out he was sick, not just having allergies, he has stayed home and away from his Dad. Fortunately we sanitize our hands before going into the room every time, and he was careful anyway. Cathy is here, and she's helping out too, so that's helped and been good timing. Surely Steve will be back on his feet shortly.
I have to talk about this hospital. St. Vincent's Heart Hospital. It's pretty amazing. Richard has a nurse dedicated to him. I mean, she sat in his room the whole time he was unconscious in there, and she watched and monitored him. She asked us if it was okay if she had lunch one day, if we'd be there so she could go eat. She is patient, and caring, and gentle, and extremely competent. She's not just doing her job, she loves what she does, she cares about her patient, and she's very good. Another nurse who was caring for Richard, a young man, is also very good. But have you heard of a place where you have your own nurse and they're not divided up amongst 20 patients on the floor? A drug gets low, she's right there to change it out. He has a question, she's right there to answer it. As he woke up and got stronger, she's moved out of the room more, given him more privacy/space, but she's always close. They have a fold-out couch that turns into a bed, and they let you stay there if you want all night with the patient. (Riley Hospital wouldn't even provide a comfy chair with a head rest--they didn't want you sleeping in there. At all. And you could be alarming for several minutes before anyone could get to you, which is why we never left Devon but would suction him etc. ourselves, because if we waited for a nurse he'd have crashed unnecessarily.) You have a menu, and you order food any time, and it's there in about 30 minutes or less, and it's really good food. I had turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, fruit, all sorts of stuff, and it didn't taste like what you'd think of as "hospital food". The machines are all brand new and state of the art. The ventilator alone, I've seen a lot of vents, and I've never seen anything like this. This place is just something else...so anyway, he is in very good hands.
I haven't really been home the last couple days, so I'm not sure what Kaylee has been up to, but I'm glad she's independent enough to be able to take care of herself for a bit when she needs to. Right now she's making her own mac and cheese because she feels like mac and cheese and I don't feel like making it. You'll like this. When I got home she sat on my lap and we all talked for quite awhile, a couple hours, and then she went off to do something but still kept talking about something or other that was just talking to be talking, and eventually I said something like "Hon, I love ya, but right now I'd like to sit here in my chair and just enjoy a little quiet." She came back with "That's too bad, isn't it, because you gave birth to ME." Yes, yes I did, thankfully. :) She's only got two more days of school, I believe, a couple of finals, and that's it. The end of Junior High aka Middle School. Gulp.
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Life
Richard is doing well today--when he came out of the procedure, he was eating great and in good spirits. :) His procedure to repair the heart valve is tomorrow, so keep him in your prayers please!
Kaylee got fitted for her new "Starlets" dress, that $250 accessory. She said the teacher said if you're not planning on buying a new one next year, make sure this one was big enough to grow into. I told her she'd better not buy one too tight, because SHE could buy the next one if she did! She loves it though. Plus, one of her friends who only missed getting into the group by one point ended up getting in after all as one of the other girls is moving now. So she now has several girls who are already her friends in the group with her, and she's really looking forward to next year and her adventures in Starlets. I'm happy for her!
We have someone with a checkride for tomorrow, and needed to get something done on the plane before then. Muncie got us in at 9 a.m. today, last minute, which was nice. When I got here at 9, I told the guy what it was here for, and he pulled it right into the hangar. It was supposed to take a couple hours, so I figure hey, done by 11, 11:30, home in time for lunch, and it and I had a flight scheduled at 1:30. No problem. At 10:30 I checked in with the girls, who pulled it up and said "Yep, it's an open job", and took my phone number to call me when it's done. At 12:15 I see nobody working on it but the stuff still hooked up, so I go over and ask what's going on. They're not done, and everybody goes to lunch at noon, and they might not have gotten started on it right away, and we don't know how long it will take, and you'll have to wait until they're back from lunch, etc. I'm kind of mad at this point, so I call my 1:30 and tell him I'll have to call him later if we can still fly later today. The morning I expected, the afternoon I didn't, and it's shot. And then one of the avionics guys says to me "Time to spare, go by AIR", and I'm trying to be amused by that because I like him, but... That saying is a bit grating if it's being used as an excuse; the air, airplane, weather, the usual suspects weren't the problem, your people on the ground were, and giving me a smug little cliché when I'm already annoyed is not going to go over well. It's 1:30 and I'm still sitting here. At least there is a restaurant on field, or I'd be downright ugly. ;) I had French toast with cinnamon chips, and man, that was good. Anyway, picking back up this evening: around 1:30 I ate lunch, and I finally left Muncie sometime after 4 pm. By then I was okay. I had started to get upset at the desk ladies and it wasn't their fault, so I went for a nice long walk...more than one, actually. A normal day gets me 5000 to 7000 steps...I was over 10000 by 4 pm. :D There were several things wrong with the system in the airplane, and instead of a simple check, they had to fix a few things. The unpleasantly coincidental thing is that I think THEY were the ones who goofed it up in the first place last year!! Even more humorous in a not-funny way, I bet they charge for 6 hours of their time to fix something they goofed up themselves. What a rip-off aviation is in some regards. There aren't tons of jobs out there where you can goof something up and charge them to do it, and then charge them to fix what you goofed in the first place. I suppose IT is like that too. And doctor's offices. But the rest of us don't get to do that too often. :)
Buzz Aldrin: So, Kaylee asked me if I knew who Buzz Aldrin was. I said "Sure, don't you?" She said "I do now." He was the guest speaker for the Opening Ceremonies at DI Globals 2015 in Knoxville. I said "Cool!" She said "Well, not really, Mom, I'm pretty sure he was really drunk. He was slurring his words and he kept swearing in front of 9000 kids, and he was telling us how screwed up the school system was, and kept telling us that we needed to join up and join in on the expedition for the colonization of Mars, and Mom, that's a one way death sentence trip. Another guy with a mic kept trying to get him to come off stage and shut him up, but he kept ignoring him and going, and security was over on the side, and finally somebody had to take his mic away and just lead him off stage. It was weird." So I Googled it, and there were people there who had taken videos of some of his ranting there, and the title of one was "Buzz Hammered at DI Globals". It was really...sad. He was an American hero, and it's sad to see him be That Guy. A bit of a bummer I guess, and that's how 9000 kids are going to see and know of him. Not as the man who went into space, but as the man who cussed and ranted, drunk, at a bunch of kids. Bleh.
Since I ate at the restaurant at Muncie for both breakfast and lunch, and there is no such thing as a "light" meal for either meal at that place, even though I walked around a lot, I got a Panera salad for dinner, and the whole thing is really low calorie and it looks really good. I'm getting ready to dive in, looking forward to it.
I saw a quote today that said "Bravery is being the only person who knows you're afraid." That made me smile...
Kaylee got fitted for her new "Starlets" dress, that $250 accessory. She said the teacher said if you're not planning on buying a new one next year, make sure this one was big enough to grow into. I told her she'd better not buy one too tight, because SHE could buy the next one if she did! She loves it though. Plus, one of her friends who only missed getting into the group by one point ended up getting in after all as one of the other girls is moving now. So she now has several girls who are already her friends in the group with her, and she's really looking forward to next year and her adventures in Starlets. I'm happy for her!
We have someone with a checkride for tomorrow, and needed to get something done on the plane before then. Muncie got us in at 9 a.m. today, last minute, which was nice. When I got here at 9, I told the guy what it was here for, and he pulled it right into the hangar. It was supposed to take a couple hours, so I figure hey, done by 11, 11:30, home in time for lunch, and it and I had a flight scheduled at 1:30. No problem. At 10:30 I checked in with the girls, who pulled it up and said "Yep, it's an open job", and took my phone number to call me when it's done. At 12:15 I see nobody working on it but the stuff still hooked up, so I go over and ask what's going on. They're not done, and everybody goes to lunch at noon, and they might not have gotten started on it right away, and we don't know how long it will take, and you'll have to wait until they're back from lunch, etc. I'm kind of mad at this point, so I call my 1:30 and tell him I'll have to call him later if we can still fly later today. The morning I expected, the afternoon I didn't, and it's shot. And then one of the avionics guys says to me "Time to spare, go by AIR", and I'm trying to be amused by that because I like him, but... That saying is a bit grating if it's being used as an excuse; the air, airplane, weather, the usual suspects weren't the problem, your people on the ground were, and giving me a smug little cliché when I'm already annoyed is not going to go over well. It's 1:30 and I'm still sitting here. At least there is a restaurant on field, or I'd be downright ugly. ;) I had French toast with cinnamon chips, and man, that was good. Anyway, picking back up this evening: around 1:30 I ate lunch, and I finally left Muncie sometime after 4 pm. By then I was okay. I had started to get upset at the desk ladies and it wasn't their fault, so I went for a nice long walk...more than one, actually. A normal day gets me 5000 to 7000 steps...I was over 10000 by 4 pm. :D There were several things wrong with the system in the airplane, and instead of a simple check, they had to fix a few things. The unpleasantly coincidental thing is that I think THEY were the ones who goofed it up in the first place last year!! Even more humorous in a not-funny way, I bet they charge for 6 hours of their time to fix something they goofed up themselves. What a rip-off aviation is in some regards. There aren't tons of jobs out there where you can goof something up and charge them to do it, and then charge them to fix what you goofed in the first place. I suppose IT is like that too. And doctor's offices. But the rest of us don't get to do that too often. :)
Buzz Aldrin: So, Kaylee asked me if I knew who Buzz Aldrin was. I said "Sure, don't you?" She said "I do now." He was the guest speaker for the Opening Ceremonies at DI Globals 2015 in Knoxville. I said "Cool!" She said "Well, not really, Mom, I'm pretty sure he was really drunk. He was slurring his words and he kept swearing in front of 9000 kids, and he was telling us how screwed up the school system was, and kept telling us that we needed to join up and join in on the expedition for the colonization of Mars, and Mom, that's a one way death sentence trip. Another guy with a mic kept trying to get him to come off stage and shut him up, but he kept ignoring him and going, and security was over on the side, and finally somebody had to take his mic away and just lead him off stage. It was weird." So I Googled it, and there were people there who had taken videos of some of his ranting there, and the title of one was "Buzz Hammered at DI Globals". It was really...sad. He was an American hero, and it's sad to see him be That Guy. A bit of a bummer I guess, and that's how 9000 kids are going to see and know of him. Not as the man who went into space, but as the man who cussed and ranted, drunk, at a bunch of kids. Bleh.
Since I ate at the restaurant at Muncie for both breakfast and lunch, and there is no such thing as a "light" meal for either meal at that place, even though I walked around a lot, I got a Panera salad for dinner, and the whole thing is really low calorie and it looks really good. I'm getting ready to dive in, looking forward to it.
I saw a quote today that said "Bravery is being the only person who knows you're afraid." That made me smile...
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Clip
I'm starting this just as Richard was being taken in for his heart cath procedure. They say it should take about an hour, so praying for him, and for the steady hands and minds of his doctors and nurses.
I flew in the RG with someone working on their Commercial maneuvers, something I haven't done in a long time, but at least it all looked vaguely familiar, and some things are universal for checkride prep, so that helped. I was supposed to go to Aurora in the Cheyenne this morning, was waiting for a heads-up text, then the time changed to after lunch, which ran me into trouble getting Kaylee, so I arranged a Kaylee-picker-upper, but then someone else went instead, so I un-arranged a Kaylee-picker-upper, and did a few other things locally instead. And I got Scoops Ice Cream too...child sized scoop but still plenty of ice cream from that place. I swear they give you a full quart of ice cream if you're not careful, and who can throw away good ice cream?? It should be a criminal offense. ;)
Richard's procedure took the hour they said it would, and thankfully he came through it with flying colors and had no complications from it. He woke up and is doing great, and they have said they will be able to do the heart valve repair, hopefully as soon as Friday, though that's not confirmed yet. What a relief!
I went down to Sheridan for dinner tonight, met up with a group of pilots down there, about a dozen of us. The only problem with eating down there is that they have really good blackberry or peach cobbler and it's hard not to get it sometimes...
Well, we're pretty wiped out, all of us, I'm going to head off. Remind me to tell you the story about Buzz Aldrin if I didn't already.
I flew in the RG with someone working on their Commercial maneuvers, something I haven't done in a long time, but at least it all looked vaguely familiar, and some things are universal for checkride prep, so that helped. I was supposed to go to Aurora in the Cheyenne this morning, was waiting for a heads-up text, then the time changed to after lunch, which ran me into trouble getting Kaylee, so I arranged a Kaylee-picker-upper, but then someone else went instead, so I un-arranged a Kaylee-picker-upper, and did a few other things locally instead. And I got Scoops Ice Cream too...child sized scoop but still plenty of ice cream from that place. I swear they give you a full quart of ice cream if you're not careful, and who can throw away good ice cream?? It should be a criminal offense. ;)
Richard's procedure took the hour they said it would, and thankfully he came through it with flying colors and had no complications from it. He woke up and is doing great, and they have said they will be able to do the heart valve repair, hopefully as soon as Friday, though that's not confirmed yet. What a relief!
I went down to Sheridan for dinner tonight, met up with a group of pilots down there, about a dozen of us. The only problem with eating down there is that they have really good blackberry or peach cobbler and it's hard not to get it sometimes...
Well, we're pretty wiped out, all of us, I'm going to head off. Remind me to tell you the story about Buzz Aldrin if I didn't already.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Halfway
Kaylee has been working on catching up her homework, unpacking, doing laundry, and getting everything back in order for this week. She has to memorize the Gettysburg Address before tomorrow to get extra credit in a class she needs it in, but it's 6:30 pm and she's still finishing up her other homework, so not sure how well that will go. Hopefully she'll get it--I'll try to help.
As far as DI Globals 2015, Kaylee said it was an amazing experience and that she's really grateful she got to go. Her group did not place well overall, but it was also their first time going, none of them really knew what to expect (and the adult chaperone wasn't allowed to help), and they found it to be a great learning experience, and figure it will help them in future years if they are able to go again. We're still deciding in this family if one of them will be doing it again.
Richard is having a procedure done tomorrow to test his veins, I believe. He has been on his cancer medication this whole time, and that weakens him and causes side effects, so today Steve got his heart doctor and his cancer doctor talking together and determined that he needed to be off the cancer meds so he had an opportunity to get strong enough to have a good chance at the testing needed for the heart doctor. So we're hoping he'll have some time to recover and gain strength before they run some of the tests and make a final determination on fixing the valve issue.
One kind of funny thing: Kaylee is reading "The Princess Bride" for the first time, for homework. She keeps saying "I've heard that saying before! I never knew what it meant/was from." I kind of impressed her that I could quote most of the book/movie. Well, I don't know if I impressed her or disturbed her, but either way works for me. ;)
Well, wish us luck in memorizing the Gettysburg Address properly. It's getting her out of finishing up hanging up her clothes in her room again...I think she did that on purpose...
Edited to add: Learning the entire Gettysburg Address in one evening isn't happening. Heck, even I didn't memorize that in one evening and I had a pretty much photographic memory back then...
As far as DI Globals 2015, Kaylee said it was an amazing experience and that she's really grateful she got to go. Her group did not place well overall, but it was also their first time going, none of them really knew what to expect (and the adult chaperone wasn't allowed to help), and they found it to be a great learning experience, and figure it will help them in future years if they are able to go again. We're still deciding in this family if one of them will be doing it again.
Richard is having a procedure done tomorrow to test his veins, I believe. He has been on his cancer medication this whole time, and that weakens him and causes side effects, so today Steve got his heart doctor and his cancer doctor talking together and determined that he needed to be off the cancer meds so he had an opportunity to get strong enough to have a good chance at the testing needed for the heart doctor. So we're hoping he'll have some time to recover and gain strength before they run some of the tests and make a final determination on fixing the valve issue.
One kind of funny thing: Kaylee is reading "The Princess Bride" for the first time, for homework. She keeps saying "I've heard that saying before! I never knew what it meant/was from." I kind of impressed her that I could quote most of the book/movie. Well, I don't know if I impressed her or disturbed her, but either way works for me. ;)
Well, wish us luck in memorizing the Gettysburg Address properly. It's getting her out of finishing up hanging up her clothes in her room again...I think she did that on purpose...
Edited to add: Learning the entire Gettysburg Address in one evening isn't happening. Heck, even I didn't memorize that in one evening and I had a pretty much photographic memory back then...
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Catch-Up
I think it's a good thing that Kaylee was gone all week for her DI thing, because we've had a crazy week of our own, and I haven't really been home before midnight any night since Wednesday!
She's doing fine. She's on her way home now from their event in Knoxville. The leader posted about a dozen photos of the kids doing their various events, and it looked like a good time was had by all. Kaylee got to miss school and everything for this; I hope they made the kids do their homework there so they don't have to do it all tonight. She got her dress made out of duct tape, and she did a pretty impressive job with it--way better than I would have done. I had a hard enough time finding all the stuff to buy for it, let alone designing it and then making it happen. Steve isn't fond of it because he says it looks too grown-up. It's black and red duct tape so it looks a little like black leather, but she is fully covered. Dad. :) The Duct Tape Ball they went to (and that's "dance" ball, not a giant ball of duct tape) looked huge. They were in some major auditorium. I'll stick a picture of that up at the end. I don't know how they did on their "Challenges" yet. I'm pretty confident in saying they wouldn't win at Globals, but I'm guessing it was a good experience in creativity, presentation, confidence, etc.
Steve said today he was enjoying watching me do the dishes and laundry on our anniversary. :P We went out to dinner last night as our anniversary celebration. Nineteen years today. We decided that it felt longer and shorter at the same time. In a good way, of course. ;) We went to Bonefish Grill, and we still tried to behave ourselves on food, so we skipped our favorite appetizers, had grilled fish and vegetables, but by golly I had that Macadamia Nut Raspberry Chocolate Brownie and that was all she wrote. That thing was half raw, cocoa powder, very chocolately, and major bliss. Steve had Key Lime pie. We brought a little bit of the dessert home, to still try to be good with our food. I didn't have much left of mine, he did better than I did. I couldn't stop. Mmm. I'm going to go finish that off this afternoon. Decadent. That's the word. And the rest of the food was excellent as always too. I had grilled char and snow peas, Steve had sea bass and French beans...now aren't you hungry?
Richard is currently at St. Vincent's Heart Hospital in Indy, where they are taking very good care of him. Ann is with him, and this hospital is more like a hotel than any hospital I was ever familiar with. The menu and food is great, they have a place for Ann to be able to sleep there as well, and a person to help her with her needs too. The nurses are attentive and caring, and they've been on top of his medical needs from the beginning. He started having trouble on Thursday, and during his Friday morning doctor appointment, after some hububub, he was transported down to Indy, and he's right where he needs to be for now. All prayers for him and Ann both, as well as the doctors and nurses for their care and wisdom, would be appreciated.
Flying stuff. Friday I had another photo imaging job to do. It was supposed to start at 7, I made it 7:45 to make it slightly more palatable for me. Because of fuel truck problems and other issues, I didn't get off the ground until a little later, but finally we were on our way. I took Steve C with me so he could practice it a bit too, and we went up to DeMott, Indiana in the 172. He did most of the field, then had trouble finishing it up, so I finished it and we went back home to top off. That took us two hours, and I still had two areas to do. The fuel truck was broken so we had to go to the self serve pump, and Steve decided to do other things the rest of the afternoon, and I was going to have to cancel my next student, JH, so I asked him if he wanted to come along on this second set and get some flight time that way. That round took 3.5 hours, and by the end of it, after 5.5 hours flight time and a couple hours on the ground, I was all done with it for the day. I had JH fly a couple of the patterns, but he was having trouble getting it, and I was needing to get down and find out how Richard was doing, so I finished the fields and then had him fly us home. It was warm, and bumpy, and a fair amount of yanking and banking and yawing and turning, and I realized at 1:30 pm I hadn't had a thing to eat and I was getting bleh, so I grabbed the peanut butter cheese crackers I'd brought along and a water bottle, and needed that. I felt sort of beat up after I got done. Need to pay more attention to water/food when I'm doing that.
Yesterday I took photos of a pretty neat urn. The father-in-law of one of our pilot friends passed away. He was former Navy and worked on bombers. His family had a cylinder from a big radial cleaned up and hollowed out, and his ashes inserted into it, then mounted on a thick varnished wooden base, with a plaque on it that had his name and info and "He was a true gentleman." I took some photos of it for the people who did it, and the pilot friend, as they were sending it to Ohio to be with his wife. A neat legacy.
Steve and I went flying in the PT-26 one day recently, he flew it from the back seat. He's not supposed to touch it at all, and he's not supposed to be in it without a signed consent form. He felt that with what he was providing, they could kiss his butt, I believe were his words. I'll probably give them the form at least--I can forge his scribble. ;) Yesterday a few of us went up in Gumby for its maiden public/group flight, over to lunch at Muncie. A bumpy day, but it was nice to get up and out and enjoy. I sat in the back and took a few photos.
Kaylee is in Kentucky eating a late lunch, and then they're back on the road to home. Richard had a heart x-ray today, results unknown yet, but presumably one of the tests they want to run prior to determining options for his valve. Steve is working on outside projects, doing things like locking himself out of our yard on the wrong side of the gate, haha, and I'm still doing laundry, photos, and this. Not an exciting Anniversary Day, but...we celebrated yesterday, and besides, we're here together, and that's what's important. Even if I'm making him watch old tv movies. ;)
She's doing fine. She's on her way home now from their event in Knoxville. The leader posted about a dozen photos of the kids doing their various events, and it looked like a good time was had by all. Kaylee got to miss school and everything for this; I hope they made the kids do their homework there so they don't have to do it all tonight. She got her dress made out of duct tape, and she did a pretty impressive job with it--way better than I would have done. I had a hard enough time finding all the stuff to buy for it, let alone designing it and then making it happen. Steve isn't fond of it because he says it looks too grown-up. It's black and red duct tape so it looks a little like black leather, but she is fully covered. Dad. :) The Duct Tape Ball they went to (and that's "dance" ball, not a giant ball of duct tape) looked huge. They were in some major auditorium. I'll stick a picture of that up at the end. I don't know how they did on their "Challenges" yet. I'm pretty confident in saying they wouldn't win at Globals, but I'm guessing it was a good experience in creativity, presentation, confidence, etc.
Steve said today he was enjoying watching me do the dishes and laundry on our anniversary. :P We went out to dinner last night as our anniversary celebration. Nineteen years today. We decided that it felt longer and shorter at the same time. In a good way, of course. ;) We went to Bonefish Grill, and we still tried to behave ourselves on food, so we skipped our favorite appetizers, had grilled fish and vegetables, but by golly I had that Macadamia Nut Raspberry Chocolate Brownie and that was all she wrote. That thing was half raw, cocoa powder, very chocolately, and major bliss. Steve had Key Lime pie. We brought a little bit of the dessert home, to still try to be good with our food. I didn't have much left of mine, he did better than I did. I couldn't stop. Mmm. I'm going to go finish that off this afternoon. Decadent. That's the word. And the rest of the food was excellent as always too. I had grilled char and snow peas, Steve had sea bass and French beans...now aren't you hungry?
Richard is currently at St. Vincent's Heart Hospital in Indy, where they are taking very good care of him. Ann is with him, and this hospital is more like a hotel than any hospital I was ever familiar with. The menu and food is great, they have a place for Ann to be able to sleep there as well, and a person to help her with her needs too. The nurses are attentive and caring, and they've been on top of his medical needs from the beginning. He started having trouble on Thursday, and during his Friday morning doctor appointment, after some hububub, he was transported down to Indy, and he's right where he needs to be for now. All prayers for him and Ann both, as well as the doctors and nurses for their care and wisdom, would be appreciated.
Flying stuff. Friday I had another photo imaging job to do. It was supposed to start at 7, I made it 7:45 to make it slightly more palatable for me. Because of fuel truck problems and other issues, I didn't get off the ground until a little later, but finally we were on our way. I took Steve C with me so he could practice it a bit too, and we went up to DeMott, Indiana in the 172. He did most of the field, then had trouble finishing it up, so I finished it and we went back home to top off. That took us two hours, and I still had two areas to do. The fuel truck was broken so we had to go to the self serve pump, and Steve decided to do other things the rest of the afternoon, and I was going to have to cancel my next student, JH, so I asked him if he wanted to come along on this second set and get some flight time that way. That round took 3.5 hours, and by the end of it, after 5.5 hours flight time and a couple hours on the ground, I was all done with it for the day. I had JH fly a couple of the patterns, but he was having trouble getting it, and I was needing to get down and find out how Richard was doing, so I finished the fields and then had him fly us home. It was warm, and bumpy, and a fair amount of yanking and banking and yawing and turning, and I realized at 1:30 pm I hadn't had a thing to eat and I was getting bleh, so I grabbed the peanut butter cheese crackers I'd brought along and a water bottle, and needed that. I felt sort of beat up after I got done. Need to pay more attention to water/food when I'm doing that.
Yesterday I took photos of a pretty neat urn. The father-in-law of one of our pilot friends passed away. He was former Navy and worked on bombers. His family had a cylinder from a big radial cleaned up and hollowed out, and his ashes inserted into it, then mounted on a thick varnished wooden base, with a plaque on it that had his name and info and "He was a true gentleman." I took some photos of it for the people who did it, and the pilot friend, as they were sending it to Ohio to be with his wife. A neat legacy.
Steve and I went flying in the PT-26 one day recently, he flew it from the back seat. He's not supposed to touch it at all, and he's not supposed to be in it without a signed consent form. He felt that with what he was providing, they could kiss his butt, I believe were his words. I'll probably give them the form at least--I can forge his scribble. ;) Yesterday a few of us went up in Gumby for its maiden public/group flight, over to lunch at Muncie. A bumpy day, but it was nice to get up and out and enjoy. I sat in the back and took a few photos.
Kaylee is in Kentucky eating a late lunch, and then they're back on the road to home. Richard had a heart x-ray today, results unknown yet, but presumably one of the tests they want to run prior to determining options for his valve. Steve is working on outside projects, doing things like locking himself out of our yard on the wrong side of the gate, haha, and I'm still doing laundry, photos, and this. Not an exciting Anniversary Day, but...we celebrated yesterday, and besides, we're here together, and that's what's important. Even if I'm making him watch old tv movies. ;)
Steve flying the PT from the back.
Us.
Walter's Urn. I just grabbed the first photo I took rather than look through for the best one, but you get the idea. Isn't that neat?
Nathan finishing up putting the prop back on the T6
Reflections of Gumby for the next few photos. You can see Nathan hanging his arm out the open window.
More reflections--going by Muncie Tower.
Reflections in the air. That was really cool, you could see yourself in the engine cowling too.
Nathan and Jerry were up front, turning base to final for home.
The kids being super heroes with costumes made in part with duct tape. Except Kaylee whose whole dress was duct tape. Harley Quinn is who she was. Cat Woman there, Magneto, Batman, Scarlett somebody...can't remember the other girl.
Her duct tape costume and white face paint and dyed hair tips.
The group getting ready to go do their Instant Challenge
Look at the floor here--this is at the duct tape ball.
A teeming mass of teenage humanity. It makes me want to go outside and breathe extra deep even sitting here in my house!
Kaylee's face. Haha
Group Selfie (Groupie?)
They did a t-shirt swap with other groups too...
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Hump Day
We didn't have to wake up early today, and it was sweet! No school, kiddo gone, it was very quiet.
I flew in the RG from 1-3, hit the store, flew from 4-5:30 in the 172 doing short/soft field takeoffs and landings at Glenndale in the light rain, and then went on down to Shady's for dinner with a dozen other pilots (as did Steve). One of the guys down there had his deceased father-in-law's ashes in his truck...he needed someone to take photos of his FIL's special urn, couldn't get a good photo himself, so brought Walter along in order to give him to someone who could take a decent photo. I won that coin toss, so Walter rode home with me, strapped into the back seat with the seat belt on. The urn is a very large aircraft cylinder that had been hollowed out, mounted on a thick varnished wooden plaque. It's VERY heavy. I mean...really seriously heavy. As I was carrying it into the house from the driveway, I was concerned, kept having a visual of dropping this, and the horror that brought to mind. Broken cylinder, cracked wood plaque, missing ashes... Lordy. Fortunately I was able to get it in the house with no damage. I'll get a good backdrop and take the pictures tomorrow for him before returning him. It really is a beautiful urn. Neat idea, too.
Kokomo Airport has a new bush in front of the flag pole. In fact, Kokomo has a new Bush Plane. Remember the flying pig bush by our house wearing a pink tutu? Well, now the airport has a bush plane. Its legs are a little spindly, but it's really kinda cute.
I told Steve, the hangar door and prop-off T-6 are continuing to save tons of money! I was texted and asked to participate in a whole string of formation fly-overs for Memorial Day weekend, something like 6-7 sorties, which I of course won't be doing. There's a new guy in Terre Haute who wants to meet me halfway and do a bunch of flying too, even willing to buy some gas for me, trying to get his FAST card in one year and before OSH. I'm glad they're still asking even though we'll soon be going on 9 months since I was last able to participate, longer than that since I actually did. I also kind of wish they wouldn't ask me again until I was able to participate, just because it's easier, but like I've said every year, for many years now, maybe next year will be my year. Or not. Whatever will be will be and all. But in the meantime, at least we're saving a lot of 100LL money. ;)
Kaylee is off and running, and the chaperone has sent on three photos of the group so far. Kaylee looks happy and like she's having a good time thus far. Haven't heard from her since she was in the car yesterday, but opening ceremonies was today and I'm sure she's having a good time with it all. She won't be home until Sunday evening!
I flew in the RG from 1-3, hit the store, flew from 4-5:30 in the 172 doing short/soft field takeoffs and landings at Glenndale in the light rain, and then went on down to Shady's for dinner with a dozen other pilots (as did Steve). One of the guys down there had his deceased father-in-law's ashes in his truck...he needed someone to take photos of his FIL's special urn, couldn't get a good photo himself, so brought Walter along in order to give him to someone who could take a decent photo. I won that coin toss, so Walter rode home with me, strapped into the back seat with the seat belt on. The urn is a very large aircraft cylinder that had been hollowed out, mounted on a thick varnished wooden plaque. It's VERY heavy. I mean...really seriously heavy. As I was carrying it into the house from the driveway, I was concerned, kept having a visual of dropping this, and the horror that brought to mind. Broken cylinder, cracked wood plaque, missing ashes... Lordy. Fortunately I was able to get it in the house with no damage. I'll get a good backdrop and take the pictures tomorrow for him before returning him. It really is a beautiful urn. Neat idea, too.
Kokomo Airport has a new bush in front of the flag pole. In fact, Kokomo has a new Bush Plane. Remember the flying pig bush by our house wearing a pink tutu? Well, now the airport has a bush plane. Its legs are a little spindly, but it's really kinda cute.
I told Steve, the hangar door and prop-off T-6 are continuing to save tons of money! I was texted and asked to participate in a whole string of formation fly-overs for Memorial Day weekend, something like 6-7 sorties, which I of course won't be doing. There's a new guy in Terre Haute who wants to meet me halfway and do a bunch of flying too, even willing to buy some gas for me, trying to get his FAST card in one year and before OSH. I'm glad they're still asking even though we'll soon be going on 9 months since I was last able to participate, longer than that since I actually did. I also kind of wish they wouldn't ask me again until I was able to participate, just because it's easier, but like I've said every year, for many years now, maybe next year will be my year. Or not. Whatever will be will be and all. But in the meantime, at least we're saving a lot of 100LL money. ;)
Kaylee is off and running, and the chaperone has sent on three photos of the group so far. Kaylee looks happy and like she's having a good time thus far. Haven't heard from her since she was in the car yesterday, but opening ceremonies was today and I'm sure she's having a good time with it all. She won't be home until Sunday evening!
The kids embarking on the journey to TN. And...that's a selfie stick.
At opening ceremonies
The bush plane at Kokomo
I think it's kinda cute.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Tuesday
We stayed up until about 1:20 a.m., heard nothing from the imaging people, and went to bed. Back up at 6 a.m. to get Kaylee ready, and I was supposed to start this flight at 7, but of course couldn't without the appropriate software. Steve got hold of them again early in the morning, and they got it worked out, and finally I had the software downloaded onto someone else's iPad and was walking out the door by 7:45 a.m., which put me pretty late by the time I got to the airport, plane out, finished hooking up what needed hooked up, got in and got going. I hadn't had time or an easy ability to even know where I was going. The software tells you where to go but it's not an aviation map, and it's photos of fields, so I couldn't really figure out where I was supposed to be, just get in and go and look for obstacles and airspace as I go. With more time I'd have broken out an aviation map too and tried to see about where I was going, but I just didn't have time. Steve C. came along with me (it's his miniPad), and we got in and started flying, and you can't do this if it's a cloudy day, and north looked cloudy, so I headed to Areas Two and Three to the south first (there were three areas in the one mission, one north, two south). It cleared up just as we got to our first area, which happened to be right off the end of Terre Haute's runway, at the edge of their Class D airspace. There are also two pretty nice sized towers over there by the field I was doing, taller than I was flying anyway, so I had to keep an eye out for those and not get distracted on situational awareness. Which wasn't a problem because I don't like towers, so they were never far from my mind. ;) Next up we went south even farther...and ended up right outside the Class C airspace for Evansville. That field went easier than the first, which went easier than the one I did last time. It's still not super easy, it's tiring, and if you lose focus for a second you blow the track you're on and have to redo it, but it's getting easier quickly. My passenger found it a little rough, but wants to go again on Friday, and since I'm still going to be using his iPad, that sounds fair. The north field was clouded over, so I had to skip it, and we just came home and landed. I had a few moments of heart-sink, when I "finished" the mission on the iPad and it said ZERO percent of the fields were recorded. The next bad feeling was when it said the mission I completed hadn't even been started. Both times I texted my tech support guy, from the air even, and he got back to me asap and let me know it was a software glitch and all was well after all. Whew. I thought I'd done all that for nothing and would have to redo it. Glad that wasn't the case. It ended up being 4 hours of flight time and a few more hours of prep time. I'm supposed to do that 3rd field plus some others on Friday. I don't know when, where, or for how long yet...and I have a student's long IFR cross country that day too. Gonna be a long day.
Steve took Kaylee to school this morning at 7:30 with all her bags, and she was off and on her way to Knoxville. They didn't arrive until almost 8 p.m. Apparently there was an accident on the interstate and it took them at least 3 hours to get five miles. That's a long day of traveling with a group of teenagers. I bet the chaperones sleep like dead people tonight.
Steve and I had (too much) dinner at Grindstone Charley's tonight, and now we're both so tired we're ready to pass out on the couch...
Here's a photo from the IFR cross country the other day. A rainbow circle surrounding the airplane. That just goes to prove that airplanes are the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Or that it costs a pot of gold to fly airplanes. Something like that.
Steve took Kaylee to school this morning at 7:30 with all her bags, and she was off and on her way to Knoxville. They didn't arrive until almost 8 p.m. Apparently there was an accident on the interstate and it took them at least 3 hours to get five miles. That's a long day of traveling with a group of teenagers. I bet the chaperones sleep like dead people tonight.
Steve and I had (too much) dinner at Grindstone Charley's tonight, and now we're both so tired we're ready to pass out on the couch...
Here's a photo from the IFR cross country the other day. A rainbow circle surrounding the airplane. That just goes to prove that airplanes are the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Or that it costs a pot of gold to fly airplanes. Something like that.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Quick
Kind of a whirlwind of a day.
I think I flew this morning--oh yes, I went on an IFR cross country to Michigan with a student, and we got lucky and got to get a fair amount of actual IFR in. I was too late to make it to lunch, so I hit the drive thru on my way to the Party Store, where thanks be to all that is holy I did find everything else Kaylee needed for this duct tape event. From there I ran and returned some items we wouldn't need after all to another store, and then hit several more errands before going back out to Kokomo to fly with my afternoon guy, who kept me entertained. I kept him entertained too. ;)
Then it was time to go to the school and watch Kaylee's DI group do their skit before they packed it all up for the trip to Tennessee. She leaves first thing in the morning.
I also leave first thing in the morning, or I'm supposed to, for my first solo flight for Mavrx (the imaging company). Except they told us this morning they had a job for us tomorrow at 7 a.m., and they'd never sent me the app to download for the navigation, and they didn't have an adapter for me to use my old iPad with their stuff (it has the smaller plug connection). So I borrowed a friend's mini iPad, and Steve has been trying to get it set up all evening, and it's still not set up, and I don't know where I'm going, or if it'll be set up in time, and it's after midnight and people were supposed to get back to him and send him something so he can finish setting it up, but out in CA it's only 9 pm and they don't seem to be in a hurry to get this done, or they're not able to. If we go to bed, we may not have time to set it up in the morning, as I'm supposed to leave by 7, and he has to get Kaylee to school by 7:30 for her DI thing. So we're sitting up late here, waiting on these guys to get back to us. When I do go tomorrow, it's going to take 5 and a half hours to complete, and covers three areas. I'm bringing the guy with me whose iPad I'm borrowing, as he may do this gig once he finished his Commercial Rating. This will be kind of an instructional flight for him to see what we're supposed to do. This is literally see one, do one, teach one, only "see one" and "do one" were in the same one flight for me. We'll see. It's going to be a long, hot day, with a lot of sloshing around, so I'm hoping I don't make him sick. ;)
I sort of politely complained to the guy at Mavrx, who just emailed me that they were planning on doing a lot with us, and as such they were going to send me an iPad ASAP to use that would work with their stuff, a newer one, purchased by them, so I didn't have to borrow somebody else's to get the job done. Well then. Cool. Now send us over what we need to download the dumb app so we can go to bed! :)
I think I flew this morning--oh yes, I went on an IFR cross country to Michigan with a student, and we got lucky and got to get a fair amount of actual IFR in. I was too late to make it to lunch, so I hit the drive thru on my way to the Party Store, where thanks be to all that is holy I did find everything else Kaylee needed for this duct tape event. From there I ran and returned some items we wouldn't need after all to another store, and then hit several more errands before going back out to Kokomo to fly with my afternoon guy, who kept me entertained. I kept him entertained too. ;)
Then it was time to go to the school and watch Kaylee's DI group do their skit before they packed it all up for the trip to Tennessee. She leaves first thing in the morning.
I also leave first thing in the morning, or I'm supposed to, for my first solo flight for Mavrx (the imaging company). Except they told us this morning they had a job for us tomorrow at 7 a.m., and they'd never sent me the app to download for the navigation, and they didn't have an adapter for me to use my old iPad with their stuff (it has the smaller plug connection). So I borrowed a friend's mini iPad, and Steve has been trying to get it set up all evening, and it's still not set up, and I don't know where I'm going, or if it'll be set up in time, and it's after midnight and people were supposed to get back to him and send him something so he can finish setting it up, but out in CA it's only 9 pm and they don't seem to be in a hurry to get this done, or they're not able to. If we go to bed, we may not have time to set it up in the morning, as I'm supposed to leave by 7, and he has to get Kaylee to school by 7:30 for her DI thing. So we're sitting up late here, waiting on these guys to get back to us. When I do go tomorrow, it's going to take 5 and a half hours to complete, and covers three areas. I'm bringing the guy with me whose iPad I'm borrowing, as he may do this gig once he finished his Commercial Rating. This will be kind of an instructional flight for him to see what we're supposed to do. This is literally see one, do one, teach one, only "see one" and "do one" were in the same one flight for me. We'll see. It's going to be a long, hot day, with a lot of sloshing around, so I'm hoping I don't make him sick. ;)
I sort of politely complained to the guy at Mavrx, who just emailed me that they were planning on doing a lot with us, and as such they were going to send me an iPad ASAP to use that would work with their stuff, a newer one, purchased by them, so I didn't have to borrow somebody else's to get the job done. Well then. Cool. Now send us over what we need to download the dumb app so we can go to bed! :)
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Today
I'm feeling better, Kaylee's feeling fine, Steve thought about getting sick but hasn't. So all in all, on average, we seem to be okay. Not great, but okay. :)
Kaylee had her voice recital today, and sang "Cabaret". When there were only three people ahead of her, she leaned over to me and said "I need to use your phone! I can't remember the words!" Yikes. When she got up there, she was nervous, but then she switched the nerves down and started in on it, and she did well. Whew! I gave Steve the camera to record the video, with a lot of trepidation considering his past history of video and photo capabilities, but I wanted still shots and video and I couldn't do both this time. So we got that, and he didn't cut her head off or take video of the butt of the guy in front of us or anything that he normally does. ;)
After the recital, Kaylee came back and did her homework, and then it was time for us to go shopping for some stuff she needs for the DI competition. She is having to make a duct tape costume. Yeah, you heard me. She needed weird things like lace, white cotton for sleeves, duct tape in specific colors, make up in specific colors, tights, a baseball bat, silver hoops, jewels...we shopped for hours and still haven't found white face paint, red tights, and colored hair hairspray. If the Halloween store was still open, I could get at least two of those things there. I need a theater store, a drama store, a Halloween store, something. I can't find it and I have to have it tomorrow. And I'm frustrated and tired about it. Anybody know where I can get those three things? And don't say Wal-Mart, Meijer or Target...
Kaylee has school tomorrow, has a DI meeting tomorrow night, and leaves at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning for a week in Knoxville, TN for the DI Globals. Boom boom boom. Right now she's working on her duct tape costume, and she's actually doing a very nice job on it so far. :)
Here are a few photos...
Kaylee had her voice recital today, and sang "Cabaret". When there were only three people ahead of her, she leaned over to me and said "I need to use your phone! I can't remember the words!" Yikes. When she got up there, she was nervous, but then she switched the nerves down and started in on it, and she did well. Whew! I gave Steve the camera to record the video, with a lot of trepidation considering his past history of video and photo capabilities, but I wanted still shots and video and I couldn't do both this time. So we got that, and he didn't cut her head off or take video of the butt of the guy in front of us or anything that he normally does. ;)
After the recital, Kaylee came back and did her homework, and then it was time for us to go shopping for some stuff she needs for the DI competition. She is having to make a duct tape costume. Yeah, you heard me. She needed weird things like lace, white cotton for sleeves, duct tape in specific colors, make up in specific colors, tights, a baseball bat, silver hoops, jewels...we shopped for hours and still haven't found white face paint, red tights, and colored hair hairspray. If the Halloween store was still open, I could get at least two of those things there. I need a theater store, a drama store, a Halloween store, something. I can't find it and I have to have it tomorrow. And I'm frustrated and tired about it. Anybody know where I can get those three things? And don't say Wal-Mart, Meijer or Target...
Kaylee has school tomorrow, has a DI meeting tomorrow night, and leaves at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning for a week in Knoxville, TN for the DI Globals. Boom boom boom. Right now she's working on her duct tape costume, and she's actually doing a very nice job on it so far. :)
Here are a few photos...
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Weekend
I should catch up, but it's 1 a.m. and I've been sick and it's bed time.
Friday I was a waste, I slept in late, made it up in time for lunch, was okay at lunch, and then crashed pretty hard, so much so that I had a hard time getting myself home. I slept on the couch for awhile until it was time to pick Kaylee up from school, then slept on the couch some more until it was time to take her to her voice lesson. I ran from there to the airport to run up the 340 after its oil change and vacuum pump replacement to make sure it would be ready for the next morning's flight, and then picked her up, took her to a friend's house, and then went back to the couch. I picked her up at 10:30 p.m., and then had a hard time getting to sleep. Of course. I was awake a lot of the night, restless too, and then the alarm went off at 6:15 a.m. and was really not ready to get up and fly to St. Louis.
But...it worked out. I wasn't great, but I was good enough, and the storms that were possible for the morning just didn't happen, which is even better. A new student of ours came along this time. He's 16, and he's had four flight lessons. I flew us there, and then on the way home, after we took off, I gave it to him to fly. Remember, student pilot with four lessons. He flew us all the way home, mostly in IFR, kept us in the altitude limits, kept us pretty well on track, did the level off and hand flew for an hour, and occasionally took photos or video with his other hand while he was doing it. We get back to Kokomo, which is reporting clear below 12,000', and it wasn't at all, so we had to shoot an RNAV approach in. He was doing fine so I decided to let him try, and had him hand fly the approach. It was raining just before we got there. He's descending in actual IFR, and this stinker shoots the approach and doesn't lose it. I did the radios, I told him what to do, he didn't know why he was doing anything exactly, and I managed the power, but still, he followed the precision approach needles all the way down, then brought it in for a landing. I didn't have to touch the actual yoke or rudders once. That's so annoying when other people make stuff look so easy. My fourth flight lesson did NOT have me doing so well I could shoot a GPS approach in actual IFR in a twin. I don't think I like him much! ;) He seems to be a really nice kid...
Today was our Poker Run. It was overcast and a bit drippy now and then, and for the third year in a row it was pretty much a wash-out for weather. So Steve and AE are talking about making the Poker Run a two week event next year, where they get together afterwards for lunch/dinner, to turn in their cards, etc., instead of banking it all on one day that keeps getting weathered out in the Spring.
Kaylee's Spring band concert was this evening. Kaylee's sax broke during the first song, so when it ended, she had to get a replacement sax handed to her, on stage. Then the band director got up and said that this song featured a solo by Kaylee Stants. She was handed someone else's instrument, with different feeling buttons and such, and then was highlighted as the solo artist for the song. And she handled it like a champ. She ran a series of notes on the new sax, gave it a thumbs-up, and they were off. She did a great job on her solo, and afterwards she stood and gave a gentle bow to the audience. Steve wanted to yell out at her, but decided she wouldn't appreciate that. I had to get up and move, because during that song she'd moved, and I couldn't see her, and I couldn't have that. So I bothered other people, but I recorded her playing, and took photos of her up there anyway, because I'm the Mom and that's my girl and you can't stop me. ;)
There was a Senior there for the high school band who was highlighted, and he came out to play a special piece that the director said was very difficult. It sounded difficult. While he was playing, I glanced over, and Steve was doing sax fingering with his left hand, perfectly on beat to what the kid was playing. After it was over, he leaned over and said "I played that exact piece. I remember every note. Oh, and I played it as a Freshman." At the end of the evening, the director mentioned the Seniors and all their prospective majors. This kid was triple majoring in Math, Physics, and something else like Mechanical Engineering (that wasn't it, but something hard). I leaned over to Steve and said "You may have played that piece as a Freshman, but he's got you beat there." Steve leans back over and says "He hasn't actually DONE it yet." ;)
Today was also Devon's 17th birthday, of course. It hit me while I was flying with the kid this morning that he was a year younger than our son would be. Kinda threw me a little, as I can't really picture Devon like that very well. And yet I can. Hard to describe. But I thought of him a lot today.
Tonight, while Steve was finishing up some things at the airport after the band concert, Kaylee and I sat in the living room and just talked, like for almost 3 hours, about all sorts of things. Things she had thought she was weird for feeling or doing or thinking, only to find out that she wasn't the only one. It was a good conversation. When it was time to go to bed, she asked me to come in and talk to her some more in there, so I did. Until she started poking me in the back to find the sensitive spot back there, and then I was out of there. ;) She's a really good kid...we're lucky to be her parents.
On that note, it's really late, and I'm really beat. I have photos, but they'll have to wait...
Friday I was a waste, I slept in late, made it up in time for lunch, was okay at lunch, and then crashed pretty hard, so much so that I had a hard time getting myself home. I slept on the couch for awhile until it was time to pick Kaylee up from school, then slept on the couch some more until it was time to take her to her voice lesson. I ran from there to the airport to run up the 340 after its oil change and vacuum pump replacement to make sure it would be ready for the next morning's flight, and then picked her up, took her to a friend's house, and then went back to the couch. I picked her up at 10:30 p.m., and then had a hard time getting to sleep. Of course. I was awake a lot of the night, restless too, and then the alarm went off at 6:15 a.m. and was really not ready to get up and fly to St. Louis.
But...it worked out. I wasn't great, but I was good enough, and the storms that were possible for the morning just didn't happen, which is even better. A new student of ours came along this time. He's 16, and he's had four flight lessons. I flew us there, and then on the way home, after we took off, I gave it to him to fly. Remember, student pilot with four lessons. He flew us all the way home, mostly in IFR, kept us in the altitude limits, kept us pretty well on track, did the level off and hand flew for an hour, and occasionally took photos or video with his other hand while he was doing it. We get back to Kokomo, which is reporting clear below 12,000', and it wasn't at all, so we had to shoot an RNAV approach in. He was doing fine so I decided to let him try, and had him hand fly the approach. It was raining just before we got there. He's descending in actual IFR, and this stinker shoots the approach and doesn't lose it. I did the radios, I told him what to do, he didn't know why he was doing anything exactly, and I managed the power, but still, he followed the precision approach needles all the way down, then brought it in for a landing. I didn't have to touch the actual yoke or rudders once. That's so annoying when other people make stuff look so easy. My fourth flight lesson did NOT have me doing so well I could shoot a GPS approach in actual IFR in a twin. I don't think I like him much! ;) He seems to be a really nice kid...
Today was our Poker Run. It was overcast and a bit drippy now and then, and for the third year in a row it was pretty much a wash-out for weather. So Steve and AE are talking about making the Poker Run a two week event next year, where they get together afterwards for lunch/dinner, to turn in their cards, etc., instead of banking it all on one day that keeps getting weathered out in the Spring.
Kaylee's Spring band concert was this evening. Kaylee's sax broke during the first song, so when it ended, she had to get a replacement sax handed to her, on stage. Then the band director got up and said that this song featured a solo by Kaylee Stants. She was handed someone else's instrument, with different feeling buttons and such, and then was highlighted as the solo artist for the song. And she handled it like a champ. She ran a series of notes on the new sax, gave it a thumbs-up, and they were off. She did a great job on her solo, and afterwards she stood and gave a gentle bow to the audience. Steve wanted to yell out at her, but decided she wouldn't appreciate that. I had to get up and move, because during that song she'd moved, and I couldn't see her, and I couldn't have that. So I bothered other people, but I recorded her playing, and took photos of her up there anyway, because I'm the Mom and that's my girl and you can't stop me. ;)
There was a Senior there for the high school band who was highlighted, and he came out to play a special piece that the director said was very difficult. It sounded difficult. While he was playing, I glanced over, and Steve was doing sax fingering with his left hand, perfectly on beat to what the kid was playing. After it was over, he leaned over and said "I played that exact piece. I remember every note. Oh, and I played it as a Freshman." At the end of the evening, the director mentioned the Seniors and all their prospective majors. This kid was triple majoring in Math, Physics, and something else like Mechanical Engineering (that wasn't it, but something hard). I leaned over to Steve and said "You may have played that piece as a Freshman, but he's got you beat there." Steve leans back over and says "He hasn't actually DONE it yet." ;)
Today was also Devon's 17th birthday, of course. It hit me while I was flying with the kid this morning that he was a year younger than our son would be. Kinda threw me a little, as I can't really picture Devon like that very well. And yet I can. Hard to describe. But I thought of him a lot today.
Tonight, while Steve was finishing up some things at the airport after the band concert, Kaylee and I sat in the living room and just talked, like for almost 3 hours, about all sorts of things. Things she had thought she was weird for feeling or doing or thinking, only to find out that she wasn't the only one. It was a good conversation. When it was time to go to bed, she asked me to come in and talk to her some more in there, so I did. Until she started poking me in the back to find the sensitive spot back there, and then I was out of there. ;) She's a really good kid...we're lucky to be her parents.
On that note, it's really late, and I'm really beat. I have photos, but they'll have to wait...
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Best Laid Plans
I woke up early, not feeling well. My head, not a headache, but something that felt like a cold. Stuffed up, slightly sore throat, foggy. I got Kaylee up, went back to bed for 40 minutes, I thought, but then Kaylee came in and said "Mom, I don't feel good. At all. I mean, I REALLY feel bad." I felt her head and she didn't seem to have a fever, but so far she's not conned us on this stuff, so I told her to go back to bed, and I called in the school and told them she wouldn't be there. Later that morning, the thought wandered through my head...I wonder if she was really sick, I mean, she's 14 and a half almost. Maybe it's not that bad? And then I got a text: "Mommy, I just threw up all over." Annnnd that answered that hint of a question I'd wondered for a second. She doesn't fake sick...when I got home tonight, she's on the couch, no fever really, no more vomiting, but not feeling good, either. She hasn't eaten or drank enough though...she's afraid it'll make her sick again.
As for me, I actually felt bad enough that I wasn't hopping out of bed even to go on a Cheyenne trip, something I was looking forward to! But I did finally get rolling and out there; my mental processes were a little slow, but I was mostly there. :) We got onto the runway, and had a mechanical failure, and had to cancel IFR and taxi back to the hangar. Nathan went to work on that, and I got the 340 ready to go instead. It's a bit longer of a flight in the 340, close to 9 hours, but everybody was a good sport about it. Because I don't feel that well, I was a little short on filters. A couple examples come to mind, but the one I'll share is one I think everyone will agree with me on. I get to Kissimmee, and I need fuel (obviously), so I fill out their paper and say "Top Off". I even put my address and phone number on there even though I hate that when I'm only going to be somewhere long enough to get gas and leave. The lady tells me I need to fill out the rest of the paper. It asked how many gallons I wanted in each main and aux tank. I said "I already circled 'top off'. You want me to put how many gallons in each tank anyway?" She said I could just put "top off" by each tank if I wanted. I shot a look and said "I already SAID Top Off. Now I have to say Top Off on a line for five different tanks?" Then because I was being a jerk, I just filled in the numbers. 50 gallons each main, 31.5 gallons each aux, 20 gallons wing locker. Better?? I really dislike unnecessary red tape and brainless rules.
Thunderstorms were popping up and solidifying down there, but fortunately I got out of there in time for it to not be a big deal, just a little dodging for a short period of time. The bigger problem was that three of us in the plane had sinus issues. Kevin went through most of a box of Kleen-x, and his daughter also had a bad sinus day. We stayed as low as we could and still be above most of the turbulence, and fortunately everybody did okay.
Fuel management was most of the work today; I had to constantly tweak power and fuel flow settings to keep myself at 45 minutes to an hour reserve, every time our track or the winds changed. Everybody was a good sport about sitting in a smaller than they're used to airplane for about four and a half hours straight, no potty breaks or anything. :)
I hadn't been able to drink much today for obvious reasons, so when I got on the ground I stopped at McDonald's for a big unsweet tea, and then made it home where I haven't moved much off my chair. I need bed now. Kaylee's there now too, her back kind of hurts, and she still doesn't feel well. It's going to be a very busy weekend, including a band concert and a singing recital on her part, a Poker Run, a trip to St. Louis, and attending a band and singing recital on my part, and we need to not feel puny!
As for me, I actually felt bad enough that I wasn't hopping out of bed even to go on a Cheyenne trip, something I was looking forward to! But I did finally get rolling and out there; my mental processes were a little slow, but I was mostly there. :) We got onto the runway, and had a mechanical failure, and had to cancel IFR and taxi back to the hangar. Nathan went to work on that, and I got the 340 ready to go instead. It's a bit longer of a flight in the 340, close to 9 hours, but everybody was a good sport about it. Because I don't feel that well, I was a little short on filters. A couple examples come to mind, but the one I'll share is one I think everyone will agree with me on. I get to Kissimmee, and I need fuel (obviously), so I fill out their paper and say "Top Off". I even put my address and phone number on there even though I hate that when I'm only going to be somewhere long enough to get gas and leave. The lady tells me I need to fill out the rest of the paper. It asked how many gallons I wanted in each main and aux tank. I said "I already circled 'top off'. You want me to put how many gallons in each tank anyway?" She said I could just put "top off" by each tank if I wanted. I shot a look and said "I already SAID Top Off. Now I have to say Top Off on a line for five different tanks?" Then because I was being a jerk, I just filled in the numbers. 50 gallons each main, 31.5 gallons each aux, 20 gallons wing locker. Better?? I really dislike unnecessary red tape and brainless rules.
Thunderstorms were popping up and solidifying down there, but fortunately I got out of there in time for it to not be a big deal, just a little dodging for a short period of time. The bigger problem was that three of us in the plane had sinus issues. Kevin went through most of a box of Kleen-x, and his daughter also had a bad sinus day. We stayed as low as we could and still be above most of the turbulence, and fortunately everybody did okay.
Fuel management was most of the work today; I had to constantly tweak power and fuel flow settings to keep myself at 45 minutes to an hour reserve, every time our track or the winds changed. Everybody was a good sport about sitting in a smaller than they're used to airplane for about four and a half hours straight, no potty breaks or anything. :)
I hadn't been able to drink much today for obvious reasons, so when I got on the ground I stopped at McDonald's for a big unsweet tea, and then made it home where I haven't moved much off my chair. I need bed now. Kaylee's there now too, her back kind of hurts, and she still doesn't feel well. It's going to be a very busy weekend, including a band concert and a singing recital on her part, a Poker Run, a trip to St. Louis, and attending a band and singing recital on my part, and we need to not feel puny!
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Eclectic Aviation Day
It was a busy day, starting at 7 a.m. getting Kaylee up for her dental appointment. We were prepared for a really bad time today, and poor Steve was on his own with her. Well, it was fast and easy, she did great, and she was supposed to get two things done, but one required needles in the gums and one didn't. The dentist said he'd like to just do the one that didn't today and had us make another appointment for the one that does. That way she had at least a not-too-bad experience today. She fortunately was able to get this permanent fix done, didn't need and shouldn't need a root canal, and came through this okay. I know it might seem overkill to be that concerned about a dental thing, but she really, really has a problem with it. And I know how she feels. I'm better now, but that was me, too, and I avoided dentists for years. My Mom told me she always felt the same way. Maybe it's a genetic fear. ;)
After her procedure was over, since her lips and tongue weren't numb, and to celebrate, Steve took her to IHOP to eat before taking her back to school for the rest of the day. A rousing success. Thank you for any prayers for her, we appreciate it!
My day was one aviation thing to the next until 8:30 pm or so. I started off with the new imaging job. Jon got the camera set up on the strut, and I flew over to Danville, IL, where I met up with a pretty man named Alexi. He made sure the set up was right, and then went along with me on this first round. I have to tell you, that was trickier than I thought it was going to be. You can't see on the ground where you're supposed to go with any kind of accuracy, so you have to go off of the iPad for track, altitude and speed, and you have to keep them all within very strict parameters. It's like an ILS with three dimensions instead of two, in a way. You're at 500' above the ground, which is high enough in general, and low enough to have to look out for obstacles. I also had two devices--my iPad and his. His had the imaging software on it, and it was suction cupped to the window. Mine was in my lap, for obstacles and navigation. We had three fields to do, about 50 nm apart. Two of those fields were RIGHT on the edge of some airspace. One just a Class D, and the other the inner surface ring of a Class C. Some very tall towers around too, to watch out for. I had to be really careful on the Class C one on how I turned out, to avoid bumping into their inner ring. I started off swinging wide and trying to get stable to line up, and that didn't seem to help much and was taking a lot of time, so I started doing more aggressive banking to come right back around and get lined up. I only went to a little over 60 degrees bank with the guy in the other seat, but even that is good for making you be precise. I pulled up, cranked over, came down...and was too fast on one pass because of it. It's a good exercise, in everything but coordination. You can't bank much while you're taking photos, and the track is extremely precise, so you're constantly kicking around your rudders to get and stay lined up on what it wants. I was maneuvering around to get a tiny sliver of a line, and nailed it at the last second, and he said "You've got fast feet. Do you fly taildraggers?" lol But...it's not for anyone who gets motion sick. Up, down, around and round, yawing and kicking and banking and bumping around in the thermals from being close to the ground, etc. Like I said, it was actually kind of a lot of work! It ended up being 4.7 hours of flight time getting over there, flying the grids, then flying home. I was sort of tired after that, but the day had just begun! :) I did definitely see that I am now spoiled. Flying the C-172 to Illinois and back took a really long time (45 minutes each way) and I was, well, bored. :o And I wandered up and down on my altitude a lot too. I did put my ear buds in. :)
When I got back to Kokomo, the PT was ready for its' test flight after annual, so I got that out and took it up. It did fine. Mark T had asked for a fly-by if the PT flew, so I went over his shop, but I didn't give him the "buzz job" he requested. Over town there I stayed high, but I did a few turns and wing wags at them. :) The hard part was getting the plane out and mostly putting it away. Get out the tug, drive down to the hangar, tug it out, that wasn't too bad, but putting it away, good grief. The tailwheel wouldn't break loose, Jon was breaking it loose with a lot of work, but then it would go too far...he'd try to get it to break the other way...it took us forever to get that dumb thing put away. It took three times longer to get it in and out than it actually even flew.
First two photos here by Jon Tharp
Next up was pattern work in the 172 with a student. Young fellow, and this was my first time doing take offs and landings with him, my 4th flight with him in the 172. By the end of the flight he was doing it all on his own, and even had the flare down. Stall horn on, nose up, flare, without me touching it or saying a word. Now he wasn't perfect on the straight part of it, we had some light winds that were swapping around a little and making it hard to keep straight, so he'd be a little crooked sometimes, need a little more rudder in there, but good grief. The kid's good. It's disgusting. ;) Jon took this picture of us in the pattern today.
Last but not least, I got to Glenndale as fast as I could, and took the Cub up with a fellow. I got it started on my second pull, so that felt successful. We didn't have a ton of gas, but I didn't want to get more yet (it's a hassle), and it was just a discovery flight technically anyway. As I was getting in the plane, I smacked my right knee onto a bar, and I hit it hard enough that I couldn't move my leg for a minute. I literally had to sit there with the plane running for a minute with the other guy holding the brakes until I could move and straighten out my knee enough to get on the controls. He didn't want to do the taxi or takeoff, or landing, so I did something I've not really done before. :D I save it from the front seat all the time, but I don't know that I've ever just flown it all the way from the front seat. Once we got in the air he did the flying, and we enjoyed ourselves. I brought it in for a landing when the gas wire dipped low enough it seemed like a good idea. I wasn't going to put more gas in it, but wait for the next guy, so I shut down at the hangar, but when we got out, with the plane down, the wire was all the way down, which meant it had like 20-30 minutes gas left...I couldn't stand the idea of leaving that for somebody else. So the two of us pushed the plane back up to the fuel pump. That was tiring. Last time I did that, a summer ago, I about passed out. Not really, but I broke out into a sweat, couldn't catch my breath, my heart was pounding like crazy...it wasn't good. This time I was tired and a little out of breath, but it wasn't too bad. I'm in better shape than I was this time last year. Good to know. :) A guy came out and helped me push it back to the hangar after my older student did get too winded pushing. Why didn't I start it? Because that's a hassle too. If I'm going to start it on the ramp I want a guy on the controls, but the guy couldn't taxi it so I'd have to get in the front and...bleh. I pushed. I needed the exercise anyway.
When I left the airport, my car was out of gas too, so I stopped for that, and then I was to get some food for tomorrow's trip to Florida, so I stopped for that as well. Got home a bit late, but I made it. I had to put an ice pack on my knee, which is still very sore, enough that I took some Tylenol too, and can't walk very well yet. Maybe tomorrow it'll be better. But it was an eclectic day of flying. Aerial photography, baby warbird, primary training, and open door grass strip Cub flying. And tomorrow is about high, fast, and powerful. It's all good. :)
After her procedure was over, since her lips and tongue weren't numb, and to celebrate, Steve took her to IHOP to eat before taking her back to school for the rest of the day. A rousing success. Thank you for any prayers for her, we appreciate it!
My day was one aviation thing to the next until 8:30 pm or so. I started off with the new imaging job. Jon got the camera set up on the strut, and I flew over to Danville, IL, where I met up with a pretty man named Alexi. He made sure the set up was right, and then went along with me on this first round. I have to tell you, that was trickier than I thought it was going to be. You can't see on the ground where you're supposed to go with any kind of accuracy, so you have to go off of the iPad for track, altitude and speed, and you have to keep them all within very strict parameters. It's like an ILS with three dimensions instead of two, in a way. You're at 500' above the ground, which is high enough in general, and low enough to have to look out for obstacles. I also had two devices--my iPad and his. His had the imaging software on it, and it was suction cupped to the window. Mine was in my lap, for obstacles and navigation. We had three fields to do, about 50 nm apart. Two of those fields were RIGHT on the edge of some airspace. One just a Class D, and the other the inner surface ring of a Class C. Some very tall towers around too, to watch out for. I had to be really careful on the Class C one on how I turned out, to avoid bumping into their inner ring. I started off swinging wide and trying to get stable to line up, and that didn't seem to help much and was taking a lot of time, so I started doing more aggressive banking to come right back around and get lined up. I only went to a little over 60 degrees bank with the guy in the other seat, but even that is good for making you be precise. I pulled up, cranked over, came down...and was too fast on one pass because of it. It's a good exercise, in everything but coordination. You can't bank much while you're taking photos, and the track is extremely precise, so you're constantly kicking around your rudders to get and stay lined up on what it wants. I was maneuvering around to get a tiny sliver of a line, and nailed it at the last second, and he said "You've got fast feet. Do you fly taildraggers?" lol But...it's not for anyone who gets motion sick. Up, down, around and round, yawing and kicking and banking and bumping around in the thermals from being close to the ground, etc. Like I said, it was actually kind of a lot of work! It ended up being 4.7 hours of flight time getting over there, flying the grids, then flying home. I was sort of tired after that, but the day had just begun! :) I did definitely see that I am now spoiled. Flying the C-172 to Illinois and back took a really long time (45 minutes each way) and I was, well, bored. :o And I wandered up and down on my altitude a lot too. I did put my ear buds in. :)
When I got back to Kokomo, the PT was ready for its' test flight after annual, so I got that out and took it up. It did fine. Mark T had asked for a fly-by if the PT flew, so I went over his shop, but I didn't give him the "buzz job" he requested. Over town there I stayed high, but I did a few turns and wing wags at them. :) The hard part was getting the plane out and mostly putting it away. Get out the tug, drive down to the hangar, tug it out, that wasn't too bad, but putting it away, good grief. The tailwheel wouldn't break loose, Jon was breaking it loose with a lot of work, but then it would go too far...he'd try to get it to break the other way...it took us forever to get that dumb thing put away. It took three times longer to get it in and out than it actually even flew.
Next up was pattern work in the 172 with a student. Young fellow, and this was my first time doing take offs and landings with him, my 4th flight with him in the 172. By the end of the flight he was doing it all on his own, and even had the flare down. Stall horn on, nose up, flare, without me touching it or saying a word. Now he wasn't perfect on the straight part of it, we had some light winds that were swapping around a little and making it hard to keep straight, so he'd be a little crooked sometimes, need a little more rudder in there, but good grief. The kid's good. It's disgusting. ;) Jon took this picture of us in the pattern today.
Last but not least, I got to Glenndale as fast as I could, and took the Cub up with a fellow. I got it started on my second pull, so that felt successful. We didn't have a ton of gas, but I didn't want to get more yet (it's a hassle), and it was just a discovery flight technically anyway. As I was getting in the plane, I smacked my right knee onto a bar, and I hit it hard enough that I couldn't move my leg for a minute. I literally had to sit there with the plane running for a minute with the other guy holding the brakes until I could move and straighten out my knee enough to get on the controls. He didn't want to do the taxi or takeoff, or landing, so I did something I've not really done before. :D I save it from the front seat all the time, but I don't know that I've ever just flown it all the way from the front seat. Once we got in the air he did the flying, and we enjoyed ourselves. I brought it in for a landing when the gas wire dipped low enough it seemed like a good idea. I wasn't going to put more gas in it, but wait for the next guy, so I shut down at the hangar, but when we got out, with the plane down, the wire was all the way down, which meant it had like 20-30 minutes gas left...I couldn't stand the idea of leaving that for somebody else. So the two of us pushed the plane back up to the fuel pump. That was tiring. Last time I did that, a summer ago, I about passed out. Not really, but I broke out into a sweat, couldn't catch my breath, my heart was pounding like crazy...it wasn't good. This time I was tired and a little out of breath, but it wasn't too bad. I'm in better shape than I was this time last year. Good to know. :) A guy came out and helped me push it back to the hangar after my older student did get too winded pushing. Why didn't I start it? Because that's a hassle too. If I'm going to start it on the ramp I want a guy on the controls, but the guy couldn't taxi it so I'd have to get in the front and...bleh. I pushed. I needed the exercise anyway.
Taken by back seater. :)
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Fly By
I can't think of anything I did yesterday worth repeating. I ran up the PT, which spewed oil all over after having a difficult time getting started, but once it did start, it ran smoothly at least. Kaylee had an after-school DI meeting that lasted until 7:40 pm or so. I got a report that the door handle on the 340 was bad and it may not be airworthy, and I had a trip scheduled for first thing this morning, so I ran out to the hangar to check on the handle. It was fine, the same as it's always been, but it wasn't a wasted trip out there. Bob was having fresh oysters and a party in his hangar, and he invited me to have a few, so I did. They asked me a few questions about the airplane, and I spent about 45 minutes there before it was time for me to get Kaylee. At that point my day was over, I came home and went to bed not that long after. Unfortunately I woke up wide awake at 3 a.m., so after lying in bed for an hour, I just got up and was up the rest of the morning until it was time to get up Kaylee at 6:15. I did go back to bed after that for a couple hours, but that was a fairly lousy night's sleep.
Kaylee just came in, and I shut down this window, and she said "Why don't you want me to read your blog?" I told her I didn't care if she read my blog, and I opened it back up, and she read for a second, found her name, and then tuned out. I said "see, you're not interested in the least about reading about my boring old day, are you!" Nope. ;)
I was supposed to go to Litchfield, IL today, but that trip was canceled around 9pm the night before, unfortunately. I didn't do much this morning but recuperate from the night before. But when I got to lunch today we learned that a friend of ours lost his daughter last night, to suicide. She was a wife, and the mom of two young children. My heart hurts for him and for them.
The winds were high and the temps cold today; I could have test flown the PT-26, but it was, well, cold. And windy. And I didn't feel like it. I'll do it tomorrow if I get a chance. I did get some exercise today moving around airplanes, walking back and forth and pushing and pulling planes and stuff, and I can feel it in my arms a little at the moment. It was good for me.
Next up Jon hooked up the camera set-up on the 172 for my first aerial photography thingy with this company. Mavrx is their name if I didn't say that before. This first one is all the way over by Danville, Illinois. That'll be the longest cross country I've taken in a C-172 in a long time. ;) I leave here around 9:15 a.m. and get there around 9 a.m. their time. On the ground I'm meeting a guy who will finish setting me up, including software on my iPad, and is apparently going along with me in the airplane the first time. It should take about 4 hours of flight time plus however long to set up the ground stuff. We'll see how it goes.
In the meantime, tomorrow morning, Kaylee will be going to a large dental appointment. She's nervous about it but holding up fairly well. I wish I could be there though, this is kind of one where she needs her mom. Her dad will be there with her, but it'll be tough for both of them. I brought up the fact that they were going to inject her with needles, and Steve's face was kind of funny. He then thought he might need to bring his Mom along so that she could pick him up off the floor so he could hopefully be conscious to hold Kaylee's hand. :D If you think of it, she could use some prayers tomorrow. So could he, probably. ;)
Kaylee just came in, and I shut down this window, and she said "Why don't you want me to read your blog?" I told her I didn't care if she read my blog, and I opened it back up, and she read for a second, found her name, and then tuned out. I said "see, you're not interested in the least about reading about my boring old day, are you!" Nope. ;)
I was supposed to go to Litchfield, IL today, but that trip was canceled around 9pm the night before, unfortunately. I didn't do much this morning but recuperate from the night before. But when I got to lunch today we learned that a friend of ours lost his daughter last night, to suicide. She was a wife, and the mom of two young children. My heart hurts for him and for them.
The winds were high and the temps cold today; I could have test flown the PT-26, but it was, well, cold. And windy. And I didn't feel like it. I'll do it tomorrow if I get a chance. I did get some exercise today moving around airplanes, walking back and forth and pushing and pulling planes and stuff, and I can feel it in my arms a little at the moment. It was good for me.
Next up Jon hooked up the camera set-up on the 172 for my first aerial photography thingy with this company. Mavrx is their name if I didn't say that before. This first one is all the way over by Danville, Illinois. That'll be the longest cross country I've taken in a C-172 in a long time. ;) I leave here around 9:15 a.m. and get there around 9 a.m. their time. On the ground I'm meeting a guy who will finish setting me up, including software on my iPad, and is apparently going along with me in the airplane the first time. It should take about 4 hours of flight time plus however long to set up the ground stuff. We'll see how it goes.
In the meantime, tomorrow morning, Kaylee will be going to a large dental appointment. She's nervous about it but holding up fairly well. I wish I could be there though, this is kind of one where she needs her mom. Her dad will be there with her, but it'll be tough for both of them. I brought up the fact that they were going to inject her with needles, and Steve's face was kind of funny. He then thought he might need to bring his Mom along so that she could pick him up off the floor so he could hopefully be conscious to hold Kaylee's hand. :D If you think of it, she could use some prayers tomorrow. So could he, probably. ;)
Just before starting her up...see all the nice open air by my legs?
Just a look at the panel.
The after-effects of the run up. This made a bigger mess than any other warbird he's had out on his ramp, and that's saying something! ;)
Here's a picture Justin G. took of Kaylee and I at the airport the other day. I cropped it in; I like how she's smiling at me, a real smile. :)
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Weekend Blur
Saturday was full! We started off going to the hangar and having a "coming out" party for the newly beautiful Gumby, Nathan's Aerostar. Justin G. went out and got all the goods for us, and cooked it up, and put up the food so it would stay good, which was a huge help. Nathan bought, which was also a huge help. Steve and I, mostly Steve, did the setting up, and then we all ate really, really well. In fact, we sort of ate in two shifts, munching throughout the afternoon. Good stuff, man. Gumby looks great. Sometime we'll get a nice air to air shot of it to share. :)
Next up we had the arrival of three of the Texas Flying Legends who were coming back from the Arsenal of Democracy Fly-over of Washington, DC. There were going to be 8 of them landing, but the four fighters diverted to Huntington, running low on gas and concerned about the weather. The C-47 just flew over the top of us and kept going, as he had enough gas to get home. The other three stopped in for gas. The TBM, flown by Congressman Sam Graves, the Corsair, flown by Doug Rozendaal, and the B-25, flown by Idon'tknow. :) They ran late because of the weather too, and didn't arrive much in front of a big storm that was heading our way. The three birds took on some fuel, then got out just in front of the storm. Their wheels were rolling on the runway as the rain was hitting just south of the field with dark blue and gray clouds chasing them. As I was driving into town, the rain started pounding
They were running so late, I had to leave as they were rolling, so that we could be in time for Kaylee's Spring Choir concert. As soon as we got home, we cleaned up, dressed up, and headed over to the school with Kaylee. We all really enjoyed the concert. They weren't perfect this time like they usually are; Kaylee brought it up a few times, mistakes they'd made, but honestly, perfect or not, it was a really good, really entertaining show. They did a nice job with it, they had fun, they sounded great, and I didn't even see most of the mistakes Kaylee was worried about, which were mostly choreography because they were short on time to learn it after the director changed it up at the last minute. But it was great. They did a "where were you when" theme for the Junior High, where they played a bunch of old famous songs and acted out on them a bit. Like "Eye of the Tiger" and "Blueberry Hill" and stuff like that. Anyway, hard to describe, but most people reading this were there, so you already know what it was. :D I had a terrible time getting photos. There were so many kids, and Kaylee was usually in the back, a small face amongst a bunch of small faces, and they kept moving around all over the place too, and every time they moved I'd lose her again for a few minutes. I did finally get some photos, but none exceptional. The program, as always, was really really good, loved it, can't wait for the next one!
Next up we had the arrival of three of the Texas Flying Legends who were coming back from the Arsenal of Democracy Fly-over of Washington, DC. There were going to be 8 of them landing, but the four fighters diverted to Huntington, running low on gas and concerned about the weather. The C-47 just flew over the top of us and kept going, as he had enough gas to get home. The other three stopped in for gas. The TBM, flown by Congressman Sam Graves, the Corsair, flown by Doug Rozendaal, and the B-25, flown by Idon'tknow. :) They ran late because of the weather too, and didn't arrive much in front of a big storm that was heading our way. The three birds took on some fuel, then got out just in front of the storm. Their wheels were rolling on the runway as the rain was hitting just south of the field with dark blue and gray clouds chasing them. As I was driving into town, the rain started pounding
They were running so late, I had to leave as they were rolling, so that we could be in time for Kaylee's Spring Choir concert. As soon as we got home, we cleaned up, dressed up, and headed over to the school with Kaylee. We all really enjoyed the concert. They weren't perfect this time like they usually are; Kaylee brought it up a few times, mistakes they'd made, but honestly, perfect or not, it was a really good, really entertaining show. They did a nice job with it, they had fun, they sounded great, and I didn't even see most of the mistakes Kaylee was worried about, which were mostly choreography because they were short on time to learn it after the director changed it up at the last minute. But it was great. They did a "where were you when" theme for the Junior High, where they played a bunch of old famous songs and acted out on them a bit. Like "Eye of the Tiger" and "Blueberry Hill" and stuff like that. Anyway, hard to describe, but most people reading this were there, so you already know what it was. :D I had a terrible time getting photos. There were so many kids, and Kaylee was usually in the back, a small face amongst a bunch of small faces, and they kept moving around all over the place too, and every time they moved I'd lose her again for a few minutes. I did finally get some photos, but none exceptional. The program, as always, was really really good, loved it, can't wait for the next one!
The weather moving in right after the warbirds took off out of Kokomo.
The warbird photos taken by Trevor Griffis.
The warbird photos taken by Trevor Griffis.
Four girls in this photo--her friends Kristina, Grace, Bella and herself. :)
Spot her back there?
Hard to get the camera to focus on one row over the other and quickly as everyone is moving.
She was front and center for "Eye of the Tiger". :)
So once I finally get her front and center, there's a mic right in the way. ;)
No, you can't see her in there, I just took as wide of a shot as I could get of the end.
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