It's the last day of July. Kaylee starts back at school next Tuesday. Time is blasting past, summer is practically over! I'm a bit bothered by the upcoming air shows and fly-ins where the T-6 will probably be out of luck, like Marion's fly-in, the Warsaw Airshow, and our own BBQ Bash. Kind of hate to miss those, more than I hated missing the Kokomo Airshow. We made a fair amount of money to help cover maintenance costs on rides at some of those places that we're missing, like tomorrow's Indy Exec fly-in where I gave rides last year, and this year will be doing it in the PT-26 for the CAF instead...no, I don't know what the hold up is this time, and no, I'm not asking, either...
Richard was apparently feeling a little better today, he was sitting up and having Boost and ice cream as a treat, and smiling, so that was good news. :)
I spent today in the 172, flying for 6.5 hours doing photo imaging flights. The conditions were perfect today, thankfully, and I got it all done. I started at 9 a.m. and didn't get done until 5 pm, because I also had to stop for fuel twice. The first time I had timed it to fly from 9-11:30, then stop at Glenndale for fuel and a piece of chicken. The second time I flew from 12:30-4:00, and I was on my way home, but my fuel was getting close, and it was going to be 4 hours in the air by the time I got home, and this one holds 36 gallons useable, and I spent some time mentally mathing, but the fuel gauges aren't exactly perfect, and I kept staring at them, and finally I just caved and landed at Indy Exec, where I'm supposed to give rides in the PT tomorrow, and filled up, even though I was only half an hour from home. I noted how many gallons it took, and if I'd continued on I would have made it home with just legal VFR minimums, but...I'd have been a nervous wreck by the end. I like having gas. Lots of gas. And not landing on a road or a field because I misjudged something, or it burned more than it was supposed to. Even when I landed where I did, one needle was bouncing off the "E" and I couldn't quit staring at it. lol So...half an hour from home I stopped and got gas. Headwinds were strong, timing took longer than expected, but that's why they make lots of airports with lots of options nearby. ;)
When I got on the ground at 5, I printed off my shipping label, took out the photo cards, got everything put away and set up, ran to UPS and dropped it off, ran home and picked up Kaylee, and took her to her voice lesson. Which was dark. I texted the teacher who said "I thought you weren't coming this week?" Nope, I'd given her a list of dates we'd be gone, and today is not on that list. She messed up, but I'm just glad it wasn't me. So I went through the ice cream place, went to Walgreens and picked up something for Steve, came home, and now am ready to go to bed, at 8 p.m. here.
Except I need to find out what we're supposed to do tomorrow. *sigh*
Friday, July 31, 2015
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Thursday
Too many days with too little sleep and too much to do, I hit a bit of a wall today. If I can finish this I'd like to go to bed. :)
Six forty-five a.m. I got up and got Kaylee up. When I went to take her to band camp, we got out to the car and there were several spider webs crossing between Steve and my car, at face level. I considered going back in and waking up Steve and getting him out there to get rid of them, but that was just too mean, so I took my foot and karate kicked them out of the way. Gave me the heebie jeebies.
Next up it was time to depart from Kokomo in the Cheyenne and head to New York. Uneventful. I flew the last half from the right seat, and ended up needing to shoot an RNAV approach into Caldwell, though not real low. That wasn't super easy, and I wandered a bit initially getting set up, but the job got done. That's the first approach I've hand flown in there, and from the right is a little different, but I think I ended up with a decent way to scan by the end. The trip home was a little delayed. We ran into a couple of maintenance delays, but eventually we were on our way home. We went up to 36,000' for awhile to get over a line of weather in our way, and we were just on top of it. Nathan picked the altitude to go up to...that's twice he's guessed exactly right. I'm starting to wonder if he has secret intel somewhere. :)
We made it back to Kokomo just in time for me to go with an aerial photographer in his 172. He said he had 1800 hours in his 172 that he's owned for about 19 years. He said he usually takes photos and flies both, himself. Well, that's kinda tricky when you're in a fairly tight turn 500 feet above the ground. I'd like to see him do that, but I told him I'd be happy to fly while he took photos, if he liked. After we were flying for a few minutes, he said he'd give me the airplane to "give me a feel for it." Oh good, 'cause I don't know what a 172 feels like yet. ;) I flew, he took photos. I sort of forgot to tell him what my experience was, other than I told him I was a CFI. I did the photo circles for him, he got the shots, and we came back in time for me to run into a young man we met up at Oshkosh. From California. Who does photo imaging, mapping, in a C-210. Talk about a small world--he was in the Indy area, couldn't get a hotel room, came up to Kokomo, and remembered we were from here. He couldn't get a rental car, couldn't find a place for his plane, so we took care of him. He started off having a not very good day, but thankfully by the end we'd helped turn it around. But seriously--a young man from California we camp with at Oshkosh ends up in Kokomo, Indiana. Next up I signed off someone for their first solo cross country. I got that done, and quickly left to go to Greentown for Kaylee's Band Parent meeting and mandatory transportation meetings.
They said it was at Eastern, but didn't say where at Eastern. So I just wandered around until I found it. It started at 5, and was a social thing and dinner first. That was awkward. Kaylee was sweet, came over and brought two of her friends over to sit with me, as I was sitting by myself, since the other tables were full with families and friends who knew each other. Her friends ended up getting up and wandering off after a few minutes, and Kaylee stayed with me until I looked at her and said "Hon, go sit with your friends, it's okay." It was considerate of her, she'd have been willing to hang with me. I hadn't eaten all day. Left before breakfast, was in New York at lunch time, landed at Kokomo close to 2, flew with that other guy until after 3, was with my cross country student until 4, then on to Greentown. So the food they had there was much appreciated. After I ate it though, I was SO tired, I was just ready to pass out sitting there. The meeting took two hours. Actually, the meeting took 45 minutes, the rest of the time I was sitting there eating slowly and trying not to look awkward. The transportation meeting, I got someone else to sign me up for us, since the band meeting ran so long. Then they said there'd be a parent's performance of the band. I asked when, and they said "oh, tonight at 8:45 or so." It was now 7 pm. That means I had to leave, go home, for an hour and 15 minutes or so, then turn around and drive back to Greentown. *sigh* So tired.
When I got home, I ended up in a conversation with my student for 45 minutes, then tried to close my eyes for a few, to no success. Dragged myself back out to Greentown at 8:45, watched the marching band practice, took Kaylee out for ice cream, then home, finally. End of litany of events. I'm tired.
No information on Richard to share.
Six forty-five a.m. I got up and got Kaylee up. When I went to take her to band camp, we got out to the car and there were several spider webs crossing between Steve and my car, at face level. I considered going back in and waking up Steve and getting him out there to get rid of them, but that was just too mean, so I took my foot and karate kicked them out of the way. Gave me the heebie jeebies.
Next up it was time to depart from Kokomo in the Cheyenne and head to New York. Uneventful. I flew the last half from the right seat, and ended up needing to shoot an RNAV approach into Caldwell, though not real low. That wasn't super easy, and I wandered a bit initially getting set up, but the job got done. That's the first approach I've hand flown in there, and from the right is a little different, but I think I ended up with a decent way to scan by the end. The trip home was a little delayed. We ran into a couple of maintenance delays, but eventually we were on our way home. We went up to 36,000' for awhile to get over a line of weather in our way, and we were just on top of it. Nathan picked the altitude to go up to...that's twice he's guessed exactly right. I'm starting to wonder if he has secret intel somewhere. :)
We made it back to Kokomo just in time for me to go with an aerial photographer in his 172. He said he had 1800 hours in his 172 that he's owned for about 19 years. He said he usually takes photos and flies both, himself. Well, that's kinda tricky when you're in a fairly tight turn 500 feet above the ground. I'd like to see him do that, but I told him I'd be happy to fly while he took photos, if he liked. After we were flying for a few minutes, he said he'd give me the airplane to "give me a feel for it." Oh good, 'cause I don't know what a 172 feels like yet. ;) I flew, he took photos. I sort of forgot to tell him what my experience was, other than I told him I was a CFI. I did the photo circles for him, he got the shots, and we came back in time for me to run into a young man we met up at Oshkosh. From California. Who does photo imaging, mapping, in a C-210. Talk about a small world--he was in the Indy area, couldn't get a hotel room, came up to Kokomo, and remembered we were from here. He couldn't get a rental car, couldn't find a place for his plane, so we took care of him. He started off having a not very good day, but thankfully by the end we'd helped turn it around. But seriously--a young man from California we camp with at Oshkosh ends up in Kokomo, Indiana. Next up I signed off someone for their first solo cross country. I got that done, and quickly left to go to Greentown for Kaylee's Band Parent meeting and mandatory transportation meetings.
They said it was at Eastern, but didn't say where at Eastern. So I just wandered around until I found it. It started at 5, and was a social thing and dinner first. That was awkward. Kaylee was sweet, came over and brought two of her friends over to sit with me, as I was sitting by myself, since the other tables were full with families and friends who knew each other. Her friends ended up getting up and wandering off after a few minutes, and Kaylee stayed with me until I looked at her and said "Hon, go sit with your friends, it's okay." It was considerate of her, she'd have been willing to hang with me. I hadn't eaten all day. Left before breakfast, was in New York at lunch time, landed at Kokomo close to 2, flew with that other guy until after 3, was with my cross country student until 4, then on to Greentown. So the food they had there was much appreciated. After I ate it though, I was SO tired, I was just ready to pass out sitting there. The meeting took two hours. Actually, the meeting took 45 minutes, the rest of the time I was sitting there eating slowly and trying not to look awkward. The transportation meeting, I got someone else to sign me up for us, since the band meeting ran so long. Then they said there'd be a parent's performance of the band. I asked when, and they said "oh, tonight at 8:45 or so." It was now 7 pm. That means I had to leave, go home, for an hour and 15 minutes or so, then turn around and drive back to Greentown. *sigh* So tired.
When I got home, I ended up in a conversation with my student for 45 minutes, then tried to close my eyes for a few, to no success. Dragged myself back out to Greentown at 8:45, watched the marching band practice, took Kaylee out for ice cream, then home, finally. End of litany of events. I'm tired.
No information on Richard to share.
Wiped out kid after the second morning of Band Camp.
36,000', and just below us is a line of weather that we were obviously not in.
Me and Nathan and Kevin's legs. ;)
Quick
Steve didn't get home until after 4 a.m. this morning, and I stayed awake until past 2. Getting up at 6:50 this morning to get Kaylee up for Band Camp was not enjoyable for me either, but better me than him after that. When I dropped her off, I went out to Kokomo and waited around until 9 a.m. to take Steve's student for him. The guy never showed up, so after 9:30, I left. I was supposed to fly from 10-12 too, but I canceled that fellow as we needed the other plane to run a guy around. That's how it goes! It was HOT and muggy today. I know, it's summer, it hasn't been hot, well, now it is. I was really concerned about Kaylee out there for 8 hours today when it was so miserable hot. I figured she'd come back very unhappy. Thankfully, the total opposite. She was in a good mood, she didn't have a bad day at all, and she seems to be doing okay now. I'm so glad, she was so down about it the other day, and I was afraid it would just get worse, but she's done a really good job accepting and adapting and having a positive attitude. They even did about 20 minutes of cardio this morning, at 8 a.m., outside, and she said "Hey, I may end up in shape after this." and joked about how she has no stamina right now. But she wasn't complaining nearly as much as I would feel like complaining if people made me go outside for 8 hours, march, run, do ab exercises, etc. in 90 degree temps. It's good to be a kid, huh? I'm a little relieved today after picking her up both times and finding her in good spirits.
Richard is still down at Indy, we're still waiting to hear some details. Some of his numbers are better, and I'll let you know when I know more.
Richard is still down at Indy, we're still waiting to hear some details. Some of his numbers are better, and I'll let you know when I know more.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Well
The second day of Band Camp has passed, and Kaylee has confessed that she really dislikes it. It's a lot of work, she doesn't enjoy the marching, the being outside for 8 hours a day this week, the cardio at 8 a.m., and just the whole marching while playing the sax thing. She said even after she knows what she's doing, this just isn't her thing, and she's discouraged that it takes so much time away from other things that she would enjoy doing more. That's too bad, because she wants to drop out, but doesn't want to disappoint her band director, or the folks in the band, wants to finish off her commitment, but says she definitely won't be back next year. She's discouraged that she feels this strongly about it after two days and there is a lot to go.
After the morning practice everyone went to a local kid's pool, and they swam for several hours before the afternoon practice. She forgot sunscreen and got a good dose of sunburn (ouch), but enjoyed her time with friends at the pool.
Richard has been moved back down to the Indianapolis Heart Hospital at St. Vincent's. We don't know why yet, don't know what they've found or what they think or what the problem may be. We don't know anything yet, as of me writing this, other than the local doctor felt he needed to go back down there. Prayers for him would be greatly appreciated, and for Ann too, and maybe even for us. Steve drove down to Indy at 11 pm to be there when he was transferred, and hopefully it will go smoothly for everyone there.
After the morning practice everyone went to a local kid's pool, and they swam for several hours before the afternoon practice. She forgot sunscreen and got a good dose of sunburn (ouch), but enjoyed her time with friends at the pool.
Richard has been moved back down to the Indianapolis Heart Hospital at St. Vincent's. We don't know why yet, don't know what they've found or what they think or what the problem may be. We don't know anything yet, as of me writing this, other than the local doctor felt he needed to go back down there. Prayers for him would be greatly appreciated, and for Ann too, and maybe even for us. Steve drove down to Indy at 11 pm to be there when he was transferred, and hopefully it will go smoothly for everyone there.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Not Flying Stuff
You're welcome. ;)
Richard is back in the hospital tonight, dealing with an infection, a kidney function issue, and maybe a couple other issues, so all prayers for him would be appreciated. He was to be released from the rehab place Wednesday, but that will probably be pushed back a bit now, to give him time to recover and regain some strength.
Kaylee's first day of Band Camp went well. Her saxophone is in the shop getting repaired, so I walked in with her to the director and let him know, and he said it was no problem, she could borrow a school sax until hers was back. He also said how excited he was to have her there, and that he'd been telling "everyone" how good she was. That is, telling all the highschoolers in the band about her. She was a little surprised by that. When I picked her up, she told me how it went. She was working on the basic scales, but the sax sounded terrible. She asked for a new part. It still sounded bad. She needed a different part (I don't know the names of these things). Still sounded bad. She said she was really embarrassed at how she was sounding. Finally they got her a completely different and expensive sax, loaned from a friend, and she said she ran the scales, and it sounded beautiful, and everyone around nodded, gave that "Yep, that's it" nod, and she was off and running. They played a piece of music that everyone else had been practicing, and she hadn't because she'd been gone, and after the third time she was able to play it about perfectly without looking at the music once, and she said they were impressed with that, at how fast she picked it up. Then she said she didn't want to sound braggy, but I told her that it's okay to feel accomplishment in something you did well, nothing wrong with that as long as you don't become a jerk over it. She's also starting to believe Steve when he tells her that she's really, really good at the saxophone. She never really believed him, but now her band teacher is telling her, and today she kind of saw that how she can pick it up and play it isn't typical, and she NEVER PRACTICES. She could be amazing if she'd practice. Her response to that is "I can't make a career out of it anyway, this is just for fun", which is also a valid point to a degree. She's going to be practicing now though. For 8 hours a day, every day for this week, and about 9-10 hours per week outside of school after that. Crazy. She also learned they will be doing "Cardio" and "Drills", which concerns her. She says that they are supposed to be "band nerds" and "band geeks", and nerds and geeks do not do cardio. I mentioned that there's no good reason you couldn't be a fit and healthy nerd or geek. ;) I may even try to join in on the band wagon, as I have some getting in shape to do myself, and a little cardio would be good for me. I can walk all day now, I've noticed, miles and miles without getting very tired. But jump roping or jogging or climbing a ton of steps or hills, or anything, well, cardio, and I'm still really out of shape.
I raced Kaylee at Oshkosh, by the way. I was curious. I used to be very fast, and I'm in better shape now than I have been in a long time, so I was curious. She creamed me. I could feel my legs moving slower than my brain was telling them to. I wanted to try again right away, but I'm going to wait. It's the first time I've run a sprint in about 25 years, with a lot more weight still than I used to have, and I got left in the dust. I was okay at the start, but she pulled away and then my stamina was gone, fast. But I may see if I can practice a few sprints and then try her again. I may never beat her at this point, with her going on 15 and coming up on the prime of her life, but I would like to give her a run for her money. I used to like sprints, short ones only, feeling how fast and powerful my legs were, almost felt like flying on the ground, and this felt like I was running with elastic bands slopped around my legs slowing them down. Yuck. The good news was that she was out of breath as much as if not more than I was afterwards, so hey. ;)
I spent today getting as much done and ready as possible. Unpacking, doing all the laundry, getting stuff ready for school, running Kaylee around, hitting the store for some things we needed, going out to the airport for a flight that didn't go because the last guy left the Master switch on and killed the battery, Staples for a band thing we needed right then, the ice cream shop where I didn't get anything because of that whole "Get yourself under control girlfriend" thing, some cleaning and straightening and email catching up, some scheduling things, some billing things, you know, about everything I could, since the rest of the week is looking a little extra busy too...
Richard is back in the hospital tonight, dealing with an infection, a kidney function issue, and maybe a couple other issues, so all prayers for him would be appreciated. He was to be released from the rehab place Wednesday, but that will probably be pushed back a bit now, to give him time to recover and regain some strength.
Kaylee's first day of Band Camp went well. Her saxophone is in the shop getting repaired, so I walked in with her to the director and let him know, and he said it was no problem, she could borrow a school sax until hers was back. He also said how excited he was to have her there, and that he'd been telling "everyone" how good she was. That is, telling all the highschoolers in the band about her. She was a little surprised by that. When I picked her up, she told me how it went. She was working on the basic scales, but the sax sounded terrible. She asked for a new part. It still sounded bad. She needed a different part (I don't know the names of these things). Still sounded bad. She said she was really embarrassed at how she was sounding. Finally they got her a completely different and expensive sax, loaned from a friend, and she said she ran the scales, and it sounded beautiful, and everyone around nodded, gave that "Yep, that's it" nod, and she was off and running. They played a piece of music that everyone else had been practicing, and she hadn't because she'd been gone, and after the third time she was able to play it about perfectly without looking at the music once, and she said they were impressed with that, at how fast she picked it up. Then she said she didn't want to sound braggy, but I told her that it's okay to feel accomplishment in something you did well, nothing wrong with that as long as you don't become a jerk over it. She's also starting to believe Steve when he tells her that she's really, really good at the saxophone. She never really believed him, but now her band teacher is telling her, and today she kind of saw that how she can pick it up and play it isn't typical, and she NEVER PRACTICES. She could be amazing if she'd practice. Her response to that is "I can't make a career out of it anyway, this is just for fun", which is also a valid point to a degree. She's going to be practicing now though. For 8 hours a day, every day for this week, and about 9-10 hours per week outside of school after that. Crazy. She also learned they will be doing "Cardio" and "Drills", which concerns her. She says that they are supposed to be "band nerds" and "band geeks", and nerds and geeks do not do cardio. I mentioned that there's no good reason you couldn't be a fit and healthy nerd or geek. ;) I may even try to join in on the band wagon, as I have some getting in shape to do myself, and a little cardio would be good for me. I can walk all day now, I've noticed, miles and miles without getting very tired. But jump roping or jogging or climbing a ton of steps or hills, or anything, well, cardio, and I'm still really out of shape.
I raced Kaylee at Oshkosh, by the way. I was curious. I used to be very fast, and I'm in better shape now than I have been in a long time, so I was curious. She creamed me. I could feel my legs moving slower than my brain was telling them to. I wanted to try again right away, but I'm going to wait. It's the first time I've run a sprint in about 25 years, with a lot more weight still than I used to have, and I got left in the dust. I was okay at the start, but she pulled away and then my stamina was gone, fast. But I may see if I can practice a few sprints and then try her again. I may never beat her at this point, with her going on 15 and coming up on the prime of her life, but I would like to give her a run for her money. I used to like sprints, short ones only, feeling how fast and powerful my legs were, almost felt like flying on the ground, and this felt like I was running with elastic bands slopped around my legs slowing them down. Yuck. The good news was that she was out of breath as much as if not more than I was afterwards, so hey. ;)
I spent today getting as much done and ready as possible. Unpacking, doing all the laundry, getting stuff ready for school, running Kaylee around, hitting the store for some things we needed, going out to the airport for a flight that didn't go because the last guy left the Master switch on and killed the battery, Staples for a band thing we needed right then, the ice cream shop where I didn't get anything because of that whole "Get yourself under control girlfriend" thing, some cleaning and straightening and email catching up, some scheduling things, some billing things, you know, about everything I could, since the rest of the week is looking a little extra busy too...
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Home
Well, we made it home, after a long day of driving. It always feels a little weird when you're packing up and everyone heads out. The end of the day involved a lot of rain, and the traffic was pretty nasty too. We were backed up several times, including right out of the gate in Oshkosh. But we made it home, around 9:30 pm or so, after stopping at the airport to pick up our car.
Kaylee has Band Camp starting tomorrow, for the next week. She's supposed to be there 7:50 am-noon and 5-9 pm every day. Her sax is broken and we're not ready. So I'm going to take her starting 5 pm and talk to the band director. It's a crazy schedule, and she wants to do Tennis, DI, the Starlets, and Band, along with a play. Oh, and her Freshman year of school. I don't know about this.
This will be a bit hodge podge. I'm tired.
Friday night when I got back to the camp site, we were having "left-over night" for dinner, when a lady who we met at Oshkosh several years ago and has a daughter Kaylee's age and who has camped near us for several years now, came up to me and showed me a book she has. It's a 1943 book on flying, and she handed it to me and told me to look through it. Inside she had several people's signatures--and on the title page I saw she had Bob Hoover and Tom Poberezny's signatures. She also had Steve Saint's signature, the son of Nate Saint, the missionary pilot killed in Ecuador while ministering to the people there. I was telling her how neat I thought that was, and she said that she has pilot's she admires sign that book, not just famous ones, and explained some of the other names in there, and then she asked me to sign the book too. I was a little shocked. She and her husband were asking me questions about how it felt to fly in the show, etc. I signed the book, and felt honored to do it, albeit a little unworthy.
I was the only woman in the warbird briefing, something I didn't notice until the end. You'd think it would make you feel awkward, but I could have felt slightly awkward as a newbie there, but not as a girl. I thought to look around at the end just to see, out of curiosity. Fortunately I didn't feel too awkward as a newbie either, because the briefings were all familiar, and the folks in there acted like normal people. :)
If you could keep Richard in your prayers, he could use them. He is fighting an infection and a few other difficulties and could use some extra thoughts and prayers.
It's 1 a.m. and time to hit the bed. Here is the sequence of photos of the water dousing...taken by the guy who took my phone to take my photo for the album--or make sure my phone didn't get ruined in all the water.
Kaylee has Band Camp starting tomorrow, for the next week. She's supposed to be there 7:50 am-noon and 5-9 pm every day. Her sax is broken and we're not ready. So I'm going to take her starting 5 pm and talk to the band director. It's a crazy schedule, and she wants to do Tennis, DI, the Starlets, and Band, along with a play. Oh, and her Freshman year of school. I don't know about this.
This will be a bit hodge podge. I'm tired.
Friday night when I got back to the camp site, we were having "left-over night" for dinner, when a lady who we met at Oshkosh several years ago and has a daughter Kaylee's age and who has camped near us for several years now, came up to me and showed me a book she has. It's a 1943 book on flying, and she handed it to me and told me to look through it. Inside she had several people's signatures--and on the title page I saw she had Bob Hoover and Tom Poberezny's signatures. She also had Steve Saint's signature, the son of Nate Saint, the missionary pilot killed in Ecuador while ministering to the people there. I was telling her how neat I thought that was, and she said that she has pilot's she admires sign that book, not just famous ones, and explained some of the other names in there, and then she asked me to sign the book too. I was a little shocked. She and her husband were asking me questions about how it felt to fly in the show, etc. I signed the book, and felt honored to do it, albeit a little unworthy.
I was the only woman in the warbird briefing, something I didn't notice until the end. You'd think it would make you feel awkward, but I could have felt slightly awkward as a newbie there, but not as a girl. I thought to look around at the end just to see, out of curiosity. Fortunately I didn't feel too awkward as a newbie either, because the briefings were all familiar, and the folks in there acted like normal people. :)
If you could keep Richard in your prayers, he could use them. He is fighting an infection and a few other difficulties and could use some extra thoughts and prayers.
It's 1 a.m. and time to hit the bed. Here is the sequence of photos of the water dousing...taken by the guy who took my phone to take my photo for the album--or make sure my phone didn't get ruined in all the water.
Dennis's head is down smirking and the other guy has two water bottles in his hand. Both leaned away even though we were told to put our arms around each other. A guy was standing behind me. I was busy looking at the line of guys in front of me and didn't pay attention to these details.
Dennis breaks hard right, green shirt breaks left, and you can see water coming at me from over my head and at the bottom left of the photo.
Guy behind me keeps pouring water over my head for awhile.
And I come back very wet. One of them said "Hey, who does your hair?"
Smart alecks. ;)
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Banner
I spent most of today going to briefings or waiting, in order to be able to fly today. In the "First Time Fliers at Oshkosh"' briefers, it was lead by a guy I know, so that was lovely. What's even better is that there was nothing new in that briefing. It was same old same old typical airshow info, which was confidence building. The guy in charge of the briefing, R+10, actually mentioned me in the briefing, said that he'd flown with me in formation and that I did a great job with it, which made me warm and fuzzy. The next briefing was the Warbird Airshow briefing, and that was a bigger one. The Air Boss was the same one I'd flown with at the Indy Air show. He is crusty and gruff and a bit rude, but he's well known and experienced. When he found out I had to have a back seater, he insisted we had to speak to him after the brief. At that point he looked at Dennis and said "Okay, I get it, she's pretty, she's lovely, now why the he** does she need to be in the airplane with you in the PT-26?". Dennis told him that it was me flying and he was the backseater, needed for CAF regs. Air Boss said "Oshkosh is not the place to do this kind of check out for new people.". I piped up and said "I've flown with you as Air Boss before, in Indy, in a T-6.". Right then R+10 came up and said "She's good, Ralph, I've flown with her, and she's good, she'll be fine." Air Boss said "Okay, okay, fine, you're an old hat, you're in.". Then I had to convince the FAA. He asked me a couple of questions about my purpose and qualifications, I answered his questions and called him "Sir", and he also said "okay, you're in.". So, it was a go. Next I had to meet the head of the CAF who was observing from the ground, and I had to have a back seat observer, and if they both agreed, I was officially good to go at flying CAF aircraft at airshows. That's a fair amount of red tape, for the record, but it's done, and this will help me when it's time to fly the T-6 at Oshkosh too.
So I left the camper at 9:30 am. First briefing at 10:30, over at 11:15. Next briefing was 12:30. Third briefing was at 2 pm. Engine start for the show was at 4 pm. So I had some time to sit and wait a couple times, but not enough time to go anywhere for real. The winds were supposed to be a 70 degree crosswind gusting at 20 knots. My backseater let me know he wasn't comfortable with that kind of crosswind, so it was up to me. I wished it wasn't quite that high for the day, but there was no good reason I couldn't make it happen, so I was "in". I was #5 out of 8 airplanes, and my first time in a Liason group flught at an airshow. All went well, the flight was fairly uneventful, other than the two PT's in front of me going in formation when we were all supposed to be in trail, but hey, it worked. #8 bailed out and landed due to gear doors that wouldn't close properly. The winds went from 20 to 22 to 25 to 27, and now I'm getting a little eyebrow raise out of it myself, at 70-80 degrees off the runway. We circled around a lot off field, did two passes down the main runway show line, and recovered to land. It took all day to get that done, but...it was really cool. As I was circling around, I could see the smoke on of the performers going, they lit pyro, the crowd and the airplanes spanned the whole area, it was a heck of a cool view. I was dying to take photos, but I controlled myself. Barely. I figured this time I'd best focus on what I was doing myself. But the visual memory will stick with me for awhile.
We were supposed to land on the green dot. The two PT's in front of me struggled with the landings, then my turn came, and fortunately I greased that bad boy on there right on the green dot in a truly pretty crosswind landing, which gave me a little satisfied smirky smile for myself. Taxi in, park, debrief. After the debrief, they told me it was a tradition for all first time Oshkosh pilots, they take their photo for an album. They had me and Dennis and another guy stand there, smile, even took my phone, and then on the count of three they all dumped ice cold water all over me. The guy with my phone took a sequence of photos of it, and they were all laughing, Dennis and the other guy ducked and ran before the water hit, they knew, and I got soaked. Which, after a hot flight, felt really good, actually. They roared with laughter, I was soaked, and people hugged me and congratulated me and shook my hand, gave me "props" on my landing, and were very friendly and welcoming. It was just...fun. I'm kimd of excited about the whole thing, as I have now gotten to fly in the warbird show at Oshkosh, largest airshow in the world. Cool, man. While the airplane matters to some degree, in another way it's the same same. I enjoyed that. Now, it's late and I'm headed to bed. To sleep in, I hope!
So I left the camper at 9:30 am. First briefing at 10:30, over at 11:15. Next briefing was 12:30. Third briefing was at 2 pm. Engine start for the show was at 4 pm. So I had some time to sit and wait a couple times, but not enough time to go anywhere for real. The winds were supposed to be a 70 degree crosswind gusting at 20 knots. My backseater let me know he wasn't comfortable with that kind of crosswind, so it was up to me. I wished it wasn't quite that high for the day, but there was no good reason I couldn't make it happen, so I was "in". I was #5 out of 8 airplanes, and my first time in a Liason group flught at an airshow. All went well, the flight was fairly uneventful, other than the two PT's in front of me going in formation when we were all supposed to be in trail, but hey, it worked. #8 bailed out and landed due to gear doors that wouldn't close properly. The winds went from 20 to 22 to 25 to 27, and now I'm getting a little eyebrow raise out of it myself, at 70-80 degrees off the runway. We circled around a lot off field, did two passes down the main runway show line, and recovered to land. It took all day to get that done, but...it was really cool. As I was circling around, I could see the smoke on of the performers going, they lit pyro, the crowd and the airplanes spanned the whole area, it was a heck of a cool view. I was dying to take photos, but I controlled myself. Barely. I figured this time I'd best focus on what I was doing myself. But the visual memory will stick with me for awhile.
We were supposed to land on the green dot. The two PT's in front of me struggled with the landings, then my turn came, and fortunately I greased that bad boy on there right on the green dot in a truly pretty crosswind landing, which gave me a little satisfied smirky smile for myself. Taxi in, park, debrief. After the debrief, they told me it was a tradition for all first time Oshkosh pilots, they take their photo for an album. They had me and Dennis and another guy stand there, smile, even took my phone, and then on the count of three they all dumped ice cold water all over me. The guy with my phone took a sequence of photos of it, and they were all laughing, Dennis and the other guy ducked and ran before the water hit, they knew, and I got soaked. Which, after a hot flight, felt really good, actually. They roared with laughter, I was soaked, and people hugged me and congratulated me and shook my hand, gave me "props" on my landing, and were very friendly and welcoming. It was just...fun. I'm kimd of excited about the whole thing, as I have now gotten to fly in the warbird show at Oshkosh, largest airshow in the world. Cool, man. While the airplane matters to some degree, in another way it's the same same. I enjoyed that. Now, it's late and I'm headed to bed. To sleep in, I hope!
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Mid-Week
It's normally mid-week at Oshkosh but it's still really just my second day here. Boo. But it was a nice day. :)
I took a former student of mine to the T-6 Forum with me today. That was nice as it gave me a friendly face in there. Three guys who know me said hi, which may be a new record after what, six, seven years. :).
I ended up walking 16,000 steps or six miles today, which wasn't so bad. I also ate a double scoop of ice cream for lunch. At least it wasn't plus lunch, just instead of lunch, but still. ;)
We're sitting around a fire now, after a big dinner at Wendt's on the Lake.
I learned today that if all works out, I'll be flying the PT-26 in the show at Oshkosh during the Warbird show on Friday. I have to wear a flightsuit. This is the first year in ages I didn't bring one, and I thought about it as I was loading the airplane, and thought "Nah, I never need one, won't need one this year for sure." Well, I had to go buy one in the Fly Market today which is silly when you have 30 of them at home. But I had to have one to fly in the show and I have no good reason to not fly in the show, so...hey. I bought one for $50. I also have to have a back seater, so that's arranged too. I have to attend a briefing at 10:30 am, another briefing at 12:30, and a third after that, before the show at I think 3 pm. A full day of red tape and checked boxes to fly circles, but they are circles at Oshkosh, which is by default sort of cool.
Was a good day.
I took a former student of mine to the T-6 Forum with me today. That was nice as it gave me a friendly face in there. Three guys who know me said hi, which may be a new record after what, six, seven years. :).
I ended up walking 16,000 steps or six miles today, which wasn't so bad. I also ate a double scoop of ice cream for lunch. At least it wasn't plus lunch, just instead of lunch, but still. ;)
We're sitting around a fire now, after a big dinner at Wendt's on the Lake.
I learned today that if all works out, I'll be flying the PT-26 in the show at Oshkosh during the Warbird show on Friday. I have to wear a flightsuit. This is the first year in ages I didn't bring one, and I thought about it as I was loading the airplane, and thought "Nah, I never need one, won't need one this year for sure." Well, I had to go buy one in the Fly Market today which is silly when you have 30 of them at home. But I had to have one to fly in the show and I have no good reason to not fly in the show, so...hey. I bought one for $50. I also have to have a back seater, so that's arranged too. I have to attend a briefing at 10:30 am, another briefing at 12:30, and a third after that, before the show at I think 3 pm. A full day of red tape and checked boxes to fly circles, but they are circles at Oshkosh, which is by default sort of cool.
Was a good day.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Oshkosh
Well, I made it. :).
I'm sitting at the camp site as the sun goes down, sitting around the camp fire. We had to put a jacket on tonight as the temps have dropped to comfortably cool. It makes for great sleeping weather. The whole day was perfect Oshkosh weather, and we took advantage of it. After a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, we walked up to warbirds, and there were quite a few airplanes up there. Like 16 Mustangs and rows and rows of T-6's. We went into the warbird merchandise store and got a couple of shirts, into an EAA store and got Kaylee some stylish sunglasses which I promptly dropped on the concrete and scratched the frame a little. She loves me anyway. We got the best ice cream on the field and relaxed a bit, then walked through a couple of buildings, and got our t-shirts for the Women in Aviation photo tomorrow. Peach is the color for this year. The smallest size they had left was large, again, so Kaylee's won't fit again, but maybe I'll try to shrink it when we get home. Dinner was burgers and brats and dogs, mac and cheese, salad, at the camp site. Good stuff.
Tomorrow I have the T-6 forum at 9 am, the women's group pilot photo shoot at 10:45 am, we're going to Wendt's on the Lake for dinner, and it's the Night Air show and fireworks too. It'll be a busy and fun day. :)
I'm keeping this short and sweet, just wanted you to know we were all alive, having a great time, with beautiful weather, and good company.
I'm sitting at the camp site as the sun goes down, sitting around the camp fire. We had to put a jacket on tonight as the temps have dropped to comfortably cool. It makes for great sleeping weather. The whole day was perfect Oshkosh weather, and we took advantage of it. After a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, we walked up to warbirds, and there were quite a few airplanes up there. Like 16 Mustangs and rows and rows of T-6's. We went into the warbird merchandise store and got a couple of shirts, into an EAA store and got Kaylee some stylish sunglasses which I promptly dropped on the concrete and scratched the frame a little. She loves me anyway. We got the best ice cream on the field and relaxed a bit, then walked through a couple of buildings, and got our t-shirts for the Women in Aviation photo tomorrow. Peach is the color for this year. The smallest size they had left was large, again, so Kaylee's won't fit again, but maybe I'll try to shrink it when we get home. Dinner was burgers and brats and dogs, mac and cheese, salad, at the camp site. Good stuff.
Tomorrow I have the T-6 forum at 9 am, the women's group pilot photo shoot at 10:45 am, we're going to Wendt's on the Lake for dinner, and it's the Night Air show and fireworks too. It'll be a busy and fun day. :)
I'm keeping this short and sweet, just wanted you to know we were all alive, having a great time, with beautiful weather, and good company.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Sunday
I think we all kind of dragged out of bed this morning, but we actually made it within about 15-20 minutes of what we planned, so that wasn't too bad.
Kaylee and I flew Steve, Steve T, and AE into Oshkosh this morning. The folks at Fon du Lac still remembered me from last year, which is funny and good. I have a reserved spot on the ramp if I fly back in tomorrow in a plane that is staying there. When it was time to leave, I hated that I had to file IFR, but Kokomo and nearby were reporting at 1100-1500' broken, and there was no way to know for sure if I could get in properly VFR or not. If I went IFR I had to go on this huge route out of the way thanks to Oshkosh, adding more than 30 minutes to my time. But going VFR straight over the lake would be fast, it was clear at OSH, but...Kokomo not clear. There were also a lot of storms on the way, and I wanted to beat them in, so faster was better. I went IFR, and by the time I got to Kokomo, the broken layer broke up. I had to shoot the RNAV 23 in, but by the time I got on final, the clouds parted there. Kind of funny, but I beat the weather in by a good amount, it ended up being a non-event. And now my family and most friends are up at Oshkosh. I'm doing laundry, packing my bag, preparing for the flight tomorrow, doing weight and balances, picking up the house and getting it ready for a cleaning, packing another bag of stuff Kaylee forgot and texted me to bring, that kind of exciting stuff. I still don't know how I'm getting to Oshkosh tomorrow, but I'll take my bags with me at 6:30 a.m., well, to the airport anyway, and that way I won't have to waste time either way.
Garmin Pilot came out with another update today, and it includes some great features, including a "Nearest" Button, and when you hit it, it grays out your screen except for the airports nearest to you, and you can tap on it and go right to it and get all the info about it. I like. I've always wondered why they didn't incorporate that in the equation considering all their other products have a "Nearest" function. They also have an electronic logbook now, and a couple other neat things. Glad I logged into it tonight since they made me log in again though. Mmm.
When we were walking up the ramp at Fon du Lac, Kaylee looked over at me and said "I think you're a really good pilot." Makes me feel warm.
I've been to three different stores just looking for plain old t-shirts in an appropriate size. One place only has dressy shirts. The second place didn't have hardly anything. The third place only had those polyester shirts that are form fitting...like four different styles of them, and they suck to your body, which is fine if you're small and not so fine if you are a normal human who has a roll when they sit down. ;) So today I hit the bottom of the barrel, and on my way home I stopped at Wal-Mart. Wal-mart did have a couple shirts, also mostly form fitting, but a couple that weren't. I don't know why it's so hard to find just a plain old cotton shirt, but it is...
I ordered take-out Japanese tonight, and it was amazing. Those Dynamite Rolls are fantastic. On my way home I stopped at McDonald's to get a tea, and two guys in a car came whipping around the corner the wrong way, coming head on at us. I stopped, and the driver came swinging right up to the side of my bumper, stopping probably less than a foot from me, face to face, angrily. I'm not in the mood. I stared at him with my eyebrow up until he backed up and tore off in the other direction. Yes, I could have backed up, but I wasn't going to, which apparently he could see for himself after a few moments. He then tore out of the parking lot, swerving around other cars, stuck his nose out onto the main road until he stopped traffic, crossed three lanes of traffic rather dangerously, and peeled off down the street, swerving. I then wondered if he was drunk, but...I didn't get type of car, or license plate, so didn't call it in. I hope they didn't hurt anyone.
I got the 340 topped off, the Aerostar preflighted, and I guess I'm as ready to go on this caravan to Alabama early in the morning, as much as possible. Then hopefully I'll finally be able to head north....
Kaylee and I flew Steve, Steve T, and AE into Oshkosh this morning. The folks at Fon du Lac still remembered me from last year, which is funny and good. I have a reserved spot on the ramp if I fly back in tomorrow in a plane that is staying there. When it was time to leave, I hated that I had to file IFR, but Kokomo and nearby were reporting at 1100-1500' broken, and there was no way to know for sure if I could get in properly VFR or not. If I went IFR I had to go on this huge route out of the way thanks to Oshkosh, adding more than 30 minutes to my time. But going VFR straight over the lake would be fast, it was clear at OSH, but...Kokomo not clear. There were also a lot of storms on the way, and I wanted to beat them in, so faster was better. I went IFR, and by the time I got to Kokomo, the broken layer broke up. I had to shoot the RNAV 23 in, but by the time I got on final, the clouds parted there. Kind of funny, but I beat the weather in by a good amount, it ended up being a non-event. And now my family and most friends are up at Oshkosh. I'm doing laundry, packing my bag, preparing for the flight tomorrow, doing weight and balances, picking up the house and getting it ready for a cleaning, packing another bag of stuff Kaylee forgot and texted me to bring, that kind of exciting stuff. I still don't know how I'm getting to Oshkosh tomorrow, but I'll take my bags with me at 6:30 a.m., well, to the airport anyway, and that way I won't have to waste time either way.
Garmin Pilot came out with another update today, and it includes some great features, including a "Nearest" Button, and when you hit it, it grays out your screen except for the airports nearest to you, and you can tap on it and go right to it and get all the info about it. I like. I've always wondered why they didn't incorporate that in the equation considering all their other products have a "Nearest" function. They also have an electronic logbook now, and a couple other neat things. Glad I logged into it tonight since they made me log in again though. Mmm.
When we were walking up the ramp at Fon du Lac, Kaylee looked over at me and said "I think you're a really good pilot." Makes me feel warm.
I've been to three different stores just looking for plain old t-shirts in an appropriate size. One place only has dressy shirts. The second place didn't have hardly anything. The third place only had those polyester shirts that are form fitting...like four different styles of them, and they suck to your body, which is fine if you're small and not so fine if you are a normal human who has a roll when they sit down. ;) So today I hit the bottom of the barrel, and on my way home I stopped at Wal-Mart. Wal-mart did have a couple shirts, also mostly form fitting, but a couple that weren't. I don't know why it's so hard to find just a plain old cotton shirt, but it is...
I ordered take-out Japanese tonight, and it was amazing. Those Dynamite Rolls are fantastic. On my way home I stopped at McDonald's to get a tea, and two guys in a car came whipping around the corner the wrong way, coming head on at us. I stopped, and the driver came swinging right up to the side of my bumper, stopping probably less than a foot from me, face to face, angrily. I'm not in the mood. I stared at him with my eyebrow up until he backed up and tore off in the other direction. Yes, I could have backed up, but I wasn't going to, which apparently he could see for himself after a few moments. He then tore out of the parking lot, swerving around other cars, stuck his nose out onto the main road until he stopped traffic, crossed three lanes of traffic rather dangerously, and peeled off down the street, swerving. I then wondered if he was drunk, but...I didn't get type of car, or license plate, so didn't call it in. I hope they didn't hurt anyone.
I got the 340 topped off, the Aerostar preflighted, and I guess I'm as ready to go on this caravan to Alabama early in the morning, as much as possible. Then hopefully I'll finally be able to head north....
A pretty little mushroom cloud on the way to Ohio
Hmm...
Tired me and my favorite co-pilot. Well, one of them. :)
Our trip home from camp.
Flying home, there was this one beautiful glowing hole in the sky in front of us. Everything around was dark, and then there was this...
Various little and big cells around.
Another view of the clouds. So beautiful. I wish I could have captured the ugly cells all around and the beautiful lightning show we got.
Kokomo Airport at sunset
About an hour before the Kokomo Airshow begins
My trip to Ohio to pick up Kaylee...
My trip home from Ohio with Kaylee. No problem either one, but it looked purty.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Camp and Airshow Life
Thursday in the middle of the night (or more accurately Friday in the wee hours of the morning), our house lost power. I don't know why, there were no storms rolling through, and I have no idea what happened, but the sudden deafening silence in the house along with the beeping from the UPS in the living room on the computer woke me up. My head was not doing so well either, so I fumbled in and got some Tylenol while I was at it, and tried to sleep in the dead silence with far away beeping, with not much success. Sometime around 6:15 a.m. the power came back on. I set my alarm for my morning departure, and tried to sleep, but couldn't get back to sleep, until sometime much later. Steve ended up coming in at 8:15 or so and saying "Aren't you supposed to be wheels up at 9?" Um, yes. I ran around like a crazy person, half put make up on, ran out the door, and made it to the airport at 8:50 a.m., and Nathan had beat me out there and gotten the plane ready, and made fun of my text that my alarm didn't go off because the power went off. :P
We took the Cheyenne down to Cullman, Alabama to pick up five MBros guys. He let me left seat it both ways. I'm still catching up to her, but it's getting there. The weather was perfectly doable, a few buildups and such, but nothing too exciting. The only part that got my attention a bit was when I was hand flying it through some of the buildups, and feeling the plane in turbulence, as heavy as it is, and the Attitude Indicator works backwards from every other AI I've flown off of, which messes me up because if you have to read it and think about which way to turn, you're already behind, so I fought that a bit until I was able to focus on the Flight Director bars and just obey those. It was fine, but the thought crossed my mind that I was already pretty full up on managing stuff and if I had an emergency right then I'd have likely been behind the 8-ball so to speak. More time will be good. I don't care to be the kind of pilot who can only manage an airplane if all is going well, so, more experience in less than perfect conditions will be good.
When I landed at Kokomo, I arranged for a ride over to Muncie in the 172RG, and it was now after 1:30 p.m. and I hadn't had a bite of food since dinner the night before, so I went into the restaurant on field and got a burger. I was looking at my iPad's weather in the restaurant when I saw a couple of really large and unpleasant cells heading for Muncie. I got up and looked out the window and could see the darkness coming, so I rushed the check and got out to the 340. Tower made me hold while they waited for my IFR release as I watched the cells get closer to MIE. Finally they cleared me to take off and passed me to Center who told me to turn to a heading that put me directly into the closing cell and told me to ident at 3000'. Well, full fuel on a hot day it takes the 340 a little bit to get to 3000', and I came back with "Okay, but I'm not going to be able to hold this heading for long as I'm aimed right at a cell I'm not going to penetrate." They acknowledged. Somewhere around 2,500', they told me to ident again and turned me asap, right before I called them up and told them I was turning with or without them. The rest of the trip was uneventful. There were cells here and there, but nothing in my way, nothing that caused me any problems at all.
When I arrived in Mansfield, my rental car was waiting, another grey chariot. I had left early to beat those cells, so I was a tad early in Ohio, so I stopped at a couple places including a store. When I came out of the doors, I couldn't remember for the life of me where I'd parked. I started hunting for grey cars and found that a ton of cars out there were grey. I hit my "lock" and "unlock" buttons, and couldn't see or hear a thing. So finally I looked around, hit the panic button, and when it went off, found the car, then pretended to look around at everyone else, waited till the coast was clear, then went to "my" car. I was already really tired. Low sleep for multiple days in a row, non-stop busy, I was just kind of beat.
I got to Kaylee's camp on time, and was sitting through the end of the week program, when the director of the camp got up to present their "Director's Bead." See, during the week the campers get various beads to go on a bracelet they wear, beads that signify something like patience, courage, persistence, kindness, getting along, humor, humility ;), that kind of stuff. Well, there's a special bead called the Director's Bead. A counselor has to nominate a camper, via letter to the director, and the director has to then decide whether or not he agrees with the nomination. They don't do them every week, and they're special. So he started reading about a camper who was seeking to improve herself, who worked hard without complaining, who was always there to do the hard stuff too, etc., and then he said "In TILT", which perked my ears up, because in all the weeks she's been at camp I've never heard him issue that bead to a TILT member. He said this person was nominated by a counselor who has worked for them for several years now and has never nominated anyone else for this bead before. It was, as you probably guessed, Kaylee. She got the Director's Bead, and we were all pretty proud of her. I kept trying to text Steve that she won the bead, but there's no service up there, so it took forever to go out. :)
When it was time for us to go home, the weather was less than ideal. There were storms to the left of us, to the right of us, and right in front of us on the other side of Kokomo. So I had to stop at a McDonald's in town where there was internet and pull out my iPad and do some figuring and make sure we were okay to come home. It looked like I had a perfect corridor in which to travel, so we launched. On the way home we had a great light show off of two sides, and you could see the nasty storms particularly the ones in front of us on the other side of Kokomo. Kaylee asked me what I'd do if the storms moved in front of our airport and we couldn't get in. She asked if we'd land in a field, and I said no, and I lowered my wing and pointed at an airport that was right there, and said "I have lots of these to turn to that are in the clear, and we'd just land and wait it out." She likes knowing that there are plans, so I started telling her about them. She was sort of impressed that I'd thought about it. The part that made me laugh was when she nodded and said "It's just like mopping. Never mop yourself into a corner." EXACTLY! :) She also said that she wouldn't trust very many people to be in an airplane with them with radar that looked like that, but that she trusted me, that she knew that I knew what I was doing, and she was completely at ease with it. I told her that's why pilots need to take it very seriously when they fly non-pilots, because they are putting their lives in your hands, and it's not just about what risks you're willing to take, but what risks you're willing to take for them. She got that. She said she felt bad that she didn't want to do what I did for a living, but I don't feel bad about it. If you don't have the drive for it, you need to NOT do it for a living. I want her to do what she wants to do, not what I do. When we landed at Kokomo, it was dusk, so I lit up the plane to make it look nice and pretty, and came on in to land, in front of a storm that never materialized over the airport anyway.
Today was Airshow Day. We had a line up of some of the biggest names in aerobatics. No warbirds to fly, but lots of wah-wahs. :) I went on a photo imaging flight this morning with Steve C, and we were gone until noon. We landed then so we could get a sandwich and gas and Steve could get back out before the airport closed for the airshow at 1. Kaylee was done with her airshow volunteer job, and I was no longer working, so I took her home, came back and walked around saying hi to everyone I could find that I knew. It was 95 degrees outside with huge humidity and I don't know what the heat index was but it was miserable. I was a big sweat ball. You'd step outside from an air conditioned car and your glasses fogged over. Two people fainted from heat, one an 80 something year old man who fell face first, which was not cool. He had to be taken to the hospital. After that, there were several golf carts going out to the audience handing out free waters to older folks. I told Kaylee that, and she was impressed, said that it's not that common for people to be willing to help somebody out without making a profit out of it. The show itself went fine. There was a 20-30 minute delay at the start thanks to inexperienced jump pilot of the skydivers who were supposed to open the event. The two big warbirds we did have there, the TBM and B-25 from Missouri, had to be cut from the show as we were running long and out of time and couldn't cut any of the remaining aerobatic performers. But the rest of the event seemed to go fairly smoothly, no real problems, at least not noticeable ones.
The gent who brought in his L-39 today, I've known him for a few years, mostly on Facebook. He asked about the T-6, I told him it was trapped behind a broken door for the last 10 months now, and he said "Huh, you should call me up, I'd put you on my T-6 insurance." I won't take him up on that, he's in Michigan, etc., but that was really generous of him to say. He said he likes to fly the L-39 more because he can fly it in any wind and not have to worry about every landing, like he does in the T-6. I know what he means--I've had landing in every airplane where I was thinking about something besides the landing. Most times I'm thinking about "what's next". But not the T-6. Even on the 10th landing of the day while dehydrated, you can bet I'm thinking about the landing I'm about to make in there. It's good for that.
Kaylee had a party tonight in Greentown, a meet-up of her Starlets singing group. About 20 of the 30 girls were there, and she didn't know a lot of them, and was a bit nervous at first, but she said it was wonderful, she had a blast, they were super welcoming of her, and she is SO excited about this upcoming year in the group. A little nervous too, as they said she'd have another singing test first thing in the year, on harmonizing. But mostly excited. The party ended at 11 p.m., so I went back out and got her then. She has to know I like her, because I've run her around for 2 days. Today after I dropped her off she informed me she forgot to tell me she needs a camp chair. This morning after I got us to the airport she informed me she forgot something she needed at the house. She's lucky I like her. ;)
My Mavrx flight hit a bit of a snag when the battery died before Steve could get the last two fields in, and when I tried to ship off the cards to them, driving into town, only to find them closed until Monday now. Apparently they close at 5 on Saturdays, not 7:30 like normal. Great. I missed a lot of stuff yesterday flying to Alabama and Ohio, and missed a lot of stuff today running Kaylee back and forth in the afternoon and evening and doing the Mavrx stuff in the morning. I missed being in the briefing and flying in the show. It all felt weird, the whole season still feels weird, like it's not really happening much, even though in less than a month the kids will be back in school and it will be Fall again quickly, and that's depressing, because I may get to go into Winter without at least the pleasure of having had a fun Summer to look back on fondly, nothing accomplished, nothing experienced, just workin'. I know, boo hoo, that's life, big girl pants and all that.
Speaking of workin', usually we do Oshkosh Thursday or Friday before, and stay until the next Sunday. Because of the airshow, we can't go to Oshkosh until Sunday. But now I have a 6:30 a.m. Monday MBros flight to Alabama, which means I also miss Sunday and Monday. I'll fly everyone up Sunday, then come home by myself to do that. Our 10 day vacation becomes half that for me, and hopefully it stays that way rather than another trip coming up. I may like to get the job done where I can, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about taking our one traditional vacation and chopping it in half. I think everyone else is looking forward to being there. The trailers are in, several campers are already there, a nasty storm rolled through this morning and we missed it and didn't have a plane on the ramp, so that was good! Soon enough...
And this is long enough. It's midnight, I'm working on laundry for everyone to pack since they haven't had a chance until now, and I'll wait until I'm home Sunday by myself to worry about my packing. That'll work... I do have photos, but I'm tired, so they'll have to wait!
We took the Cheyenne down to Cullman, Alabama to pick up five MBros guys. He let me left seat it both ways. I'm still catching up to her, but it's getting there. The weather was perfectly doable, a few buildups and such, but nothing too exciting. The only part that got my attention a bit was when I was hand flying it through some of the buildups, and feeling the plane in turbulence, as heavy as it is, and the Attitude Indicator works backwards from every other AI I've flown off of, which messes me up because if you have to read it and think about which way to turn, you're already behind, so I fought that a bit until I was able to focus on the Flight Director bars and just obey those. It was fine, but the thought crossed my mind that I was already pretty full up on managing stuff and if I had an emergency right then I'd have likely been behind the 8-ball so to speak. More time will be good. I don't care to be the kind of pilot who can only manage an airplane if all is going well, so, more experience in less than perfect conditions will be good.
When I landed at Kokomo, I arranged for a ride over to Muncie in the 172RG, and it was now after 1:30 p.m. and I hadn't had a bite of food since dinner the night before, so I went into the restaurant on field and got a burger. I was looking at my iPad's weather in the restaurant when I saw a couple of really large and unpleasant cells heading for Muncie. I got up and looked out the window and could see the darkness coming, so I rushed the check and got out to the 340. Tower made me hold while they waited for my IFR release as I watched the cells get closer to MIE. Finally they cleared me to take off and passed me to Center who told me to turn to a heading that put me directly into the closing cell and told me to ident at 3000'. Well, full fuel on a hot day it takes the 340 a little bit to get to 3000', and I came back with "Okay, but I'm not going to be able to hold this heading for long as I'm aimed right at a cell I'm not going to penetrate." They acknowledged. Somewhere around 2,500', they told me to ident again and turned me asap, right before I called them up and told them I was turning with or without them. The rest of the trip was uneventful. There were cells here and there, but nothing in my way, nothing that caused me any problems at all.
When I arrived in Mansfield, my rental car was waiting, another grey chariot. I had left early to beat those cells, so I was a tad early in Ohio, so I stopped at a couple places including a store. When I came out of the doors, I couldn't remember for the life of me where I'd parked. I started hunting for grey cars and found that a ton of cars out there were grey. I hit my "lock" and "unlock" buttons, and couldn't see or hear a thing. So finally I looked around, hit the panic button, and when it went off, found the car, then pretended to look around at everyone else, waited till the coast was clear, then went to "my" car. I was already really tired. Low sleep for multiple days in a row, non-stop busy, I was just kind of beat.
I got to Kaylee's camp on time, and was sitting through the end of the week program, when the director of the camp got up to present their "Director's Bead." See, during the week the campers get various beads to go on a bracelet they wear, beads that signify something like patience, courage, persistence, kindness, getting along, humor, humility ;), that kind of stuff. Well, there's a special bead called the Director's Bead. A counselor has to nominate a camper, via letter to the director, and the director has to then decide whether or not he agrees with the nomination. They don't do them every week, and they're special. So he started reading about a camper who was seeking to improve herself, who worked hard without complaining, who was always there to do the hard stuff too, etc., and then he said "In TILT", which perked my ears up, because in all the weeks she's been at camp I've never heard him issue that bead to a TILT member. He said this person was nominated by a counselor who has worked for them for several years now and has never nominated anyone else for this bead before. It was, as you probably guessed, Kaylee. She got the Director's Bead, and we were all pretty proud of her. I kept trying to text Steve that she won the bead, but there's no service up there, so it took forever to go out. :)
When it was time for us to go home, the weather was less than ideal. There were storms to the left of us, to the right of us, and right in front of us on the other side of Kokomo. So I had to stop at a McDonald's in town where there was internet and pull out my iPad and do some figuring and make sure we were okay to come home. It looked like I had a perfect corridor in which to travel, so we launched. On the way home we had a great light show off of two sides, and you could see the nasty storms particularly the ones in front of us on the other side of Kokomo. Kaylee asked me what I'd do if the storms moved in front of our airport and we couldn't get in. She asked if we'd land in a field, and I said no, and I lowered my wing and pointed at an airport that was right there, and said "I have lots of these to turn to that are in the clear, and we'd just land and wait it out." She likes knowing that there are plans, so I started telling her about them. She was sort of impressed that I'd thought about it. The part that made me laugh was when she nodded and said "It's just like mopping. Never mop yourself into a corner." EXACTLY! :) She also said that she wouldn't trust very many people to be in an airplane with them with radar that looked like that, but that she trusted me, that she knew that I knew what I was doing, and she was completely at ease with it. I told her that's why pilots need to take it very seriously when they fly non-pilots, because they are putting their lives in your hands, and it's not just about what risks you're willing to take, but what risks you're willing to take for them. She got that. She said she felt bad that she didn't want to do what I did for a living, but I don't feel bad about it. If you don't have the drive for it, you need to NOT do it for a living. I want her to do what she wants to do, not what I do. When we landed at Kokomo, it was dusk, so I lit up the plane to make it look nice and pretty, and came on in to land, in front of a storm that never materialized over the airport anyway.
Today was Airshow Day. We had a line up of some of the biggest names in aerobatics. No warbirds to fly, but lots of wah-wahs. :) I went on a photo imaging flight this morning with Steve C, and we were gone until noon. We landed then so we could get a sandwich and gas and Steve could get back out before the airport closed for the airshow at 1. Kaylee was done with her airshow volunteer job, and I was no longer working, so I took her home, came back and walked around saying hi to everyone I could find that I knew. It was 95 degrees outside with huge humidity and I don't know what the heat index was but it was miserable. I was a big sweat ball. You'd step outside from an air conditioned car and your glasses fogged over. Two people fainted from heat, one an 80 something year old man who fell face first, which was not cool. He had to be taken to the hospital. After that, there were several golf carts going out to the audience handing out free waters to older folks. I told Kaylee that, and she was impressed, said that it's not that common for people to be willing to help somebody out without making a profit out of it. The show itself went fine. There was a 20-30 minute delay at the start thanks to inexperienced jump pilot of the skydivers who were supposed to open the event. The two big warbirds we did have there, the TBM and B-25 from Missouri, had to be cut from the show as we were running long and out of time and couldn't cut any of the remaining aerobatic performers. But the rest of the event seemed to go fairly smoothly, no real problems, at least not noticeable ones.
The gent who brought in his L-39 today, I've known him for a few years, mostly on Facebook. He asked about the T-6, I told him it was trapped behind a broken door for the last 10 months now, and he said "Huh, you should call me up, I'd put you on my T-6 insurance." I won't take him up on that, he's in Michigan, etc., but that was really generous of him to say. He said he likes to fly the L-39 more because he can fly it in any wind and not have to worry about every landing, like he does in the T-6. I know what he means--I've had landing in every airplane where I was thinking about something besides the landing. Most times I'm thinking about "what's next". But not the T-6. Even on the 10th landing of the day while dehydrated, you can bet I'm thinking about the landing I'm about to make in there. It's good for that.
Kaylee had a party tonight in Greentown, a meet-up of her Starlets singing group. About 20 of the 30 girls were there, and she didn't know a lot of them, and was a bit nervous at first, but she said it was wonderful, she had a blast, they were super welcoming of her, and she is SO excited about this upcoming year in the group. A little nervous too, as they said she'd have another singing test first thing in the year, on harmonizing. But mostly excited. The party ended at 11 p.m., so I went back out and got her then. She has to know I like her, because I've run her around for 2 days. Today after I dropped her off she informed me she forgot to tell me she needs a camp chair. This morning after I got us to the airport she informed me she forgot something she needed at the house. She's lucky I like her. ;)
My Mavrx flight hit a bit of a snag when the battery died before Steve could get the last two fields in, and when I tried to ship off the cards to them, driving into town, only to find them closed until Monday now. Apparently they close at 5 on Saturdays, not 7:30 like normal. Great. I missed a lot of stuff yesterday flying to Alabama and Ohio, and missed a lot of stuff today running Kaylee back and forth in the afternoon and evening and doing the Mavrx stuff in the morning. I missed being in the briefing and flying in the show. It all felt weird, the whole season still feels weird, like it's not really happening much, even though in less than a month the kids will be back in school and it will be Fall again quickly, and that's depressing, because I may get to go into Winter without at least the pleasure of having had a fun Summer to look back on fondly, nothing accomplished, nothing experienced, just workin'. I know, boo hoo, that's life, big girl pants and all that.
Speaking of workin', usually we do Oshkosh Thursday or Friday before, and stay until the next Sunday. Because of the airshow, we can't go to Oshkosh until Sunday. But now I have a 6:30 a.m. Monday MBros flight to Alabama, which means I also miss Sunday and Monday. I'll fly everyone up Sunday, then come home by myself to do that. Our 10 day vacation becomes half that for me, and hopefully it stays that way rather than another trip coming up. I may like to get the job done where I can, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about taking our one traditional vacation and chopping it in half. I think everyone else is looking forward to being there. The trailers are in, several campers are already there, a nasty storm rolled through this morning and we missed it and didn't have a plane on the ramp, so that was good! Soon enough...
And this is long enough. It's midnight, I'm working on laundry for everyone to pack since they haven't had a chance until now, and I'll wait until I'm home Sunday by myself to worry about my packing. That'll work... I do have photos, but I'm tired, so they'll have to wait!
Thursday, July 16, 2015
WedThurs
What did I do yesterday? I woke up again in the middle of the night and couldn't get back so sleep, giving myself my second night of not enough sleep, on top of a busy schedule, which isn't great, and I woke up with another sinus headache too, but the good news is I was able to get rid of it fairly early and without any big medicines. I know, I was supposed to do a Mavrx flight, had cleared my schedule mostly for that one nice weather day, and it clouded over and I was unable to do it. That leaves me no choice now but to do the flight during our airshow day, or it just won't get done at all. That's...great. :( Of course, maybe that means it's good news that I can't actually fly in the airshow anyway this year since the T-6 is still trapped. Right? ;) I did then end up doing a cross country flight with a student in the afternoon, to Goshen and back. Throw in a lot of errands and other stuff that were worked on and that takes care of fascinating yesterday.
Today Steve was nice and canceled the 8-10 a.m. guy I was supposed to fly with, so instead I just flew from 10-12:45, 2-4, 4-5:30, and 5:30-7:30. The aerobatic guys were out in force (that's actually kind of a pun, since a group of four of them are the 4ce. Get it?) I went to Muncie and practiced instrument approaches with a guy, went up with another guy and did a fake IFR cross country, the third guy was takeoffs and landings at a different airport, and then the last one was a VFR cross country to Rensellear/Renseleer...eh...Jasper County. The radios were Packed with traffic. There was much squealing and feedback going on as everyone talked on top of each other. It was non-stop talking on every frequency we went to, all day long. I also had a couple of very chatty folks in the plane, too. By the end of the day I'd had enough noise, and I drove in my car in silence to dinner, just to enjoy the quiet. I enjoyed dinner and company, then somewhere after dessert it hit me that I'd been not sleeping and rather busy, and I could have fallen asleep at the table. So of course I get home and don't want to go to bed yet because once I do it'll be time to get up and go to Alabama, though it's at least in the Cheyenne. Speaking of, I have a copy of the manual for that, and I started looking through it tonight, and my head already hurts. I can fly the airplane, though I still need more time in it to smooth out and know it better, but Lordy don't quiz me on about anything else. It has acronyms I haven't seen before and don't understand. I'm going to have to hit the Cheyenne for Dummies book next...but not this week.
Steve just said "There's sure a lot of yawning going on over there." He's right, I'm sucking air in like it's going out of business. Maybe it is bed time after all...
Today Steve was nice and canceled the 8-10 a.m. guy I was supposed to fly with, so instead I just flew from 10-12:45, 2-4, 4-5:30, and 5:30-7:30. The aerobatic guys were out in force (that's actually kind of a pun, since a group of four of them are the 4ce. Get it?) I went to Muncie and practiced instrument approaches with a guy, went up with another guy and did a fake IFR cross country, the third guy was takeoffs and landings at a different airport, and then the last one was a VFR cross country to Rensellear/Renseleer...eh...Jasper County. The radios were Packed with traffic. There was much squealing and feedback going on as everyone talked on top of each other. It was non-stop talking on every frequency we went to, all day long. I also had a couple of very chatty folks in the plane, too. By the end of the day I'd had enough noise, and I drove in my car in silence to dinner, just to enjoy the quiet. I enjoyed dinner and company, then somewhere after dessert it hit me that I'd been not sleeping and rather busy, and I could have fallen asleep at the table. So of course I get home and don't want to go to bed yet because once I do it'll be time to get up and go to Alabama, though it's at least in the Cheyenne. Speaking of, I have a copy of the manual for that, and I started looking through it tonight, and my head already hurts. I can fly the airplane, though I still need more time in it to smooth out and know it better, but Lordy don't quiz me on about anything else. It has acronyms I haven't seen before and don't understand. I'm going to have to hit the Cheyenne for Dummies book next...but not this week.
Steve just said "There's sure a lot of yawning going on over there." He's right, I'm sucking air in like it's going out of business. Maybe it is bed time after all...
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Wings
It was sort of a lousy night, well, no sort of about it, I woke up at 2 something in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep until sometime after 6 a.m., had a headache too, and just felt like I'd been dragged through the mud when I finally had to get up. But the day improved quite a bit after that. :)
Just after noon Nathan and I took off in the Cheyenne to drop a couple people off in New Jersey. Some weather blew up on the way, and we got to work around that. It took a whopping hour and a half to get there. You have to like that.
Nathan has some new stuff in the Cheyenne, including a FlightStream 210. It's an ADS-B set up that hooks up the ADS-B with your iPad, and it took awhile for me to figure out how to make it work, but once I got it, it was pretty darned cool. Your route goes right from the GPS into your iPad, and it automatically loads and changes it for you if you want it to. So Center gave me a re-route, I plugged it into the GPS, looked down, and my iPad had automatically updated to that route. That is seriously cool. We were like kids in a candy store playing with it. Steve needs to go along and play with this too. Weather and traffic worked great on there, it was fast and pretty seamless--once you got it figured out. I think you're supposed to be able to put routes from your iPad into your GPS too, the other way, but I haven't figured that out yet, or found out if they have that part set up yet. Cool, man.
On the way home, I flew left seat, and it was just the two of us, and we started off at 28,000', then because of several storm lines in our path, we went up to 36,000'. I like that capability a whole lot. Talk about taking the stress out of thunderstorm dodging.
I was supposed to fly with a young man when I got back, I assumed around 5:30. Except New Jersey kept us sitting and running on the ground forever, and then when we climbed up high we hit a nasty head wind, which slowed us down a lot. I'll take the nasty headwind over going way around a line of storms, however! So I texted my kid as I got low enough for my phone to work, apologized for being late, and he said "It's 100% okay. I am hanging out with Rob Holland and Nicolas Ivanoff." Red Bull pilot and world champion aerobatic guy...yeah, he was doing fine. ;)
Steve and I went to dinner, and he's continued working on his plethora of things to do for airshow, Oshkosh, computer business, and flight school stuff...me, I just have a lot of flying to do in the next few days, and of course some packing, and hoping that I can fly to pick up Kaylee on Friday, or it'll be a definite problem...
Meanwhile, this morning early, AE and Cusick drove the trailer up to Oshkosh, and have set up camp. We've officially halfway arrived.
Just after noon Nathan and I took off in the Cheyenne to drop a couple people off in New Jersey. Some weather blew up on the way, and we got to work around that. It took a whopping hour and a half to get there. You have to like that.
Nathan has some new stuff in the Cheyenne, including a FlightStream 210. It's an ADS-B set up that hooks up the ADS-B with your iPad, and it took awhile for me to figure out how to make it work, but once I got it, it was pretty darned cool. Your route goes right from the GPS into your iPad, and it automatically loads and changes it for you if you want it to. So Center gave me a re-route, I plugged it into the GPS, looked down, and my iPad had automatically updated to that route. That is seriously cool. We were like kids in a candy store playing with it. Steve needs to go along and play with this too. Weather and traffic worked great on there, it was fast and pretty seamless--once you got it figured out. I think you're supposed to be able to put routes from your iPad into your GPS too, the other way, but I haven't figured that out yet, or found out if they have that part set up yet. Cool, man.
On the way home, I flew left seat, and it was just the two of us, and we started off at 28,000', then because of several storm lines in our path, we went up to 36,000'. I like that capability a whole lot. Talk about taking the stress out of thunderstorm dodging.
I was supposed to fly with a young man when I got back, I assumed around 5:30. Except New Jersey kept us sitting and running on the ground forever, and then when we climbed up high we hit a nasty head wind, which slowed us down a lot. I'll take the nasty headwind over going way around a line of storms, however! So I texted my kid as I got low enough for my phone to work, apologized for being late, and he said "It's 100% okay. I am hanging out with Rob Holland and Nicolas Ivanoff." Red Bull pilot and world champion aerobatic guy...yeah, he was doing fine. ;)
Steve and I went to dinner, and he's continued working on his plethora of things to do for airshow, Oshkosh, computer business, and flight school stuff...me, I just have a lot of flying to do in the next few days, and of course some packing, and hoping that I can fly to pick up Kaylee on Friday, or it'll be a definite problem...
Meanwhile, this morning early, AE and Cusick drove the trailer up to Oshkosh, and have set up camp. We've officially halfway arrived.
The Cheyenne at 36,000', you can see some of the weather over there on the screen. This wasn't the ugliest line, but you still wouldn't have wanted to fly through it.
We were just on top of everything at FL360.
A distant view of one of the thunderstorm lines. It went off to the left and grew into a bigger, uglier mess, and off to the right as well. That gap in between the two is where we went, even though we were above it.
A little closer now, you can see the line more defined and the end of the stormy area.
It's funny how you can't see the display over there, the digital display. But there's the left side anyway.
Cusick posted this, our spot is marked. :)
Our camping trailer sitting in the middle of a field, mostly alone, but not for long!
Monday, July 13, 2015
Brief
This wasn't an especially good day, though there have been worse! I flew with Steve's student in the RG this afternoon, and flew the Cheyenne home from Muncie with Nathan, and canceled my guy in the Champ at Glenndale because of the big storms rolling through and the soggy-again-runway. Steve and I packed up some bedding, blankets, towels, sweatshirts, pillows, and got them loaded into the Oshkosh trailer, and AE and Steve Cusick are driving the stuff up to Oshkosh tomorrow early in the morning.
For tonight, Steve and I are both wiped out, and we're going to bed at 11 p.m., which is super early for us. But did I mention we're wiped out?
See ya.
For tonight, Steve and I are both wiped out, and we're going to bed at 11 p.m., which is super early for us. But did I mention we're wiped out?
See ya.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Homeward Bound and Truckin'
It was a pretty rainy day, and it looks like it'll be a rainy week for Kaylee, so I'm glad to know she has more pairs of socks than she has days of camp to go. ;)
We got up this morning and did the breakfast at the Lodge there. Steve and Kaylee got the buffet, which had eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, pancakes, bagels, fresh fruit, and I know I'm forgetting things. I got almond cranberry oatmeal and a bagel, which sounds a little better, but frankly the size of that oatmeal was more like 4 servings, no kidding. HUGE. I only ate a part of it along with the bagel and still can tell I overate based on how my stomach felt. Unreal. I brought the rest home to hopefully work one eating. It was really good, but thick and heavy and big.
Kaylee had to be back at camp between 1:30-2 pm. There was some rain moving into the area, but no storms at least. We went to a Dollar General store and found some cheap yoga pants for her to wear to bed (hers ripped), and we drove into town to get a drink, before wandering around the back roads a little and arriving at her camp at 1:32 p.m. They didn't want you to arrive before 1:30, so we didn't. ;) She got her stuff set up and unpacked, we checked her in, and we were gone, and she was off to her last week of TILT camp for 2015. One of her last weeks ever of TILT. Next year if she can't be Junior Staff, she'll probably just do one week of TILT, then come back the next year for Junior Staff for the summer, at least that's her current plan.
Her password for this week is: itsmycamp
I thought it was funny that I got a green piece of paper with that printed on it when we got there, knowing that I single-handedly made them change something and start handing those out so they wouldn't have to put up with emails from me every week going "What's the password this time?" ;)
It was raining pretty hard by the time we got back to the airport. We loaded up the airplane in the rain, and the plane had been sitting out on the ramp, so I sumped the tanks while Steve checked the oil for me, both of us hiding under umbrellas, which weren't doing much good because the rain was pelting more sideways than down. We were pretty soaked by the time we actually got in the plane. There was an unpleasant cell off the end of the airport, and another in our path for the trip home, but they were easy enough to go around, and soon we were on top of it all and winging home in the clear, drying out with the sun beating on us inside the cockpit. It got so hot in there I had to take my iPad off my lap as I could feel it heating up. Below us it was cool and rainy and gloomy. Yep, I still like being on top of all that mess.
I had the autopilot shoot the GPS 32 into Kokomo, we broke out plenty high, and George the autopilot did a good job. When we got everything put away, we stopped at a deli to eat a light dinner, considering what kind of food we've been eating, and then home to unpack and start in on working on stuff. I had a Mavrx flight that they changed Friday late evening, but I'd left town Friday afternoon, so...no luck. Weather doesn't look good most of the week. Our airshow is Saturday, and we're not ready for that, and Sunday we leave for Oshkosh, and we're not ready for that, and Friday I have to go to Ohio to pick up Kaylee, and the weather is questionable already, Tuesday I'll be gone on a trip, and the rest of the week I have students, including maybe a couple of Steve's, while I also have an 8 hour Mavrx flight that is supposed to get done before I leave. I feel a little stressed out about it all, and Steve has way more to do than I do, so I think part of my stressed is feeling stressed for him. I found myself eating a bowl of Cheez-its when I'm not even hungry because it gave me something to do with my nervous energy. I should go walk on the treadmill is what I should do. But I'm also kind of tired.
There's also a situation where this skeezy guy from the past, who was a problem person all-around, ripped off a bunch of people in the past, recently bought a new retract gear airplane and has sought out a couple people to fly it for him for gas costs only while he's gone for 4 months. Steve and I don't want anything to do with it, we know exactly what kind of guy he is and we're Out, but the people he's asked to fly it pretty much need us to be a part of it in order to be able to take advantage of it, and we don't want to deal with this guy again At All. That puts us in a weird spot that we don't want to be in. We shouldn't have to expose ourselves to the potential problems with this known problem guy, but if we don't, two people who REALLY want to be able to fly a retract for gas won't be able to take advantage of it which makes us the bad guys. Pilot drama. Bleh. We've told them all up front how we feel about it and why, so from here on out we'll worry about it later. After Oshkosh, because we're too busy to mess with it right now.
One Kaylee story I don't think I mentioned already. At camp they give the kids beads for various accomplishments or attributes the campers display/do. Kaylee got two beads for "patience" which is funny, because she's not usually very patient, but she was patient with these two little kids, and the powers that be noticed. She got a bead for being energetic, for humor, for courage, for getting the job done, and then she got the bead that we joked about the rest of the weekend. She got a bead for "Humility". So the rest of the weekend we had puns about that humility bead. Like how proud we were of her humility. She'd joke about making a sentence and then interjecting "Yes, but did you know I got a humility bead?" or "It's right next to my humility bead". Just acting in a very non-humble way about the whole thing. She said she wanted to joke about it at camp but was afraid they'd take her seriously, so she didn't. She's secretly pleased about the beads, because they show her that people noticed some areas that she's working on improving. Even grabbing a broom and sweeping up a mess while two other TILT campers were arguing about whose job it was to do. Getting better at working with little kids, something she's not great at thanks to being both my daughter and an only child who just hasn't had a lot of exposure to little ones. Being more patient when things don't go her way. In other words, growing up and being responsible even at unpleasant things. She's growing up so quickly. Good thing I'm not trying to get a Humility bead myself, I guess. ;)
Here are a few photos from the weekend. We had a really nice time, ate too much, enjoyed the time together and out there in the country. It was peaceful and relaxing, just what the doctor ordered before this upcoming week.
This is a panoramic view of the gorge. Notice Steve is on both sides at once? He moved from one side to the other while I was taking the pic. :) This picture squishes it up; it's much more majestic in person.
We got up this morning and did the breakfast at the Lodge there. Steve and Kaylee got the buffet, which had eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, pancakes, bagels, fresh fruit, and I know I'm forgetting things. I got almond cranberry oatmeal and a bagel, which sounds a little better, but frankly the size of that oatmeal was more like 4 servings, no kidding. HUGE. I only ate a part of it along with the bagel and still can tell I overate based on how my stomach felt. Unreal. I brought the rest home to hopefully work one eating. It was really good, but thick and heavy and big.
Kaylee had to be back at camp between 1:30-2 pm. There was some rain moving into the area, but no storms at least. We went to a Dollar General store and found some cheap yoga pants for her to wear to bed (hers ripped), and we drove into town to get a drink, before wandering around the back roads a little and arriving at her camp at 1:32 p.m. They didn't want you to arrive before 1:30, so we didn't. ;) She got her stuff set up and unpacked, we checked her in, and we were gone, and she was off to her last week of TILT camp for 2015. One of her last weeks ever of TILT. Next year if she can't be Junior Staff, she'll probably just do one week of TILT, then come back the next year for Junior Staff for the summer, at least that's her current plan.
Her password for this week is: itsmycamp
I thought it was funny that I got a green piece of paper with that printed on it when we got there, knowing that I single-handedly made them change something and start handing those out so they wouldn't have to put up with emails from me every week going "What's the password this time?" ;)
It was raining pretty hard by the time we got back to the airport. We loaded up the airplane in the rain, and the plane had been sitting out on the ramp, so I sumped the tanks while Steve checked the oil for me, both of us hiding under umbrellas, which weren't doing much good because the rain was pelting more sideways than down. We were pretty soaked by the time we actually got in the plane. There was an unpleasant cell off the end of the airport, and another in our path for the trip home, but they were easy enough to go around, and soon we were on top of it all and winging home in the clear, drying out with the sun beating on us inside the cockpit. It got so hot in there I had to take my iPad off my lap as I could feel it heating up. Below us it was cool and rainy and gloomy. Yep, I still like being on top of all that mess.
I had the autopilot shoot the GPS 32 into Kokomo, we broke out plenty high, and George the autopilot did a good job. When we got everything put away, we stopped at a deli to eat a light dinner, considering what kind of food we've been eating, and then home to unpack and start in on working on stuff. I had a Mavrx flight that they changed Friday late evening, but I'd left town Friday afternoon, so...no luck. Weather doesn't look good most of the week. Our airshow is Saturday, and we're not ready for that, and Sunday we leave for Oshkosh, and we're not ready for that, and Friday I have to go to Ohio to pick up Kaylee, and the weather is questionable already, Tuesday I'll be gone on a trip, and the rest of the week I have students, including maybe a couple of Steve's, while I also have an 8 hour Mavrx flight that is supposed to get done before I leave. I feel a little stressed out about it all, and Steve has way more to do than I do, so I think part of my stressed is feeling stressed for him. I found myself eating a bowl of Cheez-its when I'm not even hungry because it gave me something to do with my nervous energy. I should go walk on the treadmill is what I should do. But I'm also kind of tired.
There's also a situation where this skeezy guy from the past, who was a problem person all-around, ripped off a bunch of people in the past, recently bought a new retract gear airplane and has sought out a couple people to fly it for him for gas costs only while he's gone for 4 months. Steve and I don't want anything to do with it, we know exactly what kind of guy he is and we're Out, but the people he's asked to fly it pretty much need us to be a part of it in order to be able to take advantage of it, and we don't want to deal with this guy again At All. That puts us in a weird spot that we don't want to be in. We shouldn't have to expose ourselves to the potential problems with this known problem guy, but if we don't, two people who REALLY want to be able to fly a retract for gas won't be able to take advantage of it which makes us the bad guys. Pilot drama. Bleh. We've told them all up front how we feel about it and why, so from here on out we'll worry about it later. After Oshkosh, because we're too busy to mess with it right now.
One Kaylee story I don't think I mentioned already. At camp they give the kids beads for various accomplishments or attributes the campers display/do. Kaylee got two beads for "patience" which is funny, because she's not usually very patient, but she was patient with these two little kids, and the powers that be noticed. She got a bead for being energetic, for humor, for courage, for getting the job done, and then she got the bead that we joked about the rest of the weekend. She got a bead for "Humility". So the rest of the weekend we had puns about that humility bead. Like how proud we were of her humility. She'd joke about making a sentence and then interjecting "Yes, but did you know I got a humility bead?" or "It's right next to my humility bead". Just acting in a very non-humble way about the whole thing. She said she wanted to joke about it at camp but was afraid they'd take her seriously, so she didn't. She's secretly pleased about the beads, because they show her that people noticed some areas that she's working on improving. Even grabbing a broom and sweeping up a mess while two other TILT campers were arguing about whose job it was to do. Getting better at working with little kids, something she's not great at thanks to being both my daughter and an only child who just hasn't had a lot of exposure to little ones. Being more patient when things don't go her way. In other words, growing up and being responsible even at unpleasant things. She's growing up so quickly. Good thing I'm not trying to get a Humility bead myself, I guess. ;)
Here are a few photos from the weekend. We had a really nice time, ate too much, enjoyed the time together and out there in the country. It was peaceful and relaxing, just what the doctor ordered before this upcoming week.
Kaylee on the deck chair outside of the Lodge Restaurant, overlooking the lake. Her camp is on the other end of the lake.
The Gazebo outside our Lodge room.
Steve and Kaylee sitting in the Gazebo.
Looking out over an overlook; picture doesn't do it justice.
Me (flat hair!) and Kaylee.
The mill we visited. Kay and I played a game of Checkers here too. I won. She didn't win a Sportsmanship Bead. ;)
Kaylee at the desk writing her letter of persuasion to the camp director. :)
We ate outside at the nice restaurant for dinner.
I went for a walk at sunset, work off some of that food. Pretty scenery.
The three of us in the gazebo...
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Last of the Mohicans?
We flew in the 340 and made it to Ohio, no problems, picking up Kaylee and taking her to the Mohican Lodge, where we're spending the weekend. It's a huge old wooden lodge in a state park, over-priced for the quality of the rooms, but the ambiance and amenities are nice. We went out to eat Friday night at a fancy place nearby that cost an arm and a leg, but that isn't helped when your 14-year-old likes fillet mignon too, which is nobody's fault but yours for giving her expensive tastes. ;). She also ended the night on some creme brulet, which was incredible. They made it there and it's the best I've ever had, topped with fresh blackberries and raspberries. The spinach artichoke dip was made with cream cheese. Steve had a lobster tail with his steak. This was a legit meal, and I was SO full after eating it that at midnight I was still so full, when everyone else was passed out in bed, I walked clear to the other end of the lodge, to the bottom basement corner room, and walked on the treadmill for an hour. Seriously. I wasn't hungry again until after noon today. I think it was pretty well worth it though.
This morning, with the blackout curtains closed, we all slept past 10 am, which is unusual for me or Steve any more. Apparently we needed it. We missed breakfast, but hit the Lodge's restaurant for lunch, and it definitely met expectations. We were seated next to giant windows overlooking the lake and hills, trees, and beautiful blue skies of today. When we left lunch we took a small hike around the grounds, down to a gazebo looking out over the lake, on a path that took us back to the front of the lodge. Pretty, scenic, peaceful, and it wasn't even hot yet.
When we first got up, I took all of Kaylee's dirty camp clothes down to the washers/dryers in the basement by the exercise room. Our room smelled like dirty feet and moldy swimsuits. Bleh. I had so many quarters in my wallet I was able to buy two laundry detergent things at $1.25 each plus two loads of wash at $1.00 each plus one dryer load at $1.00 and had quarters left over. I do that so I always have food options when I am on flying trips. You only have to go hungry two or three times before you get smarter and start carrying appropriate change. ;).
We also went to the gift shop in the lodge, where Kaylee had to have a white owl, I got a bracelet she sort of talked me into, and we got some homemade fudge that none of us needs but sure is good.
From there we went exploring in the area. We hit a fire tower, but when Kaylee and I tried to climb it (Steve declined), it had a note that only six people could go up it at a time, and there was already a line. That's no fun. So we went on to a covered bridge, then an overlook area of a gorge. Beautiful area. Wherever we went, it got really busy right after we arrived. It was like we had a crowd following us. This held true for the rest of the day--whatever is going on over here this weekend, they're busy!
We stopped at a country store, and it was run by Amish workers, and we knew we were in the right spot for food. I got donut hole balls and we got homemade hard ice cream, and it was amazing. We sat inside and enjoyed. We went to an old mill and walked around, and then just drove around for a bit. The last stop was a McDonalds in town for a bathroom, which had a huge line to get in, with people insisting on leaving the door open while people went in. No. I shut it and said there was no need for that when I went in. Kaylee was disturbed that I was eyeballing the empty men's restroom. It sure wouldn't be the first or last men's room I've been in.
We also stopped at a small Family Dollar store for paper and a pencil, because Kaylee had a Letter of Persuasion to write to the camp director. See, she's been in TILT (Teens in Leadership Training) for seven weeks over three years, starting when she was 12, and they didn't usually let 12-year-olds in. She wants to be Junior Staff next year, with more responsibility and leadership requirements. She thought you could be 15 and have had two years experience, but just found out that no, you have to be 16. That's two summers from now, and she hates that thought, she's ready to move up now. She'd be 15 1/2, so close but so far. She asked about it, a few counselors just told her no, so she's writing a letter and talking directly to the camp director to plead her case. Steve offered to call and talk to him and "make it happen", and Kaylee refused, said she needed to get it on her own merits through her own efforts, or not at all, it's a leadership position so she needs to not have her dad do it for her. I agree with her. :). A problem she will have is that another girl is trying the same thing, and it may be easier to say no when there are two girls trying to stretch the rules. But Kaylee's letter is great, and if that doesn't do it, nothing would have. She's also asking a week before the other girl so maybe that will help. We shall see.
For dinner tonight we had reservations at another nice place nearby. Another huge meal, but this time I did go a little easier, with grilled thin salmon fillet and grilled seasoned squash. And a crab cake. And a few other things. But they were quite good, and lighter over-all. When we got back, it was so pretty outside that I went for a walk outside, walking down by the lake, taking a couple of small trails, and I was good until I had to climb uphill the whole way on one, and then I got sweaty and tired. ;). A little rest at the gazebo watching the sun go down made up for it. Steve joined me for awhile, then when the bugs came out, we went in for the evening.
It was a nice family day...
This morning, with the blackout curtains closed, we all slept past 10 am, which is unusual for me or Steve any more. Apparently we needed it. We missed breakfast, but hit the Lodge's restaurant for lunch, and it definitely met expectations. We were seated next to giant windows overlooking the lake and hills, trees, and beautiful blue skies of today. When we left lunch we took a small hike around the grounds, down to a gazebo looking out over the lake, on a path that took us back to the front of the lodge. Pretty, scenic, peaceful, and it wasn't even hot yet.
When we first got up, I took all of Kaylee's dirty camp clothes down to the washers/dryers in the basement by the exercise room. Our room smelled like dirty feet and moldy swimsuits. Bleh. I had so many quarters in my wallet I was able to buy two laundry detergent things at $1.25 each plus two loads of wash at $1.00 each plus one dryer load at $1.00 and had quarters left over. I do that so I always have food options when I am on flying trips. You only have to go hungry two or three times before you get smarter and start carrying appropriate change. ;).
We also went to the gift shop in the lodge, where Kaylee had to have a white owl, I got a bracelet she sort of talked me into, and we got some homemade fudge that none of us needs but sure is good.
From there we went exploring in the area. We hit a fire tower, but when Kaylee and I tried to climb it (Steve declined), it had a note that only six people could go up it at a time, and there was already a line. That's no fun. So we went on to a covered bridge, then an overlook area of a gorge. Beautiful area. Wherever we went, it got really busy right after we arrived. It was like we had a crowd following us. This held true for the rest of the day--whatever is going on over here this weekend, they're busy!
We stopped at a country store, and it was run by Amish workers, and we knew we were in the right spot for food. I got donut hole balls and we got homemade hard ice cream, and it was amazing. We sat inside and enjoyed. We went to an old mill and walked around, and then just drove around for a bit. The last stop was a McDonalds in town for a bathroom, which had a huge line to get in, with people insisting on leaving the door open while people went in. No. I shut it and said there was no need for that when I went in. Kaylee was disturbed that I was eyeballing the empty men's restroom. It sure wouldn't be the first or last men's room I've been in.
We also stopped at a small Family Dollar store for paper and a pencil, because Kaylee had a Letter of Persuasion to write to the camp director. See, she's been in TILT (Teens in Leadership Training) for seven weeks over three years, starting when she was 12, and they didn't usually let 12-year-olds in. She wants to be Junior Staff next year, with more responsibility and leadership requirements. She thought you could be 15 and have had two years experience, but just found out that no, you have to be 16. That's two summers from now, and she hates that thought, she's ready to move up now. She'd be 15 1/2, so close but so far. She asked about it, a few counselors just told her no, so she's writing a letter and talking directly to the camp director to plead her case. Steve offered to call and talk to him and "make it happen", and Kaylee refused, said she needed to get it on her own merits through her own efforts, or not at all, it's a leadership position so she needs to not have her dad do it for her. I agree with her. :). A problem she will have is that another girl is trying the same thing, and it may be easier to say no when there are two girls trying to stretch the rules. But Kaylee's letter is great, and if that doesn't do it, nothing would have. She's also asking a week before the other girl so maybe that will help. We shall see.
For dinner tonight we had reservations at another nice place nearby. Another huge meal, but this time I did go a little easier, with grilled thin salmon fillet and grilled seasoned squash. And a crab cake. And a few other things. But they were quite good, and lighter over-all. When we got back, it was so pretty outside that I went for a walk outside, walking down by the lake, taking a couple of small trails, and I was good until I had to climb uphill the whole way on one, and then I got sweaty and tired. ;). A little rest at the gazebo watching the sun go down made up for it. Steve joined me for awhile, then when the bugs came out, we went in for the evening.
It was a nice family day...
Thursday, July 09, 2015
Over and Out
More rain, more flight cancelations, but it did give me the ability to spend a little time chilling out this afternoon, in peace and quiet, glasses and yoga pants, with a book and a few episodes of a TV show too. I was productive too, but I did enjoy the little break.
Things are picking up speed towards the airshow and Oshkosh. Tomorrow we go to Ohio for the weekend, and we're going to have a nice time as a family for the weekend at a lodge over there right by Kaylee's camp. I plan on doing nothing constructive, nothing work-related, and spending no time on anything less than pleasant. There is an indoor and an outdoor pool there, and I just realized I don't have a swim suit that fits. I doubt I have time to go find one tomorrow before we leave, either. Hmm. Maybe there's a Wal-Mart around there that still sells suits. These are the things I shall work on for tomorrow. We also have reservations at a couple of nice places to eat. Fancy pants food in the middle of nowhere, but they're rated very highly, and the little bits we've eaten were very good.
We haven't and don't really get many family vacations, so we are looking forward to this mini-trip this weekend. :)
Things are picking up speed towards the airshow and Oshkosh. Tomorrow we go to Ohio for the weekend, and we're going to have a nice time as a family for the weekend at a lodge over there right by Kaylee's camp. I plan on doing nothing constructive, nothing work-related, and spending no time on anything less than pleasant. There is an indoor and an outdoor pool there, and I just realized I don't have a swim suit that fits. I doubt I have time to go find one tomorrow before we leave, either. Hmm. Maybe there's a Wal-Mart around there that still sells suits. These are the things I shall work on for tomorrow. We also have reservations at a couple of nice places to eat. Fancy pants food in the middle of nowhere, but they're rated very highly, and the little bits we've eaten were very good.
We haven't and don't really get many family vacations, so we are looking forward to this mini-trip this weekend. :)
Wednesday, July 08, 2015
Rainy Days
We have more days of crud and rain coming. Three of us CFIs were all out at Kokomo this morning, all with students to fly with. Ty got in the air and had to land ASAP as the clouds rolled in. Steve was with his guy doing a preflight and talk, and ended up canceling as the clouds came down. I was in the RG with a guy doing an introductory walk-around on systems and procedures, looked outside, saw the clouds, called up and saw it went downhill, and canceled. That was the last time any of us tried to get in the air today--the rest of the day it was rainy, drizzly, and scuzzy. So be it. It's also cold--the high today was like 61 degrees. This actually kind of felt good to me. The area is flooding again, and we have more storms moving through tonight and more rain tomorrow. It's particularly bad this season, all the storms and rain, making it hard to get anything done, so that when you do have a nice day, it's swamped, and when you don't have a nice day and have to make trips anyway, it makes you work too hard for it. Today's folks were all canceled, tomorrow's aren't looking promising either. Friday we go to Ohio for the weekend to be with Kaylee, and hopefully the weather lets us get it done easily enough.
Steve met with a new guy down at Sheridan this evening, then we all went over to Shady's for dinner, where I ate more than I should have, but they really do have a great BLT. :)
I'm still tired; I'm getting older apparently, and I don't seem to recover from lack of sleep nearly as fast as I used to. Bleh!
Steve met with a new guy down at Sheridan this evening, then we all went over to Shady's for dinner, where I ate more than I should have, but they really do have a great BLT. :)
I'm still tired; I'm getting older apparently, and I don't seem to recover from lack of sleep nearly as fast as I used to. Bleh!
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