I caught up my electronic logbook yesterday. I still need to catch up my paper one so that I can copy off my currency and such for the BBQ Bash, but it's easier once the electronic one is done to just go through and write it in, at least. It's a pain if you get behind when you're doing multiple flights every day...that's a lot of time. I still have one plane I need to add so I can put the time in there. I seem to be on a Piper Product kick right now. One guy just bought a Cherokee 180, and I'm doing instrument stuff with him right now. Another guy bought a Cherokee 235, and I've flown with him a few times and am transporting his airplane to Florida for him in a week and a half or so. A third guy has a new-to-him Arrow, and I'm checking a guy out in that, too. Piper Nation right now.
Speaking of Piper Nation, I had a 3 hour "IFR" trip to Michigan this morning in the Arrow, got back in time to be slightly late for lunch, went right back out and flew in the 180 for an hour and a half working on instrument approaches with a fellow, landed from that and got in the RG and went to Marion with Steve, came back from that and dropped Kaylee off at home, stopped at a store to get cat food which we are out of, then went to a school board meeting until 7:45 pm. I made it home just before Steve did. Long, busy day, but good enough.
Ann soloed her car today, driving over to visit Richard on her own. Signed off for solo! :) Richard should be home Wednesday!
Kaylee doesn't have school Friday, but it is an e-learning day, and then she has band practice anyway at 3 pm. Mmmm. Meanwhile I have two students Friday afternoon, plus a T-6 ride that's supposed to go, plus the Marion fish fry we're supposed to go over and support, plus Kaylee has to be picked up and taken to band at 3, picked up from that at 6, taken to voice lesson by 6:30 that'll be over at 7. Not quite sure how that works out either. That's life these days!
Monday, August 31, 2015
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Sunday
Home Day. It's lovely outside, would be a good aviation day, and coming up I'll probably have to start taking my Sundays and using them to catch up on some flight students, but for now I'm enjoying listening to football, having a turkey pot pie, watching Kaylee laugh at silly videos and do her homework, and smelling a lovely candle burning next to me.
Justin G sent me this link, and I LOVE this. This should be how it goes at schools. Seriously. Those who can't, can go sell other stuff, and those who can, can fill this form out, and I bet the school makes way more money!!
One sort of funny thing from yesterday. I was at N. Vernon, sitting in the T-6, helmet and flightsuit on, engine running, by the hold short line for the runway, waiting for the Air Boss to clear me to take off and do my little thing. My leg buzzed--I had a text. I wasn't doing anything at the moment, so I looked at it, and it was Kaylee. She said "I can't get hold of dad and we were done 35 minutes ago but he said he would be here 20 minutes ago and he's not here..." So I sent her a text back that I was a little busy right then, nothing I could do about her dad, I'd see her later. I just thought it was funny, the odd crossing of lives, where the lady in the T-6 at the end of the runway getting ready to bomb around is also texting her daughter who is stuck at school. That just can't be normal.
Justin G sent me this link, and I LOVE this. This should be how it goes at schools. Seriously. Those who can't, can go sell other stuff, and those who can, can fill this form out, and I bet the school makes way more money!!
One sort of funny thing from yesterday. I was at N. Vernon, sitting in the T-6, helmet and flightsuit on, engine running, by the hold short line for the runway, waiting for the Air Boss to clear me to take off and do my little thing. My leg buzzed--I had a text. I wasn't doing anything at the moment, so I looked at it, and it was Kaylee. She said "I can't get hold of dad and we were done 35 minutes ago but he said he would be here 20 minutes ago and he's not here..." So I sent her a text back that I was a little busy right then, nothing I could do about her dad, I'd see her later. I just thought it was funny, the odd crossing of lives, where the lady in the T-6 at the end of the runway getting ready to bomb around is also texting her daughter who is stuck at school. That just can't be normal.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
The Day
Kaylee is just a good kid. She got up early this morning for a band thing she didn't want to do but is too smart to complain to us about right now. She's crazy busy, but she's still got all A's almost a month into it, which is great. Anyway, I went back to bed this morning, and suddenly she came speed walking into my room making this high-pitched keening noise. I figured the word "Spider" was coming, and it did, but not in a way I expected. She was sitting on the toilet, felt her hair tickling her face, brushed her hair aside, and yes, it wasn't hair, it was a SPIDER on her FACE. A black one, decent sized, which plopped on the floor from her FACE. She said she didn't even get her underwear pulled up, she just ran out of there and pulled her yoga pants up with one hand. That is AWFUL. I am YELLING because that's GROSS. I'd have been squealing too. Poor kid. Steve said something like "Oh great, she moved out of her room because of a spider, now she's going to try to move into my bathroom too. There aren't many more places for her to move out of and still live here!"
One kind of funny thing about today. One of my students emailed me tonight with a picture taken at sunset in the Cub, and said "One year ago today you signed me off in the Cub." It was his first tailwheel solo. On Facebook, I got one of those "Three Years Ago Today" posts and it said that 3 years ago today I soloed another one of my students, this one her first solo ever, in the Cub. That's kind of wild, really.
Steve stayed behind to take Kaylee to and from her band thing. I wanted to leave early-ish this morning to go to N. Vernon for their air show and fly-in, because they were paying for our gas, so I wanted to make it worth their while. Originally I was going in the PT and Nathan in the T-6, but the earlier leaving time made it hard for him to get everyone out there. So I was going to just take the PT and he could come later if he wanted in the Six, but when I got out to the airport Steve had already pulled the T-6 out, and told me to just get out and go, so...I did.
When I got in the T-6 today, I realized something that made me feel better. See, the other day I went up and did some takeoffs and landings, and they felt weirder and slightly off, not even as good as the first two I did right after it came out of the hangar did. So today I'm sitting in the T-6, and I realized...the seat was down. You wouldn't think the seat being down should affect an experienced pilot that much, and in most things I can't say it does, but in that, you're using your peripheral anyway, and you get used to the sight picture, and once that changed and I didn't know it, I was trying for the same sight picture I was used to, but it wasn't working out quite right. Now I know why. So I fixed that, and my first landing was at North Vernon today, in front of a group of folks, and I was back to normal and feeling good about that. :D
It took me about an hour to get down to North Vernon, with a bit of a head wind. I brought along an iPad and a chair so I could sit and read a book since I was by myself this time and wasn't sure I'd have anything to do. I didn't need it, I stayed busy. When I arrived there, they parked me up front and had me pointed into the food tent, which I thought was sort of bad planning, but they wanted me up front and center. Two Stearman were there already, and I knew the pilots, and we chatted for awhile. Then some folks started coming up, and I put kids up on the wing and in the cockpit and answered quite a few questions. I had quite a few kids interested in taking a look. Lunch time arrived and I got a free tenderloin lunch out of it, and it was good. I was planning on leaving before the airshow, like the Stearmans did, but then the Air Boss of the show asked me if I'd be willing to stay and fly a few passes in the show. I asked if the FAA was there, and he said no, and I said sure. Why not, they bought my gas to get there, I can do that.
So on a funny side story, a woman came up to me on the ramp and said "You bought my lunch today!" I asked what she meant, and she said "When you were coming in to land, I pointed at you and said 'There's a LADY driving that airplane!' and the guy next to me said 'No, that's just a guy with long hair.' and I said 'No, that's a lady!' and he said 'No way, it's gotta be a guy, bet ya $5.' and then you got out of the plane and I won $5 and you bought my lunch!" Hey, I'm always glad to be of assistance! :D Really, Nathan has long hair, and the odds were definitely in that guy's favor to be correct one way or the other, he just happened to lose that particular bet this time. ;)
I had a little trouble gassing up, it was a self-serve pump only so I had to taxi over to it to get fueled up, along with a line-up of other airplanes too. Then we couldn't find the guy with the credit card to fuel me. Finally we got it done though, and I was to open up the show and leave from there. So I took off, swung around behind the crowd, came down in a tight pass, broke off 45 to the left, dog-boned around and swung back down the other direction, went by them in a turn, then came back for a slow and dirty (gear and flaps down) pass, before Air Boss said thanks and see ya. It was fun though, quick but enjoyable yanking and banking.
The rest of the day was at Kokomo. I tried out the PT tailwheel again after Nathan lowered the air pressure in it (still shimmies), Steve got the tug sort of working, Nathan got Gumby repaired and put back together, they checked over the 172 and made sure it was good to go back online, and all in all it was a fairly productive day interspersed with periods of sitting and doing nothing. We ended the night by going to dinner at Outback, where I got fish tacos, only ate two of them, didn't eat any of the appetizer, had two slices of bread but veggies for a side, and I still feel like I ate too much. Whew.
There wasn't anything interesting as far as scenery on the way down to N. Vernon, so I figured it was time to do a bobble-head selfie...maybe there will have been a decent photo or two taken there at the show I'll see. So far I just found one of me standing in front of the plane in my flight suit. Still not fond of me in flight suit photos, but better than it was this time last year. ;)
One kind of funny thing about today. One of my students emailed me tonight with a picture taken at sunset in the Cub, and said "One year ago today you signed me off in the Cub." It was his first tailwheel solo. On Facebook, I got one of those "Three Years Ago Today" posts and it said that 3 years ago today I soloed another one of my students, this one her first solo ever, in the Cub. That's kind of wild, really.
Steve stayed behind to take Kaylee to and from her band thing. I wanted to leave early-ish this morning to go to N. Vernon for their air show and fly-in, because they were paying for our gas, so I wanted to make it worth their while. Originally I was going in the PT and Nathan in the T-6, but the earlier leaving time made it hard for him to get everyone out there. So I was going to just take the PT and he could come later if he wanted in the Six, but when I got out to the airport Steve had already pulled the T-6 out, and told me to just get out and go, so...I did.
When I got in the T-6 today, I realized something that made me feel better. See, the other day I went up and did some takeoffs and landings, and they felt weirder and slightly off, not even as good as the first two I did right after it came out of the hangar did. So today I'm sitting in the T-6, and I realized...the seat was down. You wouldn't think the seat being down should affect an experienced pilot that much, and in most things I can't say it does, but in that, you're using your peripheral anyway, and you get used to the sight picture, and once that changed and I didn't know it, I was trying for the same sight picture I was used to, but it wasn't working out quite right. Now I know why. So I fixed that, and my first landing was at North Vernon today, in front of a group of folks, and I was back to normal and feeling good about that. :D
It took me about an hour to get down to North Vernon, with a bit of a head wind. I brought along an iPad and a chair so I could sit and read a book since I was by myself this time and wasn't sure I'd have anything to do. I didn't need it, I stayed busy. When I arrived there, they parked me up front and had me pointed into the food tent, which I thought was sort of bad planning, but they wanted me up front and center. Two Stearman were there already, and I knew the pilots, and we chatted for awhile. Then some folks started coming up, and I put kids up on the wing and in the cockpit and answered quite a few questions. I had quite a few kids interested in taking a look. Lunch time arrived and I got a free tenderloin lunch out of it, and it was good. I was planning on leaving before the airshow, like the Stearmans did, but then the Air Boss of the show asked me if I'd be willing to stay and fly a few passes in the show. I asked if the FAA was there, and he said no, and I said sure. Why not, they bought my gas to get there, I can do that.
So on a funny side story, a woman came up to me on the ramp and said "You bought my lunch today!" I asked what she meant, and she said "When you were coming in to land, I pointed at you and said 'There's a LADY driving that airplane!' and the guy next to me said 'No, that's just a guy with long hair.' and I said 'No, that's a lady!' and he said 'No way, it's gotta be a guy, bet ya $5.' and then you got out of the plane and I won $5 and you bought my lunch!" Hey, I'm always glad to be of assistance! :D Really, Nathan has long hair, and the odds were definitely in that guy's favor to be correct one way or the other, he just happened to lose that particular bet this time. ;)
I had a little trouble gassing up, it was a self-serve pump only so I had to taxi over to it to get fueled up, along with a line-up of other airplanes too. Then we couldn't find the guy with the credit card to fuel me. Finally we got it done though, and I was to open up the show and leave from there. So I took off, swung around behind the crowd, came down in a tight pass, broke off 45 to the left, dog-boned around and swung back down the other direction, went by them in a turn, then came back for a slow and dirty (gear and flaps down) pass, before Air Boss said thanks and see ya. It was fun though, quick but enjoyable yanking and banking.
The rest of the day was at Kokomo. I tried out the PT tailwheel again after Nathan lowered the air pressure in it (still shimmies), Steve got the tug sort of working, Nathan got Gumby repaired and put back together, they checked over the 172 and made sure it was good to go back online, and all in all it was a fairly productive day interspersed with periods of sitting and doing nothing. We ended the night by going to dinner at Outback, where I got fish tacos, only ate two of them, didn't eat any of the appetizer, had two slices of bread but veggies for a side, and I still feel like I ate too much. Whew.
There wasn't anything interesting as far as scenery on the way down to N. Vernon, so I figured it was time to do a bobble-head selfie...maybe there will have been a decent photo or two taken there at the show I'll see. So far I just found one of me standing in front of the plane in my flight suit. Still not fond of me in flight suit photos, but better than it was this time last year. ;)
Friday, August 28, 2015
Angel
Today are a couple of birthdays; our niece Rania, and our son Sidney. It's been 16 years, and I can't really remember if it was 3 in the morning last night or 3 in the morning tonight, I know we were in the hospital three days, and I remember feeling bad that we called the funeral director in the middle of the night. I remember the kindness of a couple of the nurses and the lady who brought us in a kit to use that included an outfit for Sidney to wear, an angel pin, and a card to record his footprints if possible, weight, height, etc. to memorialize him as a loved human being, even if he was tiny. I also remember the cold roughness of a doctor, who Steve told to get out and stay out. With Devon's birthday, it was a happy time; Sidney's birthday shouldn't have been his birthday, and there isn't a lot of happiness associated with our memories of it, but he went from my body to eternity, so for him hopefully it was peaceful. So, thinking of our family today on these birthdays, one a lovely young lady almost all grown up, one a young man whom I hope to see again some day far in the future. :)
Richard will be coming home in a few days, for the first time in several months! Hopefully it will be as smooth a transition as possible, we can get everything he needs in place, and he'll be able to relax and enjoy his own deck again!
Yesterday I flew twice, one before and one after lunch, then also took up the PT-26 to check for tailwheel shimmy (still there) and then the T-6 to do a few takeoffs and landings. I haven't flown it with any wind whatsoever yet, but I suppose I'll get to do that at some event sometime with huge crosswinds in front of large crowds of people, like Marion's fly-in coming up here or something. ;) Today I flew in an Arrow with a student for 2 hours, plus flew the PT-26 again checking for tailwheel shimmy now (still there). We had three people solo in two days, which is pretty cool, in a C-150, a J-3 Cub (both at Glenndale) and a Cherokee 180 at Sheridan. Nice!
Today was Fried Chicken Friday at Glenndale, and the ladies all came, and the food was plentiful and tasty, so for dinner tonight I had very little and some water, but luckily I wasn't hungry anyway. Some days you're hungry enough to eat the box the cereal came in, so to speak, but today was manageable even with the big lunch, which is helpful.
Tomorrow...we're not sure how tomorrow will go. Kaylee's band is killing US, not just her. What a pain. She has football games scheduled several Fridays of the month and every Saturday of the month she has something, plus she's not allowed to take Fall Break from school because of the mandatory band things. Whose stupid idea was that?
Well, it's only 10:30 but it feels like midnight, and I'm wiped. Tomorrow may be early and busy again. Guess we'll see what happens.
Richard will be coming home in a few days, for the first time in several months! Hopefully it will be as smooth a transition as possible, we can get everything he needs in place, and he'll be able to relax and enjoy his own deck again!
Yesterday I flew twice, one before and one after lunch, then also took up the PT-26 to check for tailwheel shimmy (still there) and then the T-6 to do a few takeoffs and landings. I haven't flown it with any wind whatsoever yet, but I suppose I'll get to do that at some event sometime with huge crosswinds in front of large crowds of people, like Marion's fly-in coming up here or something. ;) Today I flew in an Arrow with a student for 2 hours, plus flew the PT-26 again checking for tailwheel shimmy now (still there). We had three people solo in two days, which is pretty cool, in a C-150, a J-3 Cub (both at Glenndale) and a Cherokee 180 at Sheridan. Nice!
Today was Fried Chicken Friday at Glenndale, and the ladies all came, and the food was plentiful and tasty, so for dinner tonight I had very little and some water, but luckily I wasn't hungry anyway. Some days you're hungry enough to eat the box the cereal came in, so to speak, but today was manageable even with the big lunch, which is helpful.
Tomorrow...we're not sure how tomorrow will go. Kaylee's band is killing US, not just her. What a pain. She has football games scheduled several Fridays of the month and every Saturday of the month she has something, plus she's not allowed to take Fall Break from school because of the mandatory band things. Whose stupid idea was that?
Well, it's only 10:30 but it feels like midnight, and I'm wiped. Tomorrow may be early and busy again. Guess we'll see what happens.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Stuff
I did have sort of a funny story from yesterday.
Our Runway 5/23 has been closed for more than a week while the painters repainted all the lines on the newly finished and extended runway. Yesterday I was up flying in the pattern with a student when I saw them removing all the blockaides and X's off of the runway. I waited a few minutes, staring at it, and then I texted a line guy inside and said "Hey, is the Runway officially open??" He said it was. Even though the winds were gusting to 18 knots in the wrong direction and my student wasn't capable of that kind of crosswind, I told him we were going to have to land on Runway 23, and we'd be the first people to land on it. We made it down, took back off, and the line guy texted me, laughing, said I got in there right in front of our airport board's president, who had gone to get an airplane out and be the first person to land on the new runway. The airport manager, maintenance guy and line guy were all laughing like crazy and thrilled that I'd beaten Bob to the punch. I thought Bob knew I'd done it, but then he got on the radio and said he was going to try out the new pavement. I almost responded with "Been there done that, it worked fine for me", but decided not to. Then after he was done he said that it was open now and I could land on it too if I wanted. Again I almost said that I'd already done it, but controlled myself. Later I sent him a text that I may owe him a beverage but I'd already landed on it before he did. He accosted me at his hangar and we had a bit of verbal sparring. All in good fun. ;)
Today I flew in the morning in the RG, in the afternoon in the 172 in the pattern, and then later in the afternoon I took a young man to Muncie for his first tower controlled field work. We went around three or four times, and then he was ready to solo, so I got out and went inside the restaurant on field, had an iced tea and a bagel with cream cheese and watched out the window to check out his flying. He did his three required full stop take offs and landings, just after I paid my bill and finished my snack, and I went back out and we went home. By then it was 6 pm, so I got gas in the plane so it'll be ready for tomorrow, stopped at the store to pick up the food we were out of again, came home, unloaded the dishwasher, put away groceries and walked on the treadmill for just under an hour, walking off a bit of a mad, dealt with a couple of people's issues, left to pick up Kaylee from band, ran her to get a late dinner, and got home for the first time to sit down all day at 10 pm.
Kaylee didn't get to bed until 11 pm. She didn't get a shower in, and canceled getting up early to go to a Bible study with one of her teachers, because of the load of homework she had put on her today, plus a total of 3 and a half hours of band today alone before and after school. *sigh* This is going to be a long year, I think.
I got my CAF flight suit finally today, after they didn't send it for another six months. It's too big. I'm just about ready to quit on it, except they have nice flightsuits, good quality, and if I can get one in the right size it would be...lovely. Sending it back seems daunting at this point. It's taken me a year to get this one. Everything has to be a hassle sometimes, doesn't it?
We got Kaylee and my laptops updated to Windows 10. So far so good. The only glitches I have so far are that I can't use my mousepad to tap and select anything, I have to left mouse click every time I want to move a cursor or open a program or do anything else, and it seems to have lost Photoshop. Other than that I'm liking it just fine though, seems easy enough!
I'm sleepy. Not quite as busy of a day for tomorrow, at least...
Our Runway 5/23 has been closed for more than a week while the painters repainted all the lines on the newly finished and extended runway. Yesterday I was up flying in the pattern with a student when I saw them removing all the blockaides and X's off of the runway. I waited a few minutes, staring at it, and then I texted a line guy inside and said "Hey, is the Runway officially open??" He said it was. Even though the winds were gusting to 18 knots in the wrong direction and my student wasn't capable of that kind of crosswind, I told him we were going to have to land on Runway 23, and we'd be the first people to land on it. We made it down, took back off, and the line guy texted me, laughing, said I got in there right in front of our airport board's president, who had gone to get an airplane out and be the first person to land on the new runway. The airport manager, maintenance guy and line guy were all laughing like crazy and thrilled that I'd beaten Bob to the punch. I thought Bob knew I'd done it, but then he got on the radio and said he was going to try out the new pavement. I almost responded with "Been there done that, it worked fine for me", but decided not to. Then after he was done he said that it was open now and I could land on it too if I wanted. Again I almost said that I'd already done it, but controlled myself. Later I sent him a text that I may owe him a beverage but I'd already landed on it before he did. He accosted me at his hangar and we had a bit of verbal sparring. All in good fun. ;)
Today I flew in the morning in the RG, in the afternoon in the 172 in the pattern, and then later in the afternoon I took a young man to Muncie for his first tower controlled field work. We went around three or four times, and then he was ready to solo, so I got out and went inside the restaurant on field, had an iced tea and a bagel with cream cheese and watched out the window to check out his flying. He did his three required full stop take offs and landings, just after I paid my bill and finished my snack, and I went back out and we went home. By then it was 6 pm, so I got gas in the plane so it'll be ready for tomorrow, stopped at the store to pick up the food we were out of again, came home, unloaded the dishwasher, put away groceries and walked on the treadmill for just under an hour, walking off a bit of a mad, dealt with a couple of people's issues, left to pick up Kaylee from band, ran her to get a late dinner, and got home for the first time to sit down all day at 10 pm.
Kaylee didn't get to bed until 11 pm. She didn't get a shower in, and canceled getting up early to go to a Bible study with one of her teachers, because of the load of homework she had put on her today, plus a total of 3 and a half hours of band today alone before and after school. *sigh* This is going to be a long year, I think.
I got my CAF flight suit finally today, after they didn't send it for another six months. It's too big. I'm just about ready to quit on it, except they have nice flightsuits, good quality, and if I can get one in the right size it would be...lovely. Sending it back seems daunting at this point. It's taken me a year to get this one. Everything has to be a hassle sometimes, doesn't it?
We got Kaylee and my laptops updated to Windows 10. So far so good. The only glitches I have so far are that I can't use my mousepad to tap and select anything, I have to left mouse click every time I want to move a cursor or open a program or do anything else, and it seems to have lost Photoshop. Other than that I'm liking it just fine though, seems easy enough!
I'm sleepy. Not quite as busy of a day for tomorrow, at least...
Here's a bit of the spitting that the T-6 did after its first start-up in almost a year.
What a mess! That took awhile to clean up. Jon and I took panels apart and cleaned it some more yesterday, too.
My student on a less than perfect crosswind approach for the very first landing on the newly extended and newly painted Runway 23. ;)
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Fascinating
Yep, I flew the 172 this morning for an hour, again after lunch for 1.4, then flew it over to Glenndale and flew for 1.8 over there in it. Home by 9 pm after all that. In between, this afternoon, I helped Jon clean oil out of crevices in the T-6, and put some panels back on.
I have no idea what Kaylee did today other than school and Starlets practice; she said it was an average day with nothing great nor awful happening. Sounds about right. Getting ready to upgrade my laptop to Windows 10, hoping all goes well. I'm tired. Later!
I have no idea what Kaylee did today other than school and Starlets practice; she said it was an average day with nothing great nor awful happening. Sounds about right. Getting ready to upgrade my laptop to Windows 10, hoping all goes well. I'm tired. Later!
Monday, August 24, 2015
Boring?
Richard is still improving and getting stronger and doing better most days, and there will be a meeting coming up soon to discuss what he'll need in order to be able to come home, some equipment, etc. Meanwhile, Ann has been doing some driving for the first time in awhile, and getting back in the swing of that and doing well. :)
That wasn't the boring part, by the way! I just mean that this week my updates are probably going to be pretty boring. Kaylee has band several mornings and evenings. Three weeks into school she's holding straight A's, but I won't hold my breath this year. Her schedule is nuts. She is also having trouble doing voice lessons, which she committed to and can't change time slots on because the lady is booked, with football games where she's supposed to attend and play in the marching band. Gah. That's MY Fridays too. Tomorrow she has band from 6:30-9, and hey, she also has Starlets practice from 6-7. I'm really not too sure about this year.
And as far as Steve and I go, we're booked up. I've got something scheduled all day every day next week, and we had to schedule ourselves off to take Kaylee to the bus, pick her up from the bus, take her to band, pick her up from band, take her to...you get the idea. Every. Day. It's a sort of crazy balancing act; we both keep our schedule open, but as soon as one of us gets a student during one of her time frames, we immediately have to schedule the other person to go get her, or else we end up with both of us busy and nobody to get Kaylee. It happened last week, and we sent an airport guy after her. We're better this week though, hopefully getting in the groove.
I haven't had any Mavrx flights in awhile and I wonder if they are over for the season, or almost over. That's actually helped, not taking a whole day off to do that, but they were good for the pocket book while they lasted!
I'll probably be taking a guy in his airplane down to Florida coming up here. He's not a pilot yet, just started working on his lessons, and he bought a plane first. He lives here part of the time and Florida part of the time, and he needs to go to Florida for awhile now, so I'll be making a trip out of it with him and his plane, which will take awhile in the Cherokee, then presumably getting on the cattle car (airline) home. While I'm in Florida I will find some seafood, this I swear. ;)
I flew this morning, Instrument approaches at Muncie, then in another new airplane owner's plane, another Cherokee, doing hood work and an approach at Kokomo, then with a new pre-solo student in the 172. The runway is still closed at Kokomo, with only 32/14 open, and with my last student, when I was up, they started painting in the intersection of the only active runway. Another guy tried to leave, the FBO said no, you can't, they are painting there, and I'm going, "Hey, somebody should have told us that was happening, the NOTAM doesn't say anything about shutting the whole place down and you should have warned us before we took off." But they weren't there long. However, we did have to land short and go around the fresh paint in the middle of the intersection when we finally were able to land. It was really windy and bumpy today too, made for a workout for everyone, including me just riding there. It gets tiring to be tossed around all day! But the sun was shining and I didn't mind, because it was also cooler, which I love (so much better than sweating to death) and don't love (I am NOT ready for the onset of any hint of winter). The low tonight is 51. What's that about??
Like I said, I think this week will be boring as far as updates. We're flying with a bunch of people, driving Kaylee all over and back, and that's about it until Saturday, most likely. Sorry in advance!
It IS kind of funny how one trip in the T-6 makes several days in the pattern easier. :)
That wasn't the boring part, by the way! I just mean that this week my updates are probably going to be pretty boring. Kaylee has band several mornings and evenings. Three weeks into school she's holding straight A's, but I won't hold my breath this year. Her schedule is nuts. She is also having trouble doing voice lessons, which she committed to and can't change time slots on because the lady is booked, with football games where she's supposed to attend and play in the marching band. Gah. That's MY Fridays too. Tomorrow she has band from 6:30-9, and hey, she also has Starlets practice from 6-7. I'm really not too sure about this year.
And as far as Steve and I go, we're booked up. I've got something scheduled all day every day next week, and we had to schedule ourselves off to take Kaylee to the bus, pick her up from the bus, take her to band, pick her up from band, take her to...you get the idea. Every. Day. It's a sort of crazy balancing act; we both keep our schedule open, but as soon as one of us gets a student during one of her time frames, we immediately have to schedule the other person to go get her, or else we end up with both of us busy and nobody to get Kaylee. It happened last week, and we sent an airport guy after her. We're better this week though, hopefully getting in the groove.
I haven't had any Mavrx flights in awhile and I wonder if they are over for the season, or almost over. That's actually helped, not taking a whole day off to do that, but they were good for the pocket book while they lasted!
I'll probably be taking a guy in his airplane down to Florida coming up here. He's not a pilot yet, just started working on his lessons, and he bought a plane first. He lives here part of the time and Florida part of the time, and he needs to go to Florida for awhile now, so I'll be making a trip out of it with him and his plane, which will take awhile in the Cherokee, then presumably getting on the cattle car (airline) home. While I'm in Florida I will find some seafood, this I swear. ;)
I flew this morning, Instrument approaches at Muncie, then in another new airplane owner's plane, another Cherokee, doing hood work and an approach at Kokomo, then with a new pre-solo student in the 172. The runway is still closed at Kokomo, with only 32/14 open, and with my last student, when I was up, they started painting in the intersection of the only active runway. Another guy tried to leave, the FBO said no, you can't, they are painting there, and I'm going, "Hey, somebody should have told us that was happening, the NOTAM doesn't say anything about shutting the whole place down and you should have warned us before we took off." But they weren't there long. However, we did have to land short and go around the fresh paint in the middle of the intersection when we finally were able to land. It was really windy and bumpy today too, made for a workout for everyone, including me just riding there. It gets tiring to be tossed around all day! But the sun was shining and I didn't mind, because it was also cooler, which I love (so much better than sweating to death) and don't love (I am NOT ready for the onset of any hint of winter). The low tonight is 51. What's that about??
Like I said, I think this week will be boring as far as updates. We're flying with a bunch of people, driving Kaylee all over and back, and that's about it until Saturday, most likely. Sorry in advance!
It IS kind of funny how one trip in the T-6 makes several days in the pattern easier. :)
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Fly Day
We all had to get up early this morning as Kaylee had band camp from 8am - 3pm. Once we dropped her off, Steve and I went out to Kokomo, we were going to take the PT down to Noblesville for their fly-in pancake breakfast. Steve got the hangar door open before he realized that the tailwheel was gone, off the plane, as we wait for a new one to come in on Monday. So, that plan didn't work. We debated between driving to IHOP and flying down to Noblesville in the 172RG. After a brief discussion, we went for the flight to Noblesville. It ended up being a good choice. The pancakes were really good, and we got to show up and be present at an event for Larry J., something we haven't been able to do enough of. When we saw him, he said "Hey, what did you guys fly down in?" And when we said "172RG", he came back with "Well, that's boring!" Hahaha, hey, it got us here to support his event, so... :P
Steve flew down left seat, and enjoyed getting his PIC ticket for free breakfast. After he landed at Kokomo he made some kind of smart aleck remark about showing me how it's done. ;)
Back at Kokomo we loaded up some stuff for the BBQ Bash, and then started the process of clearing out the hangar so we could get the T-6 out. Two tugs had to be started and moved, each with their own problems, a Saratoga had to be moved, a wooden brace (I can't spell palette right) with 10 cases of oil on it, and a bunch of other stuff. We got it cleaned up, tugged out the T-6, and I did a good solid preflight on it. When I sumped the fuel it came out a deep, dark blue. Interesting! We took care of that, and everything else looked good, I pulled the prop through quite a bit, and then Nathan fired it up for the first time in 11 months. It pooped oil all over the place, but it started up and ran much easier and better than expected. The oil took a bit to clean up off of the visible surfaces, and we're going to have the guys take it apart and clean it again later, as oil went everywhere and will otherwise be seeping out for ages.
We hit lunch, and then I needed to pick up Kaylee from band camp. I took her for ice cream, then on to the store to get a birthday gift for a friend. Next we went home while she got ready and wrapped her present, and I was going to try to get back out to Kokomo early and fly the T-6. Except everything was taking forever. We got most of the way back to Kokomo when Kaylee informed me that we'd packed the wrong gift. It wasn't her fault, either. I turned around, went all the way home, got the right gift.
At 6 I dropped her off at a birthday party, and then finally I went back out to the airport. As I was pulling up, Nathan and Steve were taxiing out in the T-6. :) She'd started up again and was looking good, and they went off and had a lovely time for awhile. Next up it was my turn. I didn't stay out long, just flew and enjoyed for a minute, went up and did some maneuvers, then came in and did two landings, a 3-point then a wheel landing, on two different circuits of course, not multiple bounces down the runway or anything. ;) The canopy stayed open and it was a lovely evening.
I started cleaning off bugs and some oil, and we hung around until about 8:45 pm, before I left to pick up Kaylee from her party, and met up with the others at Outback. I probably didn't need as much food as I ate today, but I enjoyed each meal a great deal, and I'm not sorry for any of it. ;)
Now it's late, we're all really tired, it was a very busy day, but a good busy. And cheers to that.
Steve flew down left seat, and enjoyed getting his PIC ticket for free breakfast. After he landed at Kokomo he made some kind of smart aleck remark about showing me how it's done. ;)
Back at Kokomo we loaded up some stuff for the BBQ Bash, and then started the process of clearing out the hangar so we could get the T-6 out. Two tugs had to be started and moved, each with their own problems, a Saratoga had to be moved, a wooden brace (I can't spell palette right) with 10 cases of oil on it, and a bunch of other stuff. We got it cleaned up, tugged out the T-6, and I did a good solid preflight on it. When I sumped the fuel it came out a deep, dark blue. Interesting! We took care of that, and everything else looked good, I pulled the prop through quite a bit, and then Nathan fired it up for the first time in 11 months. It pooped oil all over the place, but it started up and ran much easier and better than expected. The oil took a bit to clean up off of the visible surfaces, and we're going to have the guys take it apart and clean it again later, as oil went everywhere and will otherwise be seeping out for ages.
We hit lunch, and then I needed to pick up Kaylee from band camp. I took her for ice cream, then on to the store to get a birthday gift for a friend. Next we went home while she got ready and wrapped her present, and I was going to try to get back out to Kokomo early and fly the T-6. Except everything was taking forever. We got most of the way back to Kokomo when Kaylee informed me that we'd packed the wrong gift. It wasn't her fault, either. I turned around, went all the way home, got the right gift.
At 6 I dropped her off at a birthday party, and then finally I went back out to the airport. As I was pulling up, Nathan and Steve were taxiing out in the T-6. :) She'd started up again and was looking good, and they went off and had a lovely time for awhile. Next up it was my turn. I didn't stay out long, just flew and enjoyed for a minute, went up and did some maneuvers, then came in and did two landings, a 3-point then a wheel landing, on two different circuits of course, not multiple bounces down the runway or anything. ;) The canopy stayed open and it was a lovely evening.
I started cleaning off bugs and some oil, and we hung around until about 8:45 pm, before I left to pick up Kaylee from her party, and met up with the others at Outback. I probably didn't need as much food as I ate today, but I enjoyed each meal a great deal, and I'm not sorry for any of it. ;)
Now it's late, we're all really tired, it was a very busy day, but a good busy. And cheers to that.
Friday, August 21, 2015
Friday
Nice weather day. Calm winds, blue skies, cooler temps. I like it. Was a good day to fly, though I didn't do much of that, just one small trip in the 172 for an hour doing a practice VOR approach, missed approach, hold entry and hold. Man, I've GOT to work on my logbook. *sigh*
Kaylee stayed home sick today. Stomach issues. Thanks to today's technology, she got all (supposedly) her assignments emailed to her and put on her iPad for school, and she's done all but two assignments already, ready to go for Monday. In a couple weeks the school is having a Teacher's Day, which in the past meant no school for the kids, but this time means an "E-Learning Day", where they can still count it towards their required school days while not actually going to school. They have assignments and such to do that day. Still pretty cool.
I started off the day in a good mood, folks around me weren't in such a good mood but I was still hanging in there, until I went back to the eye doctor. I had these trial contacts, but one eye wasn't quite the right script, so I had to go back to get the new ones. They said I had to have another appointment to do it, so I made it for today. I get there, and someone else was late, and I was standing there for 30 minutes waiting. Finally I get in there and the eye doc says "I didn't need to see you, you just need to put them in and make sure they work." Mmmm. More waiting while they put me back in line. Eventually the lady gets to me, hears my explanation for the third time, gives me two eyes, and I only need one, and then one box of my trial version came with two lenses, and finally she was so confused I just took one of each eye even though I only needed the right eye, and tried it on and kept the others. By the time I left there I was almost late for my flight. One thing was kind of funny though. I decided to go ahead and get a pair of new glasses with the new prescription too. There were "youth" frames and "ladies" frames. The youth frames started at $9. The ladies frames started at $58. I have a tiny head. I picked up a couple pair of youth frames, and found a $9 pair that looked perfectly right on my head. They didn't slide down my nose, they FIT. So while the lenses were still somewhat expensive, by George my frames were $9. The lady fitting me said "These are youth." I said "I know, they fit my small head." She had me put them on, looked at me and said "Those are PERFECT! I can't believe they are kids' glasses!" I saved $50 thanks to my freakishly small head today. That's a win. ;)
She also said I should be their poster child for these contacts because of how well they work and how pleased I am with them. I don't even like taking them out at night because I can see better with them than with my current glasses or readers. She mentioned that one of their doctors there who teaches other people how to use the contacts is unable to use these contacts herself. Her eyes/brain just won't work with them. I'm so glad mine do/does.
I don't know what tomorrow holds. Pancake breakfast at Noblesville? Or Kokomo hang-out day? Will the hangar door be allowed open and an airplane rolled out to at least run up and leak test and check? That would be good IMO.
Kaylee stayed home sick today. Stomach issues. Thanks to today's technology, she got all (supposedly) her assignments emailed to her and put on her iPad for school, and she's done all but two assignments already, ready to go for Monday. In a couple weeks the school is having a Teacher's Day, which in the past meant no school for the kids, but this time means an "E-Learning Day", where they can still count it towards their required school days while not actually going to school. They have assignments and such to do that day. Still pretty cool.
I started off the day in a good mood, folks around me weren't in such a good mood but I was still hanging in there, until I went back to the eye doctor. I had these trial contacts, but one eye wasn't quite the right script, so I had to go back to get the new ones. They said I had to have another appointment to do it, so I made it for today. I get there, and someone else was late, and I was standing there for 30 minutes waiting. Finally I get in there and the eye doc says "I didn't need to see you, you just need to put them in and make sure they work." Mmmm. More waiting while they put me back in line. Eventually the lady gets to me, hears my explanation for the third time, gives me two eyes, and I only need one, and then one box of my trial version came with two lenses, and finally she was so confused I just took one of each eye even though I only needed the right eye, and tried it on and kept the others. By the time I left there I was almost late for my flight. One thing was kind of funny though. I decided to go ahead and get a pair of new glasses with the new prescription too. There were "youth" frames and "ladies" frames. The youth frames started at $9. The ladies frames started at $58. I have a tiny head. I picked up a couple pair of youth frames, and found a $9 pair that looked perfectly right on my head. They didn't slide down my nose, they FIT. So while the lenses were still somewhat expensive, by George my frames were $9. The lady fitting me said "These are youth." I said "I know, they fit my small head." She had me put them on, looked at me and said "Those are PERFECT! I can't believe they are kids' glasses!" I saved $50 thanks to my freakishly small head today. That's a win. ;)
She also said I should be their poster child for these contacts because of how well they work and how pleased I am with them. I don't even like taking them out at night because I can see better with them than with my current glasses or readers. She mentioned that one of their doctors there who teaches other people how to use the contacts is unable to use these contacts herself. Her eyes/brain just won't work with them. I'm so glad mine do/does.
I don't know what tomorrow holds. Pancake breakfast at Noblesville? Or Kokomo hang-out day? Will the hangar door be allowed open and an airplane rolled out to at least run up and leak test and check? That would be good IMO.
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Blow Down
So, there's ^^^that^^^. Not a finished product, but a lovely sight.
It was one seriously breezy day. My first student of the day was in the 172RG. We took off from Kokomo, and by the time we got back close to lunchtime, the winds were gusting up to 24 knots, about 40-50 degrees off the one open runway we have right now . The gust factor was high, and it was a really rough day. That 24 knots felt like more, we were up for 1.7, and by the time we landed for good, we both felt beat up and worn out. My next guy was in the Cub at Glenndale, where it was a direct crosswind and now the winds were gusting up to 28 knots. From the wrestling match we did in the RG with less wind, I didn't think the worse weather sounded fun at all, but if he wanted to go, I was going to take him over to Indian Hills to do some pattern work, and just do one landing back at Glenndale. But he decided that sounded like a bad idea for his third Cub flight lesson, so he canceled, and that was fine with me.
Tonight we had our EAA meeting. Kaylee didn't have anything after school today, which was also fine with both of us, so after I was home for awhile I made it out to Glenndale where we had a nice, busy, filled meeting. There was a soft serve ice cream machine, and toppings, and brownies, and cookies, and Dawn talked about 50 years of Glenndale's history, getting stuff ready for the actual anniversary at the BBQ Bash this year. I'm glad to have been a part of that for quite a few years now.
And hey, Steve is ahead of the game for the first time ever on the BBQ Bash. Exciting, man! :)
Richard is continuing to slowly regain strength and ability, is at Westbrook for now, with more doctor appointments coming up and hopefully a few more answers.
Kaylee's band is doing a fundraiser where you order foods. They want her to order 15 items. She's at 3 items and it's already $50. The school only gets a fraction of it. The problem is, we didn't like any of the food from last year. We threw a lot of it out just a few weeks ago. We don't want to buy a bunch more. I think I'm going to go ahead and just write a check right to the band/school. She'll be disappointed, but man...
On to tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Hump Day
Finally I did get to stay asleep past 4 a.m. I woke up a bit, but I was able to go back to sleep, which is a victory I hadn't had in days. Whew. Of course I was so tired I then didn't want to get up, because I was sleeping well, not because I was sleeping poorly. Hmm, I'm not sure I can win this game! :)
The weather wasn't as bad as it was supposed to be, but my students still didn't go, and instead I worked on some BBQ Bash stuff. Early. I have to catch up my logbook to do some of it. I'll work on that soon.
Today was National Aviation Day, which is kind of funny. It works. The only aviating I did today was a trip to St. Louis and back, which only takes me 3 hours from door to door in the 340. The weather was a little questionable, but it worked out perfectly. On the way home I got above everything and had a 60 knot tailwind, so...gotta like that. There was some weather moving through Kokomo, nothing nasty at least, and I ended up timing it right in between two cells, and was just putting the plane away when the rain started falling again. Perfect.
Kaylee is already worn out. She's been getting a LOT of homework. Some years are leaner than others and this one is not lean. She's in Week Three of school, and she's tired. Today she didn't make it back to band practice in the evening, and tonight was picture night for band, because she's felt sick all day too. She was sweating, her head hurt, she was pale, and people at school kept telling her to go see the nurse, but she wouldn't. But once she got home she couldn't bear the thought of going back to school from 6:30-9 pm, and she actually took three pain pills for her head, which she never does. She hates medicine. I'll see how she's doing in the morning.
The odds are decent that a certain hangar door may be open tomorrow. In a burst of humorous coincidence, tomorrow's weather is calling for winds 260 gusting up to 25 knots. Our Runway 5/23 is currently closed for "re-striping", so the only runway available is 14/32. So a 60 degree crosswind gusting up to 25 knots is the only option for tomorrow. Personally, I think that's really kind of funny!
I forgot about a Warsaw story. On Saturday, in between rides, I was eating my lunch, and when I finished it was quiet there, nothing going on, and the lady who came from Ft. Wayne to help us there came over and offered to go walk my trash over to the trash barrel over there. I looked around and said "Oh, no thank you, I'll get it." She laughed and said "Wow, okay.", and she was surprised. I was kind of surprised she was surprised, and I shrugged and said "I'm not doing anything right now, I don't mind walking over to the trash." She came back with "I guess I'm just used to dealing with warbird pilots." I instantly knew what she meant. She's used to the pilots that she is usually around expecting her to go get their food, go throw their trash away, go get their drinks for them, etc. It sort of made me sad. Somebody shouldn't be surprised that a pilot will go throw their own trash away for once. That's not an overly flattering realization, guys... Anyway, she was really helpful, and we wouldn't have been nearly as successful at Warsaw without her and her husband's help. In fact, we'd have been in trouble. Instead, it was the biggest income they've seen this year...
Well, a few photos from the last two days.
The weather wasn't as bad as it was supposed to be, but my students still didn't go, and instead I worked on some BBQ Bash stuff. Early. I have to catch up my logbook to do some of it. I'll work on that soon.
Today was National Aviation Day, which is kind of funny. It works. The only aviating I did today was a trip to St. Louis and back, which only takes me 3 hours from door to door in the 340. The weather was a little questionable, but it worked out perfectly. On the way home I got above everything and had a 60 knot tailwind, so...gotta like that. There was some weather moving through Kokomo, nothing nasty at least, and I ended up timing it right in between two cells, and was just putting the plane away when the rain started falling again. Perfect.
Kaylee is already worn out. She's been getting a LOT of homework. Some years are leaner than others and this one is not lean. She's in Week Three of school, and she's tired. Today she didn't make it back to band practice in the evening, and tonight was picture night for band, because she's felt sick all day too. She was sweating, her head hurt, she was pale, and people at school kept telling her to go see the nurse, but she wouldn't. But once she got home she couldn't bear the thought of going back to school from 6:30-9 pm, and she actually took three pain pills for her head, which she never does. She hates medicine. I'll see how she's doing in the morning.
The odds are decent that a certain hangar door may be open tomorrow. In a burst of humorous coincidence, tomorrow's weather is calling for winds 260 gusting up to 25 knots. Our Runway 5/23 is currently closed for "re-striping", so the only runway available is 14/32. So a 60 degree crosswind gusting up to 25 knots is the only option for tomorrow. Personally, I think that's really kind of funny!
I forgot about a Warsaw story. On Saturday, in between rides, I was eating my lunch, and when I finished it was quiet there, nothing going on, and the lady who came from Ft. Wayne to help us there came over and offered to go walk my trash over to the trash barrel over there. I looked around and said "Oh, no thank you, I'll get it." She laughed and said "Wow, okay.", and she was surprised. I was kind of surprised she was surprised, and I shrugged and said "I'm not doing anything right now, I don't mind walking over to the trash." She came back with "I guess I'm just used to dealing with warbird pilots." I instantly knew what she meant. She's used to the pilots that she is usually around expecting her to go get their food, go throw their trash away, go get their drinks for them, etc. It sort of made me sad. Somebody shouldn't be surprised that a pilot will go throw their own trash away for once. That's not an overly flattering realization, guys... Anyway, she was really helpful, and we wouldn't have been nearly as successful at Warsaw without her and her husband's help. In fact, we'd have been in trouble. Instead, it was the biggest income they've seen this year...
Well, a few photos from the last two days.
Sunrise yesterday morning, waiting for my passengers to arrive.
Just the view out the front of the window on the way to St. Louis today.
Synthetic Vision on the Runway at St. Louis. You can even see the buildings on the 'horizon', and that centerline is only about 2' off from reality. I think you could see the Arch too, but I couldn't turn that way and stop in the middle of the runway to get a photo. ;)
Ice. I got ice today. It built up a little more than this. August and ice at only 17,000'.
That's not right.
That's not right.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Mmm
I've been waking up at 4 a.m. and unable to get back to sleep all the way since Warsaw. I'm really tired now. I don't remember what I did yesterday, so it must have been fascinating. Oh, I had Instrument Checkride Prep ground time, I remember that. Today after waking up at 4, I got up at 5:20 a.m., and had a flight to St. Louis, dropping off two guys, and taking the Instrument Checkride student with me, in the 340. The two guys I was taking are tiny little things. They did end up bringing equipment they weren't supposed to have along this time, and they were 20 minutes late, leaving me sitting in my running car waiting for them, neither of which makes me happy, particularly early in the morning, but I was on the clock, so...I get paid no matter where I'm sitting, right?
The flight was quiet and uneventful, which is nice considering my return flight tomorrow is so far fraught with large percentages of thunderstorm activity along the way. *sigh* I was out and back by 10:30 a.m., topped off and put away in time for lunch.
After I grabbed Kaylee from school and dropped her off, I went out to Glenndale and flew in the Cub for an hour and a half. We did short field, crosswind, 3-point, two wheel and one wheel landings, and had some fun. He mounted a GoPro on the strut, and I said "I don't want any video going up of my backside as I am awkwardly getting into the front of this Cub." He laughed. At the Warsaw Airshow I told a guy I didn't want to see video footage of him looking up my nose as he was on the ground and I was up on the wing. He posted it all right, sent it to the Wing. People better watch it or I'll stop letting them video tape me. ;) Anyway, when the Cub fellow and I got done, he said his camera said "Error" on it, so I'm not sure if he got anything or not out of it. It was a pretty day for Cub flying, at least.
I drove out of there and went right to Indy Metro for a CAF meeting. Dennis cooked out and we had really good food. The meeting lasted until 9 pm, so I got home around 10 here. Kaylee's already in bed (and wiped), I'm ready to crash too. I had two students tomorrow but the weather will at least stop me from having to cancel them for the trip instead. I'm not all that confident on the trip right now. We'll see.
I need a bed, and to stay passed out in it until my alarm goes off.
The flight was quiet and uneventful, which is nice considering my return flight tomorrow is so far fraught with large percentages of thunderstorm activity along the way. *sigh* I was out and back by 10:30 a.m., topped off and put away in time for lunch.
After I grabbed Kaylee from school and dropped her off, I went out to Glenndale and flew in the Cub for an hour and a half. We did short field, crosswind, 3-point, two wheel and one wheel landings, and had some fun. He mounted a GoPro on the strut, and I said "I don't want any video going up of my backside as I am awkwardly getting into the front of this Cub." He laughed. At the Warsaw Airshow I told a guy I didn't want to see video footage of him looking up my nose as he was on the ground and I was up on the wing. He posted it all right, sent it to the Wing. People better watch it or I'll stop letting them video tape me. ;) Anyway, when the Cub fellow and I got done, he said his camera said "Error" on it, so I'm not sure if he got anything or not out of it. It was a pretty day for Cub flying, at least.
I drove out of there and went right to Indy Metro for a CAF meeting. Dennis cooked out and we had really good food. The meeting lasted until 9 pm, so I got home around 10 here. Kaylee's already in bed (and wiped), I'm ready to crash too. I had two students tomorrow but the weather will at least stop me from having to cancel them for the trip instead. I'm not all that confident on the trip right now. We'll see.
I need a bed, and to stay passed out in it until my alarm goes off.
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Warsaw
We're back!
We're tired, we're a little sun-kissed, though not bad, and I have already done two loads of laundry because all my clothes from Saturday were still damp and it did not rain. Yeah.
Steve, Justin and AE took off in the truck on Friday morning, while I stayed behind until it was time to pick up Kaylee from school, get her home to pack her bag, get a snack, and get in the PT-26. The PT has no real baggage compartment, just a small hole behind the back seat, which already held a large airplane cover, pitot tube cover, large ride binder, and as many quarts of oil as would fit. So I shoved my purse in there as well, and then Kaylee had to hold her bag on her lap, and my bag we started off putting in the back window. But she wanted the canopy open, and when the canopy was open my bag was flapping and in danger of being pulled out of the airplane, so she put that down on the floor by her feet, while I did a control check to make sure I had proper stick and rudder movement. We were one full airplane!
Shortly after we took off, we could hear Steve on the radio up at Warsaw, acting Air Boss. And he was BUSY! The acts were all practicing while the rides were all trying to give rides too, and it was messy and busy. He was doing great with it, everyone was in good humor, most folks were patient and helpful and working with each other...like it's supposed to be. But it was still a lot of work. It made me smile coming in, listening to him on the radio. :) So when I was 15 miles out, I called in with "Warsaw Air Boss, Fairchild 60535 is 15 to the southwest inbound." He said something like "Hey, Fairchild, that sounds like a pretty lady in there!" Performer Billy Werth got on the radio and said "D'awwwww". Somebody said he should stop flirting with the lady pilots or they were going to tell his wife. I think that was Hollywood. lol When I finally got there, 20 minutes later, I said something like "You're doing such a good job Air Boss, why don't you take me out to dinner!" I'm sure there were plenty of pilots who had no idea who we were or that we were married, but some of us enjoyed it anyway. :)
Friday was a super busy day. They ended up having a twilight air show, which ended with a 4-ship team called the Canadian Harvards, a T-6 formation group from Canada. Beautiful sunset, a group of T-6s in formation, you just have to like that. Yes you do, trust me. Then they had fireworks, and movie night. Steve's job was done after the fireworks, and he said he'd never been that close to explosions before and it was a little unnerving. I would have really liked that. :) So the Air Bossing job was done after that, and everyone was really tired, but hungry, so we found a place that was open until 1 a.m., got there at 10 pm, and the food was quite good.
That night I listened to it rain and blow, and I worried about the PT. I'd seen the weather, and I had the covers on, I had strapped it down as tight as I could tie it, made them help me move it to a tie down spot instead of just on the ramp itself, and I chocked both mains. When I got out there in the morning, I noticed a sign had partially blown down, and my airplane wasn't where I left it. This gave me pause, until I saw it waiting, uncovered and all, ready in its' ride spot. The coordinator of the event had stayed until past 11 pm for the movie, saw the weather, and untied and unchecked the airplane and shoved stuff around until he could get it into a hangar, where it spent the night in dry and safe comfort. THAT was very much appreciated.
Saturday was hot and muggy. I had on the flight suit over my clothes, and I was dying. My clothes were soaked, all the way, and I drank water like it was going out of style, which didn't help with the sweating thing, but at least kept me alive. I ended up doing four rides throughout the day, which is much less (many fewer) than we did the last two years in the T-6. One of them was a 13 year old boy, and he was so cute, he's another one that is hooked and hard. He and his mom both were just really thrilled. I was gone when the mom booked the ride, but she wanted to meet the pilot before they flew, which I understand considering her son is 13. So we talked for awhile, and I had her come out and take photos, and we went up and he just had a ball. I told him that I wasn't supposed to let him fly it, but if he wouldn't tell on me, I'd let him. It's true, per those rules I'm not supposed to let anybody touch the stick who isn't a Member with permission via a letter from headquarters to be training in that exact aircraft. However, I can't stand that rule. And just like the "You must get them to say 'no' twice before you can hang up" in telemarketing rule, I ignore it because I think it's a stupid rule. So he flew it, and I actually gave him a mini lesson (I don't usually do that), and was helping him get his turns coordinated with rudder and aileron, looking outside to find straight and level, etc. When we were on the ground, he went up to his mom and said in this really loud whisper because he was so excited "I'm not supposed to tell but I have to tell you because I don't think she meant you but SHE LET ME FLY THE PLANE AND I DID!" They talked about lessons for awhile, what it took, and the mom is on board with helping him do it. It was one of the stand-out rides, one of the fun ones you know they'll always remember. That might be the day the next pilot was born, you never know.
I wasn't planning on flying in the air show. They had big fellows there. The formation T-6 team, two other T-6s, a P-51, a Corsair, the B-17, a formation team of T-34s, etc. Trying to put a PT-26 into that would look and feel silly. So I didn't go to the briefing. Then the coordinator, Al, came up to me on the ramp, and said he had another PT-26, a Stearman and an L-3, and would I like to fly in the show. I hesitated, I wasn't planning on it, but then he said he'd really like it if I would, mine is blue, the others are yellow, would add color and look good, etc., so since he wanted me to, not just trying to find a spot for it or something, I said sure. We had another briefing, with R+10 this time, and he asked if I was all right with being Lead of the group. I've never been Lead before, but I've followed behind one enough times, so I said sure. Two of the others in my group had never flown in any airshows before, though the other guy had, and none of us knew each other at all, so that all made it a bit of unknown quantities there. Dave went over the big picture, then divided us into our groups, and now I had to brief our group on what we were going to do and exactly how we were going to do it. Basically, being "Lead" means being responsible for all the people in your group, keeping an eye on them and what they're doing throughout the flight, making sure everyone knows what they are supposed to do and when, being in charge of your patterns, watching traffic and obstacles, communicating properly, and adapting as necessary. I don't know if that sounds easy or hard, but it's both easy and easy to goof up and screw up a group of people, too. I've seen it. :) So even though I understand the scale we're talking about here isn't fancy or huge, I took my first job as Lead seriously. Of course I always take flying seriously, so... We were three different types of airplanes with three different speeds, one way slower than the others. My job was to figure out after take-off when to start our turn in to keep the pattern tight enough that we'd make it back in at the right time but not so tight that I catch the last guy still taking off, who is also the slowest. I think it worked out pretty well. Everyone did a good job with their spacing, the slow guy knew how to use geometry to keep the spacing right, and it just worked as good as I hoped, just doing it on the fly so to speak. We were supposed to do three circuits, but we're so slow, that even fairly tight in we ended up just doing two, one higher (500'), one lower (100'), then coming in to land. Quick and simple, but the other two guys who had never flown in an airshow before were pretty pumped about it, and that's fun, and I enjoyed it too!
I had to take a shower right when we got back from the airport. Normally I don't like taking showers at night instead of morning, and I don't like taking two showers in a row, either, but there was no option, I was not going out to dinner like that. ;) We went to "The Boathouse", which has really good food, a little more upscale. We all ate too much and I don't think a one of us cared, either. We earned it.
Saturday I'd had to be out there at 8 a.m. while everybody else didn't make it out until 10:30. Today I was going to go out at 9, and everybody else at 10, but everybody else woke up early too, and were all ready to go by 9, except Kaylee. Even she was earlier than 10 though. AE and Justin set up a little pop up tent and some chairs for me, and this time I put my flight suit on without any clothes on underneath to try to stay cooler. I don't know if that helped any, actually, but it did at least leave me dry clothes to climb back into after I took the suit off.
I had one ride with a lady who had never flown before and was nervous, one with a gent whose son had ridden with me in the T-6 last year, and two other regular riders. Today I had to take cash or check only as the CAF guys were gone and they had the credit card reader. I had one old gentleman who didn't have enough cash to go. He mentioned he wanted to sit in the back seat, with that view, that he didn't want to fly in a 172. I said "If you'd like, I'll take you out on the ramp there, and you can get in the back and check it out." The airplane was on a "hot" ramp, people weren't allowed to go out there. I thought he'd like that. I was wrong. He snapped at me and pretty angrily and rudely said "I don't want to SIT in it, I want to FLY it." There went any desire I had to help. I don't care what your age is, there is still such a thing as manners. They will get you a lot farther.
When today's airshow ended, I had one more ride to give, then we all packed up and started heading out. Steve, AE and Justin stopped in town to eat, while Kaylee and I got in the PT and flew home. There were several thunderstorm cells right around Kokomo. We passed a couple of them on the way home, and I pointed them out to Kaylee. I wasn't sure I'd get into Kokomo at first, but the cell was just sitting on top of the city, getting bigger, but not moving anywhere. The airport was clear, but the city was under deluge, at least part of it. Weird looking. Kaylee and I couldn't put the PT away by ourselves, but fortunately one of the line guys came over and helped. A stop for sweet tea and food, home, hopping in the shower, throwing laundry in asap, and we feel human again. About two hours later Steve made it home too.
It was a lot of time out there, a lot of work for Steve and Justin and AE too. It was some work for me, as I worked on Saturday selling items under the tent, giving rides, chatting up folks and answering questions, and today I handled the forms, the money, loading the passengers, and the rides, by myself, along with the questions and the socializing and such. I sat in silence a lot this evening just enjoying the unwinding process. Some good things came from it. Steve did a great job as Air Boss at a pretty good-sized three-day event. I got to help out the CAF. It's always good to network and chat with certain folks, or at least be seen. We had an opportunity to go to a performer's dinner, but we were way too wiped out to be interested in that. It probably would have been good to do, but man, not one of us felt like it. Everything that was our responsibility or part went well, so...whew.
Kaylee? Kaylee did a little homework and otherwise sat in the air conditioning and watched a Netflix TV series for the weekend. She did not get very sweaty. ;) She did come out and watch the T-6 formation team with me Friday night, and she hung out with me for awhile on Saturday under the CAF tent. She said she was proud of me, which is sweet. Today we walked down the row and got lunch, and lemonade. It was my first and only time walking the whole airshow flight line, the first time I saw everybody up on the Air Boss platform, etc. Then she and I went back inside to try to stop sweating again for awhile. ;)
I'm sure there will be lots of great photos. Here are two that other people took of me at various times. Looks like the Me Wall here, but I don't suppose many of you (mom) care much about pictures of the airplanes flying by overhead, so... ;)
We're tired, we're a little sun-kissed, though not bad, and I have already done two loads of laundry because all my clothes from Saturday were still damp and it did not rain. Yeah.
Steve, Justin and AE took off in the truck on Friday morning, while I stayed behind until it was time to pick up Kaylee from school, get her home to pack her bag, get a snack, and get in the PT-26. The PT has no real baggage compartment, just a small hole behind the back seat, which already held a large airplane cover, pitot tube cover, large ride binder, and as many quarts of oil as would fit. So I shoved my purse in there as well, and then Kaylee had to hold her bag on her lap, and my bag we started off putting in the back window. But she wanted the canopy open, and when the canopy was open my bag was flapping and in danger of being pulled out of the airplane, so she put that down on the floor by her feet, while I did a control check to make sure I had proper stick and rudder movement. We were one full airplane!
Shortly after we took off, we could hear Steve on the radio up at Warsaw, acting Air Boss. And he was BUSY! The acts were all practicing while the rides were all trying to give rides too, and it was messy and busy. He was doing great with it, everyone was in good humor, most folks were patient and helpful and working with each other...like it's supposed to be. But it was still a lot of work. It made me smile coming in, listening to him on the radio. :) So when I was 15 miles out, I called in with "Warsaw Air Boss, Fairchild 60535 is 15 to the southwest inbound." He said something like "Hey, Fairchild, that sounds like a pretty lady in there!" Performer Billy Werth got on the radio and said "D'awwwww". Somebody said he should stop flirting with the lady pilots or they were going to tell his wife. I think that was Hollywood. lol When I finally got there, 20 minutes later, I said something like "You're doing such a good job Air Boss, why don't you take me out to dinner!" I'm sure there were plenty of pilots who had no idea who we were or that we were married, but some of us enjoyed it anyway. :)
Friday was a super busy day. They ended up having a twilight air show, which ended with a 4-ship team called the Canadian Harvards, a T-6 formation group from Canada. Beautiful sunset, a group of T-6s in formation, you just have to like that. Yes you do, trust me. Then they had fireworks, and movie night. Steve's job was done after the fireworks, and he said he'd never been that close to explosions before and it was a little unnerving. I would have really liked that. :) So the Air Bossing job was done after that, and everyone was really tired, but hungry, so we found a place that was open until 1 a.m., got there at 10 pm, and the food was quite good.
That night I listened to it rain and blow, and I worried about the PT. I'd seen the weather, and I had the covers on, I had strapped it down as tight as I could tie it, made them help me move it to a tie down spot instead of just on the ramp itself, and I chocked both mains. When I got out there in the morning, I noticed a sign had partially blown down, and my airplane wasn't where I left it. This gave me pause, until I saw it waiting, uncovered and all, ready in its' ride spot. The coordinator of the event had stayed until past 11 pm for the movie, saw the weather, and untied and unchecked the airplane and shoved stuff around until he could get it into a hangar, where it spent the night in dry and safe comfort. THAT was very much appreciated.
Saturday was hot and muggy. I had on the flight suit over my clothes, and I was dying. My clothes were soaked, all the way, and I drank water like it was going out of style, which didn't help with the sweating thing, but at least kept me alive. I ended up doing four rides throughout the day, which is much less (many fewer) than we did the last two years in the T-6. One of them was a 13 year old boy, and he was so cute, he's another one that is hooked and hard. He and his mom both were just really thrilled. I was gone when the mom booked the ride, but she wanted to meet the pilot before they flew, which I understand considering her son is 13. So we talked for awhile, and I had her come out and take photos, and we went up and he just had a ball. I told him that I wasn't supposed to let him fly it, but if he wouldn't tell on me, I'd let him. It's true, per those rules I'm not supposed to let anybody touch the stick who isn't a Member with permission via a letter from headquarters to be training in that exact aircraft. However, I can't stand that rule. And just like the "You must get them to say 'no' twice before you can hang up" in telemarketing rule, I ignore it because I think it's a stupid rule. So he flew it, and I actually gave him a mini lesson (I don't usually do that), and was helping him get his turns coordinated with rudder and aileron, looking outside to find straight and level, etc. When we were on the ground, he went up to his mom and said in this really loud whisper because he was so excited "I'm not supposed to tell but I have to tell you because I don't think she meant you but SHE LET ME FLY THE PLANE AND I DID!" They talked about lessons for awhile, what it took, and the mom is on board with helping him do it. It was one of the stand-out rides, one of the fun ones you know they'll always remember. That might be the day the next pilot was born, you never know.
I wasn't planning on flying in the air show. They had big fellows there. The formation T-6 team, two other T-6s, a P-51, a Corsair, the B-17, a formation team of T-34s, etc. Trying to put a PT-26 into that would look and feel silly. So I didn't go to the briefing. Then the coordinator, Al, came up to me on the ramp, and said he had another PT-26, a Stearman and an L-3, and would I like to fly in the show. I hesitated, I wasn't planning on it, but then he said he'd really like it if I would, mine is blue, the others are yellow, would add color and look good, etc., so since he wanted me to, not just trying to find a spot for it or something, I said sure. We had another briefing, with R+10 this time, and he asked if I was all right with being Lead of the group. I've never been Lead before, but I've followed behind one enough times, so I said sure. Two of the others in my group had never flown in any airshows before, though the other guy had, and none of us knew each other at all, so that all made it a bit of unknown quantities there. Dave went over the big picture, then divided us into our groups, and now I had to brief our group on what we were going to do and exactly how we were going to do it. Basically, being "Lead" means being responsible for all the people in your group, keeping an eye on them and what they're doing throughout the flight, making sure everyone knows what they are supposed to do and when, being in charge of your patterns, watching traffic and obstacles, communicating properly, and adapting as necessary. I don't know if that sounds easy or hard, but it's both easy and easy to goof up and screw up a group of people, too. I've seen it. :) So even though I understand the scale we're talking about here isn't fancy or huge, I took my first job as Lead seriously. Of course I always take flying seriously, so... We were three different types of airplanes with three different speeds, one way slower than the others. My job was to figure out after take-off when to start our turn in to keep the pattern tight enough that we'd make it back in at the right time but not so tight that I catch the last guy still taking off, who is also the slowest. I think it worked out pretty well. Everyone did a good job with their spacing, the slow guy knew how to use geometry to keep the spacing right, and it just worked as good as I hoped, just doing it on the fly so to speak. We were supposed to do three circuits, but we're so slow, that even fairly tight in we ended up just doing two, one higher (500'), one lower (100'), then coming in to land. Quick and simple, but the other two guys who had never flown in an airshow before were pretty pumped about it, and that's fun, and I enjoyed it too!
I had to take a shower right when we got back from the airport. Normally I don't like taking showers at night instead of morning, and I don't like taking two showers in a row, either, but there was no option, I was not going out to dinner like that. ;) We went to "The Boathouse", which has really good food, a little more upscale. We all ate too much and I don't think a one of us cared, either. We earned it.
Saturday I'd had to be out there at 8 a.m. while everybody else didn't make it out until 10:30. Today I was going to go out at 9, and everybody else at 10, but everybody else woke up early too, and were all ready to go by 9, except Kaylee. Even she was earlier than 10 though. AE and Justin set up a little pop up tent and some chairs for me, and this time I put my flight suit on without any clothes on underneath to try to stay cooler. I don't know if that helped any, actually, but it did at least leave me dry clothes to climb back into after I took the suit off.
I had one ride with a lady who had never flown before and was nervous, one with a gent whose son had ridden with me in the T-6 last year, and two other regular riders. Today I had to take cash or check only as the CAF guys were gone and they had the credit card reader. I had one old gentleman who didn't have enough cash to go. He mentioned he wanted to sit in the back seat, with that view, that he didn't want to fly in a 172. I said "If you'd like, I'll take you out on the ramp there, and you can get in the back and check it out." The airplane was on a "hot" ramp, people weren't allowed to go out there. I thought he'd like that. I was wrong. He snapped at me and pretty angrily and rudely said "I don't want to SIT in it, I want to FLY it." There went any desire I had to help. I don't care what your age is, there is still such a thing as manners. They will get you a lot farther.
When today's airshow ended, I had one more ride to give, then we all packed up and started heading out. Steve, AE and Justin stopped in town to eat, while Kaylee and I got in the PT and flew home. There were several thunderstorm cells right around Kokomo. We passed a couple of them on the way home, and I pointed them out to Kaylee. I wasn't sure I'd get into Kokomo at first, but the cell was just sitting on top of the city, getting bigger, but not moving anywhere. The airport was clear, but the city was under deluge, at least part of it. Weird looking. Kaylee and I couldn't put the PT away by ourselves, but fortunately one of the line guys came over and helped. A stop for sweet tea and food, home, hopping in the shower, throwing laundry in asap, and we feel human again. About two hours later Steve made it home too.
It was a lot of time out there, a lot of work for Steve and Justin and AE too. It was some work for me, as I worked on Saturday selling items under the tent, giving rides, chatting up folks and answering questions, and today I handled the forms, the money, loading the passengers, and the rides, by myself, along with the questions and the socializing and such. I sat in silence a lot this evening just enjoying the unwinding process. Some good things came from it. Steve did a great job as Air Boss at a pretty good-sized three-day event. I got to help out the CAF. It's always good to network and chat with certain folks, or at least be seen. We had an opportunity to go to a performer's dinner, but we were way too wiped out to be interested in that. It probably would have been good to do, but man, not one of us felt like it. Everything that was our responsibility or part went well, so...whew.
Kaylee? Kaylee did a little homework and otherwise sat in the air conditioning and watched a Netflix TV series for the weekend. She did not get very sweaty. ;) She did come out and watch the T-6 formation team with me Friday night, and she hung out with me for awhile on Saturday under the CAF tent. She said she was proud of me, which is sweet. Today we walked down the row and got lunch, and lemonade. It was my first and only time walking the whole airshow flight line, the first time I saw everybody up on the Air Boss platform, etc. Then she and I went back inside to try to stop sweating again for awhile. ;)
I'm sure there will be lots of great photos. Here are two that other people took of me at various times. Looks like the Me Wall here, but I don't suppose many of you (mom) care much about pictures of the airplanes flying by overhead, so... ;)
Sweaty me in the CAF tent. I see Gumby in the background. :)
On the wing of the PT watching other airplanes fly. :)
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Cheese with that Whine
None of us wanted to get up today. Fortunately, by the end of tonight, Kaylee was much better. She'd been worn pretty ragged, she had a headache last night, was up late finishing homework and was lying on the floor while Steve and I tried to figure out some of her Geometry homework, for which they have no book and no explanations available. Did you know most classes don't have books any more? Yeah. IPad pages of homework and such, but not many books. A book explaining what the hay is going on would be very handy in Geometry. Google helps some, but man.
Anyway. She was worn out solid. Fortunately she didn't have band today, so she was able to feel like she almost had a vacation. Tomorrow morning her band practice starts at 7 a.m. again. But after school, she's done, and we leave for the weekend for the Warsaw Airshow, one way or the other. Steve leaves in the morning, Kaylee and I are getting up there somehow after she gets out of school. Don't ask me how. The PT, in which I'm supposed to give rides, doesn't need to sit out on the ramp if the forecasted storms come through Friday night/Saturday afternoon. If we drive up, how do I get back to pick up the airplane Saturday or Sunday? I don't know. Right now I don't care. My head hurts. :P
Usually when a day goes wrong, at some point I get amused. I have yet to be amused by today. I'm glad all ended well though! Today was my day to do the Mavrx flight. It could have been yesterday, except I had the St. Louis trip, so today was the only day left available to do it where both me and the weather were going to be available at the same time. I got out there, only to find the battery for the pack hadn't been charged up. We delayed by about 45 minutes while charging it, plugged it in, and it said all green lights, not fully charged, but working. I figured I'd take off, get as much done as I could. As I was taking off I found in the corner that it actually said it was only at 24%. Ouch. As I was leaving the pattern, I noticed it now said 19%. So I shut the system down, then turned it back on to see if that would work. It did. I shut it down, and flew south of Indianapolis where my first field was. Ten miles out I turned it back on, set it up, and...watched the battery tick down. I thought, okay, I'll just get this one field at least then have to go home and recup. I got to .3 miles away from my first line, all lined, up, and it died. I got nothing. So I flew home. It was now 11:20 in the morning and I had wasted my entire morning, more than an hour's worth of gas and airplane time, and gotten Nothing. I plugged it back in and went to lunch, frustrated. I had a student at 4 pm that needed to go, which I wasn't going to be able to do if I was able to do this Mavrx flight in the afternoon, I had no idea how long it would take to charge that battery up from zero, and if I couldn't do the flight today, I was in a bit of hot water. The weather and the Warsaw Airshow were coming, and today was THE clear day. At lunch Chuck brought up plugging right into the airplane, and I said why I didn't think we could do that, and he and Steve kind of did some thinking. After lunch I took Jon up in the PT-26 to test fly its tailwheel, and sure enough, there was still a shimmy there, though at least not a bad one. Put that away, then at 2 pm it was time. I HAD to go do this Mavrx flight now, because I had to stop flying by 6 pm per their light requirements, and I had almost a 4 hour flight to make. I tried it, and the battery said it was up to 52%. Steve came in with an inverter, hooked it up to the battery, plugged that right into the plane, and the computer was still hooked to the ipad and the battery. I took off, and...it worked. Mostly. It wasn't strong enough to build a charge, and the power kept dropping, but it dropped slowly. I booked it around to those fields at 7500' at full power, and watched it drop down to 26% by the end...but it held on. After I got the flight done, I unplugged the inverter part of it to see how it did. The battery immediately dropped at a rate of a percent every 20 seconds or so. It obviously would not have made it. Thank goodness for ingenuity and smart guys.
I had texted my student and told him to go solo, it was a nice enough day to be able to do that.
When I landed, I tried to upload or "Finish" my mission on the iPad. There was no "Finish" button. I couldn't close out the job. I then went to mail off the cards, only to realize I'd left the shipping label at home. I had to get it to UPS by 6:30, their last pick-up time for the day. I ran home, got the label, slapped everything together, and pulled into UPS at 6:22. They took it. Thank goodness.
I stopped for Philly Cheesesteaks at "Charlie's", and got a small chicken one, and let me tell you, that was really good! I brought home a steak one for Steve and a turkey one for Kaylee, and everyone was pleased.
Still can't "finish" my mission but I let the guys there know, and am waiting to hear back from them. Now it's 9:15 pm, I'm not packed, and I don't know how I'm getting to Warsaw, or what we're going to do with the PT. Slightly morose that the T-6 won't make it out, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
We found out tonight that Kokomo will be shutting down both their runways for a week starting Monday, but leaving the little one open if you call ahead 15 minutes out and let them know you need to use it. Shutting down our operation for another entire week...isn't going to happen, I hope. They're going to get a lot of calls about the runway needing to be clear as we come in and out. With this week added in it would end up being almost a solid month that the airport has been restricted or shut down this flying season, which isn't that long in the first place, mostly from aerobatic stuff, and now this. The good part is that they are repainting the long runway's stripes, and that needs done badly! So does the other runway, but apparently they're only contracted to do this one, and they're shutting both runways down because they intersect.
So, let's see, good things from today.
Kaylee's in a good mood.
I did end up getting the Mavrx flight at least flown and cards sent in on time.
I have smart friends and spouse who can make something work when it needs to.
It was a lovely day outside.
Steve is almost ready for Warsaw, I think, and is doing okay.
Richard sounded really good tonight, Steve said, almost sounded like his old self.
Tomorrow is Friday and...this weekend, one way or the other, I anticipate will be some work but also enjoyable.
My student enjoyed his solo time anyway.
It's only 9:30 and I don't have anything I have to do right now.
These photos aren't as nice as the St. Louis ones because I was so much higher. No perspective or depth to them. The sun was dead overhead, so not even any lovely coloring. But after taking photos of St. Louis, I thought I ought to show Indy some love too.
Anyway. She was worn out solid. Fortunately she didn't have band today, so she was able to feel like she almost had a vacation. Tomorrow morning her band practice starts at 7 a.m. again. But after school, she's done, and we leave for the weekend for the Warsaw Airshow, one way or the other. Steve leaves in the morning, Kaylee and I are getting up there somehow after she gets out of school. Don't ask me how. The PT, in which I'm supposed to give rides, doesn't need to sit out on the ramp if the forecasted storms come through Friday night/Saturday afternoon. If we drive up, how do I get back to pick up the airplane Saturday or Sunday? I don't know. Right now I don't care. My head hurts. :P
Usually when a day goes wrong, at some point I get amused. I have yet to be amused by today. I'm glad all ended well though! Today was my day to do the Mavrx flight. It could have been yesterday, except I had the St. Louis trip, so today was the only day left available to do it where both me and the weather were going to be available at the same time. I got out there, only to find the battery for the pack hadn't been charged up. We delayed by about 45 minutes while charging it, plugged it in, and it said all green lights, not fully charged, but working. I figured I'd take off, get as much done as I could. As I was taking off I found in the corner that it actually said it was only at 24%. Ouch. As I was leaving the pattern, I noticed it now said 19%. So I shut the system down, then turned it back on to see if that would work. It did. I shut it down, and flew south of Indianapolis where my first field was. Ten miles out I turned it back on, set it up, and...watched the battery tick down. I thought, okay, I'll just get this one field at least then have to go home and recup. I got to .3 miles away from my first line, all lined, up, and it died. I got nothing. So I flew home. It was now 11:20 in the morning and I had wasted my entire morning, more than an hour's worth of gas and airplane time, and gotten Nothing. I plugged it back in and went to lunch, frustrated. I had a student at 4 pm that needed to go, which I wasn't going to be able to do if I was able to do this Mavrx flight in the afternoon, I had no idea how long it would take to charge that battery up from zero, and if I couldn't do the flight today, I was in a bit of hot water. The weather and the Warsaw Airshow were coming, and today was THE clear day. At lunch Chuck brought up plugging right into the airplane, and I said why I didn't think we could do that, and he and Steve kind of did some thinking. After lunch I took Jon up in the PT-26 to test fly its tailwheel, and sure enough, there was still a shimmy there, though at least not a bad one. Put that away, then at 2 pm it was time. I HAD to go do this Mavrx flight now, because I had to stop flying by 6 pm per their light requirements, and I had almost a 4 hour flight to make. I tried it, and the battery said it was up to 52%. Steve came in with an inverter, hooked it up to the battery, plugged that right into the plane, and the computer was still hooked to the ipad and the battery. I took off, and...it worked. Mostly. It wasn't strong enough to build a charge, and the power kept dropping, but it dropped slowly. I booked it around to those fields at 7500' at full power, and watched it drop down to 26% by the end...but it held on. After I got the flight done, I unplugged the inverter part of it to see how it did. The battery immediately dropped at a rate of a percent every 20 seconds or so. It obviously would not have made it. Thank goodness for ingenuity and smart guys.
I had texted my student and told him to go solo, it was a nice enough day to be able to do that.
When I landed, I tried to upload or "Finish" my mission on the iPad. There was no "Finish" button. I couldn't close out the job. I then went to mail off the cards, only to realize I'd left the shipping label at home. I had to get it to UPS by 6:30, their last pick-up time for the day. I ran home, got the label, slapped everything together, and pulled into UPS at 6:22. They took it. Thank goodness.
I stopped for Philly Cheesesteaks at "Charlie's", and got a small chicken one, and let me tell you, that was really good! I brought home a steak one for Steve and a turkey one for Kaylee, and everyone was pleased.
Still can't "finish" my mission but I let the guys there know, and am waiting to hear back from them. Now it's 9:15 pm, I'm not packed, and I don't know how I'm getting to Warsaw, or what we're going to do with the PT. Slightly morose that the T-6 won't make it out, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
We found out tonight that Kokomo will be shutting down both their runways for a week starting Monday, but leaving the little one open if you call ahead 15 minutes out and let them know you need to use it. Shutting down our operation for another entire week...isn't going to happen, I hope. They're going to get a lot of calls about the runway needing to be clear as we come in and out. With this week added in it would end up being almost a solid month that the airport has been restricted or shut down this flying season, which isn't that long in the first place, mostly from aerobatic stuff, and now this. The good part is that they are repainting the long runway's stripes, and that needs done badly! So does the other runway, but apparently they're only contracted to do this one, and they're shutting both runways down because they intersect.
So, let's see, good things from today.
Kaylee's in a good mood.
I did end up getting the Mavrx flight at least flown and cards sent in on time.
I have smart friends and spouse who can make something work when it needs to.
It was a lovely day outside.
Steve is almost ready for Warsaw, I think, and is doing okay.
Richard sounded really good tonight, Steve said, almost sounded like his old self.
Tomorrow is Friday and...this weekend, one way or the other, I anticipate will be some work but also enjoyable.
My student enjoyed his solo time anyway.
It's only 9:30 and I don't have anything I have to do right now.
These photos aren't as nice as the St. Louis ones because I was so much higher. No perspective or depth to them. The sun was dead overhead, so not even any lovely coloring. But after taking photos of St. Louis, I thought I ought to show Indy some love too.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Missouri
So, as I often do when I go to St. Louis, I am starting this post while sitting in the Jet Center wearing a coat indoors because they keep it arctic in here for all the business people in suits and women in dress shits and jackets. Until I started remembering to bring a jacket with me, I used to alternate standing outside and melting with coming inside and freezing. I'm now the only person in here in a t shirt and a coat, but I'm comfortable, so I don't much care.
I'm still writing this without readers, which I haven't used all day, thank you. :)
The trip here at the unpleasant hour of 7 am was smooth, clear and calm, completely uneventful. The most interesting thing that happened was when St. Louis Downtown Tower told us to expect 12L, cleared us to land 30R, then amended our landing clearance to 12L. I'm not sure how we managed.
Well, and on take off from Kokomo there was a loud snapping noise, right as we were rotating, which gave us both a jolt. Turns out his seat slid back a quarter of an inch into the locked position. That was a close one. ;). Though we did joke about over-reacting and feathering an engine on takeoff just in case.
A pilot off an internet forum had messaged me and asked if I was going to be in St. Louis, that he'd like to meet up at lunch. A girl has to eat, so we ended up at Pappy's Smokehouse. He told me that we had to go at an off time or we wouldn't get in, and that they run out of food. So I left at 10:30 and got there at 11 when they opened, and within 20 minutes the line was Out The Door. He wasn't kidding. And it was Really good. The sauces were excellent and the meat wasn't fatty, but was tender. Delicious, good choice. When we went to leave, there was no more parking available, they had a guy out in the lot directing traffic, people were dropping off people and driving off, all signs of a local favorite. Unassuming building, old interior well used, but really good food.
The pilot I met started off wanting to be an airline pilot, was an instructor here for awhile, at a Part 141 place...and hated it. He said nobody was allowed to fly more than 25 nm from the airport at any time other than dual cross countries towards a certificate, not even dual, or as a Commercial rated pilot. No flights could leave regardless of your certificate without someone there signing off a weather report. No actual IFR was allowed. Ever. Simulated only. No grass strips, no winds above 15 knots. All flights had to be dispatched. He hated it, realized he would hate airlines, and went to nursing school while working as an EMT. Flying is now a hobby for him, the way he likes fying, on his own terms. A wise choice. :)
The guys had a longer, tougher job today than they expected, and came back having had to change clothes and febreeze themselves down, and they still smelled like grease and poop. The job went badly, and they were wiped out.
When we landed at Kokomo, I sent them on their way, and left the 340 out, then went over and pulled the PT out to test fly it and check for a tailwheel shimmy. I went to get the tug to pull it out, and there was a bunch of equipment in the way. I couldn't get the tug out. So I was able to pull the PT out by myself by hand...barely. I made sure to have help putting it away--you could never put it away by hand alone. It's too heavy to steer by the tailwheel alone like you can the smaller tailwheels. Anyway, Steve had just finished flying with a student on his second ever lesson, and put him in the back of the PT because he was there and eager. We weren't up long, but the sun was going down, the air was still, the sky was clear and colorful, and the sun was glowing off the prop, which was a lovely sight. The young man had a little fever going in his eyes when we got down. He said he didn't hardly sleep after his first flight lesson, and he doubts he'll sleep tonight, either. Oh yeah, he caught the disease all right. ;)
I had to pick up Kaylee from band practice at 9:10 pm. She came out with a headache, but happy, and tired. We stopped for ice cream for her, I went to the post office to drop off all our billing, but the stamp machine was half broken and I had to put weird stamps on there, five at a time is all it would give me, for 30 envelopes. Brother. Next up was Wendy's for dinner, and they had some kind of problem, and we were in line for 20 minutes. Now it's past 10 pm and Kaylee had homework to finish off, Geometry that she didn't know how to do. She was spent, worn out, exhausted and getting cranky, a difficult time to do math homework. Steve helped her figure out three of them, and I helped with one too. She crawled off to bed as soon as we let her go, and she's down for the count.
Steve's trying to cram in airshow stuff that he has to finish up, and having a grand time with it.
I have lots of photos, let's see if I can download them and put them here before *I* crawl off to bed. I was up very early and not home until pretty late myself. And I'm already almost flat on my back in this chair. ;)
I'm still writing this without readers, which I haven't used all day, thank you. :)
The trip here at the unpleasant hour of 7 am was smooth, clear and calm, completely uneventful. The most interesting thing that happened was when St. Louis Downtown Tower told us to expect 12L, cleared us to land 30R, then amended our landing clearance to 12L. I'm not sure how we managed.
Well, and on take off from Kokomo there was a loud snapping noise, right as we were rotating, which gave us both a jolt. Turns out his seat slid back a quarter of an inch into the locked position. That was a close one. ;). Though we did joke about over-reacting and feathering an engine on takeoff just in case.
A pilot off an internet forum had messaged me and asked if I was going to be in St. Louis, that he'd like to meet up at lunch. A girl has to eat, so we ended up at Pappy's Smokehouse. He told me that we had to go at an off time or we wouldn't get in, and that they run out of food. So I left at 10:30 and got there at 11 when they opened, and within 20 minutes the line was Out The Door. He wasn't kidding. And it was Really good. The sauces were excellent and the meat wasn't fatty, but was tender. Delicious, good choice. When we went to leave, there was no more parking available, they had a guy out in the lot directing traffic, people were dropping off people and driving off, all signs of a local favorite. Unassuming building, old interior well used, but really good food.
The pilot I met started off wanting to be an airline pilot, was an instructor here for awhile, at a Part 141 place...and hated it. He said nobody was allowed to fly more than 25 nm from the airport at any time other than dual cross countries towards a certificate, not even dual, or as a Commercial rated pilot. No flights could leave regardless of your certificate without someone there signing off a weather report. No actual IFR was allowed. Ever. Simulated only. No grass strips, no winds above 15 knots. All flights had to be dispatched. He hated it, realized he would hate airlines, and went to nursing school while working as an EMT. Flying is now a hobby for him, the way he likes fying, on his own terms. A wise choice. :)
The guys had a longer, tougher job today than they expected, and came back having had to change clothes and febreeze themselves down, and they still smelled like grease and poop. The job went badly, and they were wiped out.
When we landed at Kokomo, I sent them on their way, and left the 340 out, then went over and pulled the PT out to test fly it and check for a tailwheel shimmy. I went to get the tug to pull it out, and there was a bunch of equipment in the way. I couldn't get the tug out. So I was able to pull the PT out by myself by hand...barely. I made sure to have help putting it away--you could never put it away by hand alone. It's too heavy to steer by the tailwheel alone like you can the smaller tailwheels. Anyway, Steve had just finished flying with a student on his second ever lesson, and put him in the back of the PT because he was there and eager. We weren't up long, but the sun was going down, the air was still, the sky was clear and colorful, and the sun was glowing off the prop, which was a lovely sight. The young man had a little fever going in his eyes when we got down. He said he didn't hardly sleep after his first flight lesson, and he doubts he'll sleep tonight, either. Oh yeah, he caught the disease all right. ;)
I had to pick up Kaylee from band practice at 9:10 pm. She came out with a headache, but happy, and tired. We stopped for ice cream for her, I went to the post office to drop off all our billing, but the stamp machine was half broken and I had to put weird stamps on there, five at a time is all it would give me, for 30 envelopes. Brother. Next up was Wendy's for dinner, and they had some kind of problem, and we were in line for 20 minutes. Now it's past 10 pm and Kaylee had homework to finish off, Geometry that she didn't know how to do. She was spent, worn out, exhausted and getting cranky, a difficult time to do math homework. Steve helped her figure out three of them, and I helped with one too. She crawled off to bed as soon as we let her go, and she's down for the count.
Steve's trying to cram in airshow stuff that he has to finish up, and having a grand time with it.
I have lots of photos, let's see if I can download them and put them here before *I* crawl off to bed. I was up very early and not home until pretty late myself. And I'm already almost flat on my back in this chair. ;)
Sunrise is more impressive in the summer--because it starts so much earlier. :o
Coming up on St. Louis
Left Base Runway 12R
St. Louis, the river, the city, the Arch.
I went for a walk to stretch my legs, found this sign informative and interesting.
This is the BBQ place B took me to today. Seriously good BBQ.
Pilot friend and me on one of the last free bar stool type chairs available in the place, it was so packed out, and my BBQ Turkey and fried corn on the cob (never heard of it but it was also very good).
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
I Can SEE!
All right, I'm about to go on a little cheering post for something you'd never expect from me. Wal-Mart. Yes, I said I'm really happy with Wal-Mart on something and I've got to let you know.
Many months ago I was in Wal-Mart for the one time a year I usually make it there, and I walked past our airport manager, who was in the vision department. He later told me that if they have your script, if you're out traveling anywhere, and you lose your contacts, you can go into any Wal-Mart in the country and get a trial pair, or buy a box if they're in stock. Considering how many Wal-Marts exist, that really sounded like a definite bonus. Plus, they have price match guarantee, meaning you can't really buy the contacts anywhere else cheaper, supposedly. Even better. My yearly exam expired in July, so I decided to use Wal-Mart this time, get my exam there, and I wanted to get these multi-focal contacts like Steve got.
So...the eye doctor at Wal-Mart is a middle-aged, professional gentleman, and they were incredibly thorough. They even did the air puff in the eye test, which I detest, and some peripheral vision test with a machine, and a bunch of stuff. I asked him about these stringy and dot floaties I have in my eye, and he examined very closely with a bright light which killed my night vision for the next two days, and told me exactly what they were (fluid), and that they were not the signs of torn retinas and other things I'd read about (yay). He was thoughtful, intelligent, professional, and a good part of me wondered how he felt about being in Wal-Mart. He discussed the multi-focal contacts with me, and told me that they did not work in up to 50% of people. That took me by surprise a little, I know Steve's doc had said they don't work for everyone, but I didn't expect it to be that high. These are the contacts with multiple rings of varying focal lengths, so you can correct for my bad farsightedness and yet focus on the fine print in front of you, at the same time, depending on which ring your eye uses to focus. It's bifocals in contact lenses. Right now I always have my contacts in, my reading glasses hung around my shirt neck, and often my sunglasses hung around my shirt neck, and it's annoying. They hang up on each other and on my necklace. I can't read my phone, computer, or anything else without readers on, even with my contacts in. Or just wearing my glasses which are bifocals, which makes sunglasses a pain. So that's why I wanted to try these.
I get them in, and the first thing I do is pick up the bottle of contact solution, and I can easily read the tiny print on the back of the bottle. I can never read that. I pull out my phone, I can read texts and emails no problem. I look across the store, and I can read the signs across the store, clear as a bell. IT WORKED. I was grinning like a little kid. You might think this is not a big deal, but it's downright cool to be able to actually see at all times, to be able to read no matter how close or far away it is, without switching out glasses. I left my readers in my car the rest of the day, and they're still in there now, in fact, and every time I pull out my phone, my hand reaches for my glasses only to realize I can see. I could read the tiny writing and serial numbers on the drink machine at the DQ through the drive-thru's dirty window. I'm like a kid in a candy shop I'm so pleased by this. These are disposable, they last one month, and I don't know how expensive they are right now, as I'm in a "Trial Pair" to make sure they really will continue to work. Of course they will, and I'll get a free month's worth, which works great for me. :D I know this sounds bad, but I don't care even if they are expensive. I want them. I would dare say I need them at this point. The eye exam, then the separate contacts exam and consultation, was a total of $99. The trial contacts are free, and I get six free months of free follow-up visits relating to the contacts, should the need arise. I can also come in and get glasses on the same script for no additional charge other than the $50 frames, no fitting charge or anything. I probably will do that too, as the glasses I'm in now from 20/20 are several years old and no longer cutting it. For those days when you don't have or want contacts. The doctor was really surprised at how well I took to them. Apparently it usually takes a little time to get used to them, and again, apparently a lot of people can't work with them. He also said the stronger the bifocal part of it gets, the harder it gets for your distant vision to still be clear. Fortunately mine isn't that strong yet apparently. He had me read the distance letters, which I had no trouble with, then handed me a card for the near vision and said to read the lowest line I could, and I could rattle off the bottom, tiny line on the card, no hesitation. He said "Wow. Well, okay. I'd say they're working great for you." I almost fist pumped. He could tell I was pleased. ;)
So, there's the first nice thing you've probably ever heard me say about Wal-Mart. Haters can hate, but the vision department did a bang-up job at a reasonable price for me!
Next up I had a flight with a fellow in his Cherokee 235. He wanted to spend a lot of time working on takeoffs and landings, so I flew with him for 2.2 hours, spent 2.5 hours total, until he was worn out. It's always good when you can wear them out vs them wearing you out. ;) We got a lot done there in the pattern, and when I got out I was soaking wet from the heat, humidity, and plastic seats. I do dislike that.
Steve came out to fly with a guy next, while I ran to DQ and read their serial numbers, then on home to try to help Kaylee with Geometry homework (Gah). I'd also made it to the bank, post office and store today before lunch, so we finally had some food in the house again, which pleased the Kay kid, particularly since some of it was ice cream.
Speaking of, I really ought to go treadmill it.
Steve had an emergency MBros fix today as one of the main guys killed their computer system. Kinda bad timing on their part for both them and us, but stuff happens! Job security. ;) As for my job security, I have an MBros trip tomorrow to St. Louis, so made sure the 340 was ready to go. We leave wheels up at 7 a.m. These darned early morning people...
p.s. You want to know what Oshkosh looks like? Check out these Flicker photos. Some of these are downright amazing photos...scroll past the people ones in the beginning if you like, but don't miss the night airshow ones. Amazing.
Many months ago I was in Wal-Mart for the one time a year I usually make it there, and I walked past our airport manager, who was in the vision department. He later told me that if they have your script, if you're out traveling anywhere, and you lose your contacts, you can go into any Wal-Mart in the country and get a trial pair, or buy a box if they're in stock. Considering how many Wal-Marts exist, that really sounded like a definite bonus. Plus, they have price match guarantee, meaning you can't really buy the contacts anywhere else cheaper, supposedly. Even better. My yearly exam expired in July, so I decided to use Wal-Mart this time, get my exam there, and I wanted to get these multi-focal contacts like Steve got.
So...the eye doctor at Wal-Mart is a middle-aged, professional gentleman, and they were incredibly thorough. They even did the air puff in the eye test, which I detest, and some peripheral vision test with a machine, and a bunch of stuff. I asked him about these stringy and dot floaties I have in my eye, and he examined very closely with a bright light which killed my night vision for the next two days, and told me exactly what they were (fluid), and that they were not the signs of torn retinas and other things I'd read about (yay). He was thoughtful, intelligent, professional, and a good part of me wondered how he felt about being in Wal-Mart. He discussed the multi-focal contacts with me, and told me that they did not work in up to 50% of people. That took me by surprise a little, I know Steve's doc had said they don't work for everyone, but I didn't expect it to be that high. These are the contacts with multiple rings of varying focal lengths, so you can correct for my bad farsightedness and yet focus on the fine print in front of you, at the same time, depending on which ring your eye uses to focus. It's bifocals in contact lenses. Right now I always have my contacts in, my reading glasses hung around my shirt neck, and often my sunglasses hung around my shirt neck, and it's annoying. They hang up on each other and on my necklace. I can't read my phone, computer, or anything else without readers on, even with my contacts in. Or just wearing my glasses which are bifocals, which makes sunglasses a pain. So that's why I wanted to try these.
I get them in, and the first thing I do is pick up the bottle of contact solution, and I can easily read the tiny print on the back of the bottle. I can never read that. I pull out my phone, I can read texts and emails no problem. I look across the store, and I can read the signs across the store, clear as a bell. IT WORKED. I was grinning like a little kid. You might think this is not a big deal, but it's downright cool to be able to actually see at all times, to be able to read no matter how close or far away it is, without switching out glasses. I left my readers in my car the rest of the day, and they're still in there now, in fact, and every time I pull out my phone, my hand reaches for my glasses only to realize I can see. I could read the tiny writing and serial numbers on the drink machine at the DQ through the drive-thru's dirty window. I'm like a kid in a candy shop I'm so pleased by this. These are disposable, they last one month, and I don't know how expensive they are right now, as I'm in a "Trial Pair" to make sure they really will continue to work. Of course they will, and I'll get a free month's worth, which works great for me. :D I know this sounds bad, but I don't care even if they are expensive. I want them. I would dare say I need them at this point. The eye exam, then the separate contacts exam and consultation, was a total of $99. The trial contacts are free, and I get six free months of free follow-up visits relating to the contacts, should the need arise. I can also come in and get glasses on the same script for no additional charge other than the $50 frames, no fitting charge or anything. I probably will do that too, as the glasses I'm in now from 20/20 are several years old and no longer cutting it. For those days when you don't have or want contacts. The doctor was really surprised at how well I took to them. Apparently it usually takes a little time to get used to them, and again, apparently a lot of people can't work with them. He also said the stronger the bifocal part of it gets, the harder it gets for your distant vision to still be clear. Fortunately mine isn't that strong yet apparently. He had me read the distance letters, which I had no trouble with, then handed me a card for the near vision and said to read the lowest line I could, and I could rattle off the bottom, tiny line on the card, no hesitation. He said "Wow. Well, okay. I'd say they're working great for you." I almost fist pumped. He could tell I was pleased. ;)
So, there's the first nice thing you've probably ever heard me say about Wal-Mart. Haters can hate, but the vision department did a bang-up job at a reasonable price for me!
Next up I had a flight with a fellow in his Cherokee 235. He wanted to spend a lot of time working on takeoffs and landings, so I flew with him for 2.2 hours, spent 2.5 hours total, until he was worn out. It's always good when you can wear them out vs them wearing you out. ;) We got a lot done there in the pattern, and when I got out I was soaking wet from the heat, humidity, and plastic seats. I do dislike that.
Steve came out to fly with a guy next, while I ran to DQ and read their serial numbers, then on home to try to help Kaylee with Geometry homework (Gah). I'd also made it to the bank, post office and store today before lunch, so we finally had some food in the house again, which pleased the Kay kid, particularly since some of it was ice cream.
Speaking of, I really ought to go treadmill it.
Steve had an emergency MBros fix today as one of the main guys killed their computer system. Kinda bad timing on their part for both them and us, but stuff happens! Job security. ;) As for my job security, I have an MBros trip tomorrow to St. Louis, so made sure the 340 was ready to go. We leave wheels up at 7 a.m. These darned early morning people...
p.s. You want to know what Oshkosh looks like? Check out these Flicker photos. Some of these are downright amazing photos...scroll past the people ones in the beginning if you like, but don't miss the night airshow ones. Amazing.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Next
We're still on a kind of crazy schedule, not sure how to get done everything that needs done. Steve's behind in some pretty important things and has flights he has to take because I'm already booked up and Ty's not available and we don't have another CFI up here. For example. I'm supposed to do a Mavrx flight which will take most of a day. I was supposed to fly to Indy on Wednesday morning, then had two students afterwards. Now MBros called and I'll be going to St. Louis instead. So Steve will be taking Kaylee to band practice at 6:45 a.m. and then getting out to OKK at 7 to fly to Indy instead, and take my next student, while I go to St. Louis. When I get back I have another student starting at 6-7 p.m., after I was wheels up at 7 a.m. Meanwhile billing isn't done, from last month, and we have a three day airshow coming up starting Thursday night for Fri-Sun which he is Air Boss for, and it's a big show, and he has to have his stuff together. Thursday I'm doing Mavrx plus students. Kaylee needs dropped off to and from band and the school bus both throughout the day. We're out of food again, and clean laundry, but I'm working on that second part tonight while I type this. Richard was released from the hospital, and he is back at Wellbrook in Kokomo now. He still has a ways to go, has a lot of strength and function to get back. He and Ann could both use your prayers for strength and patience and peace.
Since it won't be on the schedule, for whenever I get my logbook in order, I flew for an hour today with Mike in the 235, and .8 with Jesse in the 172. That was a lot of time spent driving there and back (had to pick up Kaylee in between the two flights and run her home) and being there for 1.8 hours total flight time. :P
Laundry's ready to dry. Next.
Since it won't be on the schedule, for whenever I get my logbook in order, I flew for an hour today with Mike in the 235, and .8 with Jesse in the 172. That was a lot of time spent driving there and back (had to pick up Kaylee in between the two flights and run her home) and being there for 1.8 hours total flight time. :P
Laundry's ready to dry. Next.
Saturday, August 08, 2015
Saturday
For some reason I had more trouble waking up this morning an hour and a half later than I've normally been waking up. Maybe because subconsciously I knew it was Saturday and I should be sleeping in? :)
We got out to Kokomo around 8:15 or so, and took the Aerostar down to Sheridan. As we were arriving there were about 5 other airplanes in the pattern, so I circled around for a few minutes until they got in, and then did a nice and easy fly by at an appropriate altitude before coming in to land. We had some pancakes and sausage and coffee, proceeds going to the CAF, and they had a much bigger turn-out than the previous two years. It wasn't swamped, but it was nice. After awhile, Nathan and the kids took the Aerostar back to Kokomo, and Steve and I drove out to the airport in his car.
There's a lift (I don't know the technical term) out at the airport right now, so Nathan used it to go up and fix his fan vent slats on one side, and go up to the roof and fix a leak on the other side. That leak makes moisture run down in the corner of the hangar, so it's great to be able to get that taken care of. I went up the first few times, then Steve and Nathan went up to fix the leak with a calk gun. Steve was crawling around on top of a 20-25' roof top, so it was sort of a special day! :)
We got out to Kokomo around 8:15 or so, and took the Aerostar down to Sheridan. As we were arriving there were about 5 other airplanes in the pattern, so I circled around for a few minutes until they got in, and then did a nice and easy fly by at an appropriate altitude before coming in to land. We had some pancakes and sausage and coffee, proceeds going to the CAF, and they had a much bigger turn-out than the previous two years. It wasn't swamped, but it was nice. After awhile, Nathan and the kids took the Aerostar back to Kokomo, and Steve and I drove out to the airport in his car.
There's a lift (I don't know the technical term) out at the airport right now, so Nathan used it to go up and fix his fan vent slats on one side, and go up to the roof and fix a leak on the other side. That leak makes moisture run down in the corner of the hangar, so it's great to be able to get that taken care of. I went up the first few times, then Steve and Nathan went up to fix the leak with a calk gun. Steve was crawling around on top of a 20-25' roof top, so it was sort of a special day! :)
Me and Nathan on the lift
Looking over the hole in the roof
Steve and Nathan up there.
The view from above.
I see the T-6 through the slats in the fan vent. :)
Giving a lady a ride at Indy Exec in the PT-26
The lady's husband waving to her on her ride as I take off
The blimp going by Sheridan
Coming down the runway
Then coming over the group
Hi!
Bye!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)