Catch-up

Tuesday morning I was back up early, and on my way back to Kenosha to drop off a passenger.  It was still night when I left, and IFR, and very bumpy.  We got tossed around a lot, and I climbed up higher trying to get above the worst of it, and couldn't.  The poor guy in the back was concerned, so I turned on music, talked to him some, and let him know the ole tried but still true "it's like driving an old truck with bad suspension on an old gravel road" analogy. He wasn't so sure about that flight, and it stayed gusty the whole way down to the runway.  It was IFR so I had to shoot an ILS approach in, except the glideslope never came in so I had to turn it into a localizer approach.  Fortunately it wasn't low anyway.  But then the birds--tower warned me about bird activity, and he wasn't kidding, they were big seagulls, and they were ALL OVER.  Wave after wave while I was coming down final and rolling out.  The passenger asked what would happen if we hit one.  I said "It would make a mess."  He asked about windshields.  I was still landing at this time, wondered if he really wanted to know the answer to that question yet.  ;)  On my way home, I was alone in the plane, and the sun was newly up, and I was breaking out of the clouds on top, and it was really pretty.  I took this little 23 second video clip with my iphone.  Not great quality, but pretty anyway.



I landed just in time to top off the plane then go fly with a student for an hour and a half doing takeoffs and landings in the pattern.  He got it pretty well, too, it kind of clicked in on him, which is good.

Tuesday afternoon Mom & Ernie made it in, and we went to Kaylee's choir concert, with Ann.  The concert went well, the kids did a great job, and it was a fun concert.  A lot of work went into that, and the kids were hard to take photos of because of the lighting, the distance I was sitting back, the long zoom lens, no flash, and the kids never stopped moving!  So I got a lot of blurry photos, but at least I got some.  :)  Richard wasn't able to go, so Steve stayed with him, and I FaceTimed them, learning a few things in the process.  For one thing, you can't shut the volume off without having them do it, so when they talked or made noise, it came through on my phone.  Fortunately I was sitting next to a couple of airport people (what are the odds?!) and hopefully they won't be too mad at me.  The quality of the video wasn't nearly good enough, but the sound worked great, so Steve and Richard were able to listen to the concert from home.

We got home before 10, and then Kaylee had to finish her homework and go to bed, so that she could wake up this morning at 5:45 a.m. for band practice.  She had band, then school, was home for a little bit, then I took her back to band at 6:10 and picked her up at 9:30 pm.  Long day.  Wednesdays are rough days for that.

Me, I had a student in the morning, one who canceled after lunch, another one this evening with a nice stiff crosswind, and then I took him up around the patch in the 340 for the fun of it because I had to move the plane anyway, and if you're going to pull it out and fire it up...you might as well finish the job and fly it.  He was pretty excited about that, which is always fun.  :)

Now I'm tired, but nobody has to get up super early at least.  As long as you consider getting up at 6:10 a.m. instead of 5:45 a.m. "not early".  Mmm

Thought I ought to have one where you can see more girls.  Kaylee's back row center here.

Tripping

Five fifteen a.m., that's when my alarm went off.  Bleh!

It was a beautiful morning though.  The super moon was still out there, peeking out around some scattered clouds.  It was night IFR for a little while, with turbulence and some rain that took me by surprise, and then I broke out of the clouds and the moon was shining on Lake Michigan through gaps in the clouds, the city lights were all aglow, the sun was breaking the horizon to the east, and airliners were lined up in the distance heading into Chicago with their landing lights beaming.  It was really quite pretty.  The pictures didn't do it justice, but I tried.

I was only on the ground for a few minutes when my passenger arrived.  He looked around and said "I've never been picked up by an airplane before!"  He felt special.  :)

Easy trip home, and I was on the ground before 9 a.m., having gone to Kenosha, Wisconsin and back before I'm normally showered in the morning.

Kaylee had Starlets practice again this evening for an hour and a half.  She said the director changed all their choreography again at the last minute here, and she hates that.  I guess they were told it's a tradition that it always changes at the last minute, but Kaylee's concerned that she and others will goof it up since it's hard to remember all those songs and what they're supposed to do especially after it changes this late in the game.  I hope they can get it down and be confident and happy with their performance.  :)

This evening I was able to solo a guy.  He's like our 5th solo in a week...good week!  :)

I should go to bed early again, as I have another early morning trip tomorrow, back to Kenosha.

Lake Michigan, the moon, the city lights.

Kenosha, WI in the early morning light.

Sunbeams...

Saturday's Adventures

Kaylee had to leave for a band competition at 9:20 this morning.  Thank goodness it wasn't another 6 a.m. one, but...we don't go get her until 12:30 a.m. in Greentown.  Sheesh!  Anyway, she texted me tonight that they came in first place this time.  Whew.  I don't think there were many Class D bands participating this time, but thank God they came in first.  They've had a hard run of it the last few things they did, and it had not been going well, and they needed this one.  Kaylee said this was her own personal best performance too.  Plus she had fun with her friends.  All in all a worthy day, for which I am grateful.

Steve and I, after he dropped her off for band, went out to Kokomo and took the T-6 down to Noblesville for a fly-in.  It was three different EAA Chapters coming together for a meet and greet pitch-in lunch kind of thing.  They had a good turn-out, fortunately, probably 20 planes or so, and tons of good food.  Our chapter represented well, which was great.  I ended up talking for a long time to a young lady, 14 years old, who has already been bitten by the aviation bug, and is looking into doing it for a living.  Her parents are supporting her and asking all the right questions, and she's probably going to start in on Flying Squirrels next summer, lessons when she's 15, and go from there.  When we left, Steve convinced me to do a fly-by of the runway, and then we headed for home.  He did the flying there and back, and I did the takeoff and landing. It was a 60 degree crosswind up around 16 knots at the time, on concrete, less wind than we've had before, but not the best day to do your first landings in the back of the Six in over a year.  We'll find a nicer day.

I ran Steve home, and then I had a lesson from 4-6.  We worked on crosswinds, and it was a decent day for that, even though the winds dropped down to anywhere from 8-14 knots, but still 60-70 degrees off.  An hour and a half of that, and I put stuff away and went out to dinner with Steve at the Foxes Trail, a nice place in town for a steak.  We had a glass of wine each, too, and after we got home from dinner Steve got a call from a friend who was stranded in Monticello and needed a plane ride home.  Neither of us could do it as we'd both had wine already, so we had to start making phone calls.  When we found a guy to go, he then texted me and told me that our big hangar door would not close.  We sent him off to go get the other guy, and we went back out to the airport to work on the door.   The door has another problem, so before we got too far we pulled out the 340, and I tugged it back down to Ed's hangar, then we got the big one closed again.  There were a few other complications there, but hey, the job got done, and we made it home again by 11 pm, and now I get to stay awake for another 15 minutes before leaving to go get Kaylee in Greentown.  Long day for her.  Not an un-long day for me either.  Not all bad though.  :)

Steve flying us home from the back seat.  You can barely see his eyeball back there, but he's there.  ;)

Topping off both planes--one for "next time" and the other for a really early flight Monday morning.

At Noblesville, a guy hand propping the L-2.

A picture someone took of the T-6 parked over to the side...

Pull

A few photos from yesterday in the Cub with Jesse and then in the Aerostar on the way home.  

Today a gent (and his friend) flew into Glenndale who is on a big trip from New York through to California.  He only stopped for about 30 minutes, and then was on his way to his next waypoint.  He's meeting up with folks he's known on the internet, like me,  He missed our Glenndale lunch by an hour or so, but that's probably okay.  Too much food is hard on the weight and balance going over the wires.  ;)

This afternoon I had a flight in the 172 working on crosswinds with a guy.  Eighty degrees off the runway, gusting to 20 knots, which was great practice for him.  It was the only flight I had today.  This evening I got hit with that Fall Feeling.  Melancholy, twitchy, restless, mopey almost, longing to do something or go somewhere that I can't define.  But instead I watched Grey's Anatomy's season premier and then went to pick up Kaylee at her football game band thing.  She said her band director said that tonight was the third worst performance he's ever had a band give at a football game in his entire career.  Tomorrow they have a band competition north of Ft. Wayne, and she won't get back to Eastern until 12:30 a.m. IF everything goes well.  Then they have to unload the van.  We'll get home well after 1 a.m.  I'm a little concerned about the band.  Their morale is low, they haven't done well the last two times, and...it's not good.  I hope they can pull it together.

Evening Adventures

These Fall days are so beautiful.  The colors are back, not on the trees, yet, though soon, but in the air, the sky, the sun, the ground.  Beautiful.

I had a student who wanted to fly a 172 tonight, but both were taken when he needed them.  It was also his 17th birthday.  He's the one whose parents bought him a Cub, which he hadn't flown yet.  Steve had two guys but my schedule was open, and J asked if I could fly his Cub with him for his birthday.  He's in Marion, and originally I was going to take the RG over, but another guy had it at a time such that it would push me, and the 172s were busy, plus the Aerostar needed a 20 minute test flight after its annual, and hey, it's 10 minutes over and 10 minutes back, so...that's what I did.

J had his whole family over there at his hangar, and a few friends, too.  His mom hadn't planned a big birthday party, so she was excited to find out we'd be going flying in the Cub, and his parents, grandparents on both sides, and a few family friends were all out there with lawn chairs, cooler, a cupcake cake in the design of a Piper Cub, and were all there to watch us fly this Cub for the first time.  It was a little windy when we started, and it was his first time on concrete, and this Cub had a starter in the back seat, which was nice, and different.

We had taken off and we were cruising around looking at stuff, when I did a scan of my instruments and noted that the oil pressure was lower than when we took off.  I didn't really think much about it, but apparently I thought enough about it subconsciously because I looked again shortly thereafter, and I thought it was even lower, but I wasn't positive.  So I made a mental note of exactly where it was, we flew along and talked, I looked back, and it was Definitely lower now.  So this time I stared at it, and watched it drop another 2 psi.  Temperatures were holding steady, sounded great, felt great, but I said "Hey, J, let's turn around, we're going to head back to the airport."  I explained why, and told him what our plan was, and what Plan B was too, and as we flew the pressure kept getting lower and lower.  Finally we landed and got her shut down, as it was reading "done", but it was still running normally as we shut it down, fortunately.  Neither he nor his family really understands that an engine failure was likely not that far in the future there, but I didn't feel the need to say that.  ;)  From what I hear now, the problem is probably easily fixed, which is great.  I am thankful that I actually was looking at the oil pressure...I think if you would have asked me I'd say I probably don't spend much time looking at the gauges in a Cub when the door's open and you're having the scenery pointed out to you.  I thought I mostly looked outside.  But I must look in more than I think, because I caught that initial drop pretty quickly...

Next up a lady named Judy took me for a ride in her Pulse Autocycle.  It's a motorcycle with an airplane-looking outside, low to the ground, 5 speed, and it goes on the highway and everything.  It's a zippy little sucker, and with the canopy open it felt like you were in a plane. It was fun, I enjoyed that!

Then it was time for me to go home.  I jokingly said J could go with me but he'd need a ride back to Marion.  He wasted no time getting a ride back to Marion, and came with me back to Kokomo.  :)  It was another beautiful sunset evening, and we both enjoyed the day, the cake, the flying, and being able to help make his birthday a little more special.

When I got home, Kaylee needed to go shopping for a few items, including one she needed for the choir concert, so we went to Meijer, which was the only thing open that late really, and got what she needed.  Then Steve and I, who hadn't eaten since lunch, went to IHOP and had bacon and eggs and hashbrowns and a crepe and it was GOOD STUFF, man.  Meanwhile Kaylee wasn't hungry so I'd dropped her off at home to get some rest for tomorrow.  The end of the day came with Steve saving the day on a MBros thing and me writing up this.  :)

You can't see him and it's his GoPro on his plane, but he's back there.  Meanwhile, there I am, looking at something outside.  The window wouldn't stay up, but that will be fixed shortly.  ;)

Gumby at sunset on the way back into Kokomo.

I was in the back of the autocycle going down the highway.  It's very low to the ground.  And zippy.  Did I mention zippy?  I like zippy.  And motorcycle riders would give us the motorcycle wave when they passed, which made me smile too.  Along with other people turning and staring hard.  :)

Tuesday

I took yesterday off of flying in order to try to help Steve with BBQ Bash tallies and recuperate a bit, but the day definitely did not work out as intended.  Steve ended up with a severe sinus headache, and we both ended up running around most of the day accomplishing little that we intended to accomplish.  Kaylee had Starlets practice until 9:30 pm, after school, and had to be run back and forth repeatedly.  The radiator blew on the Jeep right as Steve got to lunch.  So I took all the half-empty water bottles in my Explorer and we put them all in the radiator, then started driving for the mechanic's place.  He had to pull over halfway there, and we called a friend who lived nearby, and his wife had two gallon jugs she filled with water, we put one in, and saved the next one.  Had to stop again and top off with the last gallon, and finally made it to the mechanic's place.  That took awhile, actually, but finally we got it taken care of.  It's funny, I actually have a fair amount of old experience with that particular problem, and it seemed rather familiar.

Kaylee had band early this morning, got home from school at 3:45, went back at 5:45 and got home at 9:30 pm, then had to do her homework.  I had three flights today, one who got his Complex Endorsement, one who would have soloed for the first time if he'd had his medical, and one who hadn't gotten any sleep last night and struggled to just read a checklist one item at a time properly.  It was a fairly dramatic example of what being foggy does to the learning curve.  I've felt that/been there before; the day I carrier-landed the former Aerostar was one of them...

Tonight Steve and I ate at a little restaurant in Greentown while waiting for Kaylee to be done with her band practice.  It was our first time there, and it was really pretty good!  Inexpensive, the food was good, and service was fine.  They closed at 9, and 9 was when we needed to pick up Kaylee, so that worked out great.

Kaylee has mandatory practice again tomorrow until 10 pm for Starlets for her first concert coming up soon.  This year they divided out the junior high from the high schoolers for the concert, having them on two different nights.  So the main choral group just called "Chorus", Kaylee's group "Starlets", and the top tier group "Encore" will all be performing on one night, with Jr. High on their own.  That helps for being able to buy tickets, not competing with 100 parents in Jr. High trying to get in too.  However, Kaylee said that the Jr. High choir can't learn enough songs and choreography to do their own entire concert, so the director is having them fill in and do some songs at the Jr. High Concert night too.  Whew.  I don't think I'll go to that one, we'll wait for the actual high school night.  We buy tickets tomorrow, and I'm actually on TOP of it this year.  I know where to go and when to go there and how to get it done.  Thank heavens!  So I'll be buying tickets for grandparents and parents and our cleaning lady who wants to see an Eastern choral concert too, with her daughter.  :D

Lots I need to do, and Steve too.  Time keeps flying by and it seems like we can't get caught up...

BBQ Bash

I know I was very busy on Friday but I can't come up with what I was busy doing.  I think I worked on my PowerPoint Presentation for the Bash.  I know I had lunch at Glenndale.  Oh, I didn't feel very well, that was part of the problem.  After I got Kaylee taken care of, I was out at Glenndale...can't even remember what we did then.  Boy.  Saturday morning Steve was up very early, and I tried, but I couldn't get there right away.  We had beautiful weather all week, and of course Friday night a front moved in along with some storms, and Saturday morning arrived with scuzzy clouds, high winds, bad visibility, and scattered rain.  It was supposed to clear off by 10 a.m., but it really dims things down for fly-ins when the morning weather is bad.  Eventually we did get the visibility and clouds up enough, and the 172s arrived at Glenndale, after which I had one of them fly me to Kokomo so I could pick up the PT-26, then fly me back over so I could pick up the T-6.  That was my first time landing at Glenndale in the T-6 since last year's BBQ Bash.  :)   The rides started a little slowly, not really going until about lunch time.  But once I started in on rides in the T-6, I was in the airplane the rest of the day, ending right about at 6 pm, in time for the skydivers to arrive.  The skies cleared up beautifully, and the winds kicked up too.  They weren't as strong or as direct of a crosswind as last year, but they were pretty turbulent, lots of up and down drafts, swirly.  Later I was talking to the other ride pilots, Ty, Nick, Cusick, and they said they'd come down to land, think they were touching down, find themselves shoved farther down or lightly flying again, and that made me smile because I noticed the same thing.  Just one of those days.  Sunday the sun came up, the skies were perfectly clear, and the winds were lighter.  Still swirly, and a direct crosswind this time, but lighter.  We ended up with more transient aircraft on Sunday, which was good, as I think two planes flew in on Saturday.

Saturday night I hurt enough I took some Tylenol before I went to bed.  My neck was rubbed raw from the straps, my hands hurt, my legs ached, my back hurt, I was just SORE.  Sunday night was actually a little better except for my neck which I couldn't seem to protect. It still hurts.  I later checked my FitBit and found that I'd done over 21,000 "steps" while sitting on my butt in the airplane.  All that rudder exercise in the airplane, and I felt it, too!

We started Sunday morning with a tent church service.  Noah and Grace A. performed, Noah with guitar and singing, and Grace sang a song while Noah played for her.  It was really neat listening to them perform, and everyone really enjoyed it.  Grace's performance had an additional impact to it, as she shared her story of struggle with and working recovery with an eating disorder, and sang a song called "Beautiful".  Kaylee wiped tears from her eyes after the song, which made me water up a little too.  The pastor who came out did a nice job on a sermon, and I was sitting there in a big tent with a young man playing a guitar and singing, the sun shining in, the wind flapping the tent, and the occasional sound of an airplane going by, and I thought...that's my kind of church.  Forget all the theater and drama and 1000 people in dresses and suits putting on tired smiles listening to professional performers putting on a show.  I'll take worn jeans and airplane t-shirts and sincere songs and simple but true messages in a big tent with a view of a grass strip and a lot of sunshine.  I feel more worshipful there.

Once the rides started on Sunday, they went steady and non-stop.  I started off giving rides in the PT while Nathan gave rides in the T-6.  I ran out of PT rides at the same time Nathan ran out of desire to be doing any more T-6 rides, so I took over from there.

I messed up the other ride pilots twice, though.  When I first started giving rides in the PT, the winds were a direct crosswind with an occasional northerly shift, and it was fairly cool, and I was only 3/4 tanks fuel, and the guy I was taking was normal sized.  Everyone was using Runway 36, so...I lined up on Runway 36, put on my flaps, used the whole runway and a short field technique, and away we went.  We got off the ground fine, but climbing wasn't happening real well with the winds and the performance of the airplane.  I held it dead steady on Vx, and watched the wires, and we got over them with not a whole lot of room to spare.  Did our ride, had a nice time, got down, and I thought, okay, nobody bigger than that!  The next rider was a woman, smaller than the last guy.  Everyone was using 36, so I took off on 36.  This time, I kept hitting downdrafts, and I just was NOT climbing well, and I was eyeballing the over vs under decision.  Then I caught an updraft, and away we went.  Well, that was the end of that for me.  So for my 3rd rider, I went down to the other end, waited until nobody was in the way, and announced I was using Runway 18.  People questioned me, I said they could do whatever they wanted, I just needed a 18 departure.  A little chaos happened after that as some chose one runway and others the other, until finally Cusick got on and said "We need to pick one.  What runway are we using?" and somebody else said "18!"  So be it.  This is what we used most of the morning.  However, at some point the winds shifted, and now they were running northeast.  This was fine for me in the PT and everybody else in a 172, but when the time came for me to take over in the T-6, I'm looking at the wind sock, and I launched on 18 like everybody else, but once in the air I listened to AWOS, and it was saying 030 gusting to 15 knots.  That's a nice little quartering tailwind there, and I don't like playing with quartering tailwinds in the T-6.  So I waited for a clear area and then announced I was coming in on Runway 36 instead.  Again I goofed everybody up, but the decision was made to switch runways again after awhile.  Later they said they were going to start calling it "Pulling a Laura".  You know, where everyone else is fine but I come along and mess them all up?  ;)  Ty also started complaining on the radio about how he kept eating my exhaust all day, s-turning and falling in behind me to give the T-6 priority on landing.  So I posted a picture on Facebook of him s-turning behind me again and labeled him in it, which cracked some of us up anyway.

I had several interesting riders.  Saturday I had a fellow who wanted me to do a fly-over of a parade in Burlington, and bought the ride for that.  So, I took him over, circled over and did two passes.  He said "You can go as low as you want" and I said "No I can't.  It's a parade, lots of people with cameras and cell phones, and I could get in trouble."  What I didn't say was, if I'm going to get my license suspended, it's not going to be for Burlington's parade.  :)  Later he said that everybody down there loved it, and he has a poster he would like me to autograph for him.  That's nice.

I also had a former military pilot who wanted a PT-26 ride.  He used to fly T-6s, but had never flown a PT, so he bought one of those rides.  He hadn't flown an airplane in 30 years and hadn't flown a T-6 in much longer than that.  He got strapped in, grabbed the stick and shook it, put his feet up on the rudders and wiggled them, and said "Okay, what do you need me to do here?"  My eyebrows went up and I was all..."Um, let go?"  What I actually said was "I'll do the takeoff and get us out of here, and then it's all yours, okay?"  He was my first guy over the wires, and I didn't need an unknown quantity's probable poor technique (rusty) "helping" me not get out, and I was glad I hadn't.  He flew around his house for awhile, and kept calling me "Sweetie" and "Sweetheart".  When I landed, still on 18, with the nice quartering tailwind over the wires, I touched down and he said "Nice job, sweetheart."  :)

One young man went up with me, he'd saved his money and bought the ride, and he was super excited about it.  I took off, he took over and did the flying, we went over by his grandparents' house, and then I asked if he wanted me to do any technically aerobatic but not inverted aerobatic maneuvers, and he said no, he probably needed to work on that but even stalls in a 172 made him a little queasy.  I said no, that's fine, he doesn't have to want to do that stuff, I just wanted to offer and make sure he got his money's worth.  He said "Well, could we do a low pass, maybe?"   I said okay, and let one rip for him, but not at Glenndale.  He was laughing, had a lot of fun with that, and later was talking about it being a lifelong dream fulfilled to get to fly the airplane, and he didn't want to come down, either.  It's always neat having someone so excited about it.

I had one lady who had never flown ANYTHING before, ever, not even an airliner, and she chose the T-6 to go on her first ever airplane ride.  I thought that was an odd choice.  It's a bumpy day, in a loud and noisy airplane, on a rough runway.  She said if she could do this okay, then getting on an airliner to go on her honeymoon would be no big deal.  She was right--she ended up loving it, had a great time.  Whew.  Another lady is the mom of one of my students.  She's only ever been in a plane once, a small taildragger, and she too was nervous to start with, but she made it clear she trusted me, with her son's life and with hers, and during/afterwards she said she really enjoyed her flight.  That's a rather large responsibility, and I know it...

And then there was Nancy.  She was 87, two weeks away from her 88th birthday, and she was a pilot.  Her husband had trained in T-6s then went on to fly Corsairs in the war.  He was killed while she was a student pilot, and she went on to get her Private and Commercial licenses, had her own airplane, flew DC-3s, and she flew until  she was 84 years old.  She told me when she sold her plane and quit flying she still had a valid medical and flight review, but decided she should go out on top, go out on a high note, not wait too long.  I really admired everything about that, including the ability to let it go.  She then said that it was the most devastating thing she'd ever done, that once she quit flying she didn't know who she WAS any more, that her identity was  Nancy the Pilot, and now that she was Just Nancy, she was lost, and missed it a tremendous amount.  We were both pretty frank.  I told her I was not looking forward to that day, that flying isn't just a hobby, but a piece of who we are, and she said "Oh my, yes."  She said this T-6 ride meant a great deal to her, because her husband flew them, and she wanted to feel something he'd felt, fly something he'd flown, and she knew that a Corsair wasn't ever likely to happen, but this was perfect.  Then, as she was all buckled in, she said "Hey, I really hope we can do another low pass."  I don't generally do two in a row, or two in a day for that matter, but when an 88 year old woman wants to do one, what am I supposed to say?!  I was surprised, but I said okay, and I took off over the wires, swung it back in tight, swooped down and did a low pass the other way.  She was laughing and hooting and loving it.  We went up, I handed it over to her, and she flew for awhile, and then she said she knew we couldn't do aerobatics, no parachutes in, etc., but that she loved aerobatics and wished we could do something.  So I did a few things, cranked it around, and again, she was just having the best time, and so was I.  When I wandered back towards the airport, she was thanking me, and I joked that we weren't on the ground yet.  She said "I've been watching you for awhile.  You've done an excellent job.  I'm not concerned."  That was probably the only landing I was actually a little nervous on--I wanted to make it a nice one, and fortunately it was.  :)  When we got on the ground, we hopped out and talked for awhile, and I found out she was a writer for an aviation publication, she took my name and info, and gave me her card, and I just really enjoyed flying with her and meeting her.  She's what I could only hope to be when I'm in my 80s.  I also started thinking...I know a guy who has a 2-seat Corsair.  I've never asked anyone anything like that, but I'm considering writing him about taking her.  But then I cringe because...Nathan got that stuff ALL the time, everybody wants a ride, everybody wants something, strangers, friends, acquaintances,  I don't want to come anywhere close to disappointing my acquaintance with the Corsair by becoming one of them.  But it's not for me, it's for her, but still...I'll think about it.

Kaylee worked the food tent Saturday and Sunday, and while I was in an airplane both days and didn't see her much, I heard that she kept things lively and fun in there, worked hard, and even had the other food ladies doing dance moves behind the tables.  Grace helped her out, and Maggie helped too.

So there are some photos.  I don't have them all ready to go, but here are a few anyway.

Forgot my gear on this one.

Landing in the PT

Proof that I cleaned bugs and oil too, I guess.  ;)

I liked this shot of me landing the T-6 as viewed through the canopy of the PT

The two girls in a row.

I have a couple of stalkers as I come in to land.

One of my students hugging his mom as she gets ready to go up for a ride with me, nervous.

I love this photo, it's so cute.  Look at that little dude's headset.

The stalker shot.

I mixed it up with some wheel and some three point landings. A little crosswind action.

Taxiing back.

Out of order shot of me flying the T-6 home for good Sunday evening, end of the event.

Saturday night, tucking away to bed.

Saturday evening, my last flight of the day, giving a ride in the PT at sunset.

The Kokomo Herald came out and took a few photos too.  Probably shoulda had on my flightsuit.

This is Nancy, the 88 year old I flew with, signing up with Justin to go for a ride.  :)

Snap

I flew in the 172 in the pattern, ate lunch, flew in the 172 in the pattern, flew in the 172 in the pattern, flew in the 172 in the pattern, stopped at Wendy's, made it home before 9 pm, worked on BBQ Bash things.

I have no idea what anybody else did. 

The end.  ;)

Birthday

Well, this was not a very interesting day from your standpoint.  From the time I got out and about, I was flying, other than a lunch break, until about 8 pm, made it home around 9, and too tired to work on things I need to work on.  I can't say much though because Steve has been just as busy or moreso, and today's his birthday!

I don't know what all he did other than take several trips to the t-shirt guy trying to get us shirts for the Bash coming up in just a few days, when he'd given the guy a month to do it.  That's unusual, too, Steve is never that early on that stuff, and now he was, and the other guy put it off until 3 days before!  Gah.

On my guys, these two are pretty good already, but I have two guys that are not that far from solo.  One in particular, he came out today and just nailed these landings, and he brought a buddy along to sit in the back, and he'd warned him he might be plopping it on and bouncing around.  Nope, he greased those landings on, both at Kokomo and over at Glenndale.  Just pretty.  My feet aren't crossed  yet, but if he comes out next time and does the same thing...

We didn't do a lot for Steve's birthday thus far; I got some strawberries, glaze, angel food cake, cool whip and ice cream, the real kind, full fat and tasty version, and we sang and had dessert.  He's sort of hard to buy presents for.  But he is loved and appreciated.  :)

Richard was getting ten times the dose he was supposed to be getting of a diuretic, and thankfully Ann found it, and that has been corrected.  He had lost way too much weight, but maybe and hopefully is back to gaining weight again.  I wish Steve and I could give him some of ours and benefit him and us both!  Just keep him and Ann in your prayers still as he works to stabilize and regain some strength.

I flew an hour with someone working towards solo (close but not quite yet), another hour and a half with someone working towards their checkride for the instrument rating, about an hour and forty-five minutes breaking in the cylinders on the 172, then an hour and a half flying with the fellow getting very close to solo.  Productive day.

Tomorrow I get to wash my hair for the first time since Sunday afternoon.  This time the perm really didn't smell nearly as bad as normal.  They said there has been an advancement in neutralizing the odor.  Seems pretty good.  And I've been wetting it down and spraying it down with anti-frizz stuff in the mornings, so it's only been too frizzy at the end of the day or first thing in the morning before I get in the shower.  I was worried I'd have Little Orphan Annie hair right before the Bash, but fortunately I think it turned out okay after all.  :)  I hate the process but I like having curlier/wavier hair, what can I say.

Kaylee got her Starlets dress today, but it's too big on the top, so she has to take it in tomorrow to have it altered.  I wonder if whoever is doing that for her will alter a flightsuit for me.  ;)

I wonder what I'm forgetting...

Monday

It was a very busy day, but other than a few highlights I can't really remember what all I did during it.  :)  I know of several errands, anyway, but that's not very interesting.

Right after lunch I had a flight in the T-6 with a gentleman who bought himself a ride for his birthday.  He was a non-pilot, his dad was a foot soldier during WWII and he's always had a fascination with airplanes.  So we went up for a 20 minute flight, I flew him around, let him do a little flying so he could say he flew a T-6, and then brought us in for a lovely landing.  Topped off the plane, then pulled out the Aerostar, tried to start it unsuccessfully, as expected, so Jon ran to get equipment to help me jump it, and meanwhile I went over to the other hangar, pulled out the 340, and tugged it back over where it belongs in the big hangar.  Next up I got Gumby running and warmed up the oil awhile so Jon could do the oil change and start in on the annual.  The T-6 got put away, and I left in time to get Kaylee at the school bus.

My next adventure was Kaylee's band boosters.  They sent out an emergency text, email, and Facebook post, that the people doing the concession stand tonight for the JV Football game had a death in the family and were unable to work tonight, and they needed help at 6 pm.  By 4:30 p.m. they had no known takers, and I was actually free tonight, and Kaylee had Starlets practice from 6-8 anyway.  So I told them I could help from 5:45 - 8 pm, and that's what I did.  And they did indeed need the help. :)  It's kind of scary, but I'm actually pretty good at food service/customer service jobs. I was good at Hardees, too.

Kaylee and I left shortly after 8, I picked her up from practice, and we ran to CVS before they closed, and made it home just before 9.  She had a little homework to do, and I suppose I do too, but I'm tired and will have to try to get done what I can tomorrow in between flights...

I took these today.  The first started off as an accident.  I pulled up my phone while sitting in the plane to see what time it was so I'd know how long to go on the ride.  I looked down and saw this and it made me laugh, so I took it.  The second one was similar.  I was going to take a photo of the Aerostar out of the hangar, the camera was pointed at me, I saw the American flag, and was wearing my Warbird shirt, though you can't see the logo past my hair, thought "America!" or "'Murica!" and took the photo.

My neck, back, butt, hip and head were all sore today.  I ended up taking Tylenol a couple times, not because it was unbearable but just because I got tired of the annoying aches.  At least nothing broke!  :)

Steve's had to get a bunch of taxes done by tomorrow too, so that with the BBQ Bash has kept him hopping.  I think I have three students tomorrow and some correspondence to work on...and of course it's someone's birthday too.  :)

Not-Rest-Day

I couldn't remember what day today was at first, it didn't feel like a Sunday.

Kaylee was so tired last night that she didn't say a word from the school to her bed.  Today she seemed okay with the whole thing.  She texted me last night that they came in 2nd Place.  I told her something like "Hey, not bad!"  She said "Is Bad."  I said, with sinking heart, "Why, only two teams in Class D?"  She said "Three teams this time."  Whew!  I said "Well, First Place would have been great, Third Place would have been bad, Second Place is not bad."  So they only had one team better than they were and they fell in the middle, it's a starting place.   Kaylee said she made a glaring error because one of the people she usually tracks off of was gone for this competition.  We brought up a couple of the kids who shuffle instead of march, and she said that one is a special needs girl that the school lets participate in all the events but doesn't feel like they can yell at her like they do the rest of them.  I don't think that part's good.  Let her participate, but they should at least be able to tell her what she's doing wrong and try to help her get better at it, both for herself and for their whole band.  Anyway, Kaylee is good today.  :)

This morning I had a discovery flight.  Steve talked with the dad while I flew with the son.  We found out afterwards that they had done a discovery flight down in Indy too, in a Cessna with a glass panel.  We were in the old 172 today, with bugs all over it (it had just gone to the grass strip, so it was extra buggy), and definitely no glass panel, not even a GPS.  What's funny is that he was more impressed and interested in flying with us after his Discovery Flight than he was in flying with them. Why?  I let him fly.  From takeoff through to landing, I let him do it all, explained everything, and talked him through from start to stop.  Apparently the other CFI didn't let him do much on his Discovery Flight.  Even the shiny glass panel in the pretty new plane couldn't compete with the old beat up looking 172...if you actually get to fly it.  ;)

Before my guy arrived, I was pulling out a 172, and I got some momentum going, and the tow bar fell off, and I was leaned back and pulling hard.  So I went flying backwards, uncontrolled, and landed hard on my butt/hip, enough that the back of my head bounced off the concrete too.  I laid there, a bit stunned for a second.  This isn't the first time that's happened, and usually I bounce right back up in case somebody sees me.  This time I just laid there for a minute.  Then I thought I'd better get up because someone might think I was unconscious or hurt.  Then I looked up and thought I had kind of a pretty view from down there.  Then I got up.  My butt, hip and head are all still a little sore tonight, but fortunately my head didn't smack any harder, and I have a hard head, so...all will be well.

After my flight it was time to get my hair permed.  This is usually not fun, the stink and the time and the public socialization and the pain on the head (especially today!)  I'm not kidding, I had the same conversation again.  She asked me what I used to dye my hair.  I said I don't dye my hair.  She said my hair could break off if I dyed or bleached it.  I said I know, I don't, but my hair is thin and does break during these perms sometimes.  She nor her supervisor believed me that I didn't dye my hair.  I don't blame them.  I saw  my wet hair combed out, and it looked like I did that Ombre Thing to it.  It's super light blond at the end, goes to shades darker until it's dark on top.  It Looks Dyed.  It's not!!  They still treated it as if I dyed it.  Fine...  It took me about 3 hours start to finish, and finally it's done, and we'll see how it tames down in a few days.  I had scheduled myself off for the next two days so no poor student has to sit in a hot airplane with no fresh air with my stinky perm smell.  Steve is busy and apparently had other people try to schedule him, so I get them now, and hopefully they can deal with it.  ;)

Next up it was time to fly the 172 on a test flight, its first flight after new cylinders.  When I left the house, Steve was talking to his sister on the phone, and he interrupted the conversation to say "You staying over the airport?"  I said "Yeah, staying over the field."  He said to his sister "She's test flying an airplane for me, so I wanted to make sure she was staying over the airport so I'd know where to find the body."  I said "Your sister isn't going to think that's funny."  I was right.  ;)

The new cylinders need breaking in, so it needed to be full power hard core running for as long as possible.  Also, for safety sake I was going to stay within glide distance of the airport for at least the first flight, just in case.  So I took off, let it full power and just kept climbing, circling over the field until I got above a cloud layer.  I was flying along above the clouds, it was nice and lovely, I was enjoying the view, and listening to the engine, monitoring gauges and doing my piloty job thing.  And then I decided to check my phone, or maybe pull up a book to scan too.  The only problem was, I was too high for internet, and I didn't have a book downloaded.  So I flew back down to where I had coverage, checked my email, downloaded a book (which I did not read), and checked texts.  It was too nice outside though, so I just kept circling, looking and listening and relaxing a bit.  It was a lot bumpier under the clouds, but that's okay.  Finally my fuel gauge was showing almost E on one side even though it wasn't supposed to be yet.  It's been awhile since I've been in that airplane so I couldn't remember if the fuel gauges were accurate on that side or not.  As I watched it hover on the E on one side and not on the other, it didn't matter to my lizard brain that I had visually checked my fuel before I left and knew to the gallon what I had and that I should not be low on that tank.  It didn't matter because now I couldn't stop staring at it, so I made one more loop to lose more altitude, and came on in for a landing.  I filled up the airplane afterwards to see what I had.  Sure enough, I still had as much gas as I was supposed to have, but it was almost all in the other tank.  Apparently all the turning I had been doing for the last 1.5 hours caused a fuel imbalance up there, and that tank really WAS almost empty.  Of course it's a gravity fed system and the other tank had over an hour's worth of fuel and it should have continued running regardless, but now I do know that the fuel gauge on the right side of that airplane is pretty accurate.  :)

Jim's Champ at Indian Hills Saturday morning during breakfast.

Eastern Band lining up for their competition.

Kaylee is sitting down by the yellow dress on the right,

The band before they started playing.

Me on the ground looking up at the pretty sky and airplane after the tow bar fell off.

Kokomo Airport from on high, above the cloud deck.

Just another Kokomo shot.

New curls--in the frizzy hair stage before I can put anything in it to hopefully tame it down.  Kaylee says I stink but she hugged me anyway.

Band and Life

I'm about to leave the house to go pick up Kaylee from school, at 11:15 p.m., after she was there by 7:45 a.m., for a band competition in Fishers, Indiana (by Indianapolis).

Steve dropped her off then went out to Indian Hills for breakfast.  I'd stayed up late so was too tired to get up then, but I made it out to Indian Hills around 10 a.m., and we got our Indian Hills t-shirts and had some breakfast and hung out for a bit.  The crowds were uncharacteristically light, but they may have picked up over lunch...we wouldn't know as we had to leave.

For awhile we were out at Kokomo, and Steve and Nathan worked on getting the 172 back together so that we can do some test flying on it tomorrow.

Then it was time to go down to Fishers to watch Kaylee's competition.  When we first got there, it was obvious that this was a large and wealthy school.  They even had giant-sized photo posters of every football player, cheerleader, coach, etc. up in a row by their bleachers.  It cost us $14 to get in to watch, but that was okay.  There was a lot of parking and a LOT of cars there--this was a pretty big thing.  Kaylee's school is Class D, the lowest or smallest class in marching band, and the D groups went first.  Hers was the second band to perform.  They have 52 kids in the whole band, which sounds like a lot until you see the next school getting ready to go on and they have over 100 kids, and they're not even up into the Class A schools yet.  We were feeling a little weird about it, thinking...sure, big rich schools invite little places to wipe the floor with them...but when it was the band's turn, they represented well. The props were nice, the kids looked good, they played much better than they did at the Friday night football game, and most of them marched very crisply and well while they played.  Kaylee did.  The flag folks could have used a little more synchronization, but all in all they did a really nice job of it, and Steve and I were pleased.  It wasn't embarrassing, which sounds bad, but was what we were afraid it would be there.  It wasn't...they did a nice job.  So we hunt down Kaylee afterwards, and she didn't know we would be there, and we were excited to see her, but when she came out, she had this awful look on her face and she was flushed red.  I asked what was wrong, and she said she lost her place and was wandering around in the middle of the field at the end there.  Now I admit I lost sight of her once or twice, but we didn't see anything obvious like that, so tried to make her feel better, but she was just furious and sad at herself for messing up.  It's her first competition, and what we saw really did look good.  You know if it didn't I'd say so--like the other night when I said I was glad they're good at academics.  :)  So when I go pick her up tonight I'll find out how they did in Class D and hope she's feeling a little more cheerful, and enjoyed herself a little more after it was over.  That's a lot of work for one quick performance.

When Steve and I got back, we went back to Indian Hills, but it was deserted, so we went out to eat at A. Michael's, a nice restaurant in town.  After an appetizer, drink, surf and turf, and dessert, I'm still stuffed and he's still not recovered either.  Too much.  It cost a lot and we're still feeling it hours later, but boy it was good at the time.

Okay, time to go get the kid.  Hopefully a cheerful one.  :)

Rainy

It was a cool, rainy day, and I really didn't mind it much.  I got a lot done.  I got my second oversized flight suit packed up and sent off to Texas to hopefully get the right size sent back to me, if they'll do it.  In another year or so.  I got another package sent off to UPS, got the mail, got money from one bank and put it in another, got some fresh veggies and yogurt and such from the store, had one flight I honestly didn't feel like doing, but I ended up helping him with an issue, which made it worthwhile.  I got my clothes cleaned and my dishes done, made it to lunch at Glenndale, got some correspondence caught up, and all in all kept busy and productive.  I need to work on something for the Bash, but I'm just reeeally tired.  Tomorrow Kaylee has a band competition in Fishers.  She has to be at the school by 7:45 a.m., and won't get back until 11:15 pm, all for one performance they give at 4:15 p.m.  Whew.  Poor kid.  I don't know if I'll go down to Fishers to watch the performance or not.  It's a 2+ hour round trip for a 5 minute performance.  But I feel guilty not going.  And it just seems to me like a kid should have someone there for them when they perform.  But that's a lot for 5 minutes.  Tomorrow is the Annual Fall Indian Hills Fly-In breakfast/lunch/dinner as well.  I wish this competition would be in Kokomo, or at least closer than Indianapolis/Fishers...

I saw a rainbow today.  As I was leaving the airport, there was a large rainbow behind the airport.  They still make me smile.  As Sept. 11th passed, I looked up at the sky and remembered the day the skies were empty and the country was in shock.  Fourteen years have passed, though it doesn't seem like it...

Schedules

Kaylee is plowing through her homework and doing a good job keeping up with everything as best she can.  So far so good.  She's a hard worker when she needs to be, even for a teenager, and that's pretty cool.

Steve has a couple big projects coming up, so he's having me take as many of his flights/students as possible while he gets done what he needs to.  We also have the BBQ Bash coming up weekend after next, which takes a Lot of work on his part too.  So he's a busy fellow, but also doing well.

Ann said that Richard is eating great, fluid is down out of his system and hopefully he'll be picking up some weight and continue to gain strength.

I got my e-logbook caught up, wasn't too far off, but my paper logbook is 5 months behind again, which will be a major pain.  I need to get it done though so I can provide a photo of my currency for the FAA for the Bash.  You know, as I was typing that, I thought, why can't I print out my e-logbook as proof?  Huh.  Duh.

I was watching the Patriots tonight, hoping for a season opening loss for them, but it doesn't look promising.  Oh well.  Fortunately that's not my problem, just annoying.  ;)

My yesterday was spent as yesterdays usually are.  My today was busy in the airplane.  I had a flight, lunch, a flight, a flight, and then a flight, ending just before sunset. Two of the flights were with someone who was brand new to me.  That always takes a lot of energy.  First impressions really do matter, as do first flights.  Fortunately both went well today.  The third was someone who has been struggling, and fortunately they did well today, giving us both a break from that frustration.  The last flight of the day was a T-6 ride.  His family had bought it for him for Christmas and he was just now able to take advantage of it.  His dad had flown T-6s in the military and was looking forward to going to Fighters, but apparently it was over before he got his chance.  So this fellow wanted to fly what his dad had flown.  He was a pilot with about 800 hours, and was super excited to be able to fly in the T-6.  It had been a dead calm day all day, so of course as soon as it was time for us to go, the winds kicked up to a 30 degree crosswind gusting to 22 knots.  Nothing huge, particularly in comparison to the last ride I gave at Kokomo, but still, not the lovely calm day I'd had since morning.  Anyway, we took off, I flew a pass down by the family, we went over by Glenndale, then he did some flying.  Finally I took him up higher and did a little aerobatics.  He loved it, he had a blast, was laughing.  He shook my hand three times, had his son take a bunch of photos of me as well as him and the plane, and just had a great experience.  I told Steve, I don't take for granted that my fourth flight on a Thursday evening was someone else's experience of a lifetime, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of that.

Oh My

It's only 9:00 a.m., and I've been in Baltimore, Maryland for over an hour. It wasn't 4:30 this morning I had to be up, it was 4 a.m. But I was able to get to bed and get to sleep around 10, so...I managed okay this morning. I don't look so good, but I feel okay. ;)

I only had one disappointment today. So far anyway. The day IS young, but I foresee no problems. ;) Anyway, I was supposed to be here from 8 a.m. through to maybe 1 pm or so. So my goal was to find a place to get a lobster roll. I've never had one and I keep trying to remedy that, and keep failing. Today I fail again. The airport information lists a cafe on field. It also lists courtesy cars, free, and crew cars, free. None of that exists, not now, never has. So...I'm at a tower controlled field in Baltimore and they have no way to get you food unless you ask their front desk lady to drive you in their van through a drive-through. Dadgummit, I don't want McDonald's out here, and I'd rather sit in solitude in the pilot's lounge and eat Peanut M&M's than go make a busy desk lady drive me through a fast food place. But I'm bummed. I'm so close to something good to eat and here I am eating vending machine food again. Ptttttth.

It was a beautiful morning trip out though. Clear skies, pretty sunrise, smooth air, no trouble even in the busy airspace, all in all...lovely.

A bit after I wrote this, I got the text that they weren't going to be back until 3 or 4 p.m.  At that point, I'm not going to eat just Doritos and M&M's, and if I'm going to eat, I want real food.  So I talked to the lady at the counter, and convinced her to drive me to a nice place on the water and leave me there for awhile. I tipped even.  It was called Carson's Creekside Restaurant in Baltimore there, and I had a huge (broiled) crab cake sandwich, and they had an appetizer I had to try too, a jumbo soft pretzel covered in crab meat and melted cheeses.  Oh Holy Night.  I have no idea what the calorie content is, don't want to know, that was a festival for my tastebuds.  They asked if I wanted indoor or outdoor seating, and I sat outside by the water, in the shade, and had Maryland crab, and it made up for getting up at 4 a.m. and sitting in a freezing room with six other pilots, who were watching stupid movies loudly on the TV, but there was nowhere else for me to go.  Worth it for having had a 15 hour day.  Really, really good.  Mmm.

I was sitting at lunch when I decided to pull out the iPad and file my flight plan home.  As soon as I did, boom, up came this big line of unpleasant looking weather to the west of Kokomo.  When I was looking, it was over in Illinois.  I hoped we'd be out of there by 3 and it wouldn't be a problem.  But by 4 they weren't even back yet.  By the time we did take off, the weather was lined up just west of Lafayette, and I'm in Baltimore.  That's not good, but that line moved SO SLOWLY, I thought maybe we just might make it in.  It felt like a race most of the way home, but each time I'd measure it, I was still ahead of it. I've never seen such a slow moving system.  Maybe 20 mph.  Plus the ceilings were all 10,000' even in the middle of it, and the winds were fairly low too, so I figured it just couldn't be that bad.  Plan B was Marion, but we ended up not needing it.  As soon as we landed, the wind was picking up, and you could smell the water in the air, and it was hazy and murky, but shortly after that the whole system fell apart.  Kokomo never saw a drop, and it was Right There, you could see it.  Craziness.  That was just helping me earn my keep for the day.

I got home around 8 pm.  Stopped for gas so Steve wouldn't have an empty car in the morning taking Kaylee to band at the crack of dawn.  Let's see, what photos do I have today...

So here I am 132 miles out...see where the weather is?

Now here I am 83 miles out.  See where the weather is?  

I still beat it in.

Morning headed East on the way to Baltimore.

Bright stars, clear skies, the sun's glow on the horizon.  Peaceful.

The outdoor deck of the restaurant today.

I took a short walk on a short pier.  :)

Looking out over the water.

This crab cake was hugely thick.  The angle doesn't show it, but it was way bigger than my mouth (yes that's saying something).

Look at this thing.  A jumbo pretzel covered in gooey-ness.

Doughy pretzel and crab meat and cheeses, oh my...