Memorial

Memorial Day--the time to remember and honor those who have died in service of their country.  It's nice to me to see the people on Facebook who post something meaningful about it.  Then there was the one guy who posted that soldiers were murderers and psychopaths who don't deserve to be honored in death unless the war they were fighting was "appropriate", most of which aren't/weren't.  I've found myself annoyed before on Facebook, but rarely have I actually been as truly offended as I was reading his arguments.  He and a supposedly retired Army veteran friend of his are a few fries short of a Happy Meal, something shorted out somewhere, and it was really...offensive.  What classy timing to pick Memorial Day to rant against your serving military men and women who have lost their lives.  I'd like to smack that guy.  But on the neat front, I had so many acquaintances who participated in various Memorial Day fly-overs, and read so many uplifting and honoring things.  At least I know That One Guy is in the minority.  At least in MY circles.

I was up early this morning, went out to Kokomo, pulled out and topped off the Cherokee 180, pulled out the Cheyenne, pulled out the T-6, put back the Cheyenne, got everything ready, then flew down to Sheridan to pick up Nick, who was transporting the 180 back "home".  When I got to Sheridan, I shut down, helped him buckle in, gave him the quick cockpit tour, explained the takeoff and pertinent information, got myself buckled in, and the plane wouldn't start.  The ole starter problem.  The mechanic down there was gone to Mexico, nobody there had an APU like we've used, and the engineer was looking to hook up two 12-volt batteries in series and jumper cables, but none of us were sure which posts to use as they aren't marked, didn't want to risk that, so...Steve drove to Kokomo, picked up the APU, grabbed the RG, and flew down to Sheridan to rescue us.  As soon as it was hooked up, it fired up fine, and then I had Nick climb in and buckle up, and I buckled up, and we were on our way a couple hours later than anticipated.  I had some plans to work on some stuff today, but afterwards, it was 2:30 pm, I hadn't eaten since the night before, and after Steve and I ran to town to get Subway, we were both kind of worn out and ready to just go home.  Good enough.  So I pulled out the Cheyenne, hooked up the T-6, put it away, put away the Cheyenne, and a lot of time and effort went into that one flight that lasted for about an hour total but took most of the day to accomplish.  :p  It was a pretty day though.  It got a little rough/bumpy by early afternoon, and when we were coming in to land, AWOS was saying the winds were 280 at 4 gusting to 18.  That's a huge gust factor.  I felt a few of the gusts, but it wasn't bad.  I had Nick do the flying, and the landing, and he pulled it off pretty well.  I had to help with the bounce with some power, or maybe I wouldn't have had to, but let's just say I wasn't going to risk waiting to find out how it would have gone if I'd just sat there.  But for a back seat landing, he did well with it!

Steve weeded his mom's gardens, rebuilt a little brick wall by our garden, let the cats outside for awhile, worked on the cars, stayed busy.  I figured out if I do half-sized loads of laundry I can do a few in a row without our sewage line backing up, so that means about three sweatshirts at a time, but at least it's getting done.

Here's a video clip the line guy took of us taxiing past.  It's a FB video but you won't be able to see it unless he's your friend, so I'm posting it so I can find it again later.  ;) https://www.facebook.com/justin.byrd.9843/videos/1054321244635640/

A couple photos:

Steve, Scott, Susan and another Steve hanging out on the tail while we look for another extension cord in order to plug in the plane.

Beautiful day for flying