The night air show was great, as always. Well, most of it. The sky was clear and the weather was gorgeous, except it was chilly. I wore a jacket and I was still cold. The poor stranger next to me was in shorty shorts and a tank top and she had goosebumps before the sun went down. She was a trooper to stick it out to the end. They did a helicopter demo where it was too dark to see anything, but the rest of the acts were good. I got a small satisfaction out of their singing and fly-over having the timing off on the National Anthem, because even the pros miss it sometimes. But the Super Hornet sneaked up on us from behind. I tried to warn Steve but the thing hit right as he was looking and he jumped a foot along with most of the crowd. It was great. The wall of fire tonight was supposedly twice as big as the one Wednesday night, covered most of the runway. That and the fireworks are my favorite parts not just of the night show, but of the whole week. :) I love watching the sun go down, dusk fall, the planes going up with streamers of sparks, the crowd. It's neat.
We burned the rest of our firewood down before going to bed around midnight. Kaylee hung out with her friend Alyssa until about 11:30, and then the morning was here and it was time to get going. The packing up was the usual slightly depressing work. The trailer got loaded, and Nathan's car, and AE's car, and Kaylee had a small bag to bring with her and the rest went with Nathan or in the trailer for another day. I ran Kayleigh B. out to the Tiger Moth, and security was lax so I just drove all the way through to warbirds illegally on our golf cart, dropped her off, ran into Vlado who kept looking at me and couldn't quite place me, but he was busy talking to Kayleigh. Later he was on my Facebook page, and I think he remembered/figured me out. lol After I dropped her off I went on out to the T-6 and got it ready. I had to untie it, pull up the stakes and clean them off (that involved using a hammer, Steve. And I didn't pull so hard on the stakes that I swung the hammer into the plane or anything.) ;) Pull the prop through, check the fuel and oil, preflight, take the canopy cover off and let it dry out a bit, remove the oil draining system, secure it, all that stuff. From there I went back to camp and waited until it was time to get going.
Michigan Charlie drove Kaylee and I back out to the T-6, I called Warbird Ground for a marshaling crew to start up, and we taxied out to Runway 27. I was sitting and waiting when Kaylee said "Mom, there are two T-6s right behind us, and they are pointed the exact same way we are. Why?" I turned around, and sure enough, two yellow T-6s were cocked at the same angle to the runway as I was. I told her I did that so I could run up without blowing on anybody, and so that I could see in front of me and know what was going on, and that's what they were doing too. I told her it's kind of a formation thing too. She said "They teach you that in formation?" Yeah, they do. Anyway, it was our turn to take off, and I had chosen to go the long way home for two reasons. One, cold lake water with my daughter on board. Two, it was IFR at Kokomo and was hanging around too long and I needed it to burn off before we got there. On the first, I had given her the option too. She's mature enough to take part in the discussion, and her butt's in the airplane too, so I asked her. Did you want to get home at least 30 minutes faster but have to go over water, where if I had any engine issues, we could be going for a swim and that would be bad, or did you want to stay over land but it would be longer by a fair margin. She said whatever I did, she accepted the risk and my decision. She doesn't have my water creep factor, which I suppose is good. I still took the long way.
We got past Chicago's area, and Kaylee said "Do you mind if I fly for a little while?" Why no, no I don't. She'd earlier asked if we could put the stick in, as she might like to fly some, and she'd like to be able to say she'd flown two different T-6s. Then she asked how many I'd flown. There's Checkertail and Walt's, and then I flew Tim S.'s T-6 for the first crash and gos for a few hours, and Tom Wood's T-6 I flew once or twice, but that one only from the back and without a clue. But it still counts, I think, since I flew it. This week I'll be flying another T-6 from Sheridan over to Muncie for avionics work. So that'll make five. :) Anyway, she took the controls, and was just doing fine straight and level, so I suggested she make some turns. She wallowed the first two turns pretty hard, and I was explaining what she needed to do, and she said "I thought you needed to lead the turn with the rudder." That's what you have to do in the Champ, which is the taildragger she flew the most. Good memory. So I explained the different airplanes have different characteristics, and in the T-6 you put the aileron and rudder in at the same time, then you back off a little on the rudder after you initiate the turn, and away it'll go. She understood, and about 3-4 more turns, and she had it pretty well, at regular bank angles anyway. :) She also asked a good question about basically knowing whether you need more right rudder or less left, for example, and how to know. Good question. She did a nice job with the plane. I really got to get her going more frequently. Busy life there, that girl has.
When we got close to Kokomo, it was still a little scuzzy. I thought about trying out an ILS in there, but doing that for the first time in there, for real, with my kid in the back seat, didn't seem as wise as even going over the water, so I just ducked down and stayed VFR and underneath. We got home, put away the airplane, went to Greentown and picked up a shake, picked up a friend of hers, I dropped them off at the mall to shop for back to school supplies, I came home, and shed my clothes throughout the house on my way to the shower. Now THAT was nice. ;) I went back out and picked up the girls, made a Starbucks run for them, dropped them off at home, then went back to Kokomo where Steve and Nathan arrived several hours later. We unloaded our stuff, then met up at Applebees for dinner.
Home sweet home. We have tomorrow marked off to recuperate and do what we can, and then school starts Tuesday, and life jumps in with both feet.
Pictures tomorrow...
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Saturday
I'm watching my last Oshkosh airshow of the year as I type this with two fingers on my iPad because I can't find my keyboard. :) It's beautiful up here right now, a perfect day.
Thursday morning I signed a student off on his solo long cross country, then Danny flew me up to Fon du Lac in the RG. The weather was marginal again and I wasn't going IFR again, so we waited awhile before we left. When we finally did, we got within 30 miles of FLD and their ATIS said the field was temporarily closed. I hunted for another place to go, and just as we were passing FLD again I checked again, and they were back open. It was a zoo, with airplanes lined up all down the taxiway to get out, you couldn't get a word in, and we sat in the way for five minutes before ground go to us. We had to shut down in the middle of the ramp and let them tow us away for fuel. But I was back, this time for good. :)
These next two days, we just did Oshkosh. We walked through all the buildings, watched a short-field contest at the ultralights area, ate out, grilled out for steak night, had a giant fire with a lot of folks around having a good time, we walked a lot, saw what we could, and spent some time kicking back with our feet up at the trailer too.
I didn't have any photo mission flights, I didn't do the women fly group photo, I didn't meet up with anyone up here, I didn't go to the T-6 forum for the first time this year, and I was good with all that. I needed a break. I think Kaylee did too, because she didn't do as much as she usually does either.
Tonight we go to Wendt's on the Lake, then to the night air show. And other than Kaylee flying home with me in the T-6, that will be the end of Oshkosh 2016...
Thursday morning I signed a student off on his solo long cross country, then Danny flew me up to Fon du Lac in the RG. The weather was marginal again and I wasn't going IFR again, so we waited awhile before we left. When we finally did, we got within 30 miles of FLD and their ATIS said the field was temporarily closed. I hunted for another place to go, and just as we were passing FLD again I checked again, and they were back open. It was a zoo, with airplanes lined up all down the taxiway to get out, you couldn't get a word in, and we sat in the way for five minutes before ground go to us. We had to shut down in the middle of the ramp and let them tow us away for fuel. But I was back, this time for good. :)
These next two days, we just did Oshkosh. We walked through all the buildings, watched a short-field contest at the ultralights area, ate out, grilled out for steak night, had a giant fire with a lot of folks around having a good time, we walked a lot, saw what we could, and spent some time kicking back with our feet up at the trailer too.
I didn't have any photo mission flights, I didn't do the women fly group photo, I didn't meet up with anyone up here, I didn't go to the T-6 forum for the first time this year, and I was good with all that. I needed a break. I think Kaylee did too, because she didn't do as much as she usually does either.
Tonight we go to Wendt's on the Lake, then to the night air show. And other than Kaylee flying home with me in the T-6, that will be the end of Oshkosh 2016...
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Texas
I hadn't really slept the last two nights, waking up at 5 and 4 a.m. and going all day, so of course last night in my own bed, I got there around midnight then slept like a dead person, and this time had to be dragged out of sleep at 4:45 a.m. against my will. I leaned against the wall in the shower for a minute. I needed about another 4 hours! I did not text my family at what would have been 3:45 a.m. their time although I seriously considered it. ;)
The good news is, today ends well. It wasn't a super easy or relaxing day, but it got done.
While I was gone I'd texted with a guy to check the fuel level in the airplane and make sure I had 1500 lbs a side. He came back and said that's exactly what I had in there. Great. I got down at 11 pm and had to be back out by 6 a.m., meaning no fuel was available to me, especially with our own handy line guy gone to Oshkosh, so I needed him to take care of that. Only problem was, when I got in the plane this morning, there was only 1200 lbs per side. I was 600 pounds short, which was my cushion for weather, headwinds, diversions, and if they dragged me down lower early. I had to sit there and calculate very carefully to make sure I could make it to Texas with what I had, and it was close enough that I was prepared for a stop and prepared to be in trouble for the stop as I had five other people on board all dressed in matching outfits waiting to go to a required national meeting at an exact time. If all went well it would work. So the whole trip down I spent calculating and checking and making sure we were still good. They kept us high the whole time. The weather was fine. We didn't get routed around Dallas space forever. I landed with exactly what I needed to land with. I called and spoke to the guy who'd checked it for me and he swears up and down it was reading 1500, and that he'd even thought it was 1700 for a bit but it settled down to 1500, and he checked a couple times. That could have been a really big problem on multiple levels, and it made for a tense flight down. But we'll both keep an eye on it and see.
While I was down there, I met up with a Dallas pilot named Mark, and he took me to a famous BBQ place, where I had a most excellent brisket. Tender, didn't even need sauce, really good. Another time where you meet up with a stranger you've been talking to for awhile and enjoy the company. :)
When I got back to the airport, I checked weather again, only to find storms had blown up all over. I calculated how much fuel I wanted (I'm getting better at that pounds to gallons thing), and went to pay for it, and my company card was declined. I had to wait for the guys to get back and have one of them do it. Come to find out, it was a "substantially large purchase" that the credit card company wasn't used to seeing out of me. 360 gallons of Jet A at almost $6/gallon will do that to you. But at least they waived their $250 "facility fee". *eyeroll*
And then it started to storm. It dumped rain on us, thunder around (no hail), lightning, no big winds at least. And a couple of jets took off right in the middle of it. My hat is off to them. Apparently they do grow everything bigger in Texas, because I couldn't see any good or smart way or reason to be launching in that. When it finally cleared enough, we got in the plane, taxied out to the runway, and a master warning light went off for an overheated battery. I recycled it and that didn't help. Pulled out the POH and found where it said if that light comes on shut it down, take off the cross tie, and see if it goes away, and if not, shut down the generator and land as soon as practical. No other info. So I sat in the running airplane and texted Nathan and Kevin (in case Nathan wasn't by the phone, which is easy at OSH). I tried shutting things off on that side, tried killing the generator too and waiting, etc., and it just stayed lit. Nathan got a call back from the guy who said that wasn't even a legit warning, not used with our current set-up, to ignore it and come home as usual. So that could have been a real problem, but wasn't, other than delaying us a lot and costing D to be late to something important. But then tower said the winds had changed, everyone was coming in on the other runway, and I needed to go to the other end. No problem. I taxi and get in line at the end of the runway, where two jets are holding up everything because of all the storms and their "arrival gates" have been closed. Five of us are in a line waiting to takeoff, for a long time. Tower says "Cheyenne, can you turn around there? Safely?" I eyeball the taxiway and say "Yes I can". He has me turn around, and back taxi down the runway, and take off ahead of all the other airplanes, and then promptly heads me into the worst of the storms. We tell ATC we need to go north, they say I'll be in the way and they'll have to keep me down low. Well, better LOW than in the middle of a wad of storms. So low it was. I had the gas for it this time. ;) We had a lot of weather to go around. Everybody did. The radio was packed with diverts. Nashville was in trouble with arrivals and departures. Airlines were saying "Can we get a short cut? Our passengers are missing connecting flights" and being told "So is everybody else, get in line."
It was good to get home finally.
I went out to Japanese for dinner, figured I might as well. Why do I eat too much when I eat there?!
Tonight's the night air show at Oshkosh and I'm sad to miss it. Boo...
Tomorrow morning first thing I sign off a student for his long cross country, top off the RG, then catch a ride back up to Oshkosh. Tonight I'm working on laundry before I go to bed. And this. But I'm already so far past tired that I could probably sleep through tomorrow...
Just from today.
The good news is, today ends well. It wasn't a super easy or relaxing day, but it got done.
While I was gone I'd texted with a guy to check the fuel level in the airplane and make sure I had 1500 lbs a side. He came back and said that's exactly what I had in there. Great. I got down at 11 pm and had to be back out by 6 a.m., meaning no fuel was available to me, especially with our own handy line guy gone to Oshkosh, so I needed him to take care of that. Only problem was, when I got in the plane this morning, there was only 1200 lbs per side. I was 600 pounds short, which was my cushion for weather, headwinds, diversions, and if they dragged me down lower early. I had to sit there and calculate very carefully to make sure I could make it to Texas with what I had, and it was close enough that I was prepared for a stop and prepared to be in trouble for the stop as I had five other people on board all dressed in matching outfits waiting to go to a required national meeting at an exact time. If all went well it would work. So the whole trip down I spent calculating and checking and making sure we were still good. They kept us high the whole time. The weather was fine. We didn't get routed around Dallas space forever. I landed with exactly what I needed to land with. I called and spoke to the guy who'd checked it for me and he swears up and down it was reading 1500, and that he'd even thought it was 1700 for a bit but it settled down to 1500, and he checked a couple times. That could have been a really big problem on multiple levels, and it made for a tense flight down. But we'll both keep an eye on it and see.
While I was down there, I met up with a Dallas pilot named Mark, and he took me to a famous BBQ place, where I had a most excellent brisket. Tender, didn't even need sauce, really good. Another time where you meet up with a stranger you've been talking to for awhile and enjoy the company. :)
When I got back to the airport, I checked weather again, only to find storms had blown up all over. I calculated how much fuel I wanted (I'm getting better at that pounds to gallons thing), and went to pay for it, and my company card was declined. I had to wait for the guys to get back and have one of them do it. Come to find out, it was a "substantially large purchase" that the credit card company wasn't used to seeing out of me. 360 gallons of Jet A at almost $6/gallon will do that to you. But at least they waived their $250 "facility fee". *eyeroll*
And then it started to storm. It dumped rain on us, thunder around (no hail), lightning, no big winds at least. And a couple of jets took off right in the middle of it. My hat is off to them. Apparently they do grow everything bigger in Texas, because I couldn't see any good or smart way or reason to be launching in that. When it finally cleared enough, we got in the plane, taxied out to the runway, and a master warning light went off for an overheated battery. I recycled it and that didn't help. Pulled out the POH and found where it said if that light comes on shut it down, take off the cross tie, and see if it goes away, and if not, shut down the generator and land as soon as practical. No other info. So I sat in the running airplane and texted Nathan and Kevin (in case Nathan wasn't by the phone, which is easy at OSH). I tried shutting things off on that side, tried killing the generator too and waiting, etc., and it just stayed lit. Nathan got a call back from the guy who said that wasn't even a legit warning, not used with our current set-up, to ignore it and come home as usual. So that could have been a real problem, but wasn't, other than delaying us a lot and costing D to be late to something important. But then tower said the winds had changed, everyone was coming in on the other runway, and I needed to go to the other end. No problem. I taxi and get in line at the end of the runway, where two jets are holding up everything because of all the storms and their "arrival gates" have been closed. Five of us are in a line waiting to takeoff, for a long time. Tower says "Cheyenne, can you turn around there? Safely?" I eyeball the taxiway and say "Yes I can". He has me turn around, and back taxi down the runway, and take off ahead of all the other airplanes, and then promptly heads me into the worst of the storms. We tell ATC we need to go north, they say I'll be in the way and they'll have to keep me down low. Well, better LOW than in the middle of a wad of storms. So low it was. I had the gas for it this time. ;) We had a lot of weather to go around. Everybody did. The radio was packed with diverts. Nashville was in trouble with arrivals and departures. Airlines were saying "Can we get a short cut? Our passengers are missing connecting flights" and being told "So is everybody else, get in line."
It was good to get home finally.
I went out to Japanese for dinner, figured I might as well. Why do I eat too much when I eat there?!
Tonight's the night air show at Oshkosh and I'm sad to miss it. Boo...
Tomorrow morning first thing I sign off a student for his long cross country, top off the RG, then catch a ride back up to Oshkosh. Tonight I'm working on laundry before I go to bed. And this. But I'm already so far past tired that I could probably sleep through tomorrow...
Just from today.
Sunrise over the Cheyenne
Wiped out and cold. The FBO in Texas keeps it so cold in there I went back out to the airplane and grabbed a blanket to wear in the pilot's lounge. Ridiculous.
Tasty brisket. You're welcome.
The best places are the most unassuming.
So this was lovely.
Storms to the right, storms to the left, storms below, a few storms above. It twas stormy.
(The top of another cell I was allllmost above.)
Work-around-able for sure, no problem, just...work. ;)
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Monday Begins
Our trailer is small, but I like the beds. They're under a pop up area, and there's a lot of space in there. When the sun rose this morning it shone into our "room", and woke me up super early, like 5 a.m. early, on the day I could have slept in! But I was at least awake, so I got up, showered, made it in time for Steve T's breakfast, chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, crispy bacon. Yummm.
The weather is perfect, blue skies, warm but not muggy (yet), and Kaylee and I are getting ready to go to the Ford tent. I didn't have a morning photo flight, for which I was thankful, and I almost actually feel like I'm on vacation. :)
So Kaylee and I did make it out and about yesterday. We met up with her friend Alyssa and her mom Joyce, and went around together, got hats, went shirt shopping, got a snack, and then we went to the Ford tent where they had an America Ninja Warrior style obstacle course. Kaylee just wanted to do the zip line, and I did too, and she was fine with that. To get to the zip line, you had to climb a rope wall. There wasn't an easy way off the rope wall and onto the platform, but you were safety harnessed in. We watched a few people struggle to get up the wall, and Kaylee leaned in and said "Whatever you do, even if you get tired, don't stop. People are watching. Just keep going, no matter what." I told her I would. Then she said "But don't try to race to the top either. Just go nice and steady." She was looking out for me, which was sweet, actually. I ended up going first, and I'd been watching the successes and the failures of the rope wall, so I tried to do right hand reach, left foot, left hand reach, right foot. It didn't go totally as planned, but it wasn't too bad, and I didn't get stuck or get too floppy, so Kaylee gave me a thumbs-up when I got to the top. The zip line itself after that was quick and done and lovely, but getting to it was the challenge. I feel it a little bit in my upper arms today. Not bad, but I can feel where I worked those muscles.
Kaylee of course had no trouble. They took our pictures as you step off the zip line, but unfortunately the stand is clear and everyone's faces/bodies are blurry. Good focus, there. ;)
So then I got the text that there would be a photo shoot and could I come out like right now. Actually I could, so I did. We were shooting a twin warbird, A-26. We briefed it, got in the plane and got ready to go, and I realized I couldn't transmit. I tried another headset. Still couldn't transmit. I tried switching plug ins. Nothing. I tried a third headset. Nothing. I could hear, I just couldn't talk. I can't take off out of Oshkosh if I can't talk to the tower. Problem was I couldn't talk to the A-26, either. They were running and waiting for us down there. So I taxiied down there, and made the symbols for "Can't talk" and then cut across my throat like "Call it off". Turned around and taxiied back. They took off anyway. I still don't know why. Did they not understand what I was saying, or did they just decide to do a pleasure flight while they were already up and running, I hope? Regardless, they didn't come back for awhile and we were freaking out trying to get hold of them. Eventually we saw them circling around out there. Then they did a pass down Runway 27. Their nose wheel wasn't down. They left for awhile again, then came back in on the long runway, and made an emergency landing. Nosewheel never came down, so they scraped down the runway, smoke and sparks, hit both props, but nobody hurt. Shut down the whole airport. It was pretty awful, actually. What makes it worse is that the props were fairly new, it had one young engine on it and one brand new engine that had just been hung a few days before. And now, all that damage. Sickening. I felt so bad for them. FEEL so bad for them...
Now it's Tuesday night and I need to get to bed, but before I do...
Tuesday I woke up at 4 a.m. in the dark, wide awake. In part from everything going on, I'm sure. Couldn't go back to sleep, laid there until 6 something and got up. We went to the seaplane base and took a little tour on the water. We've always just blown that off before, but this time we went, and we really enjoyed it. Should have done that before! :) When we got back, Steve and I went out to the airplane to try to trouble shoot some on the T-6 radio. Which he'd come out and did last night too. It started working again. I don't know why. I don't know how. I hate that. It makes you feel crazy. When we got back from that, I took Kaylee and her friend shopping for about an hour.
In the meantime, Dan was supposed to come get me in the 172RG, but couldn't really use it because of an oil leak that they were afraid would get worse. So he took the Cherokee 180. He got partway here and had an issue and had to land at Aurora where the mechanic there took care of it well enough for him to continue on his way. In the meantime I was texting students, and instructors, and D for my trip tomorrow, and Jon to get a few things in line for me tomorrow, and, and, and. In other words, I worked all day too. Dan arrived, spent a few hours at Oshkosh with his dad, then we flew home. It was a long flight in the Cherokee. I got home in the door close to 11 pm. I have to be up at 4:45 a.m. for the MBros flight in the Cheyenne tomorrow, and need to check weather now that I have good internet, etc. I also have to do laundry as I have no clean pants. So that's in the works now while I type this up.
Most of what I've done has come hard and not gone well this week. So here's hoping the rest of the week goes a whole lot more smoothly. Could use a break. So all I need to do is get to Texas and back tomorrow okay, and then get back to Oshkosh Thursday, and hopefully I'll actually have two days after that in which to relax before flying home. That's the plan, anyway.
The weather is perfect, blue skies, warm but not muggy (yet), and Kaylee and I are getting ready to go to the Ford tent. I didn't have a morning photo flight, for which I was thankful, and I almost actually feel like I'm on vacation. :)
So Kaylee and I did make it out and about yesterday. We met up with her friend Alyssa and her mom Joyce, and went around together, got hats, went shirt shopping, got a snack, and then we went to the Ford tent where they had an America Ninja Warrior style obstacle course. Kaylee just wanted to do the zip line, and I did too, and she was fine with that. To get to the zip line, you had to climb a rope wall. There wasn't an easy way off the rope wall and onto the platform, but you were safety harnessed in. We watched a few people struggle to get up the wall, and Kaylee leaned in and said "Whatever you do, even if you get tired, don't stop. People are watching. Just keep going, no matter what." I told her I would. Then she said "But don't try to race to the top either. Just go nice and steady." She was looking out for me, which was sweet, actually. I ended up going first, and I'd been watching the successes and the failures of the rope wall, so I tried to do right hand reach, left foot, left hand reach, right foot. It didn't go totally as planned, but it wasn't too bad, and I didn't get stuck or get too floppy, so Kaylee gave me a thumbs-up when I got to the top. The zip line itself after that was quick and done and lovely, but getting to it was the challenge. I feel it a little bit in my upper arms today. Not bad, but I can feel where I worked those muscles.
Kaylee of course had no trouble. They took our pictures as you step off the zip line, but unfortunately the stand is clear and everyone's faces/bodies are blurry. Good focus, there. ;)
So then I got the text that there would be a photo shoot and could I come out like right now. Actually I could, so I did. We were shooting a twin warbird, A-26. We briefed it, got in the plane and got ready to go, and I realized I couldn't transmit. I tried another headset. Still couldn't transmit. I tried switching plug ins. Nothing. I tried a third headset. Nothing. I could hear, I just couldn't talk. I can't take off out of Oshkosh if I can't talk to the tower. Problem was I couldn't talk to the A-26, either. They were running and waiting for us down there. So I taxiied down there, and made the symbols for "Can't talk" and then cut across my throat like "Call it off". Turned around and taxiied back. They took off anyway. I still don't know why. Did they not understand what I was saying, or did they just decide to do a pleasure flight while they were already up and running, I hope? Regardless, they didn't come back for awhile and we were freaking out trying to get hold of them. Eventually we saw them circling around out there. Then they did a pass down Runway 27. Their nose wheel wasn't down. They left for awhile again, then came back in on the long runway, and made an emergency landing. Nosewheel never came down, so they scraped down the runway, smoke and sparks, hit both props, but nobody hurt. Shut down the whole airport. It was pretty awful, actually. What makes it worse is that the props were fairly new, it had one young engine on it and one brand new engine that had just been hung a few days before. And now, all that damage. Sickening. I felt so bad for them. FEEL so bad for them...
Now it's Tuesday night and I need to get to bed, but before I do...
Tuesday I woke up at 4 a.m. in the dark, wide awake. In part from everything going on, I'm sure. Couldn't go back to sleep, laid there until 6 something and got up. We went to the seaplane base and took a little tour on the water. We've always just blown that off before, but this time we went, and we really enjoyed it. Should have done that before! :) When we got back, Steve and I went out to the airplane to try to trouble shoot some on the T-6 radio. Which he'd come out and did last night too. It started working again. I don't know why. I don't know how. I hate that. It makes you feel crazy. When we got back from that, I took Kaylee and her friend shopping for about an hour.
In the meantime, Dan was supposed to come get me in the 172RG, but couldn't really use it because of an oil leak that they were afraid would get worse. So he took the Cherokee 180. He got partway here and had an issue and had to land at Aurora where the mechanic there took care of it well enough for him to continue on his way. In the meantime I was texting students, and instructors, and D for my trip tomorrow, and Jon to get a few things in line for me tomorrow, and, and, and. In other words, I worked all day too. Dan arrived, spent a few hours at Oshkosh with his dad, then we flew home. It was a long flight in the Cherokee. I got home in the door close to 11 pm. I have to be up at 4:45 a.m. for the MBros flight in the Cheyenne tomorrow, and need to check weather now that I have good internet, etc. I also have to do laundry as I have no clean pants. So that's in the works now while I type this up.
Most of what I've done has come hard and not gone well this week. So here's hoping the rest of the week goes a whole lot more smoothly. Could use a break. So all I need to do is get to Texas and back tomorrow okay, and then get back to Oshkosh Thursday, and hopefully I'll actually have two days after that in which to relax before flying home. That's the plan, anyway.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Oshkosh
I had a bit of a rocky start to Oshkosh 2016. :)
When we got up, the weather up at Oshkosh had some passing storms and some low clouds, but they were supposed to be gone soon. They weren't. They were close to okay, but not close enough, so I had to go file a time slot to get into Fon du Lac. No problem. Yes, problem. They gave me this horrible routing on the ground at OKK, and I just headed for the first waypoint while Steve plugged the rest of it in to the avionics. One of their waypoints was "from thence the 330 degree radial at the 063 DME". Are you KIDDING? Anyway, we get it all plugged in, and find that they are sending us to Michigan. Literally to Michigan, and right into the mouth of all the storms that had just blown through Oshkosh earlier. So I call up and say "Unable that routing due to weather". We continue flying for awhile and they give me another whole convoluted route. Get that plugged in and find that this time they've turned us around, back towards Kokomo, and then all the way out into the middle of Illinois. I was so honked. It's was a 1 hr flight even going to "PEEPS" in the middle of the lake first, with the tailwinds, according to the flight planning software. When we landed, it was 2.5 hours. Chicago was so desperate to keep IFR traffic away from their precious airspace, they were moving people going to Oshkosh all over the country. This is why I don't like flying into/out of Oshkosh IFR. When we do get to Fon du Lac, the clouds had socked in and I couldn't cancel and come in VFR, I'd totally missed my IFR time slot, and the guy routing us in for the RNAV 36 into FLD did a terrible job of it. He took me past the fixes and through the course multiple times. Finally he clears me to intercept the inbound, except he set me up so tight on it that there was no way the autopilot could do it, and I had to disconnect the autopilot, crank the airplane around to about a 60 degree bank, and capture the needle in a hurry. When I got it captured, and the glide slope in, Steve looked over and said "Excellent job!" then paused and said "Sorry, thought I was the instructor for a second there." Like I said, when we landed it was 2.5 hours later, and I was already tired and annoyed, and it wasn't noon yet, so that's not good. ;) I got to drop off AE, Steve, Kaylee and Steve T though, and this time I headed back to Kokomo VFR. I just stayed under the cloud deck and went right past Chicago's airspace and they could bite me.
When I landed at Kokomo, I put away the Aerostar, pulled out the T-6, got it ready, checked the weather, waited for Greg, and eventually we got under way. It was about 1 pm by now and I hadn't eaten, other than a Twix bar I got in Wisconsin. It was particularly hot and muggy, as well. The weather on the way up again wasn't bad, but right away I found a different issue--I couldn't hear well at all with my helmet. It was a big roar. I couldn't talk to Greg, couldn't hear ATC, and that was a problem considering where I was going. So I closed the canopy, and I could halfway hear, it sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher, where you know there's words but you can't figure them out most of the time. With the canopy closed, it became extremely hot in the cockpit, no air flow, sun beating in. It was over 2 hours up there, which wasn't bad, because I chose to go over the water and shorten the flight. The clouds were too low to legally do the "Warbird Arrival", but I did it anyway, and I wasn't the only one. What I DIDN'T know was that the field had been closed for low clouds for most of the day, and I happened to arrive there right as they were letting everyone in, and that was a CLUSTER. It was a mess. There were airplanes everywhere. I had to dive away from a twin Mosquito who didn't see me circling Warbird Island. There was a herd of us at different altitudes and diferent radii circling over this one tiny island. And then 39 T-6s arrived...I timed it just to hit after the Mass Formation T-6 arrivals hit. That was fun. So I circled. And I circled. I'd have run out of gas in Checkertail, but Walt's holds more fuel, thankfully. I also couldn't hear. Bad timing. I was pressing my helmet up against my left ear to try to hear, while holding the stick with my right hand, but the push to talk switch is on the throttle, so I could any two of three things. Either I could hear, fly, or talk, but not all three. Again, this is an actual, real problem for arriving at Oshkosh like that, especially when it's a nutso crazy time. By the time I was able to come in and land, I was exhausted, and dehydrated, and actually at the end of my rope. I was about two circles away from turning around and landing at Fon du Lac and being done with it. I was serriously done. Finally they cleared me to land on the green dot. I was set up great for that, it's more than 1/2 way down the runway, and I'm good. Then three planes are in front of me landing and I'm going...uh...how's that gonna work? And just as I'm on short, short final to the runway, high up and fast to make the green dot, he says "T-6, land on the numbers, on the numbers." Well then. Chop the power, drop the full flaps, and I hit the numbers. Welcome to Oshkosh.
When we parked, and I got out, I was soaked, I looked like I came out of a rain shower. My hair was drenched, everything. Greg was talking to everybody, I just wanted a ride back to my camp, but first I had to secure the airplane, so I got the tie-downs in, got the cover on the plane, hooked up the oil system, all while sweating to death, then our golf cart ride arrived. It was late afternoon, I still hadn't eaten, I had a deyhdration headache, and I was SO, so finished with the whole thing. I started almost snapping at people because it seemed like I could Not get to camp. I had to stop and register at Warbirds, and they didn't want to take my credentials because it's a family membership in Steve's name, and they said I didn't have a membership. I pulled out my card with my name on it and an expiration date of not yet, and eventually they took it. Then we had to drive Greg over to warbird camping, then drive him back out to the plane, and all this time I just want to GO HOME. Well, this week's home, not home home. I've not come so close to losing it in awhile, and there was nowhere I could go to regroup. Sitting on a table at camp, Nathan said "Grasshopper doesn't look very happy". Truth. I chugged about 3 water bottles in a row, changed all my clothes, had a big burger for dinner, had two more water bottles and a Long Island, and THEN I felt like a real human again. ;)
So, just keeping it real here, I have to say, today was not fun on about any level. I did not enjoy the morning flight, with the tons of reroutes and the weather and the 2.5 hours of wandering around, I didn't enjoy the T-6 flight in, with the heat and the noise and unable to hear and the swarm, and I mean SWARM of airplanes all dodging each other. And keep in mind this isn't my first Oshkosh rodeo. I've been here, I know what it's like when it's busy. This was, well, a cluster, and my being unable to hear was just the icing on the cake to top of a trifecta of hazards, including my own physiology. Now that I'm here, I'm glad to be here, but the getting here, well, that was a serious chore.
BUT, enough of the hassles. Now we're here, and the weather cooled off nicely in the evening, and it's supposed to be beautiful Monday, and we have a small but nice trailer, and...away we go!
When we got up, the weather up at Oshkosh had some passing storms and some low clouds, but they were supposed to be gone soon. They weren't. They were close to okay, but not close enough, so I had to go file a time slot to get into Fon du Lac. No problem. Yes, problem. They gave me this horrible routing on the ground at OKK, and I just headed for the first waypoint while Steve plugged the rest of it in to the avionics. One of their waypoints was "from thence the 330 degree radial at the 063 DME". Are you KIDDING? Anyway, we get it all plugged in, and find that they are sending us to Michigan. Literally to Michigan, and right into the mouth of all the storms that had just blown through Oshkosh earlier. So I call up and say "Unable that routing due to weather". We continue flying for awhile and they give me another whole convoluted route. Get that plugged in and find that this time they've turned us around, back towards Kokomo, and then all the way out into the middle of Illinois. I was so honked. It's was a 1 hr flight even going to "PEEPS" in the middle of the lake first, with the tailwinds, according to the flight planning software. When we landed, it was 2.5 hours. Chicago was so desperate to keep IFR traffic away from their precious airspace, they were moving people going to Oshkosh all over the country. This is why I don't like flying into/out of Oshkosh IFR. When we do get to Fon du Lac, the clouds had socked in and I couldn't cancel and come in VFR, I'd totally missed my IFR time slot, and the guy routing us in for the RNAV 36 into FLD did a terrible job of it. He took me past the fixes and through the course multiple times. Finally he clears me to intercept the inbound, except he set me up so tight on it that there was no way the autopilot could do it, and I had to disconnect the autopilot, crank the airplane around to about a 60 degree bank, and capture the needle in a hurry. When I got it captured, and the glide slope in, Steve looked over and said "Excellent job!" then paused and said "Sorry, thought I was the instructor for a second there." Like I said, when we landed it was 2.5 hours later, and I was already tired and annoyed, and it wasn't noon yet, so that's not good. ;) I got to drop off AE, Steve, Kaylee and Steve T though, and this time I headed back to Kokomo VFR. I just stayed under the cloud deck and went right past Chicago's airspace and they could bite me.
When I landed at Kokomo, I put away the Aerostar, pulled out the T-6, got it ready, checked the weather, waited for Greg, and eventually we got under way. It was about 1 pm by now and I hadn't eaten, other than a Twix bar I got in Wisconsin. It was particularly hot and muggy, as well. The weather on the way up again wasn't bad, but right away I found a different issue--I couldn't hear well at all with my helmet. It was a big roar. I couldn't talk to Greg, couldn't hear ATC, and that was a problem considering where I was going. So I closed the canopy, and I could halfway hear, it sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher, where you know there's words but you can't figure them out most of the time. With the canopy closed, it became extremely hot in the cockpit, no air flow, sun beating in. It was over 2 hours up there, which wasn't bad, because I chose to go over the water and shorten the flight. The clouds were too low to legally do the "Warbird Arrival", but I did it anyway, and I wasn't the only one. What I DIDN'T know was that the field had been closed for low clouds for most of the day, and I happened to arrive there right as they were letting everyone in, and that was a CLUSTER. It was a mess. There were airplanes everywhere. I had to dive away from a twin Mosquito who didn't see me circling Warbird Island. There was a herd of us at different altitudes and diferent radii circling over this one tiny island. And then 39 T-6s arrived...I timed it just to hit after the Mass Formation T-6 arrivals hit. That was fun. So I circled. And I circled. I'd have run out of gas in Checkertail, but Walt's holds more fuel, thankfully. I also couldn't hear. Bad timing. I was pressing my helmet up against my left ear to try to hear, while holding the stick with my right hand, but the push to talk switch is on the throttle, so I could any two of three things. Either I could hear, fly, or talk, but not all three. Again, this is an actual, real problem for arriving at Oshkosh like that, especially when it's a nutso crazy time. By the time I was able to come in and land, I was exhausted, and dehydrated, and actually at the end of my rope. I was about two circles away from turning around and landing at Fon du Lac and being done with it. I was serriously done. Finally they cleared me to land on the green dot. I was set up great for that, it's more than 1/2 way down the runway, and I'm good. Then three planes are in front of me landing and I'm going...uh...how's that gonna work? And just as I'm on short, short final to the runway, high up and fast to make the green dot, he says "T-6, land on the numbers, on the numbers." Well then. Chop the power, drop the full flaps, and I hit the numbers. Welcome to Oshkosh.
When we parked, and I got out, I was soaked, I looked like I came out of a rain shower. My hair was drenched, everything. Greg was talking to everybody, I just wanted a ride back to my camp, but first I had to secure the airplane, so I got the tie-downs in, got the cover on the plane, hooked up the oil system, all while sweating to death, then our golf cart ride arrived. It was late afternoon, I still hadn't eaten, I had a deyhdration headache, and I was SO, so finished with the whole thing. I started almost snapping at people because it seemed like I could Not get to camp. I had to stop and register at Warbirds, and they didn't want to take my credentials because it's a family membership in Steve's name, and they said I didn't have a membership. I pulled out my card with my name on it and an expiration date of not yet, and eventually they took it. Then we had to drive Greg over to warbird camping, then drive him back out to the plane, and all this time I just want to GO HOME. Well, this week's home, not home home. I've not come so close to losing it in awhile, and there was nowhere I could go to regroup. Sitting on a table at camp, Nathan said "Grasshopper doesn't look very happy". Truth. I chugged about 3 water bottles in a row, changed all my clothes, had a big burger for dinner, had two more water bottles and a Long Island, and THEN I felt like a real human again. ;)
So, just keeping it real here, I have to say, today was not fun on about any level. I did not enjoy the morning flight, with the tons of reroutes and the weather and the 2.5 hours of wandering around, I didn't enjoy the T-6 flight in, with the heat and the noise and unable to hear and the swarm, and I mean SWARM of airplanes all dodging each other. And keep in mind this isn't my first Oshkosh rodeo. I've been here, I know what it's like when it's busy. This was, well, a cluster, and my being unable to hear was just the icing on the cake to top of a trifecta of hazards, including my own physiology. Now that I'm here, I'm glad to be here, but the getting here, well, that was a serious chore.
BUT, enough of the hassles. Now we're here, and the weather cooled off nicely in the evening, and it's supposed to be beautiful Monday, and we have a small but nice trailer, and...away we go!
Saturday, July 23, 2016
Lots of Stuff
I think it's Saturday. Yes.
Friday morning I was up at 4:45, and out the door by 5:30, and it was very dark out. ;) I got the Cheyenne out and ready to go, and I had two brand new to me passengers, plus D. We were headed to Addison, Texas, which is just two hours away. When I left the house, there was some rain in the way, some storms, but they stopped at 23,000', so, no problem, since I was going up to 34,000'. We take off, and it's night, so I find the lights. That's a good first step. It was IFR climbing up too, so that's good practice. The controller said we had extreme precip in front of us, and I asked what the tops were, if they knew, and he said "FL430 and building rapidly". Oops. That sure blew up fast. So I ended up having to go pretty far around that. We went into the Dallas area, and I was expecting a mess. It really wasn't. I looked up an arrival procedure and filed for the waypoints that made sense, and they actually mostly gave it to me. They changed one intersection, but not the gist of it. I call that a win. A hot air balloon went RIGHT off our right wing, too. I was hoping he wouldn't get caught in some wake turbulence or something. That's pretty nasty airspace to be bombing around in a balloon. Addison was a neat airport. The city of Dallas behind it, the view was fantastic, but for once I was a little too busy to do anything about it with my cellphone/camera. They dropped me in high and fast with one on the runway and one behind me, so I had to rather deal with the whole flying thing instead of the whole photography thing that time. ;) Touchdown nice and easy, we have arrived, and that was my first official solo landing in the airplane. :)
In Addison I went to a deli that was fantastic. They had homemade baked goods but also served breakfast all day. Eggs, real bacon extra crispy. Mmm. Good stuff. I'd also left my sunglasses in the car (because it was dark when we got there...rookie mistake), so I stopped at a CVS to pick up another cheap pair, which I'm sure Steve will appreciate. ;)
The trip home was also uneventful. We landed at Kokomo, and a photographer there for the airshow practice day took a photo of me taxiing in. Then Jon pulled out the T-6 for me, and I got in that and took off to head to Metro to meet up with the two other guys for the flyover. We met up, talked it over on the ground, took off and formed up as a three ship with me as #2, flew around about 30 minutes, then I took the Lead and we did the fly-over of the Grand Park Event Center. Those two have smoke, which they set off, and I heard it looked pretty good. The timing was short, they first delayed by five minutes, then said "no, we're going", then I had 3 minute warning, for which I was perfectly set up, only to hear they'd started and I was too far out to get there in time even speeding up as fast as I could, which I did. So we got there after the song ended, not right as it ended. They were 4 minutes early from what they'd said the TOT (Time on Target) would be, and they enjoyed it, at least. I flew home from there, put everything away, and came home grimy and sweaty-again. But at least knocked off two more things, one at a time.
Kaylee had a friend over last night too. They were up there playing, and when I got home, I was only up until about 10:30, like an hour from when I got home, and I crashed and went to bed.
Today we all woke up early, because it's air show day! And bugger was it hot. We could have sold one ride, but it would have had to be in between the briefing and the show. And it was hot. I was going to fly a three-ship with the other T-6s until the airspace closed, but they said...it is hot. I agreed. The show went well. Ron S in his L-39 did the opening flybys with the National Anthem, and nailed the timing. Looked great. The acts all were quick and professional. The warbirds, there were three T-6s and an RV painted like a warbird, plus the Tocano and the L-39, and a Stearman. The jets/turboprop did their own thing. The Stearman did turns on his own, and I lead the other warbirds out. We circled to the left of the airport while the Stearman did his thing, and then came down Runway 32, over and did circuits down the show line area, then a pass down 23, back down 32, and in to land. It was fun, and I think folks enjoyed it. We kept it nice and tight so there was no extra space or time. The show was much shorter this year, and the crowd stayed for it. Somebody said they were still coming in as the show was ending, in fact. Other than it being Really hot, things went pretty well, really.
Now I need to pack for Oshkosh. I need to get ready for tomorrow's flight to Fon du Lac, which has Oshkosh procedures in place already (and I hope I can get in VFR). And I need to get to bed, as the "busy" isn't done yet. Airshow photos will have to come after I get back from OSH. In the meantime...
Friday morning I was up at 4:45, and out the door by 5:30, and it was very dark out. ;) I got the Cheyenne out and ready to go, and I had two brand new to me passengers, plus D. We were headed to Addison, Texas, which is just two hours away. When I left the house, there was some rain in the way, some storms, but they stopped at 23,000', so, no problem, since I was going up to 34,000'. We take off, and it's night, so I find the lights. That's a good first step. It was IFR climbing up too, so that's good practice. The controller said we had extreme precip in front of us, and I asked what the tops were, if they knew, and he said "FL430 and building rapidly". Oops. That sure blew up fast. So I ended up having to go pretty far around that. We went into the Dallas area, and I was expecting a mess. It really wasn't. I looked up an arrival procedure and filed for the waypoints that made sense, and they actually mostly gave it to me. They changed one intersection, but not the gist of it. I call that a win. A hot air balloon went RIGHT off our right wing, too. I was hoping he wouldn't get caught in some wake turbulence or something. That's pretty nasty airspace to be bombing around in a balloon. Addison was a neat airport. The city of Dallas behind it, the view was fantastic, but for once I was a little too busy to do anything about it with my cellphone/camera. They dropped me in high and fast with one on the runway and one behind me, so I had to rather deal with the whole flying thing instead of the whole photography thing that time. ;) Touchdown nice and easy, we have arrived, and that was my first official solo landing in the airplane. :)
In Addison I went to a deli that was fantastic. They had homemade baked goods but also served breakfast all day. Eggs, real bacon extra crispy. Mmm. Good stuff. I'd also left my sunglasses in the car (because it was dark when we got there...rookie mistake), so I stopped at a CVS to pick up another cheap pair, which I'm sure Steve will appreciate. ;)
The trip home was also uneventful. We landed at Kokomo, and a photographer there for the airshow practice day took a photo of me taxiing in. Then Jon pulled out the T-6 for me, and I got in that and took off to head to Metro to meet up with the two other guys for the flyover. We met up, talked it over on the ground, took off and formed up as a three ship with me as #2, flew around about 30 minutes, then I took the Lead and we did the fly-over of the Grand Park Event Center. Those two have smoke, which they set off, and I heard it looked pretty good. The timing was short, they first delayed by five minutes, then said "no, we're going", then I had 3 minute warning, for which I was perfectly set up, only to hear they'd started and I was too far out to get there in time even speeding up as fast as I could, which I did. So we got there after the song ended, not right as it ended. They were 4 minutes early from what they'd said the TOT (Time on Target) would be, and they enjoyed it, at least. I flew home from there, put everything away, and came home grimy and sweaty-again. But at least knocked off two more things, one at a time.
Kaylee had a friend over last night too. They were up there playing, and when I got home, I was only up until about 10:30, like an hour from when I got home, and I crashed and went to bed.
Today we all woke up early, because it's air show day! And bugger was it hot. We could have sold one ride, but it would have had to be in between the briefing and the show. And it was hot. I was going to fly a three-ship with the other T-6s until the airspace closed, but they said...it is hot. I agreed. The show went well. Ron S in his L-39 did the opening flybys with the National Anthem, and nailed the timing. Looked great. The acts all were quick and professional. The warbirds, there were three T-6s and an RV painted like a warbird, plus the Tocano and the L-39, and a Stearman. The jets/turboprop did their own thing. The Stearman did turns on his own, and I lead the other warbirds out. We circled to the left of the airport while the Stearman did his thing, and then came down Runway 32, over and did circuits down the show line area, then a pass down 23, back down 32, and in to land. It was fun, and I think folks enjoyed it. We kept it nice and tight so there was no extra space or time. The show was much shorter this year, and the crowd stayed for it. Somebody said they were still coming in as the show was ending, in fact. Other than it being Really hot, things went pretty well, really.
Now I need to pack for Oshkosh. I need to get ready for tomorrow's flight to Fon du Lac, which has Oshkosh procedures in place already (and I hope I can get in VFR). And I need to get to bed, as the "busy" isn't done yet. Airshow photos will have to come after I get back from OSH. In the meantime...
O-dark-thirty, hangar door cracking open.
First hint of sunrise at FL340
Stay frosty
Addison, TX. Full moon. First "solo". :)
Apparently the pilot's lounge wanted you to be able to...check your hair...if you're a gentleman using the facilities.
REALLY good food.
Some thunder boomers building on the way home.
Me, taxiing back to the hangar at OKK.
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Enough
Today started off like the other days. Hot, muggy, and way too early. I've had a guy who is only here for a limited time, and he only flies early in the morning, almost every morning. I don't remember the last time I slept in! Today when I got out there, I was looking around, and the sky was white and heavy, like a blanket, and it was 7:45 a.m. So we launched, and did a cross country, for an hour and a half. By the end of it, I was staring lethargically out the window, and I just did not feel great. I was hot again, and I took a water bottle with me and even that was hot. I was sitting there, listening to people talk on the radio and getting annoyed at everything they said, and unable to muster up good conversation or teaching, and in my head a switch flipped and I just thought "Enough. I'm done." So I texted the next kid I was to fly with, who had flown the last 3 days in a row, and canceled him. Then I texted the PT guy whom I flew with last night, and canceled him. Then another guy tried to schedule me at my newly opened time slot at 1 pm and I said no. Then I went to the store, and the post office three times in one day, and did housework. This morning I had to give Kaylee a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast before band practice because I had no food in the house. No cereal, no fruit, not even any crackers or snacks. We were bare and would have stayed that way since I was scheduled 8 am to 8 pm again today originally. So it was nice to mostly stay in air conditioning and actually get a few things done.
I also got my trip planned for tomorrow morning, and tried to coordinate some about the flyover. So I finally feel a little more prepared for the trip, at least. The flyover, not so much. Nobody can get together ahead of time, so we're just winging something that has timing down to the second. What could possibly go wrong? If I lose any sleep over anything, for now it's that flyover. One thing at a time. First the Cheyenne trip.
I needed today though.
I also got my trip planned for tomorrow morning, and tried to coordinate some about the flyover. So I finally feel a little more prepared for the trip, at least. The flyover, not so much. Nobody can get together ahead of time, so we're just winging something that has timing down to the second. What could possibly go wrong? If I lose any sleep over anything, for now it's that flyover. One thing at a time. First the Cheyenne trip.
I needed today though.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
The Day
Long, hot, sweaty. 8 a.m. to about 9 p.m., with one hour break for lunch and time in between each flight to grab a water bottle. We had a high 80% humidity day with temps upwards towards 90. I flew in the 172 for three lessons, and we had the aerobatic guys out in full force today. I did an illegal right traffic pattern and they stayed in their box for the most part, and it worked. Then I had a trip down to Metro in the back of a 172 with a student flying and a brand new CFI in the right seat. And I wasn't very comfortable with that. But they did a good job. They dropped me off down there so I could fly in the PT-26 with a fellow. Full fuel, hot day, high density altitude, two people, even using flaps on takeoff, we did not clear the city with enough margin for me. At all. In fact, I was actually...concerned. Fortunately he did a good job climbing out steadily and smoothly, no big pitch changes or turns. I said probably the most deadly serious, stern, no kidding thing I've ever said to him or most people in an airplane when I said "Do NOT dump your flaps right now". I've had more than a couple people dump their flaps on me when they wanted to "climb better" or "get more lift", and put me in a bad spot, but if he'd have dumped flaps right then, well, I was already about looking into the windows of a few businesses down there, and it wouldn't have gone well. So after we got up and away, we went over to a different airport to practice our takeoffs and landings, as I had no desire to do that again on purpose. We had a really good flight though, a lot of progress made in one flight, which I love. After we filled it back up with gas (which I hate out at that airport for that exact reason, but it's the way they track who owes what on fuel), Walt had his T-6 out on the ramp, and I took it and flew it over the area where I'm supposed to do the flyover on Friday. The formation that was supposed to get together to practice today couldn't, and Guy #2 doesn't think he can tomorrow either, which means our first time flying together will be for the real deal, timed to the National Anthem, etc. This makes me nervous. So I went out and found the place, found landmarks for it, timed at a specific airspeed a two minute and 1:15 minute mark (the length off the song), and ran it a few times to make sure the timing was good. To do that, I also hit my stopwatch at my 1:15 mark, and started singing "The Star Spangled Banner" at the top of my lungs in the airplane. I hit "And the hooooome of theeee braaaaave" and Boom I was dead center at 1:15 over the 'crowd'. Now if only that can happen Friday too.
I landed back at Kokomo, put the Six away, and I was just one big ball of sweat. It's 90 some degrees out here, 80 some percent humidity, I've been in airplanes since 8 a.m. and I am done and a hot sweaty mess. Tomorrow looks even hotter, for the record. *sigh*
I landed back at Kokomo, put the Six away, and I was just one big ball of sweat. It's 90 some degrees out here, 80 some percent humidity, I've been in airplanes since 8 a.m. and I am done and a hot sweaty mess. Tomorrow looks even hotter, for the record. *sigh*
The little PT that could. Barely.
A much higher view of the city than I had earlier. ;)
In Walt's T-6, doing a run over the "spot".
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
Even if both those things seem to be fading throughout the country right now.
Even if both those things seem to be fading throughout the country right now.
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Better
Whoo child it was hot here today. Muggy and hot. And it's going to BE hot for awhile to come, including during the airshow. Break out the water bottles and sunscreen, folks!
I had three flights today that went and one that was cancelled for fog this morning, but by the end of the last one at 5 pm, I was plenty toasty!
Stuff is still coming at us pretty fast. I forgot to mention a fly-over I'm doing Friday, I think. Friday morning early is my trip in the Cheyenne to Texas, and I'll get back by 4 pm, just in time to get down to Indy for the flyover of a ribbon-cutting ceremony the mayor is doing for an event down there. We'll be timed to the National Anthem, which is always rather scary, even for the pros. Steve is getting someone to be on the ground and let us know how it's progressing, but boy you don't want to miss the timing. Especially when it's a paid gig, and probably on the news.
After all that, big trip, flyover, then Kaylee is having a friend spend the night, and I'm running the friend home at 8 am on Saturday prior to heading out to the Kokomo Airshow, where I should be giving rides, if they sell. And then comes the rest of the crazy. I wrote it out once already but this is the finalized version, and I'm not writing it to entertain you, but rather so I keep myself straight, I think. Feel free to skip. ;) Up to Osh on Sunday morning early, back to Kokomo, pick up T-6 and photographer, back to Osh, home on Tuesday in the RG, out to Texas Wednesday, back Wednesday night, up to Osh Wednesday evening, Thurs from Osh bringing T-6 and photographer back to Kokomo, and then back up to Osh, where hopefully I can hang out the next two days before we leave Sunday. Somewhere in there Monday, Tuesday and Thursday I'll probably have various warbird photo shoots at Osh first thing in the morning and/or late evening.
Tomorrow I have students 8 am to 7:30 pm, and then I'm going to Indy Metro to pick up the T-6, meet up with another one to two guys to get together a practice fly by for the flyover on Friday. I should get home around 10 or so. Then Thursday is also students 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. And then Friday is the above. And Saturday. And Sunday. So there ya go. So far it's working now, just busy.
One thing at a time. That's what I've told myself this last week, since before the California trip. Knock off one thing at a time, focus on what's next. Next thing that requires preparation on my part is this Friday Cheyenne trip and T-6 fly-over.
Nathan gave me a set of keys to the Cheyenne today, and when he dropped them into my hand I felt like I was getting the keys to the family sports car from Daddy, with strict expectations to not do nuthin' dumb. ;)
Bedtime.
I had three flights today that went and one that was cancelled for fog this morning, but by the end of the last one at 5 pm, I was plenty toasty!
Stuff is still coming at us pretty fast. I forgot to mention a fly-over I'm doing Friday, I think. Friday morning early is my trip in the Cheyenne to Texas, and I'll get back by 4 pm, just in time to get down to Indy for the flyover of a ribbon-cutting ceremony the mayor is doing for an event down there. We'll be timed to the National Anthem, which is always rather scary, even for the pros. Steve is getting someone to be on the ground and let us know how it's progressing, but boy you don't want to miss the timing. Especially when it's a paid gig, and probably on the news.
After all that, big trip, flyover, then Kaylee is having a friend spend the night, and I'm running the friend home at 8 am on Saturday prior to heading out to the Kokomo Airshow, where I should be giving rides, if they sell. And then comes the rest of the crazy. I wrote it out once already but this is the finalized version, and I'm not writing it to entertain you, but rather so I keep myself straight, I think. Feel free to skip. ;) Up to Osh on Sunday morning early, back to Kokomo, pick up T-6 and photographer, back to Osh, home on Tuesday in the RG, out to Texas Wednesday, back Wednesday night, up to Osh Wednesday evening, Thurs from Osh bringing T-6 and photographer back to Kokomo, and then back up to Osh, where hopefully I can hang out the next two days before we leave Sunday. Somewhere in there Monday, Tuesday and Thursday I'll probably have various warbird photo shoots at Osh first thing in the morning and/or late evening.
Tomorrow I have students 8 am to 7:30 pm, and then I'm going to Indy Metro to pick up the T-6, meet up with another one to two guys to get together a practice fly by for the flyover on Friday. I should get home around 10 or so. Then Thursday is also students 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. And then Friday is the above. And Saturday. And Sunday. So there ya go. So far it's working now, just busy.
One thing at a time. That's what I've told myself this last week, since before the California trip. Knock off one thing at a time, focus on what's next. Next thing that requires preparation on my part is this Friday Cheyenne trip and T-6 fly-over.
Nathan gave me a set of keys to the Cheyenne today, and when he dropped them into my hand I felt like I was getting the keys to the family sports car from Daddy, with strict expectations to not do nuthin' dumb. ;)
Bedtime.
Monday, July 18, 2016
Conked
So today is when things started caving in a bit. MBros has a flight for me on Wednesday during Oshkosh, six people to Texas in the Cheyenne. So far we're at a loss as to how to work this out. Saturday is the airshow. Sunday I fly up a group to Oshkosh in the Aerostar, then fly back to Kokomo, pick up Warbird Digest's T-6 (which I have to pick up and bring to Kokomo Wednesday or Thursday) and photographer, and fly back up to Oshkosh. Originally then, morning photo shoots available/possible Monday through Thursday mornings, then I'd fly plane and photog back to Kokomo on Thursday because his wife is having surgery Friday and he needs to be there. Then I'd fly the Aerostar back up to Oshkosh on Thursday and hang out until Sunday, at which time I'd fly us all home in that. Now. The MBros flight puts a kink in the already busy works. I need to come home Tuesday night to leave Wednesday morning to be gone all day. Okay, so I can get home, but what about the photo shoots we're supposed to do Wednesday and Thursday? No, there isn't another pilot to do it up there. And when I get back late from Texas on Wednesday, I have to get back up to Oshkosh in order to bring back plane and photographer the next morning. I already have a commitment to both and both happened to collide. It would be nice if somebody can clone me. Twice, even!
I had two students today, a cross country and a checkride prep. Both did pretty well, and then after lunch I took Ann down to Nashville to spend time with Lon and Cathy while Steve and I are gone. The weather was supposed to be fine, but it turned a little stormy on us. When I pulled up radar after lunch, I knew it was time to boogie out of there, asap. We got out ahead of the storm, and landed fine, but coming back home the line solidified in front of us. But here's the funny part. On the way down, it looked bad on radar but out our window it was fine. So on the way home, it looked bad on radar, (ADS-B to be technical), but there was good visibility, high ceilings, not strong winds, no huge towering build-ups, no "convective activity strikes" on the screen, etc., so I just went ahead and kept moving forward towards it. I just got done saying all that to my right-seater, when we both saw a flash of lightning right in front of our face, off our nose. I said "Nope, I'm out", and immediately turned while telling ATC I was turning, and headed away from that area. Found an area nearby that had much lighter rain, and went there instead. I then got a text from Nathan: "I see you went sightseeing over the Ohio River". That's the turn I took to get away from the weather. When I pulled it up later on Flight Aware, it didn't look as bad on their screen as mine, but you could see my "Nope", and it made me laugh.
Steve, Kaylee and I went to dinner at Olive Garden. When we got home, Kaylee fell asleep on me for over 2 hours while Steve fell asleep on the couch. Both went down for the night after dinner, and I couldn't do a thing but sit here and peck on an ipad while the kiddo slept. I need to figure out a lot of things. Kokomo Airshow stuff, airplane transport and moving around stuff, Oshkosh stuff, all within the next three days, which are all booked up 8 am to 8 pm each day, and the MBros flight was the straw that broke the flow...I was busy but okay until that, knocking things off one at a time and doing fine. It woulda worked. Now...Steve says it'll still work, one way or another.
Kaylee had band practice, and she said their band is significantly smaller than last year and they only had 50 last year, and there are a lot of new 8th and 9th graders in there who can't play very well at all. She had a "leadership" meeting at Buffalo Wild Wings, with all section leaders, of which she is one, for Saxophones this year.
From today:
From today:
Cathy took this when we arrived in Nashville
The cell we went around on the way home.
Me and Danny
Another little cell over there.
And here's my "Nope". :)
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Keepin' on
Things are still slowly falling into place, busy but working out.
I was up half-heartedly at 7 a.m. for a Mavrx flight. I didn't WANT to be up, I wanted to stay asleep for another two hours or so, but alas... The flight was uneventful and easy. No big airspace, no messy weather, no problems. I did my thing, landed back at Kokomo, got it all going, put stuff away, and came back home to work on Oshkosh and Air Show stuff. I've spent the rest of the day doing laundry, emailing, calling, dishes, trash, organizing stuff and getting ready for the next things. I also got my e-logbook caught up. Now I need to get the paper logbook caught back up too...
Steve and AE were out at Kokomo loading up the trailer with Oshkosh stuff including our bedding, towels, coats, and shoes. Things we don't need within the next week, but are too bulky to haul up with us in the Aerostar on Sunday.
For the partial list: I have students all morning tomorrow, then am going to run Ann down to Nashville in Gumby. I am booked up the next three days, and at some point in those I need to find a way to get down and fetch Walt's T-6 and bring it to Kokomo. Friday it'll be a trip to Texas in the morning, back by 3 pm, formation fly-over at 6 pm. Saturday the air show, Sunday the Aerostar to OSH, then back to Kokomo, then taking Walt's T-6 back up to Oshkosh. And then let the vacation (?) begin, until Thursday, when I have more work to do. :)
I was up half-heartedly at 7 a.m. for a Mavrx flight. I didn't WANT to be up, I wanted to stay asleep for another two hours or so, but alas... The flight was uneventful and easy. No big airspace, no messy weather, no problems. I did my thing, landed back at Kokomo, got it all going, put stuff away, and came back home to work on Oshkosh and Air Show stuff. I've spent the rest of the day doing laundry, emailing, calling, dishes, trash, organizing stuff and getting ready for the next things. I also got my e-logbook caught up. Now I need to get the paper logbook caught back up too...
Steve and AE were out at Kokomo loading up the trailer with Oshkosh stuff including our bedding, towels, coats, and shoes. Things we don't need within the next week, but are too bulky to haul up with us in the Aerostar on Sunday.
For the partial list: I have students all morning tomorrow, then am going to run Ann down to Nashville in Gumby. I am booked up the next three days, and at some point in those I need to find a way to get down and fetch Walt's T-6 and bring it to Kokomo. Friday it'll be a trip to Texas in the morning, back by 3 pm, formation fly-over at 6 pm. Saturday the air show, Sunday the Aerostar to OSH, then back to Kokomo, then taking Walt's T-6 back up to Oshkosh. And then let the vacation (?) begin, until Thursday, when I have more work to do. :)
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Boom
Well, it's done! We didn't even have to do the quiz, because he had the wrong airplane. So either he'll send it to us if he can find one, or we don't have to do one at all, but I have a fresh Flight Review, a fresh Instrument Proficiency Check, and a freshly printed certificate of completion for Cheyenne 400LS training. And I apparently have my first trip in it (without Nathan) on Friday, to Texas. D is excited to go along and sit up front, and it'll basically be my first "solo" in it. I'll be leaving at 6 a.m., heading to Texas, heading home after lunch, and then I have a formation flyover down by Westfield/Indy, paid and contracted event with a mayor and a ribbon cutting and everything, that evening. Big day, right before our Kokomo Airshow on Saturday right before we leave for Oshkosh on Sunday. It is one thing after another after another this summer!
This morning we met with Erik to finish off this stuff, and then stayed out at Kokomo the rest of the day. I went to the Amish store and bought bread and pie and other various goodies, and we had a huge lunch of leftovers from last night's dinner. We did some cleaning up, some straightening up, they did a lot of Oshkosh prep, and chatting. It was beautiful weather out, a perfect day to fly, and we had a bunch of people who aren't usually there stop by. Scott P, Charlie T, Jerry L, Kayleigh B, AE was out there, Justin G, Nathan, Steve and I, Chuck, a guy named Gary I think that I can't remember, It was a good airport day. Steve said if he wasn't so tired and lazy he'd go fly something. I thought the same thing on a day like today, but I was way too tired and out of it for it to be a smart thing to get in an airplane. So I watched everyone else fly today.
Kaylee was happy when I brought home leftovers, and I still have lots to do here this weekend. No rest for the wicked. :)
Friday, July 15, 2016
Checked Off
Another early morning, out to the airport by 7:20 a.m. Nathan was already there and fueling up the Cheyenne, and when Ted and our insurance check pilot, Erik, arrived, we all headed to Olive Branch, Mississippi. I took the flight down there while Nathan and Ted rode in the back. It was pretty uneventful, nice weather, and even though I was tired and it was early, at least I wasn't too foggy. Erik was pretty complimentary, which was nice. Something I think is funny--he said he could tell I was very comfortable in the airplane, and actually, I'm not fully up to speed in there yet. The reason that's funny is that I am reminded now and then how picky I am on myself on some things while being completely sloppy in others. But I definitely do still have some learning to do in there.
When we got to Mississippi, when the crew car got back we went to eat breakfast, and they sent us to a place that looked like a burger joint, which it was, but it also had REAL breakfast. I had bacon, eggs, fried potatoes, a home made biscuit...good stuff, man. Afterwards, we were going to do an actual insurance checkout flight. We were sitting in the FBO, doing stuff, and finally I said something like "if we're going to fly, I probably should do it before I go into full food coma". Olive Branch was a tower controlled field underneath the Memphis Class B airspace, right by the inner ring. Not the best place to mess around as far as I'm concerned, but that's what we have. When we first got back in the plane, I was definitely not firing on all cylinders for a minute or two. I didn't start up properly, I turned the wrong way on a taxiway, and after that I mentally smacked myself and told myself to wake up and FOCUS. It got better after that. :) We did an aborted takeoff, then went out and did a steep turn to the left and right, a power off stall with all the drag in, then an autopilot stall, where you power back and tell it to climb until it stalls while on autopilot, and you recover. When you do, the trim is mostly all the way nose up, so you have some good force to overcome to get the nose down. Then we did a couple of localizer approaches. I did the localizer approach single engine first, and then he wanted me to do a single engine go-around from the minimum approach altitude. The Cheyenne does just fine on a single-engine go-around by the way. Next up I just did a normal localizer approach to a full stop landing. I hadn't done most of that before in this plane; this was my first time doing everything but the normal approach, so frankly the OCD side of me wanted to do it again and show him I could do some of it more smoothly. It's terrible being OCD. ;) But he was satisfied, so we pulled off, and then Nathan and I swapped seats, and he did the same stuff. Insurance flight checked off. Nathan flew us home while I rode in the back with Ted, and we arrived around 4 pm or so, which was good timing.
On my first landing, I saw Erik get a little tense for a second, and I wasn't sure why, because everything looked fine and stable to me, and the landing itself wasn't a squeaker, but it was fine. He didn't say anything about what made him tense, so I mentally shrugged. The second landing, as we were coming in, he said "I want you to aim for the 1000 foot markers this time. You darn tailwheel pilots are always aiming for the numbers!" Now I got it. :D I was coming in shorter than he's used to seeing and it made him nervous. But I don't want to aim 1000' down the runway, it's a waste of space. ;) When we were back on the ground in Mississippi, Erik was asking about coming up and doing his tailwheel endorsement with me, so I guess he wasn't too scared of me. lol
By 6:30, Justin was cooking steaks and potatoes, friends and family stopped out, and it was Nathan's birthday and his birthday dinner. So much good food. Home made strawberry shortcake with AE's home made ice cream, rich cupcakes, home made baked beans, everything so tasty. Steve brought Kaylee out, and we stayed out there until 9 pm or better with good company and good food, with a good excuse to get together. Everyone had a good time, including Erik who did a good job mingling and meeting all the new people. I'd have been so awkward if I'd have been with a client doing a training thing in some other state and they had a party with everyone they knew and I was there. I'd have been ferociously uncomfortable. But he just went with it and mingled right in. That there's a skill I wouldn't mind getting some dual on. ;)
Steve C was asking me about the flying today, so I was telling him what we did with the 'abnormal' stuff (stalls, single engine, etc.) and I said "Actually, I enjoyed that, I thought it was fun" and he said "Yeah, you would." Hey...
We're not officially done with the Cheyenne checkout until we finish the 15 page quiz tomorrow, but the flying is done, the endorsements are already written up, and it's all done except for the portly lady singing. :)
When we got to Mississippi, when the crew car got back we went to eat breakfast, and they sent us to a place that looked like a burger joint, which it was, but it also had REAL breakfast. I had bacon, eggs, fried potatoes, a home made biscuit...good stuff, man. Afterwards, we were going to do an actual insurance checkout flight. We were sitting in the FBO, doing stuff, and finally I said something like "if we're going to fly, I probably should do it before I go into full food coma". Olive Branch was a tower controlled field underneath the Memphis Class B airspace, right by the inner ring. Not the best place to mess around as far as I'm concerned, but that's what we have. When we first got back in the plane, I was definitely not firing on all cylinders for a minute or two. I didn't start up properly, I turned the wrong way on a taxiway, and after that I mentally smacked myself and told myself to wake up and FOCUS. It got better after that. :) We did an aborted takeoff, then went out and did a steep turn to the left and right, a power off stall with all the drag in, then an autopilot stall, where you power back and tell it to climb until it stalls while on autopilot, and you recover. When you do, the trim is mostly all the way nose up, so you have some good force to overcome to get the nose down. Then we did a couple of localizer approaches. I did the localizer approach single engine first, and then he wanted me to do a single engine go-around from the minimum approach altitude. The Cheyenne does just fine on a single-engine go-around by the way. Next up I just did a normal localizer approach to a full stop landing. I hadn't done most of that before in this plane; this was my first time doing everything but the normal approach, so frankly the OCD side of me wanted to do it again and show him I could do some of it more smoothly. It's terrible being OCD. ;) But he was satisfied, so we pulled off, and then Nathan and I swapped seats, and he did the same stuff. Insurance flight checked off. Nathan flew us home while I rode in the back with Ted, and we arrived around 4 pm or so, which was good timing.
On my first landing, I saw Erik get a little tense for a second, and I wasn't sure why, because everything looked fine and stable to me, and the landing itself wasn't a squeaker, but it was fine. He didn't say anything about what made him tense, so I mentally shrugged. The second landing, as we were coming in, he said "I want you to aim for the 1000 foot markers this time. You darn tailwheel pilots are always aiming for the numbers!" Now I got it. :D I was coming in shorter than he's used to seeing and it made him nervous. But I don't want to aim 1000' down the runway, it's a waste of space. ;) When we were back on the ground in Mississippi, Erik was asking about coming up and doing his tailwheel endorsement with me, so I guess he wasn't too scared of me. lol
By 6:30, Justin was cooking steaks and potatoes, friends and family stopped out, and it was Nathan's birthday and his birthday dinner. So much good food. Home made strawberry shortcake with AE's home made ice cream, rich cupcakes, home made baked beans, everything so tasty. Steve brought Kaylee out, and we stayed out there until 9 pm or better with good company and good food, with a good excuse to get together. Everyone had a good time, including Erik who did a good job mingling and meeting all the new people. I'd have been so awkward if I'd have been with a client doing a training thing in some other state and they had a party with everyone they knew and I was there. I'd have been ferociously uncomfortable. But he just went with it and mingled right in. That there's a skill I wouldn't mind getting some dual on. ;)
Steve C was asking me about the flying today, so I was telling him what we did with the 'abnormal' stuff (stalls, single engine, etc.) and I said "Actually, I enjoyed that, I thought it was fun" and he said "Yeah, you would." Hey...
We're not officially done with the Cheyenne checkout until we finish the 15 page quiz tomorrow, but the flying is done, the endorsements are already written up, and it's all done except for the portly lady singing. :)
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Home Again
So far things are working out. I'm home, the plane delivered safely, and the owner and I had a good time even though it was a long, very long, couple of days.
I got about 4 hours the night before heading down to Indy to get on the airliner. It had been awhile, and now they have free movies and TV on your own iPad if you want, so I watched "Eddie the Eagle" from Indy to Denver, and another movie from Denver to California. The movie ended right as our wheels were touching down, which was perfect as I couldn't have stood it if I missed the last ten minutes or something. ;)
The gent I was traveling with had "Preferred Seating", so we got to board pretty early, got to skip most of the TSA line, didn't have to take off our shoes, etc. It made it almost like flying used to be before everyone started acting like and being treated like cattle.
When we landed in Sacramento, our shuttle took us right to the Marysville Airport, where his plane was. I was now tired, but we weren't close to done yet! We did the final paperwork details, did a big preflight and looked over everything, went into town for a burger, our first food of the day, then got in the Bonanza and I flew it to San Jose. The airspace out there is kinda nuts, but I did it VFR with flight following. Going into the San Jose airport, the airport was down in a valley surrounded by mountains. It was really pretty looking. I kept looking at my left wingtip where the mountain was well above me and thinking it just doesn't look right. It was also a short runway for out there, at 3100' total with trees at the end. Not that that's a problem for a Bonanza or most things, but it surprised me how short it was. We were there to pick up a gas powered tug for the Bo. This took longer than expected. We also had to remove the two rear seats and wrap the tug up and get it back there without damaging anything. This was successful, eventually, and finally we were able to head back.
In the meantime, a group of three pilots who live in that area and who had wanted to get together with me to meet up for the first time had texted me that they were all together and waiting for me at a pizza place back in Marysville. I'm in San Jose and they're already meeting, more than an hour away. I'd told them I'd text if and when I could, but they just went for it. So instead of going back to the hotel, changing, dropping off the guy with me, etc., we just went right to the pizza place when we got back. I was hot, sweaty, exhausted, and a mess, but that's life in aviation, so...so be it. The four of us hung out a couple hours and talked and ate, and it was nice. But when we were done with that, J and I needed to go back out to the airport and top off the airplane for the next day's flight. By the time we were done with that, I was exhausted. I fell into my bed and passed out, and promptly was awake again at 4:00 a.m. Fantastic. I had to get up anyway because we met up and were headed to the airport by 5 a.m., and in the air by 6.
We needed to get out as early as we could stand it because 1). we lose three hours from time zone changes on our way home, and 2) we were crossing some very big rocks, and you want to do that in calmer winds and cooler temps. Our first leg had the biggest terrain. I pretty much followed I-80 from Sacramento, through various passes, all the way across. That way I always had a place to land if I had to, and it worked out great. Even better that I didn't NEED a place to make an emergency landing, but I did feel better almost always having one in sight. :) We flew past Donner's Pass, over the great salt lake desert, over Salt Lake, and the major airport there, and lots and lots of mountains. Eventually I landed at Rock Springs, Wyoming. The field elevation there is 6700', and by the time we landed at 9:30 a.m., the density altitude was already reporting 9000'. I think that's the highest density altitude takeoff I've ever done. You could certainly feel it.
The biggest problem was that both J and I had woken up with a headache. Not cool. We both took Tylenol/Advil and neither mentioned it. I took a couple more at Rock Springs, and we departed for our next leg, to St. Joseph, Missouri. About half way there, I was not feeling well At All. Neither was he. He put the air on himself, he went digging around behind the seat and found pee bags and sick sacks, and finally we both verbalized that we both had hurting heads. At that point I broke out the oxygen. Our headaches started before we got in the air, it had nothing to do with our altitude, but it didn't help. The Oxygen helped my headache a fair amount, so another hour later I hit it again. When we landed in St. Joe, we ate, and after the O2 and the food, my headache was Gone. Thankfully. That made the rest of the trip much more enjoyable.
I stopped at St. Joe because it was the only airport within a huge distance that had open hours and fuel available for sure. It was a bigger field, a tower, but I didn't expect it to be as busy as it was. I had to do 360 circles on final twice, I was cleared to land behind a C-130, and there were a bunch of them around. I was like #4 to land. We got on the ground, and J said "Well, that wasn't like Anderson's tower at all!" lol Nope.
We got gas fast, and ate fast, and then pulled up the weather and slowed down a lot. There was a big old ugly double line of storms between us and home. The onboard weather failed. In the end, it didn't matter if the nexrad and ADS-B weather failed or not, because that line was not one to be able to pick your way through, nor was it small enough to go around and stay within a two-state area. So we sat. I took a mini nap, which helped. The FBO there closed at 7 but it wasn't good enough to get home yet, so we took off and I took us to Peoria, where I knew they were open 24 hours a day, and the weather was already past it. I'd texted Steve about the weather as we traveled, so he could tell me whether or not I'd make it into Kokomo yet. I landed at Peoria just as he'd texted we could make it to Lafayette. So I sat on the ground at Peoria, pulled it up on my iPad myself, saw what was left, and said "We can make that." So I filed an IFR flight plan sitting in my running plane, on my iPad, and it immediately came through, so I called up tower and away we went. We got to Kokomo just as the weather was passing. I shot an ILS 23 as clouds had started rolling in. Shortly after we got down, everything around went IFR. So it was nice that we got in before it really socked in.
It was now about midnight. We put the plane away, I drove him back to his car at his work place, Kaylee wanted McDonald's, so I stopped for that, and I got home around 1. I couldn't go right to sleep, so I stayed awake until 1:45 or so before finally collapsing. The problem was, this morning I then woke up at 6:30 am, concerned about the Cheyenne checkout guy, what time he was coming in (we didn't know yet), how I should get up and get ready, etc.
He didn't end up making it until 2:30, then once he got there he had his PowerPoint presentation on his laptop, and we sat at a table in the hangar and went over various things. He gave us a 15 page quiz to fill out (will do that tomorrow), and we were done out there at 6 I think.
Steve and I went to eat at Hacienda, and then I came home and here I am, looking at photos and such, and will be back out at the airport at 7:20 a.m. for flying the Cheyenne to Memphis...
These aren't really in order, but here's a general idea:
I got about 4 hours the night before heading down to Indy to get on the airliner. It had been awhile, and now they have free movies and TV on your own iPad if you want, so I watched "Eddie the Eagle" from Indy to Denver, and another movie from Denver to California. The movie ended right as our wheels were touching down, which was perfect as I couldn't have stood it if I missed the last ten minutes or something. ;)
The gent I was traveling with had "Preferred Seating", so we got to board pretty early, got to skip most of the TSA line, didn't have to take off our shoes, etc. It made it almost like flying used to be before everyone started acting like and being treated like cattle.
When we landed in Sacramento, our shuttle took us right to the Marysville Airport, where his plane was. I was now tired, but we weren't close to done yet! We did the final paperwork details, did a big preflight and looked over everything, went into town for a burger, our first food of the day, then got in the Bonanza and I flew it to San Jose. The airspace out there is kinda nuts, but I did it VFR with flight following. Going into the San Jose airport, the airport was down in a valley surrounded by mountains. It was really pretty looking. I kept looking at my left wingtip where the mountain was well above me and thinking it just doesn't look right. It was also a short runway for out there, at 3100' total with trees at the end. Not that that's a problem for a Bonanza or most things, but it surprised me how short it was. We were there to pick up a gas powered tug for the Bo. This took longer than expected. We also had to remove the two rear seats and wrap the tug up and get it back there without damaging anything. This was successful, eventually, and finally we were able to head back.
In the meantime, a group of three pilots who live in that area and who had wanted to get together with me to meet up for the first time had texted me that they were all together and waiting for me at a pizza place back in Marysville. I'm in San Jose and they're already meeting, more than an hour away. I'd told them I'd text if and when I could, but they just went for it. So instead of going back to the hotel, changing, dropping off the guy with me, etc., we just went right to the pizza place when we got back. I was hot, sweaty, exhausted, and a mess, but that's life in aviation, so...so be it. The four of us hung out a couple hours and talked and ate, and it was nice. But when we were done with that, J and I needed to go back out to the airport and top off the airplane for the next day's flight. By the time we were done with that, I was exhausted. I fell into my bed and passed out, and promptly was awake again at 4:00 a.m. Fantastic. I had to get up anyway because we met up and were headed to the airport by 5 a.m., and in the air by 6.
We needed to get out as early as we could stand it because 1). we lose three hours from time zone changes on our way home, and 2) we were crossing some very big rocks, and you want to do that in calmer winds and cooler temps. Our first leg had the biggest terrain. I pretty much followed I-80 from Sacramento, through various passes, all the way across. That way I always had a place to land if I had to, and it worked out great. Even better that I didn't NEED a place to make an emergency landing, but I did feel better almost always having one in sight. :) We flew past Donner's Pass, over the great salt lake desert, over Salt Lake, and the major airport there, and lots and lots of mountains. Eventually I landed at Rock Springs, Wyoming. The field elevation there is 6700', and by the time we landed at 9:30 a.m., the density altitude was already reporting 9000'. I think that's the highest density altitude takeoff I've ever done. You could certainly feel it.
The biggest problem was that both J and I had woken up with a headache. Not cool. We both took Tylenol/Advil and neither mentioned it. I took a couple more at Rock Springs, and we departed for our next leg, to St. Joseph, Missouri. About half way there, I was not feeling well At All. Neither was he. He put the air on himself, he went digging around behind the seat and found pee bags and sick sacks, and finally we both verbalized that we both had hurting heads. At that point I broke out the oxygen. Our headaches started before we got in the air, it had nothing to do with our altitude, but it didn't help. The Oxygen helped my headache a fair amount, so another hour later I hit it again. When we landed in St. Joe, we ate, and after the O2 and the food, my headache was Gone. Thankfully. That made the rest of the trip much more enjoyable.
I stopped at St. Joe because it was the only airport within a huge distance that had open hours and fuel available for sure. It was a bigger field, a tower, but I didn't expect it to be as busy as it was. I had to do 360 circles on final twice, I was cleared to land behind a C-130, and there were a bunch of them around. I was like #4 to land. We got on the ground, and J said "Well, that wasn't like Anderson's tower at all!" lol Nope.
We got gas fast, and ate fast, and then pulled up the weather and slowed down a lot. There was a big old ugly double line of storms between us and home. The onboard weather failed. In the end, it didn't matter if the nexrad and ADS-B weather failed or not, because that line was not one to be able to pick your way through, nor was it small enough to go around and stay within a two-state area. So we sat. I took a mini nap, which helped. The FBO there closed at 7 but it wasn't good enough to get home yet, so we took off and I took us to Peoria, where I knew they were open 24 hours a day, and the weather was already past it. I'd texted Steve about the weather as we traveled, so he could tell me whether or not I'd make it into Kokomo yet. I landed at Peoria just as he'd texted we could make it to Lafayette. So I sat on the ground at Peoria, pulled it up on my iPad myself, saw what was left, and said "We can make that." So I filed an IFR flight plan sitting in my running plane, on my iPad, and it immediately came through, so I called up tower and away we went. We got to Kokomo just as the weather was passing. I shot an ILS 23 as clouds had started rolling in. Shortly after we got down, everything around went IFR. So it was nice that we got in before it really socked in.
It was now about midnight. We put the plane away, I drove him back to his car at his work place, Kaylee wanted McDonald's, so I stopped for that, and I got home around 1. I couldn't go right to sleep, so I stayed awake until 1:45 or so before finally collapsing. The problem was, this morning I then woke up at 6:30 am, concerned about the Cheyenne checkout guy, what time he was coming in (we didn't know yet), how I should get up and get ready, etc.
He didn't end up making it until 2:30, then once he got there he had his PowerPoint presentation on his laptop, and we sat at a table in the hangar and went over various things. He gave us a 15 page quiz to fill out (will do that tomorrow), and we were done out there at 6 I think.
Steve and I went to eat at Hacienda, and then I came home and here I am, looking at photos and such, and will be back out at the airport at 7:20 a.m. for flying the Cheyenne to Memphis...
These aren't really in order, but here's a general idea:
On the ramp north of Sacramento, getting some gas for the next morning's flight.
Look at the observatory on top of this mountain.
This was called "Secret Pass" on the map.
Great Salt Lake Desert, with I-80 crossing it for-ev-er.
Salt flats out in Utah. Red, green, blue and white water. Minerals, anyone?
Salt Lake City, UT, the airport, the city and the mountains.
More ranges
And then the terrain mellowed out a bit.
Leaving Indy on the plane to Denver.
Up in the airliner
Over Salt Lake in the airliner. I came back over in the Bonanza the next day. Much lower. ;)
San Jose airport, the taller mountains were behind us.
Hey, it's Salt Lake in the Bonanza. ;)
So this was helpful.
Sunset in Illinois
J and I in his new plane.
Leaving Peoria behind, headed home.
Sunset back in Sacramento.
And the next morning I check the oil before we leave for home.
On base leg for Runway 27 at Rock Springs, Wyoming.
Final Approach at Rock Springs. Density altitude 9000', Runway plenty long. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)