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.  :)