Steve put together a vanity in her room, with lighting, and replaced her Venetian blinds, and I'm not sure what else, but he ended up driving the Corvette out to Kokomo to help me with a rider this afternoon.
My alarm was supposed to go off at 7:15 this morning. I was lying there, and woke up somewhat abruptly, thinking, "It should be time to get up now." I look up at the clock, and it says 7:18. I look at my alarm...I had set the time but not turned on the alarm. Fortunately I woke myself up within 3 minutes of my alarm time, or I'd have totally blown this morning. Apparently my internal alarm still works! Cool!
I drove the hour plus down to Indy Metro and met with the fellow I was checking out in the PT. The winds were fine for the morning, which is why I moved to the morning, and we flew for 2.1 hours doing all the required maneuvers. Steep turns, slow flight, four different stalls, and every possible takeoff and landing, aborted takeoff, aborted landing, etc. We did all this at another airport with a longer runway. So we head back in to Metro for our last two landings, and at the end we had a 10-12 knot direct crosswind, and it wasn't so easy for him. That made me raise an eyebrow at the bluster he'd given me about "whatever, crosswinds are fun" when I suggested we not do it in 25 knot direct crosswinds. I can tell from the 10 knot one that the 25 knot one would not have gone as he planned. But other than that it was fine. It was a good morning for a flight, we got a lot done, I even had a good time, because he didn't scare me, and I appreciate that. ;)
I drove straight from Metro airport to the Kokomo Airport, where Steve was already there getting stuff ready. We pulled out the T-6 and got everything ready for me to give the Red Bull Air Race Raffle Winner Guy his ride. I even put the flight suit back on, which I semi-regret. By now the winds were gusting up over 25 knots, and it wasn't the smoothest day. I asked him if this was bothersome to him. Come to find out he's a former Navy man, who was deployed to a ship at sea for 6-9 months straight over a 10 year period. So no, a little turbulence did not get to him. We were supposed to go for 20 minutes, we ended up about 35 minutes, because I didn't feel like coming down yet either. We looked around, flew over Glenndale, and then he did some flying, then I took it and did some light aerobatics, which he loved. It was fun and we both enjoyed.
Went from there to home, and Kaylee had youth group tonight. So at 5:00 pm I took her there and dropped her off, and then went back to the airport and pulled out the Cub. It was still very windy and gusty, but beggars can't be choosers and I was feeling like a beggar. I pointed it so the tailwheel was in the grass, and chocked both wheels, because even with everything like that the wind was rocking the plane around on the taxiway. I had a little trouble starting it again, like we did last time, and I don't know what has changed, but I finally got it fired and going, and the rest of the time was very nice. I flew around a bit, and the winds were strong enough at a specific altitude that it felt like wind shear. You could feel the plane fighting and being pushed and pulled at times. I tried to take a video of my ground track and what it was doing, but it didn't turn out very good without specific visual references and feel of what was happening. So I flew around for a bit, then came in and did some takeoffs and landings. When the sun went below the horizon, I landed, then did one more take off, and saw the sun come back up a little bit before going back down. When the runway lights kicked on, I decided that was legally about as far as I ought to go, so I stayed down. But it was really nice, and relaxing, and a little work but of the good kind. I had some tunes in and just found it very therapeutic.
Turning in the PT-26
Sometimes I look around, and think about how I can fly everything in the hangar, and how really cool and wonderful that is, and it makes me smile, bigly. :)
Sun going down on takeoff
Selfie, with a smile.
I didn't really feel like landing yet, but...it was time. And now I need gas.
This is the vanity that Steve set up for Kaylee today in her room. Nice, huh??
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