It's 8:30 and I'm ready for bed. Of course, for two days in a row I've woken up out of a dead sleep at 3:15 a.m. and been unable to get back to sleep, giving me about 3-4 hours sleep. On neither day was this handy whatsoever, considering yesterday we had to get up early and be out at Kokomo early and fly to Wyoming and be busy all day, and this morning I had to get up earlyish and go do a checkout flight with one of the biggest names in the warbird world in an airplane I'd never flown before. But let's start with yesterday. After waking up at 3:15, I laid there until 6, got up and we headed to the airport. We left Kaylee overnight, her first time alone in the house over night. Of course Grandma is right next door and she has a cell phone and access to a lot of people who would come help her if need be, but still, it was the first time. She said she kind of liked it because she could practice her singing really loudly in the house without having to worry about anybody else overhearing her. She made a batch of cookies and ate most of them in one day. She stayed up late and slept in late. You know...all the fun stuff I'd do when I'm home alone too! ;)
Friday evening I got back from Maryland around 7 pm, and Doug R had arrived in his red Rocket, and everyone was waiting on me. The line guys stayed an hour late to fuel the Cheyenne back up, Nathan, AE and Steve were out there waiting so we could all go to dinner. We went to Half Moon, with our student/former student John R too, and he bought dinner as a thank you for getting his private certificate, which was sweet. So first thing Saturday morning we got out to the airport at 7:30 thinking we'd beat everybody, get the plane out, get ready, etc. We were the last ones there, the plane was out and ready, and we left a bit early, even. Nathan brought Doug, and we had three other passengers going too, from the CAF group. One was a couple I don't even know, and the other was someone I sort of know. I didn't know the couple's names for most of the trip, but I wasn't going to ask!
Nathan flew us out to Wyoming, with Doug up front, and Steve sat in the middle with the strangers, while I sat in the back seat and read a book (since I can't sleep on airplanes). There was another sunrise from the air. The trip took a bit over 3 hours, and was uneventful other than the heat wasn't keeping up, and in the back there, I was ice block cold. My feet burned, went numb, then burned again for awhile when we got on the ground as they thawed out. lol The others weren't that bad as it was significantly warmer in the middle section than the back, so that's good. I was fine, just my feet felt it. When we got there, the guys started in on the airplane right away. It wasn't in the shape they expected. They'd hired the local place to do work on it, they'd wanted the engines run, they expected it to be put together and ready to go, and they expected to have some help from some mechanics there if need be. Instead, it was in worse shape than when they left it, the mechanics there were clear in their lack of desire to help, and the guys had to get stuff done themselves. So they did. The engines didn't want to start, one engine is drinking oil like crazy and the other has a nice blue smoke after start-up, one throttle is very hard to move, they couldn't get full power out of one side because of a cable issue, but eventually the plane was ready for a test flight. There was a bit of a time crunch because the plane needed to be back by dark per CAF rules at minimum. The goal was to get home, and if not, at least to Mason City, Iowa, where Doug is based, and spend the night. The test flight was fast, one lap around the pattern basically to make sure everything was working. Then they launched. We waited on the ground for about 30 minutes in case they came back. Just as we were getting ready to go, we heard them radio to the FBO there, and ask if we were still there. My heart sank a little bit, but then we heard him say "Tell them we're looking good and to come on to Pierre!" Woo hoo! So we loaded everyone up in the Cheyenne and I flew us towards our first stop, Pierre, South Dakota. It was the first time Steve and I have been together up front in the Cheyenne, so that was kind of neat.
We connected with the Beach over the airwaves on a predetermined frequency, and they said at that time they were going to maybe skip the Pierre stop and go right for Mason City, but they wouldn't know until they got to Pierre and could see if they had the fuel. The only problem was, I was up at 25,000', and going 320 knots, even pulled back to 65% power, and I was going to have to decide to come down and land, or keep going to Mason City, well before they got to Pierre. We conferred a bit, and eventually rolled the dice and kept going. Well, they had to stop in Pierre. But fortunately they didn't need us there, and it worked out.
We got to Mason City, let ourselves in Doug's hangar, and hung out. Doug texted the CAF and got an immediate waiver to be able to fly the C-45 in the dark, because they were going to be about 30 minutes into night before they made it. Because he's him, they let him. None of us including them knew if any of the lights would work, but when they came in, those landing lights were blazing bright. They parked in the grass in front of his hangar, and the Twin Beech had arrived safely.
Next up was a hangar party. These hangars are incredible. Beautifully done living spaces, decorations on the walls, bar tops with glass covers and memorabilia underneath, spotless airplanes of all types, and we had steak, baby potatoes, fancy salad, summer squash, just all sorts of yummy stuff, on real plates that they put in a dishwasher in the hangar afterwards. Then we went outside and sat around the fire pit, and Doug got out a guitar and speaker, and played and sang, and we all really enjoyed. We were driven to the hotel nearby pretty late, crashed, and...I woke up at 3:15 a.m. again . Argh.
This time I had trouble getting moving, my head hurt, I popped some Tylenol, then Advil, and I wasn't exactly feeling at the top of my game. I can usually only go one night low on sleep and still function well. I've had a lot of them lately. Doug picked me up at 8 am and drove us out to the airport, and I was to fly his L-2 with him on a checkout flight so I can fly the CAF's L-2 here, and instruct in it. Doug warned me that it didn't fly like a Cub, it was more responsive, had stiff gear that made it hard to get a smooth landing out of, especially 3-point, and it stalled abruptly with a good drop, unlike the Cub or Champ that just mush out. So I sat in the back, in the instructor seat, and away we went, and I told myself to forget the headache and tired, and fortunately was mostly able to for about an hour. After the hour it came back in full force, and I ended up taking Excedrin Migraine and didn't feel great most of the day, until late afternoon, but at least I got done what I needed to. So anyway, we took off, and the first maneuver was stalls. I did a regular stall, and then he wanted to see a falling leaf stall, which he said is trickier in this airplane because it breaks harder and more quickly. So I did that, no problem, and got an "excellent job" out of him. Next up were steep turns. From the back seat, I couldn't see any instruments with him up there, but there's this handy brace bar up there, and when you're at about a 50-60 degree bank in the airplane, that bar will parallel the horizon when looking at it from the back, I noticed. Perfect reference point makes for perfect 360s. I like that. Then we did a spin. It snaps right into a spin, but recovers within 300'. Nice. We flew around a few minutes and he showed me where Buddy Holly's plane crashed, and where he lived, the lake nearby, etc., and then it was time for the landings. We get in the pattern, and he pulls the engine on downwind, so I come around to make my first landing in it "dead stick". I decided to go for the more difficult 3-point. I was a little fast, as I floated, but when it finally touched down, it was pretty good. Next up I did a wheel landing. Fine. Next up I got off the ground, about 50' in the air, and he pulled the engine, and I re-landed from there. Three-point. Next time around I greased on a wheel landing if I may say so myself. Then he said he wanted to see me land on one wheel and hold it. I bobbled the initial touchdown, but then got it stable and ran down the runway on just the left main for awhile, and that was the end. The funniest thing that I did wrong today was that I could not stay on the centerline to save my life. I couldn't see it until it was out the right side, and I wasn't holding position. The first time I was surprised, and I tried the rest of the times and I still wasn't staying on the centerline. Bugged me and was funny at the same time. Anyway, after my last one he took the plane and swung us around onto the grass by his hangar and landed there on a makeshift grass runway there. Check flight over, time to meet up with Steve, Nathan, and the others for breakfast in town.
Back at the airport, I got gas in the Cheyenne, they got gas in the C-45, and then they headed for home, while I gave them a head start to make sure all was well again. We were home in about an hour and a half, and they got in an hour behind us. The big oily beast had arrived safely at Kokomo.
We hung out for a bit, I got Doug some chicken to eat and fuel for his Rocket, he headed off for home, and Steve and I went home and grabbed Kaylee to run her to youth group. Dinner at a Mexican place in town, pick up the kid, write this, download photos, of which I got some decent ones, and BED time. I don't have to get up early tomorrow, praise be, and I am really, really hoping I do NOT wake up at 3:15 a.m. again. If I do I may get up and take a Tylenol PM or something and hope I can knock myself back out until lunchtime or something. So tired...
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