Blow Me Down

The temps went from the 40s to the teens overnight, and the winds picked up.  I had two flights today, both pre-solo students, and we had wind 280-290 gusting to 28.  With the wind chill it felt like about 6 degrees this afternoon, at the warm point.  I don't know what it was by the time I finished at 5:30, but it was COLD.  Both of those guys wanted to go anyway, and neither was in the pattern, so I went ahead and went with them.  One of them had spent the weekend watching a marathon of "Why Planes Crash" with his wife, who today did NOT want him flying because of the wind.  She was freaked out, and made him text her before he left and when he got back on the ground, when she couldn't force him to not come fly.  I smacked him and asked him what he was thinking watching something like that with her!  Before we went, he paused and hesitantly said "It IS safe to fly today, right?"  I had texted him ahead of time and told him exactly what it was going to be like and gave him the choice of whether or not to go, and he wanted to go.  Said he wanted to experience tougher days too.  He had a 90 minute drive to get there.  I told him that yes, it's safe, but it was going to be a rocky takeoff and landing, then once we got in the air it wasn't bad for us to do our air work. So he went, and we did slow flight (VERY slow flight), stalls, turns, climbs, level-offs, etc.  Since both of them are pre-solo, today's gusty crosswind was way out of their capabilities, so I had them come down final, then I took over in the flare and straightened it out at the  last second to land.  On one of them, we actually rode on the left wheel for quite awhile, the longest I've done a one-wheel landing in a 172 while not doing it on purpose, to date.  lol  But it was COLD.  I had bundled up, two layers, the long coat, hood up, and nice thick gloves on.  I was still really cold.  In the air, my feet were little blocks of ice by the end, and that was with the heat on full.  My fingers hurt too.  It was Cold.

When I left the airport, I came home and picked up Steve, and we drove down to Kempton to eat at the Breeze-Inn for dinner with a pilot group.  I texted Kaylee and asked if she wanted a chicken sandwich, and she said sure.  It was about 9 pm before we were pulling into the driveway, and I just got a text from her that said "Are you guys ever coming back?  'Cause I would miss you."  Most teenagers are gone and the parents are all "are you ever coming home?"  Our kid is home while we're out running around, for once, and she missed us.  Sweet! ;)

Today was Kaylee's first day back to school.  She got 3 hours of sleep last night, but was up early and on time this morning.  Tomorrow she has a voice lesson, then an audition for the school's upcoming musical.  Hoping she gets something...