Steve worked around the house today, which he enjoyed, including doing some things to my car (like putting up new, uh, piston like arms that actually actuate and hold the hood up on my car, something which didn't work before), and scrubbing the deck down because Roadie keeps peeing on the wood even with giant pads over there for her to pee on next to that litter box she poops in every time. Stupid cat. Where was I. Oh yes. Steve worked most of the day at home here and was happy to get to do that. I have no idea what Kaylee did other than going to church tonight, but she was in a good mood, so that's always a bonus.
I ended up with a fly day. First guy is pre-solo, always waits until the last minute and then texts and asks if he can go in the morning. This time I happened to be working my schedule, and it was possible, and it had been awhile, so I said why not. When I got there he said he likes to go by the seat of his pants but he'd been unable to get a flight in for awhile. I said if he'd book it a week or two out, the planes and the instructors would be available. He said he doesn't like to do that. I said "then good luck getting in any flights when the schedule gets busier here in a month or so." I will always say no when it's the night before now. He can schedule like everybody else or he can just not get anywhere. Nice guy, but good luck to him finding any flight school who will let him fly on a whim every single lesson...
Next guy was the GoPro Fellow. This time he pointed the camera out the front window instead of at us, so that was nice, although the audio was still hooked up so there's still proof of everything we did and said. ;) We covered a lot today, slow flight, falling leaf stall, power on stalls, slips, emergency descent, ground reference maneuvers, and the start of the pattern. All that good stuff.
Last flight of the day was what I posted on Facebook. If you're not there, I'll repost here rather than type it all out again. It was a young lady's 9th birthday, so as a surprise her family brought her to the airport for a "Discovery Flight". She arrived decked out in an awesome flight jacket that has plenty of room to grow into. When she found out she was going flying, she ran up and hugged everybody in her family. We took off, and she just wanted to ride and take pictures. Then she started asking questions. Then she wanted to fly. Then she asked if she could help me do the landing. For the record, she handled the plane very well, too. While we were cruising around, she said "Just look at that out there. I feel...so...free up here." She mentioned she'd felt a little nervous at first. I told her that once she knows how it all works and can make it do what she wants herself, *she'll* be in charge of it and probably won't be as nervous. She responded with a completely adult sounding "Of course. That makes perfect sense. I'm already more comfortable with what I know now." When we landed, she spent the next 45 minutes looking over all our airplanes in the hangar, asking questions. Her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles were all there, and when they walked out, she said "Yeah, I'm going to be a pilot when I get older. I'll be back, don't worry." Dad turned around and mouthed "Uh Oh" to me.
She couldn't reach the rudders yet, she's a very tiny 9 year old, but she manipulated the controls well. She took tons of photos, we flew over her house, her uncles and aunts houses, all live together up by Grissom. She took a few selfies, and I took a photo of her flying the plane, and when I was turning final, I caught her sneaking a photo with me and her in it it together. She was a smart little kid, very articulate. Lots of people get hooked, but it takes more stamina to actually finish the job. We'll see if her first flight at age 9 will have a lasting imprint on her. I enjoyed myself, anyway. :)
Meanwhile, I'm supposed to have flights tomorrow afternoon, Kaylee just let me know tickets go on sale tomorrow afternoon for "Cinderella", which requires standing in line after school until 5 something pm, and tomorrow's weather is supposed to be kind of crappy which will help with my scheduling problem.
An acquaintance contacted me asking if I'd take him up in a plane so he can use tracking telemetry equipment on a peregrine falcon which went missing south of Kokomo today, the battery on which will only last until around Friday. So he wants to fly a grid in the air to hunt for this missing falcon. Interesting.
Then another guy today told me he bought an Aztec and wants me to teach him to fly it. I can do that.
Then a woman posted that someone told her girls couldn't be pilots and sometimes people looked at her funny when she went to the airport so she wasn't sure she could actually do it. And I had to NOT say "If you can't handle that, you probably should stick with a different hobby." I did not say that. I just thought it. But seriously. As if she didn't already know that women pilots were, you know, legal, and nothing was stopping her from doing it, now more than ever. And looking at you funny? Oh no. Not that. *cough*
I have a trip coming up to New Hampshire, it was originally Tuesday overnight into Wednesday and then home late that night. For now I'm still blocked off those two days, but it's changed up and it won't be overnight and we don't really know which day. So I'm not really sure what I'm doing yet or when I should open what up on the schedule, or block off what on the schedule, but we'll figure it out soon, I'm sure. Gotta see what the weather is doing first...
And that is a run-down of life over here at the moment. Night!
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