Day After

Yesterday was pretty full.  When I woke up, the weather was surprisingly good, just windy, so I went out and took up the 172RG for an hour and a half, circling around the airport, to break in the brand new engine on it.  The turbulence was bad.  I mean, really bad.  It knocked the plane around so hard even I was uncomfortable, and I climbed to 5500' to find a smoother spot.  Surface winds were gusting over 30 knots, which is why I canceled a pre-solo student trying to figure out the flare.  :)   Anyway, did that for 90 minutes then landed and got gas.  The line guy had to have another guy come hold the ladder while he fueled up, because the winds were knocking him and the ladder around.  He looked down at me and said "What are you doing out here in this?!"  lol  I went to lunch.

After lunch I went back up in the airplane for another two hours straight.  The winds weren't any better but the turbulence was; I was able to stay a little lower this time.  This time I plugged in a giant flight plan, going from Kokomo to Marion to Sheridan to Glenndale to Wabash and back and forth to a few of those.  I set it up in the GPS and put on the autopilot and let it fly me around for two hours while I monitored.   One time, coming from Wabash, my traffic showed something coming right at me, 200' above me.  I'm looking and looking and finally I see these lights, and as it gets closer, I realize it's a KC-135.  It's huge and it's aimed right at me.  I stay the course for a moment, and then when he keeps coming too, I disconnect the autopilot and break left.  At that exact same moment, he also broke left.  (His left, not mine, so that's all good.)  What's odd about that is that those are not the rules of engagement.  The right of way rules clearly state that on a head-on scenario, both people are supposed to go right.  I later tried to figure out why I went left, and then I realized...I wasn't in the MOA, and neither was he.  But the MOA was off to my right and it's a good guess he's going to head that way.  So I went the opposite way.  At the same time it must have been time for him to turn towards his base, or the controllers moved him.  But it looked synchronized the way we both broke left, not that far apart from each other (but not that close, don't worry).

I landed JUST in time to 1) head home to pick up Kaylee and take her to her voice lesson and 2) avoid some nasty weather moving through.  It was perfect timing, and I got exactly the 5 hours total flight time in that the engine needed.  Perfect.

Kaylee's voice lesson--I'm sitting there, and it is Dumping rain.  Hard sheets of rain coming down.  And there's a guy next to me mowing his lawn with an old push mower, in the rain.  Getting soaked.  It was...odd.

After her lesson, we went to Hydration Station for a drink, and then I had Kaylee drive us around for an hour.  We just stayed on the back roads, relaxed, listened to music, I held her straw up to her lips so she could drink and drive safely occasionally.  We'll do that one more time like that, and then I'll bring her back onto the busier roads.  She seemed to be much more relaxed and comfortable this time than the last time.

We get home, and she says "Do you want to go to this?" and shows me a poster about a drive-in movie theater in Wabash.  Gates open at 8 pm.  It's now 6:30 pm.  It'll take us an hour to get there.  I'd already taken out my contacts and off my jeans, but I thought that sounded like a fun idea, so we did it.  Kaylee packed a cooler with drinks and snacks, blankets and pillows, bug spray, and we stopped at a gas station for a few more goodies, and away we went.  We got there before they opened, and figured out how to park, got ourselves set up, and heard thunder.  I pulled up radar to see a nasty line of weather moving in.  The theater people suggested we turn around so we could sit in the front of the car and watch, but we didn't, we stayed just like we were.  When the rain started coming in the back, we shut the back door, turned on the windshield wiper and the air conditioning back there, and watched in the rain with the sound coming through the radio.  It passed after about 15-20 minutes, and we opened back up and were quite comfortable from the on.  :)

The drive-up theater is still a neat throw-back.  Kids were out playing frisby, swinging on a playground set nearby, laughing and running around, it was a total family-friendly atmosphere.  Lots of snacks and concessions, and oddly, alcohol available, but it just reminded me a lot of Oshkosh with all the people parked close to each other, friendly, relaxed, etc.  My only issue was the people who couldn't turn on their car to keep their battery charged without also turning on their headlights. Grr.

We watched Dirty Dancing, the original.  It's a little nostalgic, watching it with a daughter who is probably about the same age as I was when I saw it, or close.  Soooo much better than the TV version that came out recently.  I enjoyed it, and enjoyed hanging out with Kaylee.  Her friend Meredith was going to come with her sister, but they chickened out when the weather got bad.  We pooh-poohed that at first, but on the drive home I told Kaylee it was good that they weren't out in it.

I haven't had that hard of a time driving in poor visibility in years.  The storms were long, heavy, and huge. I couldn't see.  The windshield wipers were going as fast as they could, but it didn't matter.  It was midnight, pitch black, the headlights from oncoming traffic would turn the sheet of water on your windshield into a glare.  But there's nowhere good to pull off on the highway, and off to the side it's pitch black and an invitation to be rammed into by someone else who can't see.  So I stuck my left wheel on the yellow line to the left, and followed that for as long as I could, slowly, to keep moving forward, watching for anyone in front of or behind me.  I had a couple of semis I had to pass because they were throwing so much water on top of the 40 knot winds and sheets of rain that I just wanted away from them.  It was a tense trip.  Kaylee tried to nap, but the noise of the rain was so loud that she opened her eyes, saw what I was looking at and said "HOLY COW how do you see?" She also said she was glad she wasn't driving, and I said "No offense, but me too."  lol  It went like that for most of the drive home, even in town, and we didn't get home until 1:30 am.  Long drive in bad weather...but it was worth it.

Today I flew in the morning, and the person I was flying with GOT it.  That was so much fun.  She's really been struggling with learning to land, struggling with all of flying, actually. It was a teenage girl, and like many of them I've flown with, her biggest hang-up was actually her own lack of confidence. She'd second-guess herself, not make a move unless I said to, under-correct and let the plane do whatever it wanted, etc. Today something clicked in. She came out and took charge. I love that moment. It's one of my favorite moments as a CFI. Not just someone soloing or getting a certificate, but the day something clicks and they realize that they GOT this. From there on out it goes fast.  It was a good start to the day.

And then the weather moved in.  Steve took the evening off from his deck relaxation in order to get work done so he didn't have to do it this weekend.  Kaylee took a 4 hour nap.  I took a 40 minute nap.  Now I'm going to go out to Kokomo and pick up our new Warbird Training Centers t-shirts.  And maybe some food.

Good day.

Nathan running up the RG for the first time on the new engine.

Me above a cloud deck breaking in the engine.

Kokomo Airport down below.

One of my ADS-B tracks of circling around.

A poor picture of a guy mowing his lawn in the rain.  You have no idea how hard that rain is actually coming down from this.

Me and Kaylee at the drive-in theater ready to watch.

The original.

Ta-DA!  ;)

Day On

I flew the Champ this morning with two Flying Squirrels, including Steve's cousin's grandson, which is kind of neat.  :)

There was ground school, then two hours of flying broken up by lunch and gas break.  It was a nice day for it at least, and when I left them, they still had kids to go, but Nick is back in town so he could take over for me.

I left there and went to Kokomo to fly with Angela, doing pattern work, power on stalls, and other fun things.  Then Steve brought Kaylee out, and she and I did some work in the 172.  It had been over two months since she did actual training in the 172, so she had some stuff to remember, but she did pretty well with it and got back in the groove pretty quickly.  We did some basics, then went up and did the pattern for a couple of laps.  Next up that's what we need to hit, just memorizing and doing the pattern, working on the level off and flare.  It's the hard part of learning to fly, the grind.  You do it over and over and over and over and over.  And each time something clicks in a little better, until one day all the pieces fall into place.  But it's the training time when most people get frustrated.  She did tell me today that she got tense while she was flying, because she just wanted to do it perfectly, but that she did enjoy coming flying with me.  I told her I appreciated her saying that even if she was lying.  She says she wasn't.  lol

After her we went to Hydration Station and picked up a frosted hot chocolate, came home, and I was tired.  I wanted to nap.  Kaylee crawled up and fell asleep on my arm.  So SHE got a nap, but I did not.  Fine.  :p

I left at 9 pm to go do my night flight.  He brought his brother along, and we went to Crawfordsville on a crosscountry.

Now it's 12:30 am and I'm home and tired and ready to go to bed so I can start tomorrow by 9 and have another night flight from 10-midnight.  Good times.  ;)

Day Off

For a Monday, today was pretty nice!  I slept in until 8 am, did a little work but nothing serious, no flights all day as my afternoon guy cancelled (probably for winds but he didn't say).  After lunch I just got some stuff done.  House stuff, three banks and a post office, bill paying, and an argument on Facebook from an ignorant aviation attorney who insists something very wrong that if people follow will hurt them.  I don't have his credentials as an attorney so people may not believe me, but I know when I'm right, and by golly I am RIGHT.  His way is what has cost pilots their life savings to not get their medical back anyway.  Frustrating to hear him be so far off base and have him be SO wrong, and people may put their futures in his hands.  Ugh.

Kaylee and I went shopping, too.  She needed some sandals to wear at camp and for Oshkosh, and she had a particular brand she wanted to wear, and we found them, and she loves them.  She's been walking around the house insisting we look at her fabulous shoes that she loves so very much.  lol  I got myself some new socks, since I didn't have any socks left without holes in them, much to the dismay of my daughter.  We had a nice time shopping, and she got a few other necessities too.  When we got home, she took a nap on me in the chair again, until I woke her up so I could make some messy cheese sandwiches (bacon and cheese on lightly toasted and buttered bread).  Good stuff, man.

Tomorrow gets busy.  The Squirrels all morning, two students in the afternoon, and one night flight starting at 10 pm.  Yay.  :/

Kaylee Recap

Okay, sorry, I know some of you were wondering, but I got busy and then sleepy.  But now it's a beautiful Sunday afternoon, Kaylee's up in her room relaxing, my last load of laundry is in the drier, the dishes are caught up, I have a snack, and all is well.

For the short version for those of you with reading attention span difficulties, Kaylee's week ended much better than it began, and she has said she is nervously looking forward to going back to camp next week.  She still has a couple concerns I'll hit later, but basically she's good for now.

For the long version, Kaylee said that one of the people in charge came up to her and said "I can tell that you and the other Junior Counselors are unhappy.  If I can tell, so can others.  You need to address this issue with the director, whatever it is.  Talk to him about it.  Work it out."  So Kaylee was asked to be the one to go to him and ask for an appointment to discuss their concerns.  The good part here is that this is excellent real world training.  You have a problem, instead of complaining and being upset, first try to actually DO something about it in a positive and constructive way.  They had their meeting, and Positive #2--he listened to their concerns, with an open mind, and was willing to adapt a few things that he decided they were right on.  Again, great experience.

One of the main things Kaylee and crew were unhappy with was that they were doing all the work of TILT, but were completely going to be isolated from the campers and other counselors.  They weren't going to be eating with them, sleeping in the same cabins as them, helping them with activities...they were just going to be cleaning the bathrooms, setting up the kitchen for meals, cleaning up afterwards, etc., in their own cabin, away from everybody else.  Kaylee said, and told him, they don't mind doing the work, but they are there to be with the kids.  So he has rearranged it so that they will be eating with and sleeping with the kids now, and if it works out, will be able to do some of the activities with them too.  Kaylee is still concerned that they will be pretty isolated, but this is much better.  I wouldn't have put up with being labor and not being allowed to be with the kids either.  That's ridiculous.  That needed changed.

She says she feels more connected to all the staff, and hopes that is able to continue during the upcoming weeks of actual camp.

The director also got rid of several senior counselors who were not an "appropriate fit".  That means that they are slightly short staffed.  One of them, Kaylee said he was just immature, but thinks he could have stayed on.  But the other counselor was a boy who latched on to one particular other female counselor, grabbed her by the waist and pulled her towards him, tickled her, followed her on social media, sending her a bunch of stuff, would move her things so she'd have to sit by him, etc., and he's only there because his grandpa is on the board.  This guy fired that kid, and, well, let's say that's a good thing, because he was already way over the line, and people like that don't need to be around, let alone in a position of leadership, around young girls.  I want to go find him and stick my finger in his face for how he bothered the other girl.  Anyway.  The point of that story is that the director may bump one of the Junior Counselors up to "Senior Counselor" position for a week.  Guess who really wants it to be her?  ;)  She's 2 years too young, but he said he will not take age too much into consideration, but more how a person  handles themselves, their personality, ability, etc.  She said there are about 4 kids there who would be "competition" and one who won't be competition at all, and she hopes she's chosen to be given the responsibility of being a senior counselor for the week.  If she is, it'll be hard for her to go back to Junior Counselor until she's 18 though.  ;)

Like I said, her big concern is that she'll still be kept separate from the other staff and kids a little too much, but she's willing to give it a go and see what happens.

Friday when we went to pick her up, the weather was just nasty.  All day.  Thunderstorms, all over us, all along the route, all over there.  Lots of them.  We had the Worst time trying to figure out of it would clear up enough for us to be able to fly over or not.  We had a rental car there, we were going to take a 172 over because it's all we had available at the time, and we had a rental car about to be set up here in case we had to drive over.   But we couldn't even pick her up until 8 pm, which meant we'd get home, by driving, around 2 am at about the best bet.  Then we both had Saturday morning flights.  So that stank.  Finally, about the time we HAD to make the decision, the weather appeared that it would move out of the way enough for us to fly over.  It was still IFR over there.  Kevin had said at lunch "why don't you take the Cheyenne", and I really did like that idea better than a 172, for a couple reasons, one of which ended up being we had to shoot an RNAV approach into Mansfield.  Can't do that in the 172, though an ILS would hopefully have been available, but still, this one has a non-standard panel, and isn't really intended to be an IFR platform.

So I got up to altitude in the Cheyenne for a few minutes and it was time to come back down.  Nathan sent a text and asked if the trip was long enough for me to be able to get the gear and flaps up after takeoff.  ;)

On the way home, Kaylee sat up front, and she asked me if she could do some of the flying.  I was "low" for that airplane, at 20,000', but we're still in a twin turboprop in the flight levels on an IFR flight plan and she'd not flown that one before.  So of course I let her.  ;)  She dialed in on it real quick.  I taught her how the flight director worked, and she did a nice job using small corrections to keep us where we needed to be.  She did fine on the descents, had a little trouble on a level-off, but hey, so did I the first few times and I have a lot more experience.  lol  We had this beautiful sunset out the window the whole time, too.  We got down to close to the pattern and I told her I'd be doing the landing, and she said "Well, YEAH, I would hope so."  We'll work some more in the smaller planes first.

Since she's been home, Kaylee has been talking non-stop.  She's been pretty solid by my side the last two days too.  Part of it is that she feels warm and isn't feeling that well, either.  Last year she came back from camp with nits.  This year she may have come back with a different kind of bug.  Which means she most certainly gave it to me considering she's been on me pretty constantly.  Hoping it's not too bad!

One of the things they did at training this year was talk about sexual assault and how insidious it is.  A guy asked for five volunteers, and Kaylee was one.  He'd then randomly go up to one of those five, and do something inappropriate, something to make them feel uncomfortable.  One girl he walked up and started rubbing her hair and head.  One guy he'd grab and hug in a big squeeze too long.  With Kaylee he waited until a ball went into the woods, and she ran after it.  He went with her, then pulled her by the arm and said "We're alone out here now, and everybody else just thinks I'm here to help you find a ball.  They won't think a thing about it.  You wouldn't either at first.  I would tell you that you couldn't tell anyone, that they wouldn't believe you anyway."  Kaylee said it really did creep her out.  Which is a good thing.  Afterwards he'd ask the group "Who saw anything, and what did you think" and most people said "I saw that but I didn't think anything about it" or "I saw that but I didn't want to say anything".  One of the senior counselors sat down with a girl who was looking a little troubled and asked her to talk to her, REALLY talk to her, and that was one of the girls who was thinking about how the guy had "done" something.  She noticed that the girl was troubled.  Other than that, nobody noticed a thing prior to doing this.  So that was excellent training right there, as they can now understand how inappropriate things can really look and feel to outsiders, what to keep an eye out for, watch the kids for looking troubled or bothered even if they don't want to talk about it, etc.  You want your kid to be innocent and not think of those things, but at this point, Kaylee is about to be in charge of a lot of young girls, and she is a line of defense for them.  Also, for herself.  I can attest that she will need to have good instincts on who, what, and where to avoid now and then.  This is a positive way to start getting that feel for things.

Kaylee loved the changes they made to their chapel time.  She said they have added a lot more interaction, and music, and made it a more fun worship environment too, and she's excited about those changes, and made sure to tell the director that, too.  I said good, because if you're going to complain about changes you don't like, it's great to compliment them on the changes you DO like.  :)

I'm sure I'll remember other things, but that's it for now.  Here are the flying photos, since I don't have camp photos.  ;)

This was the actual color of the sunset on the plane right then.

Kaylee's first job, prior to flying, was to select and turn up the tunes.

Blurry but you can see she's looking over at my flight director.

My favorite sunset shot from the evening.

It looks like her eyes are closed, but she's just looking down at her own instruments.

The two of us, Steve's behind me and you can't see him for once.

Last one of the night...

Kids

Kaylee told her dad that they had a "talk" at the camp, and that things were looking up.  Steve also talked to the director today, about liability and us wishing to give our permission for her to have more freedom, such as to drive in a car with someone else, etc.  He said the director was reasonable, and would allow her to stay the weekend because he agreed with Steve's assertion that Kaylee is older than her years, responsible, and trustworthy.  He said after meeting her, he understands why she was promoted ahead of schedule, and he completely agrees.  So...this is good.  :)  I said that I knew Ann and probably my Mom too were praying for her, and God was probably up there, like with the Encore thing, saying "OKAY, okay, ladies, I hear you!"  :)

Kaylee just texted me copies of her Red Cross certification, one for CPR and one for First Aid.  Pretty cool!

Today makes 18 years since Devon died.  I already wrote out on Facebook what I was thinking about today.  I don't feel like saying it again, but for posterity, we're thinking of Devon today, our sweetheart.

Yesterday when I was getting out of the front of the Cub, I missed a step and started to fall backwards.  I caught myself with my arm.  Today that arm is swollen and bruised, and it makes me laugh because it's no fun getting older, and because even if I wasn't getting older I always was a klutz, and because that bruise from the Cub is on top of my scar from the PT-26, so I took this photo using the finger that is numb and scarred from the 340.  Who knew flying civilian airplanes was going to be a combat sport?  ;)

I did the side view because of the light, but you can still see the divot.

The Hot One

I started the day in a Cub, went up with a couple different people to work on takeoffs and landings.  Lunch break, then flew in the pattern in the 172 until 8 pm.  It was nice and hot and sweaty.  Steve did too, had one more than I did, too.  Long day.

He was supposed to go to Michigan to look at and possibly buy a Champ.  We couldn't get there last night because of weather, so we were coming tonight.  Instead, the guy who knew we were coming to do that sold it out from under us.  Not cool.

No word from Kaylee today.

Photos from Squirrels and today.

Me explaining something to a teenager in the Champ.

  Me and a young man in the Champ, Jerry and a young man in another Champ.

Aaron and I in the Cub this morning.

The Cub at Glenndale.

Squirrel

Tuesdays are Flying Squirrels day.  So at 9 am I went out to Glenndale, walked over and pulled out the Champ, chocked it, hand propped it all by myself, and since I had to taxi it anyway, I took it off, swung it around, and landed, taxiing up to the fuel pumps, tail up until I swung off the runway.  Having fun.

I had one student on a checkride this morning.  I was a little worried about him, because of the winds forecast.  Come to find out, I didn't need to be worried about the winds with him, I needed to be worried about him being thrown a curveball.  But he passed, and we have a new private pilot.  Whew!  Checkrides are so stressful for the CFI as well as the poor guy on the ride.  :)

And speaking of the winds, whew, today was a ride.  And this is going to sound braggy, and I'm sort of sorry about that, but I'm proud of our people.  The winds ended up being very swappy and gusting, a direct crosswind that sometimes would be a 10 degree headwind, then would be a tailwind, but averaged a direct crosswind, gusting over 25 knots.  We're in these three little taildraggers, two Champs and a Chief.  We warned the kids it was going to be a rough ride, and even though most of them had only ever been in a small plane once, they were all in.  The instructors didn't hesitate, the kids didn't hesitate, and we got the job done.  I wonder how many places would have three instructors  in light tailwheels taking up 14-17 year old kids in 25 knot direct swirly crosswinds slipping down over the wires, down past the turbulent trees, swapping to a tailwind and shoving you around, and stopped by half way, these days?  It was fun, we all had a really good time, even the kids, and it's been a fun camaraderie.

One of my guys, Tom, this was his second year in the program and he's moved to the 172 too.  Well, I was letting him do the takeoff and landing.  The other two I did today, it's their first and second time ever in an airplane.  I let them do most of the takeoff, but I did the full landing.  So Tom does such a great job on the takeoff I decide I'll let him do the landing when we're done.  He's working it, does a nice slip down final, gets us straightened out, kept the nose straight, wing down into the wind, a gust blows him up, he works it with power, gets shoved down the runway and waits for the sink, finally 3-point lands it, nicely, aileron into the wind and tail pinned.  We're rolling out, done flying, we think, and suddenly a big gust comes along and lifts the whole plane back up a couple feet.  It took us both by surprise. I rescued that, and we parked it, But I was impressed with how he handled it.  He did better than most general tailwheel pilots would in the same conditions.  He hasn't soloed a tailwheel yet, but I bet he could.  I want to get him in my hands on a nice day and see if he's consistent and good with it.  Anyway.

So we had fun.  We were done around 3 pm or so, all 9 kids got in an hour flight each.  Everyone was smiling and laughing, all learned something, all had fun, and so did we "grown-ups".

Tonight we were supposed to go to Michigan in the 172 since that's all that's flying right now, and look at the Champ one of our guys is going to buy for the school.  It's a really good deal, and we  really want to lock it in.  But a line of weather was just all over in the way, and in that airplane, at dark, it just was too iffy.  So we ixnayed the flight and went to dinner at Half Moon instead, and will try to go again tomorrow evening if we can.  Maybe just Steve and Steve going since both Steve S and I have students at 6 pm and hate to cancel both of them...

Good day.  Satisfying.

No word from Kaylee, other than she called Steve at dinner.  We thought something was wrong as she never calls, but no, he'd butt-dialed her twice, so she was calling him to make sure nothing was wrong.  :)  No idea how else she's doing.  Hopefully okay.  I sent her some Snapchats today, of her kitties, and Grandma's flowers, and me with a funny face filter.  Just to make her smile.  But I don't think she's opened them yet.  Busy girl...

Whee Wee

I haven't heard from Kaylee today, other than a Snapchat she sent me of a giant spider at camp.  It WAS big, too, it was as big as a wooden slat that it was on.  Nasty.

I was supposed to have three flights today.  Instead I had none.  The morning guy is sick and called to cancel while I was driving to the airport.  The afternoon guy had been in a car accident the day before and wasn't feel right yet.  The third person didn't need 25 knot gusting crosswinds while trying to learn to flare.  So instead I got the airport bills folded, stuffed, stamped and mailed, and then went to get drug tested.

Steve was notified that he had to notify me that I was randomly selected for a random drug test for our Checkertail flight/ride program.  Said notification had sat in our box for days, so it needed to be done asap.  The form listed a place in Marion, but said I could go to other locations.  One such location was Kokomo, so that's where I went before lunch.  When I drove up, I thought, "wow".  This place was sketchy.  An old run down house turned into a "lab", waiting room that smelled like K-Mart, the old-style Goodwill, and pee, full of people giving me a hairy eyeball when I walked in.  I was like, uhhhhh.  The lady behind the counter informed me that they did not do DOT drug tests and I'd have to go to Marion or Carmel.  So I went to lunch.

At lunch I made sure to drink a lot, because I otherwise can go a long time without needing a restroom break.  This is important later in the story.

I drive to Marion.  It's a 50 minute drive.  There's an older gentleman coming in behind me, so I hold the door for him and he signs in, and there are three other people waiting.  Not bad, right?  Unfortunately, the nurse was drawing blood from two small children.  There was a partition, but no walls, and it was all one small room, and you could hear her explaining to the children all about the heat pad and the vein and the trouble she had getting one of them done, and she had to "do it again" on one of the kids, and one started sobbing, and the poor things were trying so hard to be brave, and all I could think was three things:  1) That poor mom and kids.  2) Steve would fall off his chair listening to all of these details of a blood draw and 3) I have to pee and there are four people in front of me and we're still working on the blood draw and I've been here half an hour already.

By the time the older gentleman's turn was up, which I selfishly remembered would have been my turn if I had rushed in instead of waiting, I considered asking for the cup first and could we do the paperwork later.  But he just needed some supplies to take home.  That was fast.  Finally it's my turn.  She enters my info, and then can't get the form to take.  She calls me over and asks if I have a "procedure number".  No. She can't get it to work, can't get it to work, so I give her the phone number of the place.  It takes her three minutes to stop trying to call my phone number and instead call the right one, and once she does they have no idea what she's talking about.  Come to find out, she just didn't mark that this was for the FAA.  Finally, paperwork is accepted.  Many minutes later.

Once all that's solved, I'm supposed to deposit my stuff into a box in the bathroom. It's a small box, and my purse doesn't fit in it.  I can't close the lid.  She says I must, and she must lock it.  I ask if I can leave it outside the restroom.  She says no.  It must go in the box.  I say how about I take it back to my car.  She says no, once I'm here, it's all 'registered' and must go with me into the bathroom and be locked in the box.  The small box.  She said most people don't bring purses.  Pardon me for being unfamiliar with drug testing particulars, but the last place I had to do it didn't do that, and that's stupid.  So we take stuff out of my purse and cram things down into that box so she can lock it.  Here is where I'm losing my composure.  It's now been over 2 hours since I used the restroom and drank a lot of tea in preparation for this test.  I'm standing in a bathroom with a cup and a woman who won't leave until the purse I could be sneaking pee contraband in but that she won't let me take out of the room fits into a box it doesn't fit into to prevent me from accessing the potential contraband pee for the test, even though taking it out of the room would be preventing said potential contraband pee too.  See my problem here??

I've rarely been so glad to use the restroom in my life.

After that, I had to come home and take a nap, I was worn out.  ;)

Tomorrow I have a student on a checkride, I have the Flying Squirrels all morning/early afternoon, and then Steve and I are going to Michigan with another guy to look at a Champ up there.  Fingers crossed for my checkride guy...

Top two photos by Justin, bottom two by me.

Steve talking to some and me talking to a couple.

Climbing up in the plane, looking around...

The line-up of airplanes on the ramp.  Funny thing--I've flown or do fly three of the types, and will be flying the fourth.  That's pretty cool, to me anyway.  :)

Justin found this, cracked me up, I don't think you could find a more perfect 'message' on a chocolate bar, particularly for a hot summer rides program.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the men in our lives.  To Steve, who I've enjoyed watching be a really good dad to both Devon and Kaylee.  Gentle, firm, guiding, always present, willing to sacrifice for them, and for me.  Richard, who was a role model for Steve, and others, and is missed.  To all the grandfathers on each side, who all did what they needed to do to take care of theirs, and helped grow a strong generation of men and women.  Fathers don't really get a lot of kudos, but a good father can make such a positive impact, can make all the difference.

Kaylee is not having a good time at camp, unfortunately.  She feels as though she has fewer responsibilities and freedoms than she did even as a plain old camper.  They aren't allowed to be alone, they aren't allowed to do much of anything, she was only allowed to ride in a car with one of five adults, but not even with the senior staff who are all over 18, they took their phones away at least for some time frame, even though even the campers are supposed to be able to have phones this year.  She was pretty unhappy when she contacted me yesterday.  I haven't heard from her today, although she did send Steve a Father's Day note and kisses.  She feels as though she's made a commitment to the camp, but we're not so sure that she needs to fulfill this one, since they're the one that changed all the rules and the way things were done.  We'll see.  I feel bad for her, she LOVED that camp, and everything about it.  Her last message was that she wished they'd change the name of the camp, because they changed everything else and it's not PHOC any more anyway.  So...prayers for her...

We went to Huntington today to give rides in the T-6.  Ideally we would have liked to have had t-shirts and hats to sell, and had our trailer with its nice wrap on it, and given a bunch of rides.  But the trailer didn't get done, the hats and t-shirts were wrong and won't be ready until next week, and the winds were unpleasant at that airport.  On the one end of the runway you get a lot of wind currents swirling through the trees.  But there is also a big ditch and some terrain that causes wind currents to be messy going past that, too.  Winds when I landed were around 23 or so knots, but it felt more like 32, and I was working it hard.  When I finally got down, I was glad to be down. 

So when we didn't give any rides, I wasn't that sorry.  We could have gone up, taken a rider, made some noise over the city, and any other time I'd have been down for that, but I didn't really feel like it was maybe the best plan to add in more high tension landings than necessary.   Even the takeoff when I went to leave skittered me around.  Back at Kokomo the winds were a 50 degree crosswind at 18-19 knots, and even though that was a challenge in the T-6 too, it at least felt like a normal challenge and not a "holy crap" challenge.  I said it before, but it both amuses and slightly annoys me that I'm not as comfortable in gusty winds in that plane as I am in any other airplane I've flown.  I wouldn't have thought twice about anything else in 18-25 knot winds, even the Champs, and they weigh a lot less and get blown around a lot more.  I am waiting for the day when I feel as normal doing a 25 knot crosswind in the Six as I do in the 172, but then again, I have 3500 hours in a 172, and it's just a tad more stable, so...guess I should give myself a break.  lol

We had an interesting time there anyway, talking to the on field folks.  Learned a few things we found very...interesting.  But two surprising things came out of today.  One: I will be doing some flight instructing up there with a lady in an L-2.  So far I've only ever flown one once, with Doug R., but he made sure I could handle it in that one flight.  ;)   I will then also be flying with her in a Cub, once the engine is back on the Cub.  It's a 95 hp engine though so I'm not sure what to do with that much power in a Cub.  When she's comfortable with the light taildraggers, I'll be checking her out in the Yak 52TW.  That one I've flown two or three times, but it was really easy too.  In fact, it's the same airplane I flew, owned by the man who committed suicide in his other Yak 52.  It's been repainted and refurbished.  So I'll be able to fly their Cub, L-2 and Yak 52, and help bring someone up to speed in them, which will be fun.  

But the bigger shocker was Two: I was offered the opportunity to be "typed" or checked out in a TBM Avenger.  I didn't know what to say at first, I was a little stunned, but then I said I'd love to.  He said that he only got his type in it because someone gave him a chance at it and he'd like to pay that forward to me and Nathan.  He said that the plane needs flown more than he can do it and he'd like someone to fly it.  That's so generous, and only two things bring me hesitation.  I think he means he's covering the costs, but I don't want to be a mooch, and I flat out couldn't "feed" that airplane for long.  Secondly, that thing is huge.  It's a beast.  I've tried to find photos, but without something else in the image for comparison, you can't tell how BIG these things are.  The wings fold, this is cool.  And at gross weight it sits at almost 18,000 lbs.  That is more than three times the weight of the T-6.  More than 6000 lbs heavier than the Cheyenne. I've read it's a "docile" airplane, and boy I hope so because imagining the T-6 at triple the weight and ten feet higher in the air makes me raise an eyebrow.  It's got a 1900 hp radial engine, too, more than triple the horsepower of the T-6 too.  Of course it needs it with that much weight.  He said groundschool is in August.  It's a single-control airplane.  That means that when I fly it after the ground school, I'll either be the only one in the airplane for the first flight, or if anyone else is in there, they won't have any controls.  So that's interesting.  I'd rather take off out of there and find another airport to do my first few takeoffs and landings at without being filmed, observed, etc. if I could.  lol  Anyway, that's very exciting.  Steve brought up that he didn't know how many female TBM pilots there were, so I googled it and came across an article about one such woman, who owns half of one, and it says she is one of only two women in the country to have a type rating for a TBM.  That's kind of cool too, I think.  :)  

It's funny how you never know what's around the corner.  I sure wouldn't have expected this.  I'm grateful and thankful for Nathan and the opportunities he's given me, without which this one would never have come up.  And Steve, I wouldn't be able to have done these things without him, either.  I know that things fall through sometimes, and it's not a done deal until it's actually happening, but even if it doesn't happen, it should be a reminder that you never know what's around the corner.

Now it's time to beat it to bed.  Here are a couple pictures of it, but like I said, it won't make a difference without some perspective on size...

Us

Friday I had lessons off and on all day, from 8 am to 7 pm.  It was hot, I was tired, took a break for lunch at Glenndale, came home and watched Netflix until I went to bed early. Steve had friends over.
I heard from Kaylee that she is working on being certified in CPR, First Aid, and AED training.  I have to go Google that one now, as I have no idea what AED training is.  (Okay, Automatic External Defibrillator.  Don't those have directions that tell you what to do step by step as you go right on the unit?  Anyway, cool, got it.)  As of this afternoon she is officially certified in First Aid.  She texted me that she's too busy to talk, so I'll wait to see what she says tonight when she goes to bed.  No photos because she's not at camp with campers, just counselor training and they don't post parent pictures for that one for some reason.  ;)

This morning I had a student at 8 am, who apologized three times for making me get up so early, and handed me a fresh donut (in a bag) as a peace offering.  Now this is my kind of student.  ;)  I didn't even eat the donut, I gave it to Steve, but the gesture made my morning.

The winds and turbulence were picking up by the time we finished, and she's working on the pattern, so we ended at a good time.  Right after that, I was supposed to go up with Kayleigh B in the T-6.  Her first hour was in a Cub with me, her first flight in a warbird was in Checkertail with me, and she was .6 away from breaking 100 hours tailwheel time, so she wanted to do that with me in an official T-6 checkout start.  So we did.  The winds had me feeling iffy about it.  The forecast was for 25 knot gusts, and it kept going from fairly close down the runway to 50 degrees off the runway.  If it's 25 knots down the runway or within about 30 degrees, fine.  If it's 25 knots 50 degrees off the runway and I'm in the back and this is someone's first flight in the T-6 and they're doing it and I have to save it, now I'm not feeling so relaxed.  But the winds didn't get up to 25 for one thing, I think I heard them top out around 17 or so.  When we were coming down final, the winds were 50 degrees off.  When we leveled off to flare, the winds were almost right down the runway.  Thanks for that, I appreciated it, Mother Nature, or Lord, or both!  I stuck a box that Nathan used for Jamie in the back of the Mustang so he could see, under my parachute.  That sat me up so high my head was close to the canopy.  But by George I could see!  Lol  It totally feels like cheating though.  I've never had a cushion that stayed up high enough that I could see well, and I've flown it without any cushion at all back there, blind, but for today I just wanted the extra insurance.  The flight went well, we didn't do a lot, but there's a lot to learn, go over, etc. from preflight to start up to taxi to takeoff to slow flight and turns, to landing.  It took an hour just to do those things, and is plenty to remember for the first time.  Next up we'll do steep turns, slow flight, and probably stalls, and start in on takeoffs and landings.

Tomorrow we're supposed to go to Huntington to give T-6 rides.  The weather is questionable. Possibility of storms throughout the day, and higher winds, and at Huntington that's always not fun, thanks to the runway being surrounded by trees.  It's rough and turbulent coming in there with less than 10  knots of wind, let alone double that.  So, hoping that it'll be reasonable for both the riders, and me tomorrow.

Double rainbow at Kokomo yesterday

Kayleigh in the front seat

That bar is in an unhandy spot for backseaters, but I'm okay with that.  

Hahaha!!

The two of us after the flight.

Camp 2017 Round One

I was supposed to fly this morning, and have another student go solo, but the clouds were low and it just didn't happen.  I've been scheduled at 8 am for three days in a row, and I had to get up this morning at 6:30 to be ready by 8, only to not go.  Get to get up at 6:30 tomorrow, and on SATURDAY too.  Boo.

Kaylee's phone fell out of her bag this morning at school, and hit just right on the concrete, shattering the face of it.  There's a place in town that replaces phone screens in a short time frame, so we picked her up from school, took the phone and dropped it off, went to lunch, went home and packed, and then picked up the newly healed phone and headed to the airport to go to Ohio.    It took them longer than they said it would, but they got the job done nicely.

When we took Kaylee to camp, she was a little nervous about how it would go with all these changes.  When she walked in though, several of the people she knew were there, and would run up and give her a hug, and she lit up when she saw them.  On the bad side, they are in a small cabin and the new coordinator said that they are out of beds, and bringing more beds in.  So she'll be sleeping in a super crowded room with a ton of girls in a small space for a week.  I'm out right there.  I hope she does okay.  The weather is beautiful, the scenery is beautiful, she has friends there, and she's at her favorite camp, so hoping for a good day.

(She just texted me that they are getting rid of the requirement for everyone to use a camp name.  She's "Pineapples", something she was really excited to get and have.  She says most of them are going to keep doing it anyway, and she's disgruntled that they would get rid of that fun tradition that didn't hurt anyone or have any possible liability associated with it.  I say she's right.  Why not keep up that fun tradition?  So she and the others who have been there before are doing it anyway.)

Cell off to the left headed our way as we took off from the airport.

I Snapchatted this photo on the way to OH at FL190

The restaurant we went to, with orange cinnamon tea and live flowers, a view of hills and trees.

Sunset, with some storm clouds in the distance.

Sunset

Stormy

Whew it was a steamy one.  I'm hoping that I get over saying that soon.  After all, it is mid-June, and it's supposed to be hot.  So it is.  Time to deal with it.  But I still don't like it.  High of 90 today, muggy, and this afternoon stormy.  I got my 1 pm flight in, and then the rest of the day got stormed out, but not consistently enough that I could just go home.  I sat out at the airport from 2:30-5:30 pm waiting on weather.   So out of the time I spent at the airport, 1 pm - 5:30 pm in total, I got .9 flight time in.  Very efficient use of time.  ;)

I did notice that I'd bee drinking a lot of water and tea, of course, and I saw a bag of chips, and I really, really wanted some.  Big time craving.  I was practically licking the salt off the chips, and they tasted so good.  Then I realized what I was doing.  The ole body tells you what it needs sometimes, and mine needed some salt.

Kaylee had gym this morning, then a pool party at a friend's house.  Afterwards one of the friends came back over to our house, and she's here right now.  I just ordered a pizza, which should be here shortly, and I'm finishing up the series "The Son" with Pierce Brosnon while we wait and do other work on the computers.

Hot day, but worthwhile.

Hot Squirrels

That sounds wrong, but I'm okay with that.  ;)

Today was the first day of the Flying Squirrels.  It Was Hot Today.  They had ground school from 9-10:30 am, and then we had flights.  I had three kids that I flew with, for an hour each, and we took an hour break for lunch.  The weather was starting to surround us, but held off just long enough for us to get it all done, around 3 pm.  The kids I had were excited to be flying an airplane.  One got sick but didn't throw up, and all the kids in the program who flew today had a good time except one who isn't quite sure about it all yet.  It's hard to remember they're 14-17 years old, they're kids.  I'm not treating them like kids, but like students.  I don't know if the others are or not.  One of the girls I had, she already had ten hours of flight time.  Except she didn't know anything.  So people had flown around with her for ten hours and made it all fun joyrides and not told her what RPM was or how to taxi on the ground, or what a throttle was.  That didn't help her in any way--she wants to be a corporate pilot.  So I took her up and worked her out for an hour.   Cute girls don't get away with anything with me.  ;)

Kaylee had summer gym this morning, and then she had a party this afternoon.  She has some fun plans coming up, and camp training week starting Thursday afternoon.  So she's staying busy too, but not as crazy as while during school!

Pennsylvania Heat

I flew three fellows to Lancaster, PA today.  One was picking up his new to him airplane, one was I think his son, and the third was a friend going along to help him look stuff over.   The trip was fine.  Just hot and bumpy on the way home, but fine.  I got a nice sushimi tuna salad with greens at the restaurant on field out of it, which was nice, and the rest of the time I waited there while they looked over this new plane.  I let the son do some flying.  He's a student pilot, an A&P.   He did pretty well with it, actually, but I did the takeoffs and landings.  I let Fryman land the other day, but today I wasn't in the mood, nor being paid to be an instructor, so this time I just did the fun stuff and let him be the autopilot.  :)

Did I mention it was hot and bumpy?  Wheew.  Some of the road signs said 93 degrees when I got down, so I don't know, but it was toasty.

Without further ado.

Pictures taken by one of my riders, who wants to maybe start coming up here for lessons

Happy rider.

Kaylee far left waiting to be given her certificate.

Shaking hands and receiving her certificate

Having just received her certificate.

Clapping while someone else receives their certificate

And a brighter version.  ;)

Kaylee's immediate group.  The girl to the right of her (looking at the photo) had the same first name and wasn't her favorite person there.  Everyone else, she really enjoyed and felt pretty close to.

The certificate given.  It'll still be a week before any other photos come out from them...

Somewhere around Pittsburgh, PA

The inside of a cloud.  Or maybe my eyes were closed.  I WAS tired...