Monday Monday

So, we're back.  We had scheduled ourselves off for this morning, which was good for me.  The bed felt so good last night, the shower felt so good this morning, everything felt soooo good.  It was a really good time, and one I needed, a full on vacation, no extra trips, no mid-week shenanigans, no stressful early morning flights, just an actual vacation.  It was great.  It makes me ready to expand more again next year and do a few other things, but for this year, it was exactly what I needed it to be.  The last few years felt like Oshkosh was for and about everybody else.  It was work.  I was worrying about weather, getting in and out of the area IFR repeatedly, taking my first major trip solo in the Cheyenne and had a few problems, taking the T-6 there is an honor but it was also a lot of stress, trouble with the radios, trouble getting in, trouble on a photo shoot.  Even flying the PT in the airshow.  It was fun, I needed and wanted to do it, but it's also a day of meetings, briefings, flying, and stress, as I was being observed by the head of the CAF on the ground, the winds were a 27 knot direct crosswind, and it wasn't exactly a cake walk.  I missed most of the campsite events, the fires, the dinners.  At one point last year I remember thinking, as I sat at home waiting to take my next business flight, that I didn't even feel like going back up afterwards.  I was burned out on working Oshkosh trips.  This trip was a breath of fresh air that reminded me what I love about going.

Kaylee and I spent time Friday going to see a high school production play of Footloose.  Which was great.  We went out to eat and chatted afterwards.  We went to an outdoor reenactment of a USO Club event for the WWII era.  Singers, skits, in the dusk to dark, in our camp chairs.  We went to see "Hidden Figures" at the outdoor movie theater there, and that was a great movie, by the way, and we really enjoyed that.  We all went to the night air show, and got rained on, and liked it anyway. When that B-1 went by at dusk with afterburners aglow, I literally got goosebumps.  That thing is incredible. I went to the bomber show by myself on Saturday.  Again, stunning.  Two B-29s in close formation,  never seen in the last 50-60 years.  A Missing Man formation of two B-29s and two B-25s.  Wonderful.  We ate with our camp mates, had fantastic dinners both at camp and at our favorite places.  Kaylee got to spend a day with a friend up there, and they went shopping, driving off in a car together for the first time, instead of their bikes or their mom taking them somewhere.  The kids who used to slide down the hill on cardboard are all grow up.  *sniff*

All in all, it was worthy, and relaxing (after that first day when the trailers finally arrived), and fulfilling, and had spectacular scenery, and had record-breaking attendance, and I did get to connect with a couple of people and do some networking that was helpful, and I'm glad I went, and looking forward to next year.  Who knows what next year will bring, but there are some interesting possibilities.

So today I slept in until 8:30, which is really 7:30 Oshkosh time, so that wasn't too bad.  I did stuff around the house, putting away bags, doing laundry, organizing.  Lunch with the gang for the first time in awhile, which was nice, and then I had a cross-country flight with a kid Kaylee's age.  He's suuuuper quiet.  So many young teenage boys are so very quiet in flight training.  They don't get hard to deal with until they get to be in their 20s.  THEN they're more cocky and mouthy and get on my nerves.  But the teens are usually tough to get to interact or communicate.  It's sort of cute.

I got a message that a Cub needed flown from Glenndale to Kokomo today, before its annual expired at midnight.  So I did that, and really enjoyed the flight.  I did a couple of spin entries just for the fun of it, and it makes me smirk to see that  bottom door start lifting up right as a perfect stall indicator.  The Cub just doesn't want to get into or stay into a spin with me in the back and nothing up front, so it's more like an entry that goes right into a steep spiral.  More power helps.  Anyway.  Then on to a couple of takeoffs and landings in different configurations to wake the feet up.  I parked the Cub in the maintenance hangar (not ours), and then had a guy run me back to Glenndale in the 172.  It had been awhile since he'd done Glenndale takeoffs and landings, so we did three of them there and worked out some kinks, over the wires (dum de DUN).  I drove back from there to Kokomo, where I pulled out the T-6.

First, I had trouble getting it out.  I had to unhook and rehook on the tug to get it out as I was in an awkward spot.  Then I get it out, check the fuel, and it's only got 20 gallons a side.  That's not enough.  It's also 6:10 pm and the field just closed.  ARGH.  So I taxied over to the self serve pump and did that.  And then life got better.  ;)  I went up high and did some aerobatics for the first time since last year.  Felt pretty good and it was a beautiful day for it, too. Next up I went over to Marion to do some takeoffs and landings.  I did this because I saw some guys set some chairs up at an open hangar at OKK to watch as I went by, and I wanted to do things that might not go so perfectly, and I didn't want to be thinking about spectators.  Marion was deserted, so I went there.  I started with a normal 3-point landing, something I'd gotten too lax on lately.  And then I did some engine failures.  Jim hadn't had me practice those during my official checkout, and I'd not done it fully on my own, either.  There are a couple of areas in the plane I feel like I need to expand the envelope on, and that is one.  It's hard on the engine to just pull it to idle, which is one of the reasons we just haven't done it.  But I don't want my first engine failure in it to be for real, either, so today I practiced three or four of them, as gently as I could.  One time I had to give it a quick burst of power to assure hitting the runway, although I probably would have made it, but...probably isn't the best plan.  ;)  But the others went really well.  I left feeling pretty pleased about them.  I'd wanted to do them to a 3-point landing, and while one was a tad flat and ended up being a tail low wheel landing on accident, it was still nice and right about where I was aiming for.  So I feel good about that practice today.  It was worthwhile.  I have a few more things to work on and hit coming up soon, HOPEFULLY this Sunday.  I hope weather and schedule allows, as there's a lot coming up I need to do and I need to be prepared for it...

Kaylee is working hard on her summer work, getting things done.  Some assignments are due Thursday, and she's gotten one out of three of those done so far.  Tomorrow's Tuesday.  She has a lot of reading and paper writing to do by Thursday.  :o

Wednesday I go pick up Ann from Tennessee, Friday I have a trip to Oklahoma City for MBros, Saturday is T-6 rides at Indy Exec for their Down's Syndrome event, Sunday is hopefully some aerobatic stuff in the morning and then another trip to Oklahoma City that evening.  Should be a busy but good week if mother nature cooperates.

I have way too many photos, man.  Here are today's.  Oshkosh's will probably have to go on my website...I'll let you know when they're up.

Takeoff, out the open door of the Cub, out of Glenndale's Runway 36.

I had two hair scrunchies this time ready to go. Sitting in my car waiting. Saw them 15 minutes before the flight.  Could not find them anywhere.  Stuck with tornado hair again.

So beautiful out.  Me climbing up to a safe and responsible altitude.

Blue on the bottom.  You know, I've learned I don't do rolls left-handed very well.  ;)

 

Pretty sun and sky.

Right handed rolls went better.  ;)

Immature selfie

Coming close to the ground for a shadow photo op...

And closer...

And close enough!  Time to go ahead and go around.

Home

I took about 300 photos.  I've gotten through 200 of them and am working on the last of them, but it's 11 pm and we're wiped out.  I'll keep working while some important laundry finishes up, and then I'll be back tomorrow to write up a bit of the week.  I hadn't brought a keyboard this time, so hand pecking a finger at a time on the iPad for a whole blog entry was too onerous.  But all that to say, we're home, we're doing well, time to settle back into work routines once we catch up, and all is well.

Better!

I tried to post yesterday but the internet bogged down hard. That doesn't usually happen on Sunday, but then again they closed the field to all but show planes on Sunday afternoon because Oshkosh is FULL. Before it even officially starts. Campgrounds are full. The roads are traffic-jammed. It's kind of crazy!

The weather is kind of crazy too. We sweltered for two days. Sweating right out of the shower, 80% humidity. Yesterday a front went through, a low of 55, and we were all in long pants and jackets yesterday evening. Today is gorgeous. High in the 70s, blue skies, a perfect aviation day. Steve and AE are off to the buildings, and Kaylee and I will meet them for lunch inside the flightline.

Yesterday we went to go to Artie and Ed's for lunch, but they had a 45 minute wait so we went to Culvers. Not really Oshkosh fare, but fast and we were hungry. ;) That evening we went to a Bonanzas to Oshkosh event we've been invited to for years and never made it to. We started off feeling awkward as we didn't know to bring chairs, so we were standing in a group in front of the big group. Then someone got us chairs, they had some major things raffled off including two rides with Aeroshell (ack!!).  That was just wrapping up so we could eat, when a rain shower hit. Everyone scrambled. Most people ran for the one tent. Our crew can't stand being herded into a tight space with a large group, so we ran for airplanes. Kaylee and I got under one Bonanza wing, Steve, Tummers and Nathan ducked under another wing, George and Karen found a third, and AE crouched under a V-tail. We mostly stayed dry, except for our chairs. When it passed, it was food time. BBQ chicken and beef, spinach salad with strawberries and almonds, green beans with almonds, corn on the cob, mac and cheese, sweet rolls, pecan or cherry pie, lots of beverages. Good stuff. We saw the sun go down over a sea of over 115 Bonanzas, and came back for a cooled-down evening of chatting.

Two nights ago our fire wouldn't stay lit. The wood just would not burn with flame. No popping or hissing like it was wet or green, either. So we'll see what happens tonight--that was a lot of work to keep firing up the pile!

We got our wristbands yesterday--solid black this year--and we are ready to hit it, with most of the group already up and gone by 8:30 am.  Everybody you pass is excited and eager and energetic. Won't be that way Friday, unless they're new, but it's neat to see.  I woke up to the sound of T-6s taking off as usual. It is a good sound. I tried to decide if I wanted to be there too or if I liked being in my bed listening to them. I'm still not sure, but leaning towards bed, this morning anyway. ;)

Time for a cup of coffee and to look into what we want to do today...

So It Begins, Trial and Error

Wednesday night Steve told Kaylee to be up and ready no later than 9 am, asked her what time she wanted us to check and make sure she was up, etc. So she was up, packed and by the door at 9 am. Meanwhile, neither Steve nor I were feeling it. I had a low grade headache, he was feeling iffy, and then I pulled up the radar to find a wad of stuff between us and Oshkosh. So we sat and waited. By the time we got going, we were pushing being late to get a text from the people we were renting campers from. Kaylee was annoyed to be up early and ready when neither of us was. ;).

We took the 172RG up. It would be a 1 hr 50 minute flight direct. Because we don't fly over the lake single engine any more much, it became a 2 hr 10 minute flight. Except it wasn't. Strong headwinds meant we were doing 100 kts. groundspeed, and Chicago re-routed me three or four times.  By the time we arrived around 3 pm their time, 4 pm ours, we were already tired for the day.

Nobody directed us where to park, so I parked on the ramp by the building. We unloaded. We tried to tie it down with our own straps but it was too far away on one side. So we got in and repositioned the plane, and THEN we got our straps back out and got two out of three done...before a line guy came over and said we couldn't park there. Fine. We untie. We offer to go to the grass. They say no, we can leave you on the ramp no problem, just over here. Fine. We tie back down, get out the complicated cover and get it on while I go inside. She tells me it's $20/day to tie down on the ramp. We're here for 11 days. Ouch. She agrees to cut it down to 8 days if we buy gas. OK. Afterwards I mention the grass, and she says "that's a one-time $15 fee." Would've been good to know. 

Now we're more annoyed and tired, but hey, we're at Oshkosh! It's. very hot and humid. Now we wait for our trailers. And wait, and wait. What started as 4 pm became 6, then 7, then 8. We hadn't eaten except a quick cheeseburger before we left Kokomo. Starving. Hot. Tired. Been sitting outside all afternoon. First trailer arrives. We go eat at Red Robin and hurry back to be here by 9:45 pm for second trailer. Second trailer doesn't show until after 11:30 pm their time.  We're exhausted. We can't even set ourselves up, all our bedding and stuff is in the camp trailer. We all just fell on top of the beds and fell asleep like that, no sheets or blankets, and sleept on top all night.

The next day it got even better when we found out that the one RV has dead batteries and no propane, so no lights, toilet, or hot water during hours the generator isn't on. Ours lost its generator but that was ok, either it started working again or Steve fixed it.

Not a real glorious start.

We're way back by the highway. When the guys got here Tueesday, everything was already taken until they got back here. It IS right next to a shower house, but the showers are the ones with no changing area. So I likely won't use those again. But the toilets right there are great!

Yesterday evening Kaylee and I had fun though. We went to a local high school play of "Footloose". I've "known" a group of women since Kaylee was born, online forum called "Moms of November Babies" back then. Kaylee is obviously not a November baby, she came two months later, but it was a group of ladies who have asked questions and supported each other for 17 years now (during pregnancy too). One of them lives in Oshkosh. She suggested we come see her daughter in a play, "Footloose". Well, Kaylee likes plays and I like Footloose and plays, so win/win! They rewrote the plot some, which does not please me. But they had some really good singers and actors/actresses in it. Willard was awesome. He killed it. Mrs. Shaw was really food. Arial was good. Ren and Rev Shaw were really weak/off. The play lasted three hours. At intermission a girl behind us said "Some of those songs are like real songs, like that hero song. Was this a show or something?" Ack! I furiously started texting Kaylee, who had heard it too. Who doesn't know Footloose?! It's nuts.

At intermission I went to buy a cookie/beverage and the woman selling it said "Are you Laura?" It was Katie, the November Mom! Her daughter was Rusty, and did a great job too. Awesome voice! We connected afterwards and talked for a few minutes. It was a nice connection. :)

Afterwards Kaylee and I went out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings (one of the only places open that late, but was good) then hit "Insomnia Cookies" for dessert. Home around 11:30 and everyone else was already in bed. It was an hour later our time, so didn't blame them.

Today Steve Tummers made breakfast, I read a book, Kaylee worked on homework, we went to Johnnie Rocket's, everyone hit the stores for supplies, and Steve tries to figure out how to help on the wounded trailer...grilled chicken for dinner tonight. :)

Bloggus Interruptus

We've had a few changes of plan, and I think it's coming together here.

This morning I had a "discovery flight" with a well-coiffed woman who was surprised at how small the airplane was.  She said she hoped she got along with me because she was about to put her life in my hands.  We got along fine, fortunately.  ;)

After her, I came home and got Ann, and flew her to Tennessee to be with the Cherry family for the next couple of weeks.  It was HOT today.  Really hot.  Up at altitude it's not bad though.  On the way there I went up to 8000', and found myself dodging build-ups.  I went around some cells, and all was well, until I looked ahead at a wall of buildups that were not good.  I couldn't get over them in the Aerostar, so I requested lower.  They didn't get back to me very fast, had me change frequencies, and by the time the next guys took my request and granted it, I had to dive to avoid punching into the middle of them.  So I was diving and turning and going around the biggest ones, and broke out at the bottom just in time so that we got very little turbulence.  I turned around and asked Ann if she was okay--that was a big descent rate and Kaylee's ears would have been screaming--and she gave me a smile and two thumbs-up.  :)

We've been working on getting ready for Oshkosh ever since.  I've done laundry and dishes and trash and packed bags and gathered stuff and made plans.  Looking forward to it, minus the hot and muggy thing we've got going on both here and there for a few days.  (It was like 96 degrees in TN, and not much better here!)

Yesterday I had students all day, from 9 am scheduled until 1 am.  I flew with them all up until I heard from Nathan that he was ready for me to come get him at Oshkosh.  So I grabbed the student scheduled for that time frame and had him go along with me.  Blue skies, right over the lake, two engines are our friends.  Whenever we got back, I had time to do the 9:30-12:30 night flight, but I no longer had the oomph.  I had been hot, sweaty and in a 172 alllll day, drinking a bottle of water after every lesson, and I was completely wiped out.  So I canceled that guy.  Only felt slightly bad, but I was done.

Well, tomorrow morning we leave for Oshkosh.  Not sure what time yet, depends on weather, but looking at mid-morning.  Here's hoping for a fun, relaxing, family Oshkosh time.

Monday

Kaylee had a friend over today and they worked on summer school projects that they have to have done by the time they go back to school--right when we get back from Oshkosh.  Right now they're out to dinner taking a break, before they come back and work a little more.  Chemistry is what I saw on the table.  I don't really miss school, for the record.  ;)

I had two flights today, and was really tired all day.  Came home and took a nap, felt better.

Steve finally finalized the three trailers we needed for Oshkosh, just now at 8:45 pm on Monday night when the advance team leaves tomorrow and he'd be up there Thursday.  That's a lot of pressure off now that that's done.  WHEW.

Tired...

Sunday

Kaylee bunkered down in her room most of the day, coming out around 4 pm for me to take her to a youth group serving the poor at the local outreach center thing, until 6 pm.  Then back to her room.  She's feeling a little better today, has slept a lot.

I slept in and it felt like I slept until 10 am or something, only to find out it was 8.  And I felt like I'd been sleeping in too long.  I got a lot done around here, including about 75 loads of laundry (or 7 or 8).  It was nice to have a day mostly at home.  I needed that, especially as we wind up here for Oshkosh.

Much of the day has actually also been spent staring online at Facebook.  A warbird pilot went down today, Vlado Lenoch.  I wouldn't call him a personal friend, although I interacted with him a few times, and he even hugged me the last time I saw him at the Columbus Air show and told me he enjoyed following my escapades on Facebook.  When he flew for that show, he'd eaten all these jalapenos, and was patting his stomach before he went, and when he came back he said "I taxied out and thought 'I still can't believe people pay me to do this.'"  He still had the real joy in what he did.  He was always laughing or smiling when I'd see him around at events, and I've never heard anybody say a bad word about him, which is unusual and unlikely for someone in his position of, well, fame and some form of power, at least in that community.

He was at an airshow in Kansas Saturday, and this morning he took the local airport manager, also a pilot, up for a ride in his P-51 Mustang, "Baby Doll".  They took off at 10 am and crashed around 15 minutes later, high rate of speed, big impact.  Nobody knows why.  I can't even imagine why.  That's what I want to know.  The guy was a legend.  He'd been doing aerobatics about as long as I've been alive, is one of the top in the country in what he does.  He grants aerobatic waivers to all the warbird people looking to do that low level for airshows.  He has thousands of hours of Mustang time, does airshows in them about every weekend.  So what on earth happened that on a pretty Sunday morning 15 minutes after takeoff on a pleasure flight, he went down in such a fashion that it was obviously not in control?  I keep thinking "heart attack??" even though most people think that of pilots they respect because they can't believe they'd make a mistake and it's almost never that.  But in this case, I'm just having trouble.  Back seater do something he ran out of altitude to get out of?  What??  Most aviation accidents don't shock me, especially in the airshow industry.  They walk a line and they and we all know it.  Training, practice, proficiency and judgement keep most of them safe.  But the margin for error is small.  But this one shocks me.  I await answers.

As I'm writing this, my arm is stinging.  See, yesterday I went to climb out of the 172, and my foot caught on my headset cord.  Desperately not wanting to pull on my $1000 headset cord, I jumped and lifted that foot really high, hopping backwards on my other foot--right into the wheel pant of the 172, which threw me to the ground like a misbehaving delinquent.  Of course I landed on my arm and hand and hip.  Hand and hip are fine.  Arm has a road rash scrape on it that hurts.  It isn't deep, it won't scar, it's just a scrape, but it's right on the bony part above your elbow and it stings every time I move my arm.  Dumb thing.  Steve said if I'm not careful I won't make it to 50.  Kaylee won't look at it.  She's had First Aid training, she should look at it.  ;)

Here are some photos.  These first three are from Jon Tharp on my maiden flight in the PT-26 after maintenance was completed on the engine.  I stayed above the pattern juuuust in case.  I thought these turned out nicely.

Next up are photos from a cross country I took with a student, with rain showers and a few cells nearby, my trip to S. Indiana, then our flight home from picking Kaylee up at camp.

I don't think we'll go this way...

Sunset in the RG

The 340 on the ramp in S. Indiana with the clouds breaking up.

I used a flash on phone to take a photo of the note on the back of the ladies' bathroom door.  The bathroom without a working light in it.

Sunset in the RG, headed west.

Sunset over Marion, I think. 

Steve pushing the RG away for the day.

Stuff and Stuff

Kaylee's home!

Okay, she didn't have the best time this year.  By the end of this week, she'd also gotten sick for the last two days, with what she called "The Double-headed Dragon".   I think you can figure out the reference, but if not...she wasn't feel well from either end.  So she starts out the week with a scratched cornea. blurry vision, headache and nausea from it, and ends the week with nausea and bathroom problems...at camp.  While she's doing manual labor like pulling weeds, picking up sticks (in the woods?), cleaning bathrooms and setting up the dining room/doing dishes.  Meanwhile having minimal time to actually spend with the kids, which is why she wants to be a counselor in the first place.  So she's had better times, but she's through it now, and home, and recuperating.  She's still sick today, but the good news is she doesn't have to do anything until Thursday or Friday when we head to Oshkosh.  She will decide later if she's going back or not.  She will ask to be approved as a Senior Counselor.  If they say no (you're supposed to be 18), she's definitely not going back as a Junior Counselor.  If they say yes, she will probably go back as a Senior Counselor.  So, we'll see.  The new director has a few management and dealing appropriately with workers and kids issues.  If we'd have known some of what we learned later back when we were there, Steve probably would have said something to him.  I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing that we didn't know until now some of how he dealt with the kids harshly.  Kaylee was sick, and was napping in the office, and he told her she couldn't lie down, and that she should report for work because he hadn't heard of any exceptions on work duties for the day.  She reported to her 'boss' who said "You are too sick to work, go lie down in the office!"  Kaylee said "Mark just told me to leave the office and that I couldn't lie down."  So the lady said "Well, sit here at the sound booth and just relax, then."  I mean, really??  Anyway.  She's home, she's resting up, she's fine, just not the kindest week.

My last post, Tuesday I mentioned a trip I was supposed to take.  We'd lost power at the house and I hadn't gotten much sleep, so the next night I went to bed around midnight, and was supposed to get up at 6 for this big day.  Instead, I woke up at 4:30 am and could not go back to sleep to save my life.  Two nights of low sleep.  We meet up at the airport, and four of us head south to pick up the Baron and the 5th person who was going along.  The plane was right out of annual and hadn't flown yet.  Not my favorite, but okay.  The mechanic is known for being shady.  Also not my favorite.  So we all load up, and on run-up I can't get the left prop to move no matter what I do with the lever.  That's bad.  So we taxi back, shut down, and the mechanic "fixes" it, he says.  I run it again, and this time it'll drop RPM a few hundred, but it won't go into full feather, at all.  I said "I'm out."  I'm not taking five people over the hills and trees of N. Carolina in a twin where I can't feather the left engine if need be.  I kind of really hated being the bad guy in this, because we had a whole complicated set up going.  We had four pilots and a mechanic meeting up with three other pilots to pick up three airplanes in one day and ferry home, and there were a lot of cogs in the machine, and I just shut it all down by refusing to go.  But if we'd have lost that engine, we would have had a windmilling propeller, with a ton of drag, and we *would* have gone down.  IF I got lucky I could have found a decent place to land, but where we were going isn't flat land, and landing a 6000 lb airplane with an 78-84 knot stall speed, it's a lot of mass and momentum.  Are the odds good that you won't lose an engine?  Yep.  Do I want to risk it knowing the outcome if it happens?  Nope.  So I (or the mechanic who left it like that right out of annual) ruined a lot of people's day and cost a fair amount of money.

Since I couldn't do that trip, we went out to eat and then came back to Kokomo, where the Flying Squirrels program was just ending for the summer.  The PT-26 was ready for test flights to check for oil leaks, so I took it up for a quick 15 minute flight, saw no problems, so took it back up for what was supposed to be an hour flight.  About 30 minutes into it, Ty called up on the radio and said "Hey guys.  Huge storm just to the west of us headed our way."  Everyone scrambled and landed except me, I waited by the pattern, trying to get more time in.  Then I saw the darkness coming, decided I didn't want to get caught in a taildragger in gusty storm winds, and landed.  The storm promptly missed us, but at least the airplane did well, no major leaks, and that was good to find out as now the plane could go home.

Thursday I didn't have to get up early, but I did wake up kind of early anyway.  After lunch I had flights all the way from 1 pm until a night time cross country starting at 10 pm.  I was already tired, but that wiped me out.  I fell asleep around 1 am, and had to wake up for an MBros flight around 7 am.  I'm lucky that they didn't want to leave earlier.  God must have given me a break and made them go a little later, because if it would have been one of those 5 am ones, I'd have had to call Uncle.  ;)

Friday morning.  The lack of sleep on previous days was catching up to me and I was feeling a little gritty.  This is what I posted about that morning on Facebook, because I don't feel like typing out all the details.  But the one FBO/desk guy shut himself in an office, door shut, and watched TV in there so loudly that it could be heard all through the building.  He was not exactly helpful or friendly.

The FBO guy probably wondered why I started laughing in the bathroom. But I'd been up till 1 am the night before doing a night cross country flight after a busy day full of hot and muggy flying. This morning I had a trip. It was supposed to be clear but wasn't, which is fine. One RNAV approach in it is. Their Coke machine said "change only". I'm a nickel short. Out to the plane and a quick search and I found the last nickel I needed to get the Coke. Desk fellow sees me feeding coins in and says "machine's broke but there's a water fountain". I said "Thanks-I have water, was hoping for caffeine." He says "There's coffee" and walks away. Coffee machine is out of water. I fix that. No cups. I can't find a cup. Consider sticking my head under the dispenser. Find an old used cup and rinse it out in a dirty sink. Hey, I have a good immune system. No sugar, sweetener, cream or spoon. All right, black is fine too. Internet password doesn't work. Fine, I have 3G. Go to the bathroom. It's a sealed thick door in a concrete room with no windows, and the light is burnt out. I can't see my hand in front of my face. Debate on leaving the door open but 1) it's a heavy steel door that swings shut anyway and 2) No. Back to the plane to get a flashlight to hold in my teeth so I can go to the bathroom. Drop the flashlight mid-transaction. And that, ladies and gents of the jury, is when I started laughing...

I got back from that trip around 2 pm. I stopped and got some food, then went back out to the airport, where Steve met me, and we took the RG to Ohio to pick up Kaylee from camp.  We landed  back here at 10:22 pm, and got home around 11 pm.  Another long day.  There's a funny story in there about Steve trying to fit in the back seat with Kaylee's big plastic three-drawer bin, but I'm too tired to flesh it out.  ;)

This morning I was able to sleep in until 8:30.  Woke up with a headache.  Of course.  Felt pretty puny all morning.  Packed up all our coats, sweatshirts, sheets, pillows, blankets, shoes, and loaded the car.  Took all that stuff to the airport for AE to load in the trailer going to Oshkosh.  Flew with a guy who brought his buddy along to do pattern work.  Still had a headache.  Paused, got gas, headache faded and went up to fly with another person getting ready for a CFII checkride.  I felt much better after that flight.  Steve and I went to dinner, and he brought Kaylee back some requested food, while I made a store run.  Now it's almost midnight but I don't feel like going to bed because tomorrow is sort of my day off and my time off started this afternoon and I don't want to rush it.  ;)

I did think it was funny though, this morning, working on stuff, it seems like one of those old people jokes.  There was a can on the counter, so I went to throw it in the recyclables.  That bag was full, so I pulled it out and took it to the deck for Kenny to pick up.  While on the deck I noticed that the cat's water was low, so I took the water container in to fill it up.  And so on.  Everything I did led me to something else I needed to do.  I eventually got fairly well caught up.  Except for laundry.  I was trying to pack stuff and I needed to do laundry to pack.  I have done four loads of laundry so far and haven't actually dented our actual clothes, just bedding, towels, etc.  Tomorrow I'll work on that.

M&M has new "caramel" M&Ms.  They are worthy.  In case you were wondering.

I'll throw some photos up tomorrow.  For now, I'm suddenly wiped out again.  Bedtime is calling.

Quick

We had more rounds of storms today, no tornadoes, but more flooding.  I flew, I spent some time with some local airport folks, I finished my Flight Instructor Renewal course, I ate Chicken and Noodles from the fair, and Steve found us a trailer for Oshkosh.  Kaylee said her eye is feeling better but she was still getting headaches, and is having a better time with the younger kids but is still not loving this year at camp and looks forward to it being done so she can hopefully come back next year as a senior counselor.

We lost power last night around 1 am, and I don't know how many hours it was out, but quite a few.  Didn't sleep all that well.  Tomorrow morning I'm up at 6 am to fly a twin I don't know very well loaded with five people to Georgia, to land on a 3800x40' runway, then North Carolina and then home.  Sounds fun...

DUCK

The weather was unstable all day, but we got all the flying in we were supposed to, which was great.  I soloed a guy, which is also fun, as always.

And then the weather tanked, and we ended up with a tornado warning, and quite a few funnel clouds spotted in Kokomo again.  I don't know yet what damage, if any, they incurred.  I watched one from the deck, rotate up and blow to the east.  The air was heavy and dark and super moist, you could just feel it.  It's still storming but the sirens quit going off, anyway.

Ann worked at the fair today, and brought us home some good church food from the fair, which we both enjoyed a lot.  :)

I haven't heard from Kaylee, the bugger, though I texted her and told her to text me.  She'd better get to it soon.  :p

I have started working on my CFI renewal course.  It is So dry and boring and takes forever.  I've completed 6 of the 12 or 13 required sections.  I'll try to keep working on it tomorrow.  I have to have it done before we leave for Oshkosh, as we get back Sunday the 30th and I expire Monday the 31st, and they need 3 business days to process it.  So...I'm getting it done now, hopefully tomorrow.  Yawn.

Home

Okay, NOW it's Sunday.  :)

I already wrote this on Facebook, so you can skip this part if you like, but Kaylee got back around 1 am Friday night/morning.  I was rubbing her back, as she was sore from whipping her head around (long story) and we were up kind of chatting.  I crawled in bed, and around 2 am she said she had something in her eye, and when she looked in a mirror, she saw a little white dot.  So I looked, and yes, there was a tiny white dot in the middle of her eyeball.  I tried rinsing it out with a contact solution, but it didn't help.  She tried wiping it off gently with wet toilet paper, and that didn't help.  She kind of freaked out, worried that it was a tic or something, but it's white.  So Steve Googled, and what he found was mostly an eye ulcer, but that really only happened with contact wearers.  But it's 2 am on a Friday/Saturday in a lodge in a state park in the middle of nowhere, Ohio.  So...we went to bed.

When she woke up, her vision was blurry, her eye burned and was watering, and it was sensitive to light.  So, that's not good.  We texted with Mike, the local eye doc and surgeon, and he wanted her seen right away, but we're in Ohio.  So...we got ready and drove her to a walk-in clinic at a nearby town, about 40 minutes away.  It was a little older and run-down-ish looking, not as nice as Kokomo's, and Kaylee glanced at me over it.  We waited about an hour before we were seen, by a young I'm pretty sure Nigerian Physician's Assistant  (great South African accent) with a large scar on his shaved head that looked like serious brain surgery or injury of his own.  He took a wooden q-tip stick and rolled her upper eyelid over it backwards, and had a lot of trouble doing it, kept saying "sorry" "sorry", and then flushed out her eye with saline.  A couple times.  Then he did the lower lid.  She was horrified, and frankly I wasn't too great with it either. But he wanted to make sure the object was out, and we DID need to know that so it couldn't cause any more damage to her eye.  Is there a better way to do that?  I'd think so but I don't know what it is and apparently he didn't either.  She looked over at me like "Seriously is this right do I have to do this" and I just nodded at her and felt awful.

Next he put a dye in her eye, and got out a blacklight magnifier.  At that point he could see that there was a large scratch in her cornea.  So we got antibiotic eye drops for her, which sting every time she puts them in.  It stings when her eye waters, it stings when she blinks, it just stings.  She ended up with a headache from one eye being blurry and overly sensitive to light.  Hoping that that part is better now.  Poor kid.  She has to avoid the lake water (which she's not all that sorry about, really), and wear glasses to protect her eye, and take the antibiotics, and hopefully it'll heal up quick and be done.

Other than that, the trip was really nice.  We had good meals, we toured around the countryside and looked at all the beautiful scenery, we stopped at the big dam, we stopped at the large gorge, we went walking around the lodge, and we went to Kaylee's camp.  She showed Grandma around.  When we pulled up, they were all playing soccer, and when we got there, the kids stopped playing soccer and gathered around and said "Hi Grandma!" and then "Hi Miss Annie!" and Kaylee introduced them all to her Grandma.  Saturday night we invited two of her friends to have dinner with us, and then Sunday Kaylee invited Ann to go to church with her and a couple friends there.  Steve and I packed up the rooms, got breakfast, then went to pick them up at the camp, help Kaylee move over to her new, nicer cabin, and then head on home.

It was an uneventful flight home, always good, and we flew over the Howard County fair on the way home.  I was so tired I came home and took a nap, but I really needed that.  :)

Anyway, all in all, minus the eye scratch, it was a really nice, relaxing, pretty, enjoyable weekend away and here are lots of photos.  :)

We didn't actually fly through that weather, we were to the south of it.  But we sure could see it!

Ann at the Gazebo at the lodge.

Lots of scenery photos from the lake, the dam, and the gorge.

The waiter corrupted Ann, or Steve did!

The counselors at camp with Ann

Either the people are too dark...

Or everything is too light...

People visible...

Scenery visible...

Malabar Farms, the restaurant at sunset, eating with kaylee's friends.

 I lightened up this one as much as I could.  The rest were just shapes of us with pretty trees.  :)

Behinder

The faster you go the behinder you get, at least that's what it feels like sometimes.

What is today, Sunday? Man!

Mostly I flew, and I had night flights the last two nights, meaning I didn't get home until midnight, which is why I didn't post.  I had lessons each day from morning until midnight.  Tiring.

I never really heard from Kaylee this week, which is odd, but I saw her briefly this afternoon and she looked happy. More about that later.

Wednesday was the second to last Flying Squirrels day. So I flew with two or three kids, from 10:30-2:30, then was out at Kokomo until my night lesson, minus a quick dinner. Thursday was normal lessons.

Today we woke up early because the weather was volitile.  But the weather looked good! So we decided to wait and leave later. And then I saw a cell moving towards us, so I hurried everyone along a little. We took off, and so did the weather. It blew up all along the route of flight, and we had to out-run it in the 45 minutes to Mansfield.  It was something to watch--it just went from one cell north of us to a line that covered the whole route, while we watched! Amazing.

When we landed, we had the plane put in a hangar, and then we waited, because we were like 3.5 hours early for our rental car. Only problem was, I was hungry. ;) Eventually our car came, we went to Subway, checked in at the Lodge, rested, went for a walk around the Lodge and the grounds, went to dinner at the one place we like because the other place is closed all week, then went to see Kaylee.

She was playing soccer with her counselor friends after the kids had gone home. We went out, and she introduced her Grandma to everyone, and they all said in unison "Hi Miss Annie!" Then she introduced her to individual friends of hers. It was sweet. We left her there to go to Steak n Shake with them, then one of them is bringing her back to the Lodge whenever they're done.  For now everyone is asleep but me, as the resident night owl waits up for her to make it back.

:)

Independence Day

I really badly want to see that movie now.  The original.  I am so getting that tonight...

I saw a thing getting passed around on Facebook that said we shouldn't celebrate the "4th of July", but "Independence Day", so as to not dilute what it is.  That we don't say "Happy 25th of December!" for example.  This is true, and I always have liked the name "Independence Day" anyway, but I shant be militant about it.  Taking something too far seems to be the new religion of everyone on every side of every issue.  So I agree, I like the name of the holiday and what it stands for, but having a meltdown over someone else saying "4th of July" isn't in the cards for me.

This is one of my favorite holidays though.  I love patriotic.  And fireworks--who doesn't like fireworks?  Well, besides our cats and other people's dogs and apparently some veterans.  But otherwise, fireworks are awesome!  Our cats were horrified by the noise last night.  I'm not sure when and why Dulcie became so scared of storms and fireworks--she didn't used to be.  But buddy she hates it now.  She buried her head under Steve's arm for awhile last night, like a small furry scared child.

Kaylee got back to me late last night that she's doing okay.  She's isolated from the campers a lot which she doesn't like, but it was also just the first day.  She says they're (the camp leaders) doing the best they can, which is a pretty mature reaction from someone not thrilled with how she's getting to spend her time.  I just hope each day brings something fun and good that she can enjoy.

Steve and I could have slept in, but did we?  NO.  I woke up at 6 am for no good reason.  He got up at 6:30, and I got up shortly thereafter.  Boo.  I wanted to bring a dessert to a get-together being held at Sam's place at Glenndale, so on a whim I went to J Edwards.  They had these magnificent looking giant cupcakes, but they were $4/each and I'd need like 20 of them.  Nope.  So instead I got this strawberry cheesecake, and holy cow was it something else.  Real made, there, fresh, thick, rich, creamy, huge.  I left it at Sam's so somebody else besides me could eat that whole thing, and just enjoyed my one piece.  We hung out there from about 11 until 4 pm or so, and enjoyed a nice day, amazing food and lots of it, and good company with the Glenndale Gang.  I took up Dennis's Cub, and Sam was interested in going along, and after I flew with him, I took up his fiance.  It was a good Independence Day.

Sam flying us around.

Joyce putting her arm out the door just like a kid--like I do.  ;)

Golf cart briggade

I didn't get the other half of the room with all the ladies, but there's an idea.

Happy Independence Day

The flag kept blowing on top of the door.  Sam and Jim rescuing it.