Saturday morning was so nice. The first day of July, and it was cool and comfortable and blue skies and light winds. Justin and I went up in the RG for a little while, then he went off on a trip and I took Kaylee and flew over to Delphi for a "First Annual Fly-In Event". It's a real small airport, small venue, but they were trying to do something good, something fun, and we were the big show. They appreciated us coming, which always makes it much more fun than say going to the Goshen show, also this weekend, where they had jets and six other T-6s, and they couldn't care less if you come or not. It's a lot more fun to support and enjoy the little guys. Steve and AE drove the trailer over, and we sold our new Warbird hats and t-shirts. He also brought hot dogs and grilled them out back, giving them away for free to people, and free waters as well. I'm not sure why he didn't charge a buck a piece or something, but hey. lol We weren't going to be doing any rides that day. Then he decided to give away a couple rides to make some noise for the area. Then people started asking for rides. I ended up doing 7 T-6 rides that day, out of little ole Delphi. That's a lot of rides for an area like that!
As always, there were some characters involved. I took the mayor of the city up, and he wanted me to buzz the runway then buzz his city. I buzzed the runway--the city, not so much. I flew over low enough to be not legal, but high enough I could reach a surrounding field should I lose an engine and high enough that nobody could prove I wasn't at 1000'. He was pretty quiet, but he seemed to enjoy himself.
I also took up the airport manager, who set up this event, and he was super excited. I guess when he got back down he went up to our trailer and told them I was the best pilot he'd ever flown with, which people started rubbing in to Steve. All in good fun.
One older woman went up to fulfill a bucket list item, said she'd always loved planes and travel but back in her day girls weren't allowed to do that. I corrected that and said it's never been illegal for girls to fly--it just wasn't normal or even socially acceptable in many circles for awhile. She was thrilled by the whole thing, and I threw it around a little for her, and she loved it.
Another woman went up whose boyfriend is a pilot, but not her. So I had her fly a little so she could go back and tell him she's flown a WWII Texan and he hasn't. She got a giggle out of that.
An older gentleman went up who said the last time he'd been in the air, in a Blackhawk helicopter, he'd been shot at. We both agreed that this was much better, being in a "war" plane without any actual threat of being fired upon.
Then there was "The Character". He never actually got a ride, but buddy he tried hard. I was talking to someone else, and he came up and was asking "Who's the pilot of this thing?" Apparently they pointed me out, because he said "THAT little girl? That little girl is the pilot??" They must've nodded, because the next thing he yelled was "Hey. Little girl." pause "HEY, LITTLE GIRL!!" Finally I turn around slowly and look at him. He wants to know if I really am the pilot, and then if I'll give him a ride. He tries to con me into it, I tell him to go see Steve, he tries Jon, Jon tells him to see Steve, he tells Steve that "That little girl said to tell you she'd take me up next". Then he said "And so did that guy--that guy...PEDRO." He was calling Jon "Pedro", thinking he was Mexican, apparently. Jon is very tan and was wearing a hat, but he's quite white and doesn't know a word of Spanish. All day this guy would come up and say "Hey little girl, remember me? Is it my turn yet?" Doofert. He never did get his ride, but mostly because he was trying so hard to cheat out of it. And he was annoying. ;)
The actual challenge for the day was a little surprising. The wind. It wasn't strong, at most it was around 10-15. They don't have AWOS, but it was 15 at Kokomo so it was probably not too far off of that. But...the runway is 18/36. The winds were 270 on average. The problem was, they'd go from 250 to 290. Back and forth, constantly. That meant that no matter which runway I used, it would go from direct crosswind to slight headwind to tailwind all in a few seconds. The runway is 2850' by 60', which is just narrow and just short enough to make that even trickier. There are trees off of one end and buildings off the other, and a local said Runway 18 had weirder wind currents for landing. So as the winds picked up, I took off on 18, as it was closest, and landed on 36, trying to 1) have the least weird winds and 2) not be directly in front of the people when I touched down. The first two landings were sporty but okay. But then it got downright interesting, and I'm not a fan of interesting when it comes to landing the T-6. It does NOT like tailwind landings. I'd hit the burble from the trees, it would throw me around right off the end of the runway. You'd level off, clear the trees, and I'd get hit with a push of a tailwind. Every time. I'd try to level off, and get down, and it would shove me down the runway. The runway isn't long enough to have a lot of room to float and use power and work your way down. I had a short period of time to get down and slow, or decide to go around so I'd clear the trees, town, and tower off the end of the runway. I had to do three go-arounds that day, two in a row, because I couldn't safely get down and stopped feeling in solid control. I couldn't do a real three point, which is better to do, because it was also gusty and swirly enough that it would put me into an awkward position, so I needed a tail low one wheel wheel landing, but I needed flaps, because it's a shorter runway, but in a wheel landing flaps blank out the rudder, which I DEFINITELY needed, and all in all, man, it was trickier than you'd think with winds that aren't really all that strong, relatively, and I was so tense on those landings my muscles were sore for the next day. And the rides kept coming. We go from "we're not doing rides" to "we'll do a couple" to "hey, here's another paying customer". We stopped giving rides when I noted that the right brake was mushy, was starting to go to the floor and I'd pump it back up. All I needed was to lose a brake on one of those. I was glad to go back to Kokomo where the 15 knot 50 degree crosswind felt like a luxury on a 6000' runway, where I could make a nice three point landing and still see the edges of the runway, and where I didn't have a tailwind component to it. I was exhausted after that, I really was.
I still wasn't the one that had to drive, set up the trailer, drive again, unpack the trailer, etc. Everybody was tired. Mostly in a good way, but still, tired. We went to Outback afterwards where I had a steak, came home and crashed. In bed. Where I belonged. :)
This morning we got up at a reasonable hour to get Kaylee to camp. She asked if she could fly us there, and she actually wanted to. We took the Aerostar. It is a little odd to taxi and takeoff, so I did that part, and once we were climbing up I gave it to her, and she flew us all the way there. Climb up, tracking, descent, and then I did the landing. Steve sat in the back and listened to us, and I enjoyed watching Kaylee listen, process, and remember things we'd talked about previously. She did a great job maneuvering, rudder use, using her outside references, using inside instruments to verify, keeping on track, etc. She's getting better and better. It's fun to watch. Steve said he enjoyed listening to me instruct her, as he never really has heard me instruct in a plane--it's not like he sits in the back while I teach someone else. He said he got a smile out of hearing me say things he would say, or explain things the way he agrees with too. Whether we're right or wrong, she'll get the same info from both of us, apparently. lol
So Kaylee is now at camp. She was hoping to be in a cabin with younger kids, hoping to be with a counselor who is a friend, and hoping she'd be bumped to Senior Staff. Instead she got a cabin with 12-16 year olds, which she was afraid of because SHE is 16, and she's supposed to be a junior counselor to kids her own age, and she's not sure how to handle that. I told her that she knows her stuff, raise her chin, be a good counselor, and know she's got this. Apparently they never put Junior Counselors with the teens, they put them with the 5-11 year olds, so she doesn't know why she's there, but hopefully she's doing okay. She didn't know the one counselor well she was rooming with, so she didn't get a friend. But I'm guessing she'll make a new friend. If she hasn't been bumped to senior staff by now it probably won't happen, but you never know. So I'm waiting to hear from her on how she's doing, how Day 1 went, what she thinks, etc. I saw on Snapchat she showed a photo of herself with another girl, big smiles, so that was good. Here's hoping for a fun first week as Junior Counselor. :)
When we left her there, we went to eat at one of our favorite places, and didn't have the best experience. They were busy, our waitress was behind, the kitchen was behind. It took 30 minutes to get our drinks, and refills once took flagging down a table clearing person. There was a hair in my butter, a goober on my glass, my medium burger was served well done, the food came out before the appetizer so we just canceled it, and we were there for two hours. But once I at least got SOME food going, I was much more relaxed about the rest. That initial wait was tough, we were hungry and sitting for a long time.
Steve flew us home from Ohio, so I actually didn't do any flying today other than one takeoff and one landing. We got down and went out to dinner with Steve's family, cousin Jeff, Cindy and daughter Megan, Dave and Dawn, and Ann, to Grindstone Charley's. Chatted next door for awhile, came home and Jeff and Steve hung out while everyone else went home, and now we're tired and ready for tomorrow, where Steve has nobody scheduled and I have people from 9:30 am to 7:30 pm with a break in the afternoon.
Busy but good couple of days. On to tomorrow.
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