*Cough*

Kaylee woke up this morning feeling bad again.  She went to school, her voice was gone, and after lunch we picked her up and brought her home early.  No band tonight.  Meanwhile, I'm not feeling so hot myself.  So I canceled my last two flights of today and am lying on my chair under a blanket resting up for a very busy day tomorrow. 

Steve and Nathan are in Paducah, KY.  That's about all the excitement I've got from today...

Concert Stuff

Kaylee's Fall Concert was last night.  They do some stuff so last minute it's amazing at how well the concerts turn out!  Starlets this year have some good talent in it, especially whoever that girl is who had a solo during a song.  She rocked it.  But they need to project more.  They're a little too quiet.  Concert choir is smaller this year, but lots of boys in it, so that always helps.  Encore, Kaylee's group, is strong.  Good dancing, strong vocals, they really sounded fantastic.  There were several funny songs, a couple of couples dancing songs, a couple of ballads, super well-rounded and a lot of fun to watch, as always.  There was a trio of boys who sang "My Girl" very well, and just lots of good stuff.  The only thing that annoyed me was that the choir booster page posted 155 photos from that night.  There are several photos most almost all the kids there.  Kaylee had one picture.  How you can take 155 photos, many of them group photos, and almost never get a couple of kids in there at all is beyond me.  Of course I took my own, so there.  I want to post them on that page and say "Here, you missed a couple people."  :p 

Steve is going out of town this weekend with Nathan, so I've got both his and my students, a couple of scheduled T-6 rides, and Kaylee's band and church stuff. I'll be hopping Friday and Saturday the most.  I also plan on having sushi and wine all by myself Saturday night and catching up on some new TV shows that have just started for the season.  Also on Saturday, instead of Sunday when I could maybe have some options, I'll probably break the 10,000 hour mark.  I'm going to do my best not to do it sitting right seat in a 172.  While that might be most appropriate, considering it's where I spend the majority of my time, I wanted to do something a little more fun for it.  I don't usually do celebrations that much, or mark moments much, but I'd felt like marking this one for some reason.  I'd wanted to fly something I hadn't, and Steve had sort of set up me flying a tailwheel RV, but my hours added up before a guy got back to fly it with me.  I'll try to be in the T-6, even if I'm just giving one of the rides I'm doing on Saturday...

I'm almost overwhelmed at pictures, I don't know which ones to post.  I took 120 photos on concert night, and deleted down to 72.  Still, 72 is a lot of pictures!

 

Quick

The news channel said we were in some sort of record-breaking heat wave for this time of year, with temps over 90 degrees so many days in a row.  Yeah, tell me about it.  The good news is that at least it should start cooling off after this week.

I flew with a guy in his Bonanza today.  He owns it, someone else flies it for him. He was a pilot 25 years ago but hasn't flown himself since. So today we went up and he flew, did some air work and a pattern and landing.  He basically wanted to be able to put the plane down in case his pilot had a heart attack.  So we're starting in the left seat to get a feel for it, then I'll move him to the right seat where he'll normally be.

I have another student who picks things up really fast. It's his third lesson and I've made it through all the pre-solo maneuvers to my satisfaction.  So we're going to hit the pattern now.  If he picks the pattern up as fast as the rest of it, he'll be soloing very early. He seriously has about 3 hours.  We'll see how it goes.

I have a guy on a checkride at 7:15 this morning.  I didn't want to get up this early, but then I woke up at 4 am on my own and never did get back to sleep.  So fine.  I'm up.  I have a few things on my mind, and once I'm awake enough for my mind to start thinking, then there's no going back to sleep from there.  We seriously need a main power switch to turn off when we need to sleep!

Fly-Over Country

Sunday was another hot and sweaty one.  It came together at the last minute to do a three-ship fly-over of a veteran's event and parade down in Hope, Indiana.  Small town, big parade and event.  I ended up with two T-6s and a C-47, which is a big old bird.  It took 20 minutes to get to Noblesville and pick up the other T-6 in the air.  Another 30 minutes to get down to Hope where we met up with the C-47 in the air.  We circled for awhile, did three passes, and split up.  It was fun and I enjoyed it, and it was also a lot of work.  I hadn't flown formation at all this year.  I had the canopy closed so I could hear the radio, and the heat was fierce in there.   The fly-over was a little loose, spread kind of far apart, but on the ground they said they loved it, and it was good practice for me and Larry both.   I mentioned that on Football Sunday, I was up in a 3-ship formation making a lot of noise in honor of veterans, and was glad to be able to do so.  :)  When I got on the ground, Steve and I were going to go up in the T-6, so I could hit some takeoffs and landings from the back.  But I was worn out.  The heat, the focus, maybe not quite feeling 100% to start with, I just couldn't recuperate, and definitely didn't feel it on doing back seat T6 flying.  So I came home.  I actually went to bed at like 8:30 pm and I slept through until about 8 am.  I was wiped out...

Kaylee was sick Sunday.  No church, lots of sleeping.  Monday she almost had to be at school.  If she didn't get there by 9 am she couldn't participate in the after school activity.  The after school activity was her choir practice for their concert Wednesday.  They haven't practiced yet.  Tonight was the night they'd learn new choreography, and their positions for each song.  They aren't going to get another shot at it.  She sort of had to be there.  So I dragged her there at 9 am, and she made it through the day.  She's at the practice now, until 10 pm.  Poor kid.

I needed to buy tickets today.  I had no time to do it.  Steve was scheduled.  The next time they sell tickets was tomorrow morning when I had two people I didn't want to cancel.   If I didn't get tickets today, I might not get tickets.  So Steve pushes one student back, picks up Kaylee and takes her to the school, then rushes to fly with his guy.  I take my guy and only fly for an hour with him, and race out of there and get to the school to buy my tickets 7 minutes before they close and stop selling them.  I didn't get great seats, not being in line early and such, but I got tickets, at least.  That was close.

The only picture I know of of us.

From Larry's back seater

My back-seater of Larry

The C-47

Big ole thing!

Coming up over the town

The rest of these I just like because I was in good formation position.  Not perfect, but good.  lol

I Won't Complain

I lied.

Hot.  SO HOT.

But we had today marked off to do a few of our own things.  Steve had a lot of computer stuff to work on, but first we had airport stuff to do.

Kaylee had a band competition, so after we dropped her off at 7:45 a.m., we went out to Kokomo, where we met up with Nathan and took the RG over to a grass strip by Lafayette.  That was a cluster.  We were all going over there to support their first event.  It was a Young Eagles event on top of a fly-in breakfast/lunch.  When we landed, we taxiied over to where the other airplanes were, and sat there running for a long time waiting for someone to tell us where to go.  A guy waved us over a little bit by the other planes, but that was it.  So Nathan runs up a hill to park off to the side, and it's steep enough that it digs the tail into the grass a bit.   We finally get stopped and out...and THEN a guy comes over and tells us we have to move, that this area is for Young Eagles only.  Steve gets irate and tells him that would have been good to know 10 minutes ago while we were sitting there waiting for someone to direct us.  Meanwhile another plane comes in and shuts down in our way.  We have to hunt that guy down, move his plane, and Nathan has to taxi clear down the way to another area, and wait for a tram to get back to the main food area.  It took a good 20 minutes.  The traffic was a cluster.  There was no organization.  We couldn't get out when we tried to leave, for a long time.  Larry in his T-6 had the same problem we did, waiting to be told where to go, told to go one spot, shuts down, gets told to move.  So he just fired up and left.  Done.  It was a mess, and everyone worked pretty darned hard for those two biscuits and gravy and coke!

We got back to Kokomo, and digested for awhile, and sweated, until it was time for lunch.  There were six of us now, instead of three, so Nathan pulled out the Cheyenne and we went to Muncie.  Good food, good company.  Hot, but good flying.  AE and Justin got to take a leg and fly us and check out the plane.  After THAT food, too much of it, I dearly needed a nap.  I sort of tried but couldn't really go out.  After a bit Steve said he needed to get to work on some computer stuff, so we came home.  Then it was run-around time for me for awhile.  Kaylee needed picked up, then brought home, then dropped off, then I go home, then she needs picked up again...no rest for the wicked.  Or the weary?   :)

Kaylee is not feeling that great though.  She says her throat hurts.  She also doesn't know how they did on the competition yet.  They left before the awards ceremony this time, though representatives did stay.   She's not feeling THAT bad though, since she went to a farewell party for a friend's foreign exchange student, ending in donuts.  :)

Here are a few photos from today.

The airport is 31IN, a privately owned grass strip. 

Nice runway, lots of hills on the taxiway/rest of the place.

My camera is not crooked-that's a hill the plane is parked on.

Coming in to land over the trees

Mostly our Glenndale guys' planes

A flat landing.  FLARE.

A better view of "our" planes.  :)

AE, Steve trying to nap, Nathan and Justin up front, me and Jerry L in the back.

Sweat Box

It was another steamy one.  Like...wow.  I came home and washed all my clothes from the last two days.  The humidity is so high with the heat that you can't stay dry.  My face was like a waterfall.  Ugh.

Today was someone's first ever lesson.  He is super eager, and reminds me of a puppy on a leash.  I'm the leash, trying to get him where he needs to go while holding on so he doesn't run off barking at the moon like crazy.  lol  It's always fun when they're excited.  I'd have been more excited myself if I wasn't so bloody HOT.  He did great though.  He'll be a quick learner.  If I can keep hold of him.  ;)

Tomorrow's busy, so...bed time!

Summer's End?

Today is the last official day of Summer, the first official day of Fall.  It was 91 degrees today, and muggy as all get out.  I sweated so much I changed clothes after lunch, and then I had three more flights after lunch.  My face and neck were just dripping wet.  Ugh.  THAT is the summer I did not miss.

I had someone in the PT-26 today, a what I can only guess is somewhat of a special needs guy, a cross country, and then a T-6 test flight.  I ended up done at 8:30 pm, and then when I got home, Kaylee reminded me she'd asked for cookie ingredients tonight.  We had the ingredients, but she didn't want to mix all the ingredients, she just wanted a mix, because she had homework and a test and was in a hurry, but didn't want to just buy already done cookies, either.  So I went back out and got cookie mix.  I have a lot to catch up on and thank yous to write and a very full upcoming three days.  I feel cranky at the moment.  So here are some photos from today.  Jon T. took the PT ones and I took the T-6 ones.  I did feel pretty peaceful for a few minutes there in the Six, even if it was still really hot out...

Hump Day

It's only 10 pm but Kaylee and Steve are both off to bed.  She just got back from marching band practice that ended at 9 pm, and we just got back from dinner in Kempton with some pilot friends.  Actually, she just got back up to practice the piano.  She is now taking piano lessons, and her teacher expected her to practice 5 days this week (she just told me) and she hasn't practiced at all, and her lesson is tomorrow.  So she's up working on her pieces now.  She's still annoyingly fast on picking it up.  She's had one official lesson and she's doing chords and such.  She's playing the song "I'll Stand By You" right now, and it's totally recognizable and getting good.  It's better than some of the kids play at the rehearsal.  That's so annoying.  I should get the timer out and make her practice an hour a day like MY mom and dad did.  ;)  I can already tell she could be good at piano too.  Some kids are finger picking one note at a time and she's getting chords and rhythm down.  *sigh*

I only had one flight today, and it was one of those where you feel like you're banging your head into a wall the whole time.  Nothing went right.  He's behind the plane.  The aerobatic guys are out so we go to Marion, where two other guys break into the pattern awkwardly making us extend out.  He is 16 and a student pilot pre-solo and I have no push to talk switch so I have to tell him everything to say on the radio, too.  He's overwhelmed and not doing well at any of it.  I'm trying to be upbeat but face it, it was just not going well.  By the end of that lesson we both agreed we were tired and aggravated.

When I was done, I was rumpled and sweaty, but Steve and I decided to go to Kempton for dinner.  Ate too much as usual, and it was good as usual.  It's nice to get together with folks now and then.

We learned on figures that we gave 467 airplane rides at the BBQ Bash this weekend.  The last several years we've only gotten one nice day out of the weekend, and we've done well less than half those rides.  So far we're looking at $11,941.00, but I know of three checks we're still waiting on.  So we'll break $12,000 this year, which is close to a record.  :)  I'm so grateful for the beautiful weather, the planes that all flew in this year for the first time in awhile, and the good ground turn-out.  The expenses go up with it.  More food, more ice, more advertising, the big tent and bouncy houses, port-o-pots, hundreds of shirts, all of it adds up to a lot.  It's hard to break past that point.  But without the direct donations of some local businesses and friends, we'd not be making nearly as much as people think.  So I'm grateful for the good weather, and the people, friends, who make the whole weekend possible.

Lots of good pictures that Justin and Jon got.  I'll need to work on posting those.  Another day.  It's already 11:15 pm and I have a full day tomorrow...

We Made It

Friday was a typical set-up day.  We were out at Glenndale most of the day.  There was a huge lunch out there, people were all over the place, eager and ready to get going.  Stakes and tents and signs went up, and there was much productivity.  The weather for Saturday morning was calling for fog, so we decided to bring all the planes over now, so they'd be at the airport and ready to go first thing in the morning.  I went to Kokomo and test flew the T-6, after the guys got the generator in.  It needed flown 45 minutes or so, and that's exactly what I had before lunch, so I took off, and watched it charge up to 28.3 volts.  While I was waiting, I flew over by Glenndale, stayed high and did some rolls, flew over by the veterans gathering at Howard County, stayed high and did some rolls, I basically did rolls for 45 minutes.  Nothing else, just a bunch of them until my 45 minutes was up and my head was starting to feel it.  :)  It seemed to be operating great.  I brought the T-6 into Glenndale that afternoon and parked her, and thought all was well.   We had deeeelicious grilled cheese and chili for dinner, hung out around a huge bonfire afterwards, and everyone went home fairly early for once.  Well, 10 pm, that's early, right?

Saturday morning was *not* foggy, Yay us!!  Or windy!!  Or raining!!  It was the first almost perfect Saturday we've had for a Bash in Years.  As usual it started off a little slow, and then started picking up steam.  The T-6 was one of the first things to get busy.  I had 13 rides scheduled by noon.  I got through 7 of them before I noticed an issue, and finished the 8th or 9th and shut down.  The temps were getting too high even on a shallow climb-out, and the battery was not charging again.  Argh. We had to refund several people's rides.  Since "my" plane was now down, and the regular rides were an hour and a half behind (booked solid), I grabbed the extra 172 and started giving rides with the regular planes.  I ended up with a couple of PT-26 rides to do as well, and basically stayed busy flying until the end of the day.  I flew with an airline pilot with 25,000 hours who was actually pretty unassuming, a little boy who was alone and wouldn't talk, but would nod or shake his head at me, who never let go of the controls the whole time we were flying.  Several people who were in an airplane for the first time ever.  One non-pilot who was nervous but excited after having ended up upside down on the ground in an airplane awhile ago.  A couple of friends.  I don't remember how many total I did, but I stayed busy.  We stayed around for awhile Saturday, but were even more tired than Friday night, so we went home at an early hour for us, and crashed in bed almost right away.  Out.

Sunday morning was also just beautiful!  We had donuts and coffee and fruit in the big tent, and then had a church service.  There were over 60 people there, which is a record, and it was lovely.  Saturday had been so busy that the port-o-pots got filled up, we ran out of water and low on food.  So the port-o-port cleaner people showed up in the middle of the church service.  The port-o-pots are right next to the tent.  So Steve did his thing and went out and chatted with the guy until the preacher said "Amen" and then it was clear to pump the loud, smelly things out without disrupting anything.

Sunday we got the T-6 up and running again.   First I gave rides in the 172 again, as we were ready to go.  Then I started in on T-6 rides, and did quite a few of those throughout the day.  I had a couple more PT-26 rides too.  Basically I spent the two days in one of three airplanes.  We had good food, and we had a waitress from a local restaurant running the food tent, and she did great.  Kaylee and Ann sold t-shirts and stuffed animals, and also did a great job, and it all went like a pretty well-oiled machine.

We had one guy bomb into the pattern, not on the radio, with 6 or 7 airplanes all up in the pattern, doing low passes and getting in the way.  I got pretty annoyed and was going to yell at him, and then found out who it was and know that he's not a hot dog, just...a space cadet.  A nice one, even.  So we let that go.

The New Standard did 57 rides, which amazed and impressed them for just one day.  By the time they left, Waldo said he was done and tired and exhausted, and that he was really surprised at how busy our little grass strip was for the day.  The helicopter started slow and then got busy.  The T-6 would've been super busy had it not gone down the busiest part of the busy day, but as it was it still wasn't bad.  Regular rides went like gangbusters.  We had to stop selling rides around 4 pm both days just to finish off the back log of riders by 6 pm.  That's a good problem to have.  :)

I don't know how we did.  There were more expenses this year, and more people who came out.  So we shall see once all the numbers are in...

It was a good weekend though.  And kind of fun since the weather actually cooperated.  I wasn't living on the edge of my seat landing a T-6 on a short-ish field with a 25 knot direct crosswind swapping to slight tailwind over and over.  I was coming in over the wires, but that isn't really much of a challenge any more.  Except when we had a light tailwind for a few rounds, and except when a guy parked off the side of the runway too far down it meaning I had to clear him and land long which left me running hot down the rest of the runway and hitting the brakes.  Other than that, it was actually pretty easy going, thank heavens! We had a lot more planes flying in than the last few years, too, which was great.  I think it was a fun day for folks.  I hope.  :)

Phoo

I need to talk about Kaylee's first Encore performance tonight, and my trip to St. Louis.  If I don't, I won't tomorrow because it's the start of the BBQ Bash weekend.  But I'm so tired.  Steve's already asleep.  The dryer is running.  Kaylee's in bed.  I'm so ready to go to sleep too.  Just glad I don't have any students tomorrow.

Okay.

As usual I woke up before my alarm this morning, by too much, which was around 5:30 this time.  I woke up to heavy fog.  Kaylee's school was on a two-hour delay, which did me no good as I had a trip.  I get out to the airport and it is still seriously socked in.  My destination is socked in too.  I delay long enough for the weather to at least get to minimums.  I do this because I don't care to take off when there is no place I can legally or safely land again from here to Missouri.  An airplane is circling overhead Kokomo having flown from Texas leaving at 3 am, and he can't get in, and had 20 minutes of fuel to mess with it before being forced to look elsewhere.  I don't care to be him.  I post a photo of fog on facebook and someone tells me that in Part 91 you can take off with 0/0 visibility.  Yes, I know.  I've done it before.  Decide I'm not going to explain myself on FB to a guy who has been flying for less time than Kaylee.  Also decide I am getting cranky.  Low sleep and early mornings and busy schedules and excess age will do that to you I guess.  ;)

Guy overhead gets in.  I get out.  St. Louis clears off right before I get there.  Cool.  Our left brake failed, totally.  Not cool.  Long runway, differential power, thrust/rudder effectiveness, and me dumping the flaps after landing helped us get stopped anyway.  The line guy had no idea he needed to not stand in front of me today, but fortunately I got it stopped without too much excitement.  ;) A mechanic on the field came over, tugged the plane away, fixed my brakes, and tugged me back, all before it was time to leave.  For $70.  Awesome!

I wanted to take a nap.  I was tired.  I sat in the pilot's lounge, and in walks That Guy.  He sat in a chair nearby, turned up the TV, and then wouldn't stop talking to me.  He wanted to tell me all about the planes he flies.  About his wife.  About that time he landed on a short runway.  More about the planes he was going to buy.  Finally I left to go to the restaurant for lunch.  It's closed.  *sniff*  That was a good one, too!  So I sit out in the main lobby, just to avoid the chatter.  Who came out to the main lobby to talk to me some more. 

There's a baseball game going on in St. Louis this afternoon, so two large Delta jets were there to haul the teams around.  That was kind of neat.

I got home in time to pull the T-6 out, push the 340 in, tug the T-6 back in, run home and get with Steve, go eat a quick dinner, then go to Kaylee's first performance in Encore.  The theme for this Fall's concert is "Weather".  Different!  The Encore outfits are new this year, and I think they looked sharp.  Everybody sounded and looked good!  Kaylee played the sax trio with Zach and Delaney this year, same song as last year (name is escaping me right now..>Glory Land?) and that's a great song, by the way.  We always love watching her perform.

Here are pics from tonight.  I have video of the songs and airplane fog photos too but those aren't downloaded and I'm too tired tonight.  :)