Two Pilots & an LSW: Labor Day

Steve and I are grateful we marked ourselves off for today. Originally we were going to go to the Indian Hills fly-in, and also have me fly the T-6 from the back some more. Instead, the T-6 is down with a maintenance issue anyway, and I spent yesterday on the couch with a pretty severe stomach problem that started at 6 am and didn't feel better until after 11 pm, and Steve's throat is sore and sinuses starting to fill up. I feel fine today, thank heavens, because that was not much fun, but poor Steve doesn't. So Labor Day Sunday and Monday have been less "Labor" and more "recuperate". Thank heavens that wasn't Saturday--no amount of "overcoming" would have made it possible for me to leave the house, let alone fly solid from 8:30 am until 3:30-4 pm with two quick stops for fuel. That would have been disastrous, since the Mustang that was supposed to come to this event didn't bother making it, after a bunch of advertising went out on t-shirts, radio, social media, etc. He basically didn't feel like coming but used the excuse "he didn't feel comfortable" with the conditions. You know, those clear skies and winds under 5 knots right down the runway both here and where he came from (yes I looked) WERE awful tricky yesterday.

(Rant on) It really shows this guy's character. He didn't care that a good-sized event had made him the centerpiece and advertised for him. He didn't care that not showing up would hurt the event and organizers. He just didn't feel like going, so rather than say so months in advance when Ray could get someone else to step in, he just called it off the night before. Great. So what that tells me is that he's not to be trusted on anything else, either. He's not a man of his word. He doesn't follow through on his commitments. He has no problem leaving folks out to dry if it inconveniences him. So be it. Good to know. A dad (who worked his way up in the restaurant business so you know he's a hard working guy) owns the plane and the son was the pilot who blew it off. If I were that dad, I'd be making that son go, or cut him off from flying it. I can't stand it when people behave so...entitled. Selfish. Immature. I think more people needed to read Louis L'amour. I wouldn't have guessed I'd say that, and they have some cheesy writing going on, but at least they talked about right and wrong, hard work, how to be a good man, boundaries and ethics, and oh yes, how to win a fight. ;) (Rant off).

Kaylee has been working on her Homecoming stuff with her friend, and has dived into driving all-in. She wants to know when and how to finish up her license, like now, so we'll be doing lots of driving and getting her ready. She's pretty good on the road now, so now we need to hit trickier parking space, backing out of things, interstate and merging, etc. I talk a lot about that smile I get when a student pilot "gets" it, and has the confidence, and isn't perfect but is now PIC of the plane anyway, and how learning takes off from there? I just saw that in Kaylee in driving. She decided to be PIC of the car, and she's going for it. I love that. :)

Saturday at Marion went really well. The fly-in crowd was down quite a bit, which made my life a little easier, actually. The rest of the crowd also seemed lighter, but they said they served 2500 people breakfast, which is what they said they did last year, so I don't know, could have just been my perception. It was a clear day with a shelf of clouds that rolled in, then rolled back out. As soon as I landed, I shut down and unbuckled, and they said "We have three riders for you right away!" So I buckled back up and went to work. After my second rider, someone threw me a pancake wrapped around a sausage, and I snarfed that while they loaded my passenger. I did something like 7 rides before I needed to stop for gas and a bathroom. That was my longest break as I had to go to the terminal to go to the bathroom as the nearby port-o-pot was out of paper. Then I did rides until I smelled something funny. That's not a good thing when you can't figure out what you're smelling that smells "hot" but not sure what kind of hot. Engine temps, pressures were all fine. But SOMETHING was hot. I went to take off, and suddenly I smelled smoke. A lot of smoke. I almost aborted the takeoff, but I couldn't see anything where it would be from me. I decided it would be safer to lift off at that point, and I could always swing it around and land on a crossing runway if need be. That's when I saw the big black smoke off the end of the runway. Somebody was burning something elsewhere and it just happened to blow the smell to me right as I started my takeoff roll. Got my heart rate up for a second though, bad timing with something hot I WAS smelling from my plane. I was on that flight when suddenly my "Low Volt" light came on. I switched over the JPI from temps to see volts, and I was down to 22 volts. That's not good. Battery is down and not charging. So I texted Steve, and when I got back they had me shut down, though I had three rides left. I'd left the landing lights on for the busy morning traffic and when the grey shelf of clouds were around. You can't leave the landing lights on that long in that plane. I forgot. The hot smell was from the generator. Good to know, expensive to have done. I went ahead and did the last three riders, with all electrical equipment off except the intercom and one radio. The battery hung in there, and by the end of three rides I'd only gone down to 21.7 from 22. Not bad. From there I flew right home, not shutting down in case it wouldn't start. Home safe and sound, the guys started working on it. Eric S. hung on my wing and braced himself with his foot, with a side panel off, just a few feet from the prop, and had me run it up to 1800 RPM. That's a LOT in that airplane, and I was really uncomfortable, but he didn't get blown off-and if he had at least it would be down the wing and not into the prop. But still. Anyway, we have the generator off and need to get it all together before the BBQ Bash coming up fast...

There's a guy who works at Marion who'd said he would be watching and grading all my landings. Well, it wasn't really a fair representation, because I wasn't really legit landing, I was cutting the pattern short, landing 3/4 of the way down the runway, and just wheel landing it on and driving down to close to the end with my tail up, then dropping the tail and exiting at the last taxiway. Saves a ton of taxi time and gets me out of everybody else's way, and is pretty easy. But one landing, I was coming down to do the usual, and I was just feeling it down, and it was like the wind dropped out, except there was almost no wind. But the plane just dropped the last foot or two. And bounced. I tried to catch it, but it bounced high enough that when it came back down, even with a little power, it bounced the mains again. I needed to add power and smooth it out and put it down in a 3-point, but I was already a long way down the runway, couldn't see the end of it, and didn't want to blow off the end or wait so long that the trees at the end would be a problem. So I just got out of there, went around. My passenger was the one guy all day who had a gopro camera and was recording the whole thing. Ha. He started laughing, and so did I. The guy who worked there sent somebody over to tell me "I saw that." HAHA! But hey, I had 17 landings that day, so one bounce isn't too bad of an average. lol

All in all I did 14 rides, and we had to turn people away after that. So it was a good day. Minus me burning up about $1000 in generator costs. *sigh*

Now, on to making pudding in a cloud (warm butterscotch pudding with cool whip around it), doing laundry, taking a shower, and hoping Steve gets better. I am glad it's a day off. This feels really nice...