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. :)
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