Forward and Backward

Kaylee was coughing pretty hard again this evening, so I gave her some more meds.  Hopefully she's in there sleeping already by 10 pm here.  Tonight was the run-through practice for Talent Night.  Kaylee and Meredith did their mannequin dance, and it was a huge hit.  She said that everyone was on their feet, clapping and laughing.  One of her classmates Snapchatted a video of it and said "I'm crying right now"  (for you old people, that means he's laughing so hard it's making him cry).  They think they're the director's favorite act and that they have a chance to win a category for the talent show.  Part of the reason their act is so good is because it was a clever idea, and they did their own choreography to it.  I'll of course try to video it for you.  :)

I took the T-6 up today and did some stalls.  I still have more work to do.  It's one thing to do something carefully yourself, it's another to let somebody else do it and then fix it when they don't do it right.  I have a decent baseline, probably better than a reasonable percentage of people, but like I said, I have more work to do to make myself happy.

There were a couple students today too.  One of them got landings for the first time, finally clicked in.  That's always a lot of fun.  And it was one of his last flights in awhile during the evening now that it's getting dark early and he can't get here after work any more, so I took lots of pictures of the fading light and runway lights for him.  Ended up liking them myself.

Feelin' pretty good after that one.

Series of photos as it got later...

Relief?

It has been amazing to me how many things have come up with opioid addiction storylines.  I started reading a new book yesterday.  A major chunk of the plot was about a young girl, good family, good kid, athlete, who hurt herself and had pain meds for it, got addicted to them and went to heroin when the doctor wouldn't prescribe any more, ended up OD'ing.  I turn on the TV last night and the show is about a police detective who'd been wounded on the job, ended up addicted to his pain meds, and was shot and killed in his car, deal gone bad.  It's EVERYwhere.  The book even quoted the same thing a facebook friend did recently, talking about how more people die from drug overdoses from opiod addictions, more than half of which are from legal, initially legit scripts, than die from car crashes.  Amazing how once you tune in to something it's everywhere you look.

They need to be able to come up with medication that works as well as that stuff does, then.  So far I don't think there are many replacements that actually do any good.

Anyway.  Having said that, don't worry, I am not actually concerned about Kaylee. 

She actually told me that she can't feel anything on the cough syrup.  I think that's odd, because I feel it.  But she definitely sleeps hard and good and no coughing while taking it, so that really helped.  In fact, I think it helped enough that she's finally on the mend after being able to get some sleep!  She started coughing much less yesterday, and last night she didn't need to take any medicine.  She wasn't coughing as hard this morning, either.  Thank heavens.  She'd been coughing so hard her diaphragm was spasming and causing a lot of pain.  I have felt so bad for her, and I'm really glad that she was able to sleep last night without a bunch of waking and coughing, or medicine.  I think she's on the upswing!  :)

I have an occasional flight or two, like this morning, in the light rain, with the temps not quite hitting 40 degrees.  UGH.  This afternoon I have a guy, hasn't flown in 10 days, and it's supposed to be gusting to 25 knots.  He'll probably want to go anyway even though that won't help him learn to land.  But I understand that.  I just wish it wasn't cold, grey, wet, and windy.  My least favorite combination of weather possible.  :/

I need to get the Six out and do a couple things as soon as weather allows, which wasn't yesterday, or today.  Maybe tomorrow.  I've got three people who want checked out in the plane or time in the plane, and now we're getting into the high winds time of year.  That doesn't make me too excited in that one.

Let's let the weather hold out for another month here, shall we?  Thanks...

Kaylee

The codeine cough syrup didn't help the first night, and after looking it up, that's when I realized his dosage was 1/4th of the prescribed.  So the next night I gave her a real dose.  At first we didn't think it was working.  She was just hacking and hacking.  She sent me a text that said "Help me".  I waited about 5 minutes while I tried to figure out what more to do, and then  it got super quiet up there.  I went in and looked at her, and she was asleep and not coughing.  She woke up once coughing really hard for a few minutes--I'm guessing she rolled over and disturbed her lungs or something--but she was back asleep in a couple minutes.  So she got a good night's sleep, at least.  I'm not sure what we do when the cough syrup runs out.  We probably can't refill it.  If I thought getting it once was hard...and it wouldn't be good for her to regularly take it, and plus, it doesn't solve the actual problem of whatever is causing the cough, it just provides a sleeping solution.   *sigh*  I'm not sure where to go from here if this cough isn't gone in a few days.

Today Kaylee's band had semi-state finals.  They had to be in the top ten in order to advance.  They didn't make it, so the band's official run is over for the year.  They'll still play at games at school, but no more contests or competitions.  It may be her very last marching band event ever.  I wish it could have ended a little better for them, but they worked hard, they looked good, and it was a nice program.  The only problem with today was that it was REALLY cold outside.  It was in the 30s today, with wind, and that stank.  When they lined up on field, Kaylee was coughing pretty hard on the quiet field waiting for the start of their routine.  When it started, though, I didn't hear/see her coughing.  But Steve and I were freezing.  We stayed in the car until the band before hers, and then left right after she was done, and waited for her in the car.  It was cooooold.  We're not ready or willing for this weather.  :/

I had a flight this morning before we left, and the plane didn't have a  heater on it, and she didn't want to start.  Normally I don't have that much trouble even at 34 or so degrees without heat, but for some reason it was definitely a harder start today.  The heaters will be broken out now, I'm pretty sure.  I hate being cold.

We tried a new thing (to us) tonight.  "Food Precinct".  It's a business where you can order food from about any restaurant in town, through this website, and they send a guy to go pick up your order and deliver it to your front door.  So all the restaurants who won't deliver, and there are many, this gets around that.  Any place that will allow a to go order, which is almost all of them, are partnered with this company.  They even have a tracking site, like Uber, so you can see where they are on the process.  Your order has been acknowledged by the restaurant.  The driver is picking up your order.  The driver is on his way/arriving.  You can see a little map of where he is.  Kinda cool, man.  They charge a fee depending on the restaurant in order to deliver it, and you tip the driver, too.  So it obviously costs more than going out yourself, but some things are worth it at certain times.  The transaction and trial order here from Olive Garden went well.  We're all pleased with it, and it didn't take nearly as long as they originally said it would to get here, even at prime dinner time.  In fact that was probably shorter than if we'd gone to the restaurant to eat.  So, all in all, successful, and a good plan for people who can't get out of the house easily but have a craving for something specific.  They're open until midnight on weekends and 11 pm week nights, which is also great.  The company was started by two Kokomo police officers, and our delivery many tonight was a police officer.  That's why it's called "Food Precinct".  Clever.   So we are pleased with this and will definitely do it again sometime.  :)

Here are photos from today.  Facial expressions while blowing on a sax are not usually that smooth, but here you can see a little of what they did.  :)

The Kaylee Saga

Kaylee has been coughing since last Thursday, badly since last Friday.  She's doing that cough where you can't sleep, where you can't catch your breath sometimes, where you choke, where you throw up sometimes.  We're familiar with this in my family.  My mom had it for years.  I've had it a few times, and the last time for six weeks straight.  We are well versed on all the ways to try to stop a cough.  I gave her an antihistamine.  Propped her up in bed at night.  Constant sucking on cough drops or even vitamin c drops just to have something to help there.  Honey.  She went through a bottle of Delsym cough syrup in 24 hours, which is supposed to be the strongest cough suppressant over the counter.  Trying not to talk and trigger the coughs.  Just...all of it.  She got 2.5 hours of sleep one night, didn't sleep at all until morning a few times, I knocked her out with sleeping pills one night, but the next night it didn't work and she woke up in the middle of coughing.  So finally after 5-6 days I took her to the doctor hoping to get codeine cough syrup for her.  It worked for me.  He instead prescribed Tessalon Perle.  They're tiny little yellow gel cap balls of another cough suppressant.  He said if it didn't work to let him know.  It didn't work. It didn't even touch her cough.  When it was bed time, I told her to take two (after looking it up).  It didn't make a bit of difference.  She was up all night coughing again.  This is ENOUGH.  I call the doctor first thing in the morning.  He wants to prescribe yet another cough suppressant I haven't heard of.  She has semi-state marching band finals coming up.  She's missed two days of school.  She has to be able to get to sleep.

The doctor then gives me the talk.  He works as an ER doctor and sees at least one overdose every single time he works.  The country is in an opiate crisis and Kokomo is even worse than average.  It only takes one time of taking an opiate and someone can become addicted.  More people die from drug overdoses than car crashes these days.  He's not comfortable writing a script for a teenager to take codeine, an opiate.  I understand all of that, completely, and I know that his life experiences lead him to believe that he could be helping a currently clean teen become an addict.  I told him that I understand, but she has GOT to get something to kick the cough so she can sleep at night, even if it's just knocking her out.  He reluctantly wrote a script for a one week supply, and had to check to see if I'd have to come in in person to get it rather than him being able to send it to the pharmacy. 

I get to CVS, where our family has done prescriptions for a couple decades now.  When I pull up after it was supposed to be ready, they say it's not ready because they need to change my address in their system. They can't give me the cough syrup with a PO Box as our main address.  It's been my main address this whole time, but now it can't be.  So I gave them Glenndale's address.  They didn't even verify anything on it, ask for proof, nothing.  So, great security there.  That was pointless.  They of course took my driver's license and had to log it in.  It took them 20-30 minutes to go through the hoops they had to do in order to hand over the cough syrup.  Like a little bottle of liquid gold.

We wait for night time, and I go to give Kaylee some, and the amount it says to give is so small!  I know I took more than that, and she weighs what an adult does.  But I followed directions.  She couldn't even tell.  It didn't do a thing.  So I googled it.  The regular allowed dosage for this stuff was FOUR TIMES higher than what the doc had prescribed.  So, nice try buddy, give us the stuff that works but write an amount to take so small that it still can't work.  I didn't quadruple it, but I doubled it and had her take a half dose of a sleeping pill too, and finally last night she did get to sleep and stop coughing.  Now we just need to be able to stop the cough during the day, too.

There was a kid in her band who hacked non-stop, and she thinks she got it from him.  Something is going around.  Otherwise I'd wonder if it was an allergy thing, like it was for mom and me.  Hers got better after she moved out of Wisconsin, and my bad one was cured within 3 days of me visiting dry California.  So I'm hoping this isn't that, because there's not much we can DO about that, except tell her to hold on until she graduates from high school and then attend college somewhere with drier air.  :/ 

Really hoping this passes through and goes away.  I know what it's like to not be able to stop coughing.  And you'd think you could have some killer abs, but it doesn't work that way. 

Weekend

Kaylee has been coughing her head off.  Like one of those I used to get, or Mom used to get, unproductive cough that lasted forever, that wouldn't be touched by any kind of cough drop or cough syrup.  She got 2.5 hours of sleep last night, her muscles hurt, she's tired and frustrated and nothing she takes is touching that cough.  Tomorrow I may have to take her to the med clinic.  I don't know if they will or if it's even a good idea, but the only thing that touched mine was codeine cough syrup, to help you sleep at night.  *sigh*  I feel so bad for her, I know what that's like.  The last time I had it, mine lasted for 6 weeks, and I was drinking bottles of cough syrup like water, and it didn't go away until I was out in California.  Three days in the dry air and the cough was gone.  I can't take her to California for three days, so I really hope SOMETHING helps.  :(

I lost much of yesterday and basically all of today to a headache.  The weather tanked and turned dreary, and I guess that didn't help.  I was supposed to do some aerobatics in the T-6 yesterday, but the 25 knot gusting crosswind at 50 degrees and the headache made that a no go.  At 9 pm I had a flight to Columbus, Ohio, but the weather was nice and the 340 I can fly pretty much in my sleep.  My head was better by then too.  The night before I'd flown the family over there.  I got home around 1 am each time.  Today was bad, I got sick from it.  Finally around 6 pm it was gone.  Ugh.

The trips to Ohio and back were actually nice.  I got multi night current in the first night when I went to Jasper County to pick them up, Ohio to drop them off, and home.   Late nights for flying, but beautiful...

Time to pick up Kaylee from Encore practice.  I might give her a sleeping pill to knock her out for tonight.  I hope she can sleep okay...

Catchup

I have to say, this time of year I have the hardest time getting anything done.  It's like my brain and body want to shut down and eat too much and wallow on the couch until Spring.  The weather has been great.  The sun is shining, the temps are nice, but this time of year just mopes me up terribly.  When Mom texted to ask if I was still alive, I see it's been four days since I posted anything.  So yes, world, I'm still alive.  Just don't feel like DOING anything.

Kaylee had a good time in Ohio.  She hung out with her friend, and her friend's roommates.  They watched movies, went dumpster diving at Krispy Kreme successfully (the place throws away perfectly good boxes of donuts at the end of each day), went to church youth group, hung out, drove around campus and looked around, just did...stuff.  Steve and I flew over and picked her up yesterday, and she's got a few days of Fall Break left here.

Other than eating too much, feeling lazy, getting behind on my logbook, and everything else, not feeling like doing flying lessons, and otherwise being malaised (hey, it's not a real word but you know what I mean), everything's plugging along.

Envelopes

Kaylee got up early and had band practice.  Now that they are going to semi-state, they have more practices coming up.  She left practice a little early, and went on a canoeing/kayaking adventure with some friends.  She and a boy name Joe (side note she was in a playgroup with him when she was a baby up through about school age, but hadn't seen since until last year) shared a canoe, two more of her friends shared a 2-person kayak, and 4 others all had individual kayaks.  She went in the canoe to minimize her chances of capsizing.  lol  They went down the Wildcat, where Steve has spent a lot of time.  They had a great time, and then went back to Joe's house to play ping pong and other games, before I picked her up.  

I flew her to Akron, Ohio, and left her with a camp counselor friend for a few days.  She's got plans to go dumpster diving at Krispy Kreme, and go to her youth group, and hang out and spend a couple days on her Fall Break doing some fun things with a friend.   This is a little more grown-up stuff.  She's 16 off with an 18 year old college friend in her own apartment in Ohio.  The friend, we spent time with, and she's a Christian camp counselor and seems very nice.  I trust Kaylee more than the friend, and hope she has a good, safe, fun time.

Flying home alone from Akron

I started the morning flying with Steve.  I did quite a few takeoffs and landings from the back seat of the T-6.  I had some cushions set up, and it bumped me up to where I could actually see.  After the first few landings Steve could tell that it wasn't much of a challenge, so he started putting his arms up over his head.  It made me laugh because he looked like either a Prisoner of War or like he was surrendering in fear, but it also didn't make me laugh because now I couldn't see anything.  That was more of a challenge.  I never got super smooth at it, but it was always safe.  I usually couldn't see the runway until I was right over the threshold, and I'd be way off the centerline, a couple times not even on the runway, and have to scoot over and get straight at the last minute.  That poses a fun little challenge.  It would be even more so on a 50' wide runway.  But Steve didn't say or do anything, just sat there with his arms over his head and let me figure it out for good or bad.  That's pretty brave of him, actually!

By then the winds had picked up, and were down the runway at 15 knots.  I wanted to practice some crosswinds from back there.  I wanted to know how you'd know you were straight in a crosswind from back there when the front windshield was blocked.  I can't see the runway at all, so how can you know when you're getting blown off.  But a direct crosswind at 15 knots, while not making me blink in anything else, made me blink from the back of the Six.  So I did the takeoff and pattern, and coming down final I could see that as long as you had a strong enough crosswind, you were crabbing hard enough that you could actually see the runway from the back.  I straightened out over the runway, and felt like I could see that.  It was a little gusty and I was working it, but I'd been flying over an hour and a half, and was feeling fatigued. I didn't feel like I was as ahead of the plane as I needed to be, more reactionary than deliberate control, so I decided it wasn't worth it and went around, and came back in on the runway into the wind and called it a day.  Almost two hours of pattern work is a lot.  :)

So Kaylee is off, I don't have to get up in the morning, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow for some reason.  :)

Weekend

I got a group text this morning from the guy I flew with on Friday.  He sent it out to four of the Red Star guys and it said "I flew three sorties with Laura yesterday, and she's ready for her Wing Card.  Why don't we meet Nov. 11th for the Veteran's Day flyover. Ryan can ride back seat for the rec ride (recommendation ride) and Thud can do the checkride after the fly-over."  The check pilot said he's in.  Haven't heard from the others, but if the weather holds out, there's a possibility this might actually get done.  I always feel torn between wanting to do it and recognizing that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  I've been on this merry-go-round a lot.  But like Charlie Brown staring at Lucy holding the football, I'm thinking that maybe this time they'll let me kick it.  ;)  We'll see.  If not, I'm not any worse off than I was.  If so, then good.  Finally.

Saturday Kaylee had Regionals for marching band.  Her band is one of the smallest in the smallest category of Class D, which makes it tough.  But they have a clever theme, and they've worked hard to have good showmanship on it.  They came in 7th place out of 14.  Last year they were 10th, which was last place to still move on to semi-state.  In order to go on to State finals, they have to come in within the top 5 at semi-state.  They kind of doubt they'll be able to get in the top 5, but I wouldn't count it totally out.  They sound and look good.  Kaylee wouldn't mind if they didn't get into state because then marching band would be over.  On the other hand, she of course wants them to do as well as they can.  Steve and I enjoyed watching the show.  Afterwards we went to Chick-Fil-A, one of her (and our) favorite places to go even though they're always loud and crowded.  I told her I could never work there because of the chaos.  She said "I could".  I'd need to sit in a corner and suck my thumb after awhile.  It reminds me of Christmas rush in the retail world, when I used to work Meijer, Walgreens, and KMart.  You only had to put up with it for a few weeks, but those weeks were awful.  No thank you.

Today was raining, cold, dreary and windy.  Red Bull had their air races in Indy, postponed and delayed, but eventually ran.  We went last year and enjoyed, didn't care this year.  Been there, done that.  Next.  :)

Kaylee went to church tonight, then over to a friend's house to work on their talent show act and hang out.

Steve had a project cleaning off our windows, screes and blinds.  And here comes Monday...

I took my good camera with the good zoom lens to Kaylee's band performance.  I went to start taking photos, and had no SD card in the camera.  UGH.  We were right on the 50 yard line, perfect spot for photos, and I blew it.  All I had was my cellphone.  So here they are...in cruddy quality.

Waiting to take the field.

Lined up and ready to "clock"

Kaylee is the front sax

Friday the 13th

I've usually found Friday the 13ths to be good days, not superstitiously bad ones.

Kaylee is on Fall Break now, so she was able to sleep in some, but then had band practice around lunch time.

I had a student first thing this morning, then went to get a cheeseburger before taking off in the T-6 for Columbus, Indiana.  There was to be a formation clinic down there this weekend, with a check pilot coming, so I went down.  It was a beautiful afternoon and evening, and we got in three 'sorties' of about 45 minutes each.  Tonight there were just four of us, me in the T-6, two guys in tiny little RVs, and a guy in a Yak. It was a good work-out.  Felt pretty good.  But then one of the RV guys said he had to leave because tomorrow's weather didn't look good where he was coming from, and he needed to get back early.  There are more people coming down tomorrow, but the check pilot isn't going to make it after all.  So rather than spend money on a hotel room and a car and another day of formation flying that won't produce anything, I came on back after a good day of flying.   The sky was gorgeous, and I got to watch a beautiful sunset.  Usually I'd circle over Nathan's house and our house before landing, kind of an "I'm Here!", but the race with the darkness meant that I circled over Nathan's house once because it was on the way and skipped our house because it wasn't on the way, and landed with still just enough light to safely see the pins for the gear.  ;)

So I could only take one photo while we were on "route" formation, or loose formation while switching frequencies and checking gauges, but here are the photos I took of the sunset on the way home too...

Two little RV's to the left

A Yak to the right

Three of us in "en-route formation"

Sun is going, going, gone.

Kokomo at Sunset

Kokomo's Runways under the sunset

Windsock at sunset

Landing light, taxiway lights, etc.  End of watch.

Hump Day

It's been drizzly and grey and damp and IFR, and to be honest, I was perfectly fine with that.  It really took me until today to recover from the weekend.  How do you know when you're getting old?  When it takes you two days to recover from something that used to just take a good night's sleep.  :p

Kaylee's band had Community Night tonight, where they play their marching bad routine for all the parents/community.  It was drizzly and rainy, so they did it inside the Performing Arts Center.  The music was good, it's about "clocks", and I think it's clever.  They perform it for Regionals Saturday in Lafayette.  I'll be in Columbus flying, but Steve is going to get to go.

Kaylee is working on a talent night show with her friend Meredith, to do a mannequin head dance.  They put mannequin heads on their heads and zip them up in a sweatshirt and dance that way.  It's actually pretty funny.  Talent night is early November, so I'll be sure to do my best to be there to video it for you.  :)

Last night Steve got a phone call from the 80 some year old radar tech Navy veteran who I took up in the T-6 for a bucket list flight last week.  He said he'd been showing some friends the video of his flight, and the wife of his friend said "That looks like a lady flying the plane."  Her husband said "No, that wouldn't be a woman flying that plane."  My rider said it was indeed, but his friend didn't really believe it.  So he called to see if I could meet him back out at the airplane to get a photo taken with me and the plane as proof to his buddy.  So we did.  That really cracked me up.  I hope his buddy appreciates the photo.  I told them I'd like a copy  too.  :)

I was supposed to fly the L-2 from Sheridan to Kokomo today.  Of course it was IFR all day, so...nope.

One of the ladies from Dallas took this photo and posted it on Instagram.  She said something about Laura Stants, the Queen of T-6s, holds court on the WASP T-6.  Also kind of made me laugh.  

Weekend Warrior

So much behindness.

I didn't have access to a computer while I was gone, and typing a finger at a time on my iPad is no good either.  So...here we are!

Friday at 3:45 am I woke up for the start of this weekend journey.  On the way down to the Indy airport, my check engine light came on.  I've had intermittent trouble with that, so I just hoped this was not the real deal. (If it is, it's taking a long time to die, as it's still on and still running, so whew.) ;)

I got parked, and through security okay.  A dog sniffed my bag as I went by, and shortly afterwards the dog went away and the security people shut down the line I was in.  A woman tried to get back in the line with her husband and kid, and they wouldn't let her, because her bag wasn't sniffed by the dog and theirs was.  So she had to go to a different line and meet up later.  I had a middle seat.  If I wanted to upgrade to a window seat, it would be an additional $50.  So I figured I'd suck it up.  The people I was surrounded by weren't bad on this one, but nobody had a window open anywhere.  I really hated that, because the plane is moving and I can't see and I feel trapped.  But it's early morning and I figure everyone wants to sleep.  I try to close my eyes and listen to music, and the flight isn't that long, and I hate the taxiing around almost as much as I hate the landing not being able to see out.  Hated that.

I get to Dallas Ft. Worth, and it's huge.  To get to the rental car, you have to take a shuttle to a different location, a hub.  I am a preferred member at Avis, so I was supposed to walk up and they'd have my car handy.  They needed to scan my credit card.  I give them one, and it says a PIN is required.  Then it won't take my PIN.  I want to give them another card, but they don't take more than one attempt at a debit card.  I say "Didn't I already pay for this online??"  Yes I did but they still need to swipe my card the first time.  I don't have another credit card handy.  How about cash.  "No, you already paid, we can't take cash, we just need to swipe your card."  Now I can feel my eyebrow twitching.  She calls a supervisor, they look up which card I used to sign up with, I give them that, they swipe it, it works, I finally leave, find my car and I'm on my way to Redbird, Dallas Executive Airport.

When I get there, I'm supposed to meet my "handler".  I text her that I'm almost there.  I text her that I'm there.  I sign in at the volunteer station and get my wristband and t-shirt.  She hasn't answered me so I walk into the education hangar.  I see nobody there, so I walk around to find the T-6 I know I'm supposed to be taking care of.  I'm carrying my purse and my flight suit.  I finally find the plane, and it's roped off in an area away from the crowd, and they can't get to it.  I go over to it anyway, with my wristband giving me access.  An hour goes by.  I try texting again, that I am by the plane.  She says "I'll come get you in about 20 minutes."  Another 40 minutes later, she's still not there.  It's 90 degrees and I've just been standing there by the plane behind a rope.  I text her that I'm going to go look for a friend, and I go over by the bombers and find Jordan.  He tells me about the food tent for volunteers, so I go over there, only to finally find the lady in charge.  She says she wants me to give a talk about the plane in front of a group when they pull the plane in front of the hangar.  In the meantime, I see the plane fire up and taxi out with a couple of guys in it.  I'd been led to believe I was there to also fly the WASP plane for the event.  The plane doesn't show up in front of the hangar.  So finally I go hunting for it again, and find it parked way off the lot, back in an area nobody can see or access.  And there it stays the rest of the day.  Even the head people said they couldn't get it pulled over in front of the hangar.  Finally at 4 pm there was a general membership meeting where we voted for new board members, and then they had dinner and beverages.  I got to vote for Jordan, a friend.  The people I knew there were all on the board, up front together.  I didn't feel awkward by myself until dinner time.  I had a few minutes of feeling weird, and then finally found a few folks who had time to mingle, and socialized with them for awhile.  I went out to drinks with the lady at whose house I was staying, and then we went back to her house for the night.  She lives in a mansion in Dallas, but I didn't really know that until the next morning when I could see everything in the daylight.  :)

So Friday I woke up at 3:45 a.m. and didn't really get a lot done, except for the socialization, which was good too.

Saturday when I got there, the T-6 was in front of the hangar.  Success!  So I put on the flight suit and went over by it, where the two guys who took it the day before were hanging out too.  It was the former owner of the plane.  He'd flown it from Virginia with his partner, and brought it here to Dallas.  He'd sold it to the CAF, but didn't want to let it go.  Finally I just climbed up on the wing and started bringing people up and talking to them about the plane, the WASPs, etc.  Eventually the guys left for other pastures. Around 11 am they tugged the plane out, and the one guy flew it in the airshow.  It was back by 1, and I was on the wing the rest of the day, until about 4-5 pm . It was 90 degrees and in the flightsuit it was extremely hot.  Bright sun beating down, but it was a good day.  Busy day.  I met lots of good people.  I met some little kids who swore they were going to be pilots.  Some veterans who wanted to talk about their service, a couple guys who talked about their dads' service.  A student pilot who said I looked "approachable" and asked me questions about flying.  I gave him a long 30 minute ground lesson on a few things.  He was SO excited and eager about flying, and I had to smile when he said "I learned more from you in 30 minutes than I have from my instructor in the last 3 months total!"  I laughed because it's easy to step in and fill in holes, not so easy to be the one doing all the building blocks from the get go.  But it was a nice compliment.  I wish I could know how he ends up.  :)  I ended up meeting more of the CAF folks, and that was good, and spent time hanging out with the Missouri Wing CAF people too, went to dinner with them, and that too was good.   Bedtime came fast after that.  Long, hot day, but productive.

Sunday the T-6 was also still there.  It was a repeat of the day, just had fewer people there.  The airshow was great both days.  Amazing firepower in the air.  Again the former owner flew the WASP T-6 in the show.  I asked the folks there what I needed to do in order to fly the airplane.  They finally came back and said that even though I had a T-6 CAF checkout flight, I'd still need a waiver from two separate people (who weren't there) to fly it because I wasn't an official sponsor on that airplane.  I think they should have known that ahead of time, so there was likely never any intent for me to fly the plane by the actual folks in charge.  But I pushed it, and a couple other people pushed it, because we all agree that it's baloney to do it this way.  It's not that I need to fly another T-6 or that I'm a glory hound.  I sure don't need to take anyone else's seat in a T-6.  But this is the WASP T-6 representing women flying in aviation, at an event, and there is a fully qualified and checked out, willing and ready to go woman to fly the woman's trainer plane, they don't have another, and the plane is instead being flown by a man.  (A man who had been flying 1/2 the time I have and with less than 1/3 of the hours total time, and a fraction of the T-6 time, too.  Not that that matters.  ;) )  But they aren't organized enough yet for things to move faster than that for this event.  They have no female pilots on the plane yet.  They have one right there, who flew in from Indiana, and don't use her, because of paperwork and red tape, my two favorite things.  That and I'm guessing some politics with the guy who donated the plane to them and flew it from Virginia to bring it to them, and thus flew in the show, too.  So that part didn't go as planned, but I did get to rub elbows with a lot of people and make some needed introductions and head-way.  I met a couple of people who want to effect a little change in the WASP program and its sponsorships, and I think they'll actually get it done, too.  I also really do enjoy being on the wing and showing the plane to people and talking to them about it.  I'm one of the least social people you'll meet--except when it comes to airplanes.  One guy told me he could tell by the smile on my face and how much I lit up talking about the plane how much it meant to me, and said I should be a motivational speaker.  Ha.  lol  Not much will get me to wear a flightsuit on two-three 90 degree days in a row and stand and sweat in the sun all day long.  I'm lucky I didn't burn, but the flight suit really did help with that part at least.  ;) 

Sunday's flight home was less fun.  I left the airport at 3, and got caught in the airshow traffic.  Got lost trying to return the rental car at the weird hub.  Got to the airport and no problem with security this time.  I had a middle seat again, and this time I got in line early to get on board quickly.  I got there before the window seat person, so I opened the window shade.  Shortly thereafter a family parked near me, and a guy asked me if I'd switch seats with his wife so they could sit together.  I said sure, I don't care where I sit.  Normally.  I switch seats with her, and her seat is a middle seat, next to a very large man who is in the window seat, and he won't open the shade.  So again, I sit in the very back of the plane, all windows around me shut, and this time it's evening, sunset, beautiful outside, and not one person around me is looking out a window or leaving one open for me.  This time the people around me are too big, and I'm pressed up against them.  I can't move my arms or legs very far, and they're pushed up against my seat mate.  The guy in front of me leans his seat back when we get in the air.  The guy next to me has no desire to switch seats or open the window.  I have no room, can see nothing, and am extraordinarily uncomfortable and claustrophobic.  The plane is completely full, no empty seats. We land and that makes two airline flights where I never saw a single moment outside. I might as well have been on an underground train, because that's what it felt and looked like.  If I ever airline again, I refuse to do it that way again.  I came kind of close to freaking out in public.

We landed (with a big thump) IFR, at 9:40 pm.  By the time I got my car and got home, it was after 11 pm.  So I left Redbird airport at 3 pm and walked in my door at 11 pm.  I could have flown a 172 and gotten home faster than that.  ;)  But all in all it was a good weekend with some friends, some airplane stuff I enjoyed, a fantastic airshow, and some networking which I'm not great at and managed to do anyway.  Even got pushier than I normally do about the flying thing.  We'll see what comes of it, but it was a busy, tiring, and good weekend. And a learning experience on how not to airline.  If that's the only experience I had with flying, I would hate it too.  Isn't that something?  No wonder so many people don't like aviation...

Today it was IFR.  My student cancelled.  The sky was grey.  I was still feeling pretty uptight--and worn out.  Finally around 4 pm the clouds cleared.  I had a 6 pm student.  I was really tired, took a little nap, went out there, and at 6:10 pm he tells me he's cancelling.  So I pull out the T-6, which only had a small-ish amount of gas in it, and I fly around for awhile.  No work, no aerobatics, I just opened the canopy wide and watched the sun on its descent.  It was a beautiful evening from the air, and I definitely needed the air.  It also felt good to fly the T-6 and feel like I could.

FiFi at sunset

The party at the B-25 Saturday evening.

Having a nice breakfast while watching the air show

FiFi going by while I'm at the T-6

Part of the view

The WASP T-6

These two photos were taken by another worker there

She was a curious one.  :)

Getting ready to launch in a T-6 I'm allowed to fly.

Playing with the reflection in the visor

And Mom--this is where the "red hair" comes from.  ;)

End of the day. Much better.