Stroke

The TV right now is saying "Heat Advisory" for a bunch of counties, and "Extreme Heat Advisory" for other counties.  Now, isn't "Heat Advisory" saying to be advised because there is extreme heat?  So is "Extreme Heat Advisory" basically saying to be advised because there is extreme extreme heat?  Just saying.  I get it, it's hot.  Trust me, I'm well aware, and "Heat Advisory" covers it.  Watch out, it's bloody hot out there.

Last night my trip didn't quite go as I hoped, but I got the job done.  I was supposed to meet them there at 8:30.  If they did that, I could be off the ground maybe 8:45,  be down to Atlanta by 11:15. Get gas, off the ground by 11:45 and home by maybe 2 am.  I got there at 8:15, topped off the main tanks to waive the ramp/landing fee, and then they didn't show up until almost 9 pm.  Then they dallied around, even knowing I had an early morning scheduled, they chatted and wandered around the FBO and took their time loading up, and it was 9:15 before we left, making it almost midnight before we got to Atlanta.  We get there, and their rental car was nowhere to be found.  I spent a good 45 minutes waiting with them to make sure they got an Uber ride to where they were going, filled up with the self serve pump, and, long story short, it was about 3 am when I landed back in Kokomo.  I got home around 3:30, fell asleep probably around 3:45-4 am.

I had set my phone alarm for 7 am.  I didn't set my real alarm because I was trying to be super quiet and not wake up Steve.  Except apparently I'd turned the volume down on my cellphone.  I thought the alarm would go off as normal anyway, but instead it went off at a super low volume--that I never heard.  Here is where my internal alarm clock AGAIN wins the day.  I was out, and hard, because, you know, 3 hours sleep.  And yet I could feel myself being pulled out of sleep.  Suddenly I realized I was worried about something, my eyes flew open, I looked at my wrist, and saw 7:09 a.m.  I normally wake up slightly before the time I need to, but this time I was so tired it took a good 10 minutes for my brain to convince the rest of me to wake up.  But that internal clock saved my bacon today, because even awake I couldn't hear my alarm going off until I bent down over it.  That is so handy.  I had a guy going with me in the T-6 down to Metro, and without waking up I'd have probably slept until 9-10 am, and no text or call would have gotten through with my phone down like that. 

I had to evaluate myself after a shower to make sure I was safe to fly.  I started off feeling pretty groggy, but after the morning shower and a bottle of water, I could feel the fog lifting, and while I was tired, I was focused and ready to hit the day.  So I got to Kokomo, pulled out the 340, hooked up and pulled out the T-6, preflighted, pulled the prop through, pushed back in the 340, closed up the hangar, got my rider buckled in, got buckled in, fired up, and on our way.  All that took a good 30 minutes, and it was already hot.  I was sweating before I even got in the plane, for sure.

When we got to Metro, I got a nice escort to my parking space, shut down, and chatted with friends for awhile.  Jim Z, Jordan B, JP, then went over and found Steve, Nathan, AE, etc.   We were supposed to do our first formation flight around 10:45 am, so at 10:15 we went in and did a briefing, me, Nathan and Tom M.  We did it in an air conditioned room and boy was that sweet.  ;)

When the time came, I took Walt's T-6, Nathan took Checkertail, and Tom took the Woods T-6.  When I went to pull out of my parking space, the plane kept swinging left even though I was trying to go right.  Finally I got it to go right, and I just thought "oh well, the tailwheel was out, it was just being contrary."  Taxiing out I felt all right, so I didn't think any more of it.  I was #2, behind Tom.  Tom pulled in to do his runup at the runup area, and I aimed for him, got close to him and the grass, then went to swing right in order to line up for my run up.  Only the plane wouldn't turn. And then it started turning left.  Off the ramp and into the grass and at a taxiway light.  I kept trying to turn, no good, and keeping an eye on the taxi light I finally killed the engine.  Got on the radio and said I'd had a brake failure.  Nathan and Tom took off, did the formation flyover, and the Metro guys got on the radio and hauled a tug down there to help get me back to the ramp.  First thing I did was hop down and make sure I hadn't hit anything.  I hadn't, so that gave me a humongous sigh of relief.  Second thing I did was thank the heavens that we hadn't just lined up straight and taken off and then I find that bad brake when I tried to turn off the runway or on landing or on a ramp full of planes I might have had trouble missing.  If it had to fail, doing it where it did was again a better option than it could've been.  The ramp guys towed me and the plane back to the ramp, with me standing on the wing and waving.  I know people were wondering what happened.

So, I didn't get to do any formation flying today, but maybe that was for the best too.  I would have been okay for that first sortie, I know myself very well by now, but then I would have been done anyway.  Shortly after I got back from the aborted attempt, I ate a hot dog and some chips, the first food that I'd had since the night before, because I have been zero hungry in this heat, and it made me queasy.  I was drinking water the whole time, but sweating like a sprinkler was loose under my skin.  I sat for awhile, went walking around looking for Steve and Nathan, stood in the shade for awhile, feeling yucky, and then as I was walking back, the world started getting a little too bright and white. I was just way overheated.  So I went inside the office and sat in a chair in the air conditioning for about 10-15 minutes, before going back out and sitting in front of a fan with Steve and Nathan and AE.  At that point we were talking about the fly-over of the start of the Veteran's Parade I was supposed to do at 1:55 pm in Kokomo for the Haynes Apperson festival.  It was going to be a two-ship, until Walt's airplane failed.  So now it was just going to be me.  I was still evaluating myself, and I had cooled my temp down and had some food and water and was better, but I could tell that I was at the end, that I probably had one more flight and landing left in me.  So I told them I'd take it to Kokomo, do the flyover, then land in Kokomo and go home early.  We were supposed to do another flyover that evening, elsewhere, but it wasn't going to happen with me.

And that's what I did.  I fired up, took off, did a farewell banana pass at Metro, got to Kokomo, found my target, flew over it, gave them hopefully a nice showing, and then coming into Kokomo made my landing.  Sure enough, after that I was spent.  But I needed gas.  And tomorrow morning I wouldn't want to get it.  So I called the gas truck, waited, topped off (I put the fuel in that one myself), tugged it away, and was barely picking my feet up any more.  Heat index was about 110F, I was sunburnt, and wet with sweat, and just DONE.  I drank more water, stopped at DQ and got a medium sized blizzard (and they only had small spoons so you couldn't reach the bottom half of the cup which I think was the universe telling me I didn't need a medium ;)), and two large unsweet teas, drank one right away and the other I drank at home over a period of time.  I walked in the door, changed clothes from the inside out, collapsed on the couch and slept for I don't know how long.

When I woke up, I had a headache.  Great, thought I.  I drank more water, I had a salty snack, and my headache was getting worse.  I took Aleve and Tylenol and oxygen, and it was still there.  And then it occurred to me.  I'd been drinking all this water...but I hadn't had a bit of caffeine today other than the minimal amount in the tea.  So I popped a Coke, and within an hour was feeling better again.  Whew.

Kaylee made it home from Girls' State today.  She LOVED it.  She says she was a little unsure that she'd like it, but by the end of the 2nd day, she totally loved it.  She said it was a really good experience, she learned a lot, the people were fantastic.  She met female state police, pilots, all sorts of powerful career women, and really enjoyed the time.  She ran for and was elected for two positions.  She didn't go for a major role, but House Representative was one, and she won that.  She would like to go back as a junior counselor next year, and is looking into how to go about doing that.  She said that most of the kids there were also super high achievers and amazing, and she said "I was really the most average person I met while I was there!"  Some kids had their own non-profits, some had big roles in a business, and they're all under 19.  She was impressed.  She wanted to stay even longer.  Tonight she's at a fireworks party with some friends, though, so she's glad to be doing that too.  :)

Steve has headed to bed and here go I as well.  We have another full day tomorrow, with another extra hot day.  I have had to wash a load of laundry every day because of this heat and humidity.  It needs to die. Here's hoping for a solid night's sleep and some shade and good flying tomorrow.  And safety, always.  If brakes are going to fail, may they be found while still moving very slowly on the ground! 

This picture was taken right after I landed.  I'm already a hot sweaty mess!  Ha.

Today

Kaylee pictures, as promised.  She is sitting in a police car (the FRONT seat, which makes all the difference).  ;)  She said they had them put on "drunk goggles" so they could see what it was like to try to walk or operate while intoxicated, and she said they were a lot harder than the ones the school had them try in elementary school.  They probably didn't want the little ones to trip.  lol   They had the kids try on "meth suits", where they gear up as if going into a meth lab.  Minus the shoes. ;)  And they had them meet a drug-sniffing dog.  Not sure what all else was involved, but she found it interesting!

Kaylee sent a text saying she missed her kitties and to send photos of them.  So when we got home (late) last night, I tried to take photos of them, but they wouldn't hold still, and all the photos were blurry.  So I sent the blurry pics, and then said "You didn't ask but surely you miss more than the cats?" and I sent her a selfie of me.  She just laughed.  I should probably be offended.  ;)

I posted on an all-women's group about the Flying Squirrels program and talked about a few of the girls who have come through there.  I clearly defined the program, what all it was and did, said that the program is for all kids aged 14-18, and talk about the "kids" throughout.  Within five minutes I get a woman "waving" at me on Facebook.  Then she sends me a message that says "I'm interested in learning more about the Flying Squirrels program.  Is it only offered to teenagers?  I used to be a teenager (in my late 20s now).  I have my Commercial and am working towards 1500 to go to the airlines and every hour helps."   Yes, I already described it as a program for teens.  What your goals are and what we are doing are two very different things.  We're getting teens into flying, you're already an adult with a Commercial ticket trying to time build, and 5 hours of tailwheel in a summer isn't really anything you need to be chasing.  But mostly, come on.  I post about a kids' program, and five minutes later you want to be included in the primary training kid program for tailwheel and Sport/Private pilot stuff, as a time building Commercial pilot.  Just...made me shake my head.

Tonight I leave around 7:30 to go on a late night flight to the Atlanta area.  I'm bringing one of my students along.  It'll be a long night, but I'm hoping to get a nap in this afternoon and do my best tomorrow.  Steve is already down there setting up with AE today.  We shall see.

Sweatbox

That's what it was today, and what it will be until at least Sunday.  Saturday is to be 95 degrees with a heat index of 105 last I heard.  THAT'LL be fun. :o

Tomorrow I was supposed to fly to South Bend, IN then down to Atlanta, GA, then back home, leaving at 2:30 pm and home by about 9 pm.  Now I'm not leaving for South Bend until about 7:45 pm, and I won't get home until 3 or 4 am.  This is extra not good, because early Saturday morning I am taking the T-6 down to Indy for a weekend in the heat of formation flying and other flying.  It kind of ruins the day I was planning on having Saturday, because I don't do so well on just a few hours sleep.  :(  We'll see how it goes, but I'm not super happy about it.

This afternoon I had two Flying Squirrels to fly with, a young lady and a young man.  We were in the Champ at Westfield, so I flew the Cub down there to meet with them.  No air flow on the ground, sun beaming down, stuffy building with no air, just hooooot.  Hot.  Hot.  But we had a good time, and we all had fun with it, and they learned a few things.  It's always fun to see how excited some of the kids get at this.

Steve's cousin Jeff has been here the last couple of days, and we took him to lunch today before he headed back with the rest of his family.  Kaylee sent me some photos too, but I'm so tired, too tired to save off, download, then upload tonight, so you'll have to wait for tomorrow.  ;)

She's apparently doing well though.  Just a few more days and she'll be headed home.

Photos I'd already downloaded from today...

Pretty plane in a pretty setting.

Young lady doing well

Young man preflighting the Champ while the Cub sits in the background.

On my way home.  ;)

Squirrel

Eureka, Kansas got hit with a tornado this evening.  That's where my Mom's family is, some of them, anyway.   The news said there was a fair amount of damage, a "direct hit", with power lines and trees down, a few homes down, some businesses damaged, etc.  I haven't heard of any fatalities though, thankfully.

I went to Glenndale today for the Flying Squirrels program.  We had a wad of weather move in on top of us before we could get any flying in, so we had a full ground lesson day instead.  The teacher, Greg, did a great job teaching the material, and then he had a panel of us four tailwheel CFIs get up and talk about tailwheel flying for awhile.  Ty got technical, Nick told some personal stories about learning to fly tailwheel, as did Jerry, and after about 40 minutes of that, the only things I added were that this was going to be a lot of information for them, but to relax, have fun with it, know that they weren't going to get into anything we couldn't help them get out of, that turbulence is just pot holes on a country road and nothing to worry about.  I didn't really get tailwheel specific, because the others did that.  But Ty and Nick were talking about how hard and how different it was, and about groundloops, and about scaring themselves, and I thought, these are 14-18 year old kids, some of whom have never been in an airplane in their lives, and how about we slow down, and not freak them out yet.  ;)

Later I had to go back to the dentist.  Today was fixing and prepping my tooth for a cap/crown.  He said "no needles" so that was promising, except I was drilled on for about an hour.  They had to take out the temporary filling in the tooth the root canal people put in.  Then they had to clean up and shape and reduce and smooth out the tooth.  That took FOREVER.  My face hurt.  Then they had to pack the tooth again with filling.  Then I had to make a mold of the tooth, both lower and upper, to make the cap I guess, to fit my tooth.  Sit and chew on rubber glue while it 'set'.  I was there over an hour, and when I left I felt shell shocked a little.  I came home and laid down on the couch and drank a coffee drink and mentally sucked my thumb for about an hour.  I hate the dentist.  Hate it.   There is nothing I like about dentistry other than not having gnarly teeth.  Ugh.

I'd also discovered this morning that I was out of both Claritin D and the good decongestant that I've been using at night.  I am pretty sure that helps with headaches, and the decongestant is also psuedoephedrine.  In other words, I had to get both today from the pharmacist.  I didn't know how many I could get, so I got one small box of each.  It didn't red flag it, so it let me, and I'm hoping it's enough for the month since I know they limit it per 30 days.  The regular over the counter Sudafed doesn't do as well.  I'd started taking two of them.  Then I found the good stuff.  Thankyouverymuch.  Now if only they let me have as much as our family needs per month...

Kaylee texted us and asked for ideas on a bill to write, that wouldn't be super controversial.  Steve and I (mostly Steve) brainstormed in the car, and then he said "Teens rights w/o parental control/input.  But no, that might be controversial and I don't know in exactly WHAT."  I said "Nah, she'll like that one, send it, and it'll get her off and running on an idea."  And she did like it.  It's always pretty much annoyed her that adults can make all the decisions for kids, medical, school, everything, even though it directly affects the kids in all ways, that they have no legal say in it, even/especially if it's something they feel super strongly about or that affects them in a huge way.  So I don't know where she went with it, but I bet she writes a good speech on it.  ;)

Steve and I drove to Indy and went to the last CAF meeting before the Wings Over Indy event.  They are pretty far behind on some things, and nobody told us about a media day nor asked us to help out, so I will be gone Friday on a business trip, and Steve is now left to scramble to try to make something happen with the Missouri Wing and their airplanes.  They're supposed to give B25 rides and have no current pilots because their plane has been down too long, and nobody thought to tell anybody that until yesterday.  Just...sheesh.  We were down there from 6-8:30 pm or so, and then went to dinner with a couple folks, late, before heading home  to get ready for having company over.  Tomorrow I get a guy ready for his checkride, and finish getting the house ready for company, and then we'll see what we get...

Monday

It was another typical summer day around here.  I woke up around 7, was out for my first flight by 8:30 am, and we got home around 10:30 pm.  That's because we stopped for dinner at 9:30 pm.  I had flights one after the other from after lunch until after 8 pm, non-stop.  I'm not sure what all Steve had, but I know that at one time I was up in a 172, he was up with a guy in his own plane getting ready for his Instrument checkride, Cusick was up in the other 172, and Harkcom was up in a Cheetah, and we were the "Flight Training Centers" airport for awhile there.  It was kind of neat hearing all the familiar voices on the radio and stuff.  :)  Thankfully the temps were really nice, and that made it so much more pleasant to be in a plane alllll day.

Kaylee says she is doing well, that her suite-mates are "great!", that they have lots of meetings, and that she is either running for House or Senate.  That requires her to give another speech, which she is nervous about.  I didn't even tease her about how much she says "like" in her conversations like I have been, because while I want to break her of the habit, I don't want to paralyze her in public speaking, either.  She's aware of it now, so good enough.  ;)  Anyway, she also said there are three Kaylee's in her one group.  So they are known as "Short Kaylee, Tall Kaylee and Redhead Kaylee".   I think she's enjoying herself best I can tell.  She hasn't complained about anything, so that's a good sign.  :)

Our Flying Squirrels program has been going for 3 weeks tomorrow, and the first two weeks were canceled for bad weather.  Tomorrow is looking iffy too, but we're going to give it the ole college try.  I'm not going to go to Westfield to pick up the Champ, but Dennis has given me permission to use his Cub, which will make my life sooo much easier.  I'd like to do it more often, but there's a girl who wants to fly up with me in the Champ.  That means I need to add time to drive to Glenndale, get the cub out, fly to Westfield, pick up the Champ, fly it to Glenndale, do the Squirrels, then fly the Champ back to Westfield, fly the Cub back to Glenndale, then drive home.  That is such a waste of time.  Like, two hours worth.  But the girl...  *sigh*

Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment to get a temporary cap put on my back tooth.  I've been chewing on the left side of my face for like a month now.  Then I have to get the permanent one on put on mid-July, the day after I do the WASP T-6 flight for the video in Ohio which is the two days after I do Cheyenne recurrent training at Kokomo.  Still busy.  ;)

Girl's State

If you want to follow the event Kaylee is at for the next week, they have a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/alahgs/ that you can "like" and follow.  Maybe they'll even explain what's happening better.  ;)

They are divided into Federalists and Nationalists.  Kaylee got Nationalist.  They had a quick election, and Kaylee had to get up and give a speech to get people to vote for her.  When they did, she was voted in as "Nationalist City Precinct Commiteeman."  I'm really surprised that at an all-girl event in this day and age they didn't force them to call it "Committeeperson".  Not that I'm offended, mind you.  I asked her what that was, and she doesn't even know, but she does know she has voting power.  lol

They have to dress up professionally all day every day, with different "classes" of dress, from dressy casual to almost formal business suit attire.  She had to pack two bags to get all the clothes in they wanted her to bring/wear throughout the week.

So now you know as much as I do about this.  Wait, she's in "FREEDOM" something or other (district?), in the city of "Bubala", which is not pronounced "boob-uh-luh" like WE thought, but "Boo-Ball-uh".  Sorry, it's going to permanently be "boobuhlu" in my head now.  NOW you know as much as I know.  :)

I flew her and her friend Clarissa and her dad up to Angola, Indiana, in Gumby.  It was an almost 2.5 hour drive, and a 26 minute flight.  So we flew.  God Bless Aviation.  Richard went to college there, which is neat! I bet he'd get a kick out of Kaylee being there for this.  Everything ran me late today though.  Kind of one thing after the other piled up. I was supposed to be back by 11:30, and I made it back by 1:15, with someone waiting on me.  His name's Bob, and he's an aerobatic airshow pilot.  Super nice guy, and we're trading favors.  He's flying aerobatics with me and I'm doing some T-6 checking out for him.  Win/Win.

When we got to Angola, Steve had arranged a courtesy car ahead of time, as the airport office wasn't officially open yet.  But when we got there, there were three guys sitting in the lobby hanging out.  When I went to the counter to get the clipboard, one jumps up, I say I arranged the car ahead of time, that I'm to go behind the counter and get the clipboard, he does it for me, doesn't want me back there apparently, I fill it out, he watches, and he walks past me and goes to the dad and says "So how do you like that Aerostar?"  The dad, being on his like 2nd ever small plane ride, looks confused, and says "I don't know, she's the pilot".  The guy says "REEally!?" and turns to me.  Now I was the one on the radio, I was the one shutting the doors, I'm the one going up to the counter and getting the courtesy car and answering all the questions on the form and such, it's my driver's license on the thing.  C'mon.  Kaylee laughed.  When we got outside she said "They never think you're the pilot, do they."  I laughed and said "sometimes not, no", but the truth is, if there is any guy on board at all with me, the line guys or desk guys often have to work their way through them before they get to me. ;)

When I finally got to Kokomo, I was feeling rushed, behind, late, and probably a little flustered.  But I had a water, talked for a few minutes with Bob, and then we went up.  It was nice and cool up around 8000'.  The first trip up we mostly did stalls.  Clean low power, clean no power, dirty low power, power on.  We did them where you don't recover right away, where you let it get a little out of whack, where you're upside down, etc.  We came in and got some gas, and went back up and I did some loops mostly.  Then some other maneuvers, various rolls, etc., all in all good stuff.  When we ended, we'd flown a good several hours total, 2.5 or so, which is a lot of time to be going upside down for someone like me without a current tolerance built up.  But I was in good shape until the very end, and then I felt my head ting.  I have a three tiered warning system.  I feel it in my head, first, that my gyros are getting tumbled.  Then I feel a poke in my stomach, like a hot spot.  If I ignore both of those things and keep going, I will be not feeling great within another 5-10 minutes or so and will be forced to quit, and will sit on the ground and feel yucky for awhile.  So I quit with the head today.  ;)  But I was pleased with how long I was able to go, and that even then it wasn't bad, I could have done more.  I just chose to stop now, felt like I'd accomplished what I needed to for that day, and still could feel totally normal.  Seemed like another win/win to me.  :)

Afterwards, Bob flew home and Steve and I went to Applebees and did a "drinks, appetizer and dessert" kind of meal.  I'd had 2/3 of a subway sandwich, and a grilled chicken sandwich to eat all day, not wanting anything heavy going on for what we were doing.  So I had some food latitude.  Just the drinks, appetizers and dessert were probably more calories than I should have had for the day, but it was worth it, and better than adding a meal to it too!

Okay, now it's not that late, but I am a busy girl tomorrow; someone in the morning, a break for lunch, and then I have people non-stop until 8 pm. So...better go get some sleep.

I'm pleased with today...

Weekend

The Airshow was canceled because of weather, in the end.

I still have two things booked for several days.  Tomorrow I'm supposed to fly all day with someone from Michigan, plus Kaylee needs to be taken to Angola for her week at Girl's State.  If we drive it'll take 5 hours plus, but Steve would need to do it himself.  If we fly it'll take 1 hour plus, but I'd need to do it, based on available planes, which means I need to push back the guy coming from MI to fly with me.  Kaylee has a friend who wants to meet for breakfast before they head up there too.  Not sure if she's going to want to fly with us, drive by herself, or what (the friend, not Kaylee).

So, not sure what we're doing tomorrow yet.  Like everything else, it'll work out.

Today was the airshow that wasn't, and so far we only know of one family who drove out there thinking it was happening.  We tried to blitz the media that it wasn't to prevent that.  So instead a guy wanted me to fly with him in his airplane, which was in Illinois, but was supposed to be delivered by 8 am. So he set a time to fly at 11.  Then the pilot delivering it was out till 3 am, so got a late start, but maybe 11 would work anyway. Except the weather kept the clouds too low.  So, no go in the end.

Tonight we're going to Steve's marching band reunion...

Hump Day

More rain this morning, but by the afternoon the clouds burned off enough, and I had a great rest of the day for flying.  First, I got to solo a guy in the PT-26 who has been working for that for a very long time.  As in, at least a couple of years.  He just struggled with it, but finally he dialed it in, and today was the day.  I got out, signed his tailwheel endorsement, and sent him off on his own in it.

The very next flight was a guy who soloed once months ago, after struggling with it a lot, and then lost it again.  He's been unable to re-solo...until today.  I was able to get out, and send him on his way.  It  made for three happy people today; those two, and me.  :)

Steve got the waiver in for the FAA.  They're going over it very carefully, because Pam botched it so badly that we look like yahoos, so they want to make sure all the I's are dotted and T's crossed.  They weren't necessarily even coming to the show before, but they are now.  So, that's good progress that the waiver is done, at least.  Now I hope we can find some food.

The weather is super sketchy too.  Tomorrow an aerobatic guy was coming here to fly with me in the T-6, Thursday and Friday.  Instead, the weather has tanked for both days, and we are just praying that it clears off Saturday morning for the day for the airshow.  We're hoping the performers can get here Friday or Sat. morning even though the weather looks awful, and that Saturday can just hold off and let us have a show, after everything.

The 421 I have been flying had an issue.  John texted me to let me know that Aurora had called him to let him know that they goofed up and there was no airworthiness certificate for the plane.  When I went to pick it up, I asked if all the paperwork was there. He said yes, he'd asked the shop if all the paperwork was there, and they said yes.  Neither of us verified it, which was our mistake.  The shop signed off the annual and the plane as airworthy, and I flew it home and a couple times since then.  Then they discovered the mistake, and had to get a ferry permit to bring the plane back to Aurora to get it inspected and an AC issued for it.  The thing is, it's an FAA violation to fly a plane without an airworthiness.  John is the owner and said he wasn't going to throw me under the bus, but I'm the one who flew it home, and I'm the PIC responsible for both that and the subsequent flights.  When he first told me, I instantly knew I could get in trouble too, but figured it would be quiet.  But apparently a guy at the FAA went to his supervisor about it and was making a stink.  So I was put on alert that I may be facing an issue there.  I didn't lose any sleep over it.  In fact, I joked that I could see what my 709 ride would be (check flight with the FAA)...they make me walk to 8 different airplanes and find their paperwork and make sure they're all valid.  But the reality is they could have used me for a point, depending on how unpleasant the Chicago FSDO branch wanted to be.  So I was glad to get the text today that the FAA guy said it wasn't worth the paperwork to file on it, and that we were all in the clear.  So, another good thing for today.

I think I mentioned that my root canal tooth broke apart a little bit on Friday when I was in Fargo.  I called the dentist Monday and got voicemail.  Today, Wednesday, they called me back and let me know they're all on vacation for another week.  I told her the endo place said they couldn't help me because they just do root canals, not tooth repair.  She asked if I was in terrible pain. I said no, my gum gets a little sore because food gets down there, I have had to chew on one side of my mouth for a week now, I have to floss the hole because of food anyway, and it's a little sore and jagged on my tongue.  She said "Be careful, don't chew on that side, we don't want more of that tooth to break, and we'll see you in a week or so."  Soooo, that's nice.  ;)

We were watching "Code Black" tonight, and a man lost his son.  He was sitting there in a room, and his doctor friend said she understood (she'd lost her whole family), that he was afraid that if he started to cry, he'd never be able to stop, that he'd break into pieces, and that it's just too much to handle at once.   I felt my eyes water up, because what flashed through my mind was making phone calls to people and telling them that Devon had died, and keeping it together, because I could feel that if I didn't, if I started crying, I was afraid I'd go crazy, or be unable to stop.  I remembered that feeling as she described it, and then I wonder why on earth it's gotten to me today.  Then I see the date, and understand.  I don't know what it's like to lose my husband, though I know a couple of you reading this do.  I don't know what it's like to lose my mother, though some of you do.  I just know this, and I know that sometimes you remember the good and sometimes you think of the bad (and then try to get rid of it) and that sometimes you can recognize when someone else understands.  Like whomever wrote those lines on this show for tonight.  Somebody's been there.  Probably most people have in some form or other, as it's a part of life. Not a very easy part, but a part...anyway...

I took pictures of both guys today, and some of them turned out pretty nicely.  It was a good day of blue skies, puffy clouds, light enough winds, and confidence built.

Final Runway 23 OKK, and look how much visibility I have from the back seat of this thing!

PT-26 and solo fella

C-172 in the clouds for the rest of these...

Rain

Yesterday I was scheduled to fly all day with the guy from Ohio in the T-6.  The flat tire meant that was canceled.  If that was canceled I was scheduled to fly all day with the Flying Squirrels, from 9 am until about 4 pm.  So as you can see I was double booked.  The weather forecast canceled the Squirrels even though it ended up it would have been nice enough to get some flying done in the morning.  Another guy asked me to do a checkout in an airplane for the sales people, and when I said no, I couldn't, he never responded back with "ok" or "thanks anyway" or anything.  Sorry buddy, the last priority lost, so that when my day did open up some, I still just didn't contact him again.  The afternoon stormed and rained, all flights canceled.  It was just the break I needed.  Badly.

Meanwhile, our airshow is in 3 days.  Pam, who wants to be in charge of the event, and who every year messes up the waiver and other things under her purview, this year spectacularly outdid herself.  She was responsible for three things.  Providing water for the crowd and participants.  Providing lunch food vendors.  Providing the airshow waiver.  These were the three things she insisted on doing.  Every time Steve would ask about them, she'd say "Don't worry, I have that covered."  First came the water.  She had no provision for it, so Steve just took it over about a week ago and got it covered.  But "Don't worry about lunch, that's covered."  Three days before the event, Pam sends a text that "all the lunch vendors have backed out."  What that means is she never had them in the first place and now she can't get them.  So we have no food for the airshow participants as of right now.  Same day she sends Steve an email that the FAA guy is just not getting her info on the waiver and she gives up, he can take her name off the waiver.  So.  She has done nothing, gotten nowhere, and THREE DAYS BEFORE THE EVENT, she blames other people and drops the ball right into Steve's lap, with no time left, and walks away.  Thanks, Pam, so much, you're a real champ.  If this show didn't come off, we would be the ones who look bad, to the public, to the local pilots, to the FAA even.  Not her, even though our failure would be a direct result of her. But Steve is Steve, and Steve is good.  He's pulled out all stops, called and gotten help from everybody he can get on board.  He has the airport manager scrambling for food.  He has friends helping him create diagrams to finish up the waiver.  He has reached out to the FAA who promises him they will push the waiver through if he can get it to them asap.  I think we're going to get this done, and the good news is that we shouldn't have to deal with Pam ever again if we ever do another airshow at Kokomo.  We'd better not, anyway.  This year was a very small event anyway.  Most of our acts had to back out when the city changed the date of our show.  Steve made up acts and there are two aerobatic acts.  That's a short show.  We don't have many warbirds again.  I think it'll be fun, but small.  So I'm torn.  Part of me likes that and says that's just right.  The other part thinks...one more year.  Make it big.  Bring in a good sized show, lots of airplanes.  Make it big, and successful, ourselves.  Prove a point.  And then not do it any more.  Go out on a win.  Either way, I don't want to hear Pam's name in relation to any of it again.  She's always caused more problems than she's ever provided assistance.  And this is a public blog, so it could be  found, screen shot, passed on, and as far as politics go that would make me unwise for posting it.  But what's she going to do about it?  Get mad and walk away from us at the last minute and dump the airshow on us and hope it fails?  Oh wait...

The Long Day

Kaylee had her second day at work today.  She got to work with a few more people, and enjoyed them, and she worked with 3 year olds more, which she enjoyed.  She "closed" tonight, at 6 pm, and said the only freaky thing was that she found a bin with dirt and plastic fruit, and a bug. She poked the bug thinking it was plastic, but it was alive.  And very large and fast.  She shrieked and they ended up taking it outside and letting it go, and after they dumped it out of the bin, it ran right back at them.  Some little kid put a live big bug in a bin in the room and left it there as a pet and Kaylee poked it thinking it was plastic.  Heh.

The rest of this is about the flying day, so most of you can skip it.  You're welcome.  :)

A guy drove in from Ohio this morning, to spend two days here and get officially checked out in the T-6.  I haven't even unpacked from Fargo yet, and we've gotten home very late each night, started very early each morning.  I'm tired, and not really in the mood, to be honest. It's also going to be a record high temperature day, with 104F heat index.  The winds are forecast to be gusting to 25 knots, which is more than I've ever instructed in before.  But on the other hand, only Grissom is calling for that.  Everybody else, Lafayette, Indy, Ft Wayne, South Bend, the National Weather Service, all call for light winds.  So.... Grissom wasn't right, but neither were they.  I didn't see it get to 25, but I did see it get to about 22.  Closer than the 8-9 that everyone else said.  Call that one for GUS.

I went out to the airport early because the T-6 was tucked in behind the 340.  The other two guys who help out there weren't in yet, so I pulled out the 340, hooked up and pulled out the T-6, pushed the 340 in, took the tug off the T-6, turned around and hooked it back up, tugged the plane in, and by the end of all that, I was soaked in sweat.  It was already white hot and muggy.  I took Nathan's stuff out of the front, put my stuff in the back with the newly packed parachute, got my helmet ready, and got set up.  When I was digging in the baggage compartment, the door fell on my forehead and nose.  I saw stars for a second, as it falls pretty hard.  My forehead started bleeding, but not my nose, at least. It bruised, but my freckles are now so big from all the sun lately that you can't see it.  Ha.  By the time he arrived, I was still sweating.  Sweat stings wounds, too, by the way.  We sat on the ground and I went over the systems in this airplane; fuel, hydraulics, gear, etc.  I had him sit in the plane and went over where everything is, how it works, etc.  Then before we fired up, I called in to Kokomo to give them a 15 minute warning that we needed to depart, as the airport's closed otherwise.  Normally I'd go to Marion if Kokomo is closed, but they had the Rob Holland crew there all last week and this week through tomorrow, supposedly.  Can't do pattern work there, either.  So we had to go farther abroad. 

We took off, did some basic air work, then went on to Frankfort to do takeoffs and landings.  The winds weren't too far off their runway, but it is half the width of Kokomo, so I don't really see a lot of it for much of the time from back there.  But enough.  The winds are swappy and interesting enough to make it a work out.  We're up for about two hours total, come back into Kokomo.  I get lunch, and go right back out while he waits at the airport, as he packed a cooler with his own organic lunch.  We go to fire back up, and the battery is low.  This confuses me, but he tries again, and sure enough, no start.  It's hot out.  I drag out the power pack, hook it up, chock the plane on both wheels, set the parking break, start the plane, have him put everything back together, have him climb up on the wing.  I let go of the brakes I'm also holding to make sure everything is rock steady, and jump out while he jumps in.  I move the unit and cords out of the way, and we are off to start round two.  This time we go north, to another runway half the width of Kokomo, only this one has trees at one end, so we get some nice nasty currents off of it with the winds gusting into the 20s and swapping around a good 30-40 degrees at a time.  We fly about an hour.  He's tired.  I'm tired.  We say "one more".  Do that, and he's close to having it down pretty well.  We take off and head for Kokomo.  Almost done.

Coming into Kokomo the winds were about 40 degrees off, nothing too terrible.  He did an overhead break for the practice (needs more practice there), and we came on in and landed.  As we're rolling out, the left wing was down, but that had happened with the strut earlier.  I said something about taxiing off, and he said "Something's wrong."  Now I can hear he has too much power for not enough moving, and the left wing is down too far to be the strut.  I told him to stop, I unbuckled, and while it was running, I stepped on the back step, and jumped all the way to the ground.  That's not how you do that by the way.  You step on the wing first, but I got in a hurry.  It's kind of a long way down, in case you're wondering.  Anyway, I bend down and find one seriously flat main wheel.  Yay.

I looked up at him and gave him the "shut it down" symbol, which he did.  The next few hours were spent on the hot runway, hot everything, trying to figure out how to get this plane off the runway.  Luckily the airport was already basically closed, and we were clear Runway 32, so people could still get permission to get out there if need be, but we weren't terribly in the way.  The airport manager came out with his lights and truck to make sure nobody landed on us anyway.  None of our dollies are big enough to handle that much weight.  We can't just push it off the runway, it's 5500 lbs.  Change a whole tire out there?  Did we even HAVE one?  (The answer to that is no).  I was really wondering what we were going to do about it.

Steve called in the cavalry.  Ty and George and Justin and Jon all came roaring up.  Mark came out, every T-6 person nearby was called and asked if they have a spare tire/tube/assembly.  The tire was starting to come off the rim, but hadn't yet, so the guys  got out there, put air in it, and it would leak out, but I could at least tug it.  So I hooked up the tug and removed all chocks while they were airing it up as best they could, then they got clear and I tugged it off the runway, down the taxiway, and onto Runway 32 before it got too low.  They aired it up again, got out of the way, and I got it to the hangar.  They aired it up again, and I got it pushed back in and tucked away.  Did I mention it was 104F heat index out there?  I'm sun burnt.

Part of me was disgruntled because there were a lot of things about this flight that man, I was just dragging this flight along, forcing it.  Nothing forced ends well, and I was annoyed because I'd felt that I'd rather not be doing this today at all.  I'm hot, I'm tired, it's windy, a seal blew off, a battery ran down, a door hit me in the head, but none of those things were worth sending a guy who drove for three hours home without accomplishing anything.  So I made it happen.  And then the tire goes flat.  Just...gah.

But the rest of me decided to settle on being pretty grateful.  If it had done that at Warsaw or Frankfort, the plane would be trapped there, I'd have had to call for a ride, we have no tools or equipment there, the runway would have been shut down, just all kinds of unpleasant possibilities.  I'm grateful we quit on that last landing and came home. We'd debated doing a couple more.  I'm grateful we were still working on three point landings.  That meant we were coming in slow, touching down with the tailwheel down, and stopping quickly and easily.  Had we started doing wheel landings, when they're first learning at least they come in faster to figure them out, and the tail is up.  Now take a faster speed, and touch down with a flat tire on one side and a non-flat tire on the other.  What do you think is going to happen when the flat tire grabs and starts to turn the plane in that direction?   On the three point we just went a little crooked and stopped less than 50' away from the centerline.  On a wheel landing, we very well may have had an involuntary ground loop.  I'm grateful that all those guys came right out there and helped.  I didn't feel alone standing out there in the middle of a runway, I had a crew, and they had my back.  One dumped his grandkids off and ran to help, another dragged a friend along who was supposed to be going to do something else, and they were right there.  It is good to have friends.

The day could have ended worse than it did, and I'm grateful that while it was a hassle day, and an expensive day, it was a safe day.  My bruised head and arm (another story) and sunburn and freckle attack will be fine, the plane's tire tube will be replaced, the guy from Ohio will just have to come back some other time, but everyone and everything is fine, and that's all that matters.

I Know, I Know.

I've been getting home very late at night and just in time to go to bed and get back up nice and early.  I'm so very much behind.

Thursday I flew with a student in the morning, had lunch, flew with John in his 421 at 1 pm, and it was HOT.  I mean, hot, muggy, sweaty, nasty, miserable hot.  It's been that way ever since, and I am way past tired of sweating, for what it's worth.  After John and I finished up, I ran home, grabbed my bag, went back to Kokomo, loaded up Gumby, and flew off to Fargo, ND. 

I was flying along when I noticed that my GPS/VOR head was off track.  I looked down at Nav 2 and saw that it wasn't going to Fargo, it was going somewhere else.  No big deal, it just didn't cross feed from Nav 1.  So I plug it into Nav 2 too.  And instantly Nav 1 goes wonky.  I'm going to short cut this story because nobody cares but some pilots, but it took me a solid 5 minutes to figure out I wasn't crazy and something was wrong with the avionics.  Whatever I picked in one, the other one would show up something closely mirroring it but not quite right.  If I said OKK, it said OJM.  When I had to go to KELSI, the other one was KEMTP.  FAR became FLJ.  It really messed with me for a minute, but finally you come to the conclusion you really only have one radio/gps to use, and FINE.  lol

The weather was fine except for one line of storms that blew up and filled in around Minneapolis.  I couldn't get above them, and I couldn't get around the whole line because it was too stretched out, so I went in between a couple cells.  Not usually my favorite thing to do, but so be it.  One area ended up rough enough that I powered back to maneuvering speed to be cautious, even though I was in the clear.  When I shot out the other side, I had a tailwind and it was smooth sailing from then on.  It took over 3 hours to get there.

I arrived at a reasonable hour, and they gave me a tour of the facilities.  Lots of neat hangars, planes, stories.  I hadn't slept the night before, so I was super tired, and when I went to the hotel to crash, I wasn't awake long enough to turn on a TV or do anything but fall in bed.

The dad says he gets up at 4-5 am and is ready to go.  I said no way, man.  They offered to meet for breakfast at 7 am.  I am not even able to eat at 7 am, so I said how about I take care of my own breakfast and you just pick me up at the hotel at 7 and we'll go to the airport and get going.  So that's what we did.  That is still Extra early to me, but it ended up being wise because it was super hot and muggy in Fargo, too.  It rained, and the humidity was through the roof.  Just like here.

I got in first with the dad.  He had more T-6 time and had been flying with a rather famous pilot in the area.  Still, you never know what you're going to get.  Well, he did great.  He'd never done a 3-point landing, so I taught him those, and he liked them better than wheel landings.  As a CFI, so do I, for the record, because you can FEEL the people doing fast wheel landings on the verge of losing them.  The 3-point may not always touch down super soft, but it's stable and it's down and done.  These two were taught super fast drive it on with power wheel landings.  The one learned to slow it down and do better.  The younger fellow (my age) liked it the way he'd been doing it and had no interest in changing.   It's his airplane and his potential maintenance bill some day, but he did fine controlling it for now.  That's one of those things where you know one of four things is going to happen.  He'll scare himself and change.  He'll scare himself and quit.  He'll flat out wreck it.  He'll just get lucky.

But they were both adept enough at it that I didn't need to spend a bunch of time with either one.  We went up and did a couple stalls, steep turns, takeoffs, landings, 3 point for the one and wheel for both, go-arounds, and engine-outs, and they were fine.  So I checked out of my hotel, topped off Gumby, and flew back home Friday afternoon.

Again a line of storms in the exact same area.  This time my onboard weather was showing a nasty cell to my left, and to the right was light green rain.  So what do you aim for, right?  I aim to the right.  But as I'm traveling along, I am using my eyeballs, and the left looks a lot better than the right.  The right looks dark and sketchy.  I stare at the weather onboard, and even if it's delayed, and even if the storm is moving backwards from normal, it's hard to see how it can be this wrong.  But after another 10 seconds of staring, I turn and aim left, directly for what looks like the worst weather, on screen.  It wasn't.  I flew through completely in the clear.  It gave me the creeps for people who don't know what they're looking at, who just blindly trust their computers, and who wouldn't dare go in a direction that their computer said was bad.  As I passed by the weather on the right, I saw lightning all over, and it was deep blue, almost black inside.  It was *not* the place to be.  And on my screen that area looked light green still.  Use your eyeballs too, fellow pilots.  Look out the window and avoid the void.  :o 

I got back to Kokomo Friday evening, and the Bonanza clinic guys were there and having ground school.  So we were out there until pretty late, and back out there early the next morning.

Saturday was freaky hot.  I drove to Glenndale and brought the Cub over, because we were having an airshow practice of the "antique review".  A group of Cubs, Champs, Chiefs, Taylorcraft, Luscombes, Stinson, all flying around in the air while cars go by on the ground.  So I brought the Cub over to participate.  The day was SO hot that I did not feel well, at all, and we were all just covered in sweat just by sitting there, let alone by moving or doing anything.  I flew in the 421 with John, and about died from heat stroke.  Flew two practices in the Cub, and then flew a lady on a joy ride.  That evening I flew AE down to Westfield to feed a fish, and then flew him back to Kokomo.  I was a sticky hot mess, and when I got home I shed my clothes all the way to the restroom where I took a shower before falling into bed and passing out.

Sunday morning we had to get up fairly early again, and back out there.  I stayed a little drier today, thankfully, but it was just as hot.  I flew two practices again in the Cub, then flew it back to Glenndale to put away for awhile.  The practices are fun.  We had I think 10 airplanes up today, and they're mostly all new to this kind of thing, and they're working hard at it and taking it seriously.  There's always that one guy, though.  He doesn't know what's going on, he doesn't understand basic English, and I am pretty sure he used to do drugs, because something is fried.  That's not nice, and he is nice, but it's still true.  We get on the ground and I find out he PASSED people in the air and didn't know it.  Didn't realize he came super close to two other airplanes, didn't know he'd passed anyone.  That's just downright dangerous.  He had to be moved to the head of the pack so he'd follow the leader in a white plane and nobody else.  I didn't mind the move because now he's in front of me instead of behind me and I can keep an eye on him.

The Bonanza formation clinic went really well.  They got tons of flying in, and Nathan was safety pilot for the two days.  They asked me to fly a couple times, and I didn't.  I didn't feel well most of the mornings.  The heat, the something.  The Cub is easy to fly, no systems, nothing important to forget, just turn it on and go.  And fresh air in the face the whole time helps too.  But formation didn't seem like a wise plan, so I had to pass.

A couple of photographers came out today to go flying with the Bonanza guys, too.  They'd have been better off coming Saturday, it was super busy then, but they each got a little something in, anyway.  Better than nothin'.  :)

As of tonight, the Bonanza guys have gone home, the airshow antique guys have practiced and are feeling good, and I have a guy coming from Ohio to start another T-6 checkout by 10 am tomorrow morning.  I haven't even unpacked from Fargo yet, actually. 

Kaylee is off at a swim party at a friend's house.  It's dark out, and late, but it's also still 84 degrees outside at 10 pm, and it was miserable earlier.  So I don't blame them for waiting to swim.

Her first day of work was Friday.  She texted me "I am in a room full of sleeping toddlers."  Next text "What if they all wake up and kill me."  She said it went fine, that she had trouble getting them to go to sleep, and one mom suggested rubbing her daughter's face until she slept.  Kaylee said that felt super weird (I would think so too!) so she just rubbed her arm and then she fell asleep.  One little boy drank out of her cup and she couldn't bring herself to drink the rest of her tea because of so many slobbers and buggers.  She got to have a small conversation with one boy, whose favorite color is dark green, and she was excited to have an actual interaction with one, even if it was brief.  Her main concern was "Mom.  So Many Fluids."  Snot and spit and pee and poop and drool.  I snorted.  It's true.  So many fluids.  So she survived her first day, and is feeling more well prepared for next time.  ;)

Steve is cramming in air show stuff, now that the whole show is on his shoulders.

I'm hoping to get my tooth fixed soon, as it crumbled in Fargo.  It hurts a little.  It didn't hurt before the root canal.  Then that night in Fargo I felt something, and found little pieces of my tooth on my tongue.  It's now sharp and has parts missing, and my temporary cap to protect it isn't for another ten days.  I've already been chewing out of one side of my mouth for a week and a half, and my tongue is sore from the jagged part back there.  Now I'm just complaining.  But I've got a guy driving 6 hours round trip to fly all day tomorrow when I'm trying to get into a dentist or the root canal place either one to help with this.  *sigh*

Now, I have things to do still before bed.  We're still alive, though.  Just so ya know!

Looks like BOB "kissed" me instead of bit me.  lol

On the way to Fargo

Cool looking cell--as long as it stayed over there.

On top

Blurry and yet still kind of neat.

The SNJ-5 I flew in Fargo. Restored by the same people who did Checkertail. :)

Standing on a T-6, looking at a 340, Cheyenne, PT-26 and Cub, and feeling giggly and lucky that I can fly all of them.

The lady I took for a ride in a Cub. She's hooked now, for the record, and wants her own.

Westfield Airport, old school.

AE in the front of the Cub after feeding Justin P's fish.  lol

Thundercloud over Indy as it was starting to dissipate.

Couldn't get the whole line up of airplanes, but there were like 10-11 of them in a row.

We had two handproppers who would go around and get everyone started.  It really was fun, and it was fun to watch.  The folks would sit back at the hangars and watch the show.  :)

One pretty Cub being put away for a few days...

Rollercoaster

MAN life is busy right now.

I was up most of last night.  I was stressed out, my mind was spinning around, I was really worried about a couple things I couldn't do anything about right then, felt in a fair amount of trouble, and I couldn't sleep to save my life.  I got about 2.5 hours of sleep according to my FitBit, which felt about right.  It was bad enough I ended up accidentally waking up Steve too, and from like 3-4:30 am we were just talking.  I fell asleep a little bit from like 5:30-7:30 am or so, and when my alarm went off at 7:30 to fly, I about croaked.  Fortunately it was IFR and the guy cancelled.  I stayed in bed for awhile, but I couldn't go back to sleep, so I just was a zombie for awhile.  I was supposed to fly at 11 too, but storms rolled through so I hit lunch instead, and once I ate and drank, I was doing a lot better. 

After lunch, John took me in the Bonanza over to Aurora, where I picked up his C-421C. It's a good looking airplane.  It would have been nice if my simulator training in CA for my "initial checkout" would have had ANYTHING to do with actually flying the plane, but it didn't, and fortunately it was just a heavy 340.  No big deal.  The hardest part was figuring out the panel, avionics, and the geared engines and prop/RPM control are different.  But all in all it was a nice flying airplane and I look forward to getting to know it better before I start teaching John in it.

We pre-arranged to talk on a stand-by frequency, and we met up in the air so he could take some air-to-air photos of it.  He did it with his point and shoot, and some of them turned out pretty well, I think.

Meanwhile, I had to make a phone call to Fargo.  I'd offered to come out Friday, and they said "Give us a call", and I was concerned they were unhappy because originally I'd said Wednesday but backed out, and Wednesday was a beautiful day there.  But basically he has stuff he wants to do Saturday and wants to know if we can get it done in one day or if we need to push it back to next week.  My next week is Booked Solid.  So I told him we'd try to get it all done Friday. So tomorrow I have a student, then taking John up in his new airplane, then I'm likely headed to Fargo.   Flying in Fargo in their T-6 all day Friday, and coming home either late Friday night or Saturday morning.   Then Saturday-Sunday is our Bonanza formation clinic, plus I have some people who want to fly, plus I'm supposed to go get Walt's T-6.  Then Monday and Tuesday I have a guy coming from Ohio to get checked out in a T-6, all day for two days.  Wed-Fri I have students booked up every open time slot, and Sat is our Kokomo Air Show.  I think I really do have high blood pressure now, for the record...

Kaylee's doing fine and we haven't had time to even start her in on lessons yet.  Gotta get on that, it's already June 13th!  Steve is still hopping around working on Cscape and airshow stuff.  Now, I need to go pack.  Tomorrow it's North Dakotah.  Hopefully it'll be cooler up there...

New airplane stuff.  :)

This was the checklist in the plane.  See step one?  I'M NOT THERE YET.

Big bird long nose.

Inside John's hangar.

Air to air

Breaking off to head home.

Jumping In

The blah weather has wiped out student flying, the T-6 flying I need to do, and the Mavrx flights.  The good news is, this "down" time has given Steve time to work on the Kokomo Airshow stuff next, and some Cscape things he needed to do.

Kaylee's first day on the job will be Friday, 9-4, I think I said that already.  She had to go down to the police station and be finger printed for a background check prior to working with the children.  It's a little funny if you think about it, because she's under 18.  What that means is that if she HAD committed a crime, she'd be a juvenile, whose records are sealed last I knew.  But anyway, she went down and did that today, and got her outfits ready for her "Girls' State" week in N. Indiana, too. They have four different dress codes to adhere to depending on what position they get in politics.  Everything from pencil skirts and jackets to suit pants and all manner of in between.  She looks good, and she's ready early, which is almost scary.  Her bag is mostly packed, with just a little ironing and her main toiletries to throw in before she goes.

Tomorrow I'll be up wheels up at 7 a.m. for N. Carolina again, which is very muchly early; let's see, that's a get-up time of 5:30 a.m.  Yay.  It'll be IFR too, with some possible storms to go around, so there will be a little bit more work to do than last time.

I did indeed hear from the CAF about the WASP video thing.  They're actually bringing the plane to Port Clinton, Ohio.  That's not far from me at all, and I will have no trouble meeting them there.  It's July 16th, supposedly, so I have a month.  That makes me feel better and gives me a little breathing room on one thing I was worrying about some.  They want to GoPro while I do aerobatics, and I really need to practice that.  It's one thing to go up with Joe Blow who doesn't know any better and just do a loop or a roll and it's all fun.  It's another to have it recorded and played for pilots around the country to look at and analyze in a professional film.  Eye yi yi.  So I have some opportunities coming up to go up and get more precise at that, hopefully, and I'm looking forward to it!  Now if only I had some tolerance built up for aerobatics again.  :o

I also thought about flying the T-6 over there.  It's just to Ohio, so it would only take about an hour.  If I show up in a T-6, first, that would be amusing, and second, perhaps that will eliminate their likely suspicion to let me just take their plane without one of their guys doing a checkout flight in it first.  Maybe I could save a little time and effort.  If they see me arrive and land in one piece in a T-6, then maybe it'll go smoother.  It would burn less gas than the Aerostar to get there, but 1) I could only take 1 person along if I wanted to take anybody, 2) it would take longer, 3) more weather dependent although if the weather's not great I don't see it happening for filming anyway, and 4) I don't know if I want to start out showing up with flat messed up hair from the get-go.  Ha.  We'll see.

I still have to get to Fargo and get that checkout done, and I need to do it asap, and I have something I need to do first, and that's stressing me out.  But nothing I can do about it tonight or tomorrow while I'm in N. Carolina, so...to the back burner it hopefully goes for another day.

I got bills paid, laundry and dishes done, exercise in, errands run, emails sent, air show stuff helped with, flight planning done for the trip tomorrow, a medicine run for both me and Kaylee, some cleaning done, and all in all kept busy before I have to go to bed early here for tomorrow's trip. I have a bit more to do before I can hit the hay.  What I really need is a muscle relaxant and a massage, I think...

Progress

Today was supposed to be nasty as far as the weather is concerned.  Noblesville was having a fly-in breakfast, but I had a student this morning who has been trying to get in and fly forever.  The weather held out, so we went on up and got our flight in.  It went really well, and in fact he's one flight away from both a tailwheel endorsement and his first solo in the airplane, if it goes as safely/well as today.  So that was really good.  The rest of the day a group of us worked on BOB, the Big Oily Beast, aka the C-45 or Twin Beech.  I only did a few small things, but I like being able to actually help.  I never mind helping, I just have minimal talent at mechanical things and don't usually know what to do.  But today there were some things I could do, so that was good.

We needed to get an aileron cable through a small hole within a small inspection panel on the wing, and I had the smallest arms, so I was able to get in and do that.  It was still tight on me, and ended up bruising and scraping up my arm some, but it's sort of a badge of honor, and at least it won't leave a scar like the PT-26 and 340 have.  The ailerons and flaps were hung, aileron trim tab, hinges, the flap range was fixed, and some work was done on the interior floor panels too.  Good stuff.

Steve and AE were down in Columbus at the air show there.  He was airbossing, and said it went well.  He got to spend some time hanging out with some of the air show people we get along with and enjoy, and AE ended up helping one of the guys load rides in his T-6.  The guy is a "competitor" of ours, but we still promote him and help him too, which amazes him, because another of our competitors is very, very, well, competitive.  He gets territorial, makes deals and then backs out on them, gets everybody else to charge a certain amount and then undercuts them.  Not cool.  He ditched Columbus a week before their event, for what he thought would be a better opportunity, leaving them scrambling for a ride airplane at the last minute.  You can guess he won't be invited back there again in the future.  Anyway.  We are not like that, and neither is the other guy who came in to Columbus to do rides, and we get along juuuust fine.  Just how we like it.

Oh, one other kinda funny thing happened today.  A lady contacted me about flying the CAF T-6 in Dallas for footage for their WASP trailer.  She's a super nice lady and a great person, and I'm not offended, but it was kind of funny to me that she asked if I was checked out in a T-6, and said basically if not, how much tailwheel time did I have and they could always put me in the front to be the visible pilot and put an approved checked out T-6 guy in the back seat for the video.  She didn't know if I was checked out or not and that's an option for their video, I understand, but basically what that says is "we can put you up front to look like a girl is flying and put the real pilot in the back seat and just not show him on the video."  I kindly let her know that I am indeed checked out in a T-6 and we could do this.  I also thought...if they want a girl to sit there and look pretty while someone else flies from the back seat, they could pick someone younger and trimmer who looked better in a flight suit for their movie.  lol  They didn't want to do that, to be fair, she was just saying it was an option if I couldn't really fly the plane.  They still have never had a woman pilot fly their woman pilot's airplane yet.  All dudes.  I'll be the first.  If it ends up happening after all. We shall see.  The director is supposed to contact me as early as Monday to set up a time which they said would be "shortly".

I feel better today.  I even lasted the whole day without wearing out, and went flying for an hour and a half.  So whatever I had was not a typical cold, but it was like the speed dating version of a bug.  Maybe I already had a little immunity to whatever it was, so it knocked me down for a few days, but I recovered pretty fast.  Now I just have to do a couple things before going to Fargo...and I need the weather to cooperate so I can do them.

Me in the back of the PT.  I think it's funny how my feet barely fit on the rudders if I keep my heels on the floor where you're supposed to.

You can't see most of it, but there's part of where BOB chewed on me today.

I like this view from this seat.  I'm looking forward to being PIC in this airplane. :)

Nathan works on a flap while we wait to help where we can.