Chatter

Yesterday was "get stuff back in order" day, and Kaylee, once she came home, sat down and talked non-stop about her trips, her friends, etc.  I can't even really relay any stories in particular, to be honest, she was just glad to see us and walked to talk.  Her first solo cross country to Ohio went fine, once she realized that interstates have speed limits too.  She didn't get a ticket, but she literally thought she didn't have a speed limit for awhile.  Crazy kid.  She had a spiritual experience in Puerto Rico, was baptized, and rededicated her life to God.  She's doing a Bible study once a week with her Sunday school teacher, and they meet at a local "A Cross America" facility, owned by the guys I fly for, who is sending a small cross with a card to every house in America, as it can.  She starts school, her Senior year, Thursday.  Today she has a scratchy throat and feels like she is coming down with something.  This is not great.  Other than that, she's in there working on her summer assignments (due before school starts), and singing songs over and over to annoy me.  ;)

Today I had to get up at 5 am, and was wheels-up in the Cheyenne for Wichita, Kansas, with five of us on board.  It's the first trip I've taken in months, and I felt a little rusty still.  So I hand flew it, giving Dustin some amusement during the bumpy IFR cumulonimbus clouds with altitude level offs and heading changes all at the same time.  Within just less than a minute though, I had it dialed in.  I'm "back".  So, tomorrow we go to New York, and I'll let him fly from the right seat so I can get some amusement out of him, next.  ;) 

While in Wichita, we went to the International airport, but went to a privately owned facility.  No car, no vending machine, no private room, no drinking fountain, no food.  There was a couch and a chair in the main room, and a big water jug drinking thing that was empty of any water.  The couch and chair had backs that only came to the middle of your back, so no resting your head.  I was tired, having gotten up at 5 am, and finally I curled up on the short couch and tried to close my eyes.  And then I looked up and saw a Really Big Spider on the wall by my feet.  Really big.  Too big to kill, so I stared at it as it walked towards me.  I moved to the other side, and it followed me over there.  I then moved to the little chair in the middle of the floor so I could keep an eye on it.  It climbed up on a shelf, and then DISAPPEARED.  It's huge.  How does it disappear??  NOW I'm not resting on that couch right under that shelf.  So I sat there from 8:30 am until almost 1 pm.  Can't leave the room without a card to let me out onto the ramp.  I texted Dustin and asked him to bring me a sandwich when they came back, as I hadn't eaten that day yet either.  So it was a nice facility itself, but it didn't have any amenities.  I had to call Signature to come fuel me where I was, and give them my card over the phone.  I thought about riding back to their pilot's lounge with the fuel truck, if only I could get a ride back.  ;) 

The flight home, I spent most of the time dodging thunderstorms.  I went up to FL290 and was on top of most of it, but then I ran into some only 40 minutes from home, making climbing up over them a little tricky.  I played a little dodge, and only ended up in some heavier rain once for a tiny little cell of rain, no real convection.  It was still enough rain that some more paint came off the right engine's spinner though.  :/ 

I was tired when I got home, but if I take a nap now, I'll be hosed for getting to sleep tonight for one more early wake-up call to NY tomorrow.  So I'm leaned way back in the chair pretending like I'm not sleepy.

And so we jump back into life in Kokomo.

Jim Zazas is here in town with his friend's T-6, stopped for weather on his way home.  Another friend of ours, Ted Bradfield, died of a heart attack in his home with his wife right there.  Went to dinner, didn't feel well, thought it was in his throat, took aspirin, keeled over.  Paramedics were there in under 5 minutes and did CPR for 30 minutes, but he was immediately gone.  Ted was always the Em Cee for our BBQ Bash, for many years, before Hollywood took over.  He was a good guy.

Ann comes home Saturday, Kaylee starts school in 3 days, we're busy with flight training, and on it goes!

Home

Yesterday evening we spent the last evening eating leftover goodies and watching the night airshow from the campsite, burning off the last of our firewood.  It was a nice way to spend the last day at Oshkosh.  This morning was pack up day.  I got my stuff, but Steve and AE had the biggest jobs, getting everything put away in the trailer, packing up the big stuff plus all their own stuff too.  

Nathan, the kids and I left when we got ready, and drove.  Nathan drove until the south side of Chicago, then I took it for the last two hours or so.  We laughed because when I first started driving, I had PIO bad (Pilot Induced Oscillations).  The car steering is super sensitive and you just barely touch the wheel or you wander back and forth.  We're also hauling his large trailer, so he got to do the tricky parts at the gas station and his house.  lol

Steve and AE dropped off Justin and Jessie at the airport, and the came after us.  They didn't get to Kokomo until about 7:30 pm.  By then I'd gotten to Nathan's, loaded up all my and some of our stuff into the Jeep, driven home, unloaded the car, unpacked all the bags, done 3 loads of laundry and a load of dishes, and drove out to Kokomo to go get him.  :)  

Steve's home now--he still has his stuff to unpack, and our shoes, but I've got everything else caught up.  Right now we're just sitting in our living room comfortably, feet up, fed, and happy.  Almost happy.  Kaylee isn't home tonight, she had a sleep-over, so we still haven't seen her since she left for Puerto Rico.  But tomorrow she'd better get home and give me a hug.  

Oshkosh this year did a fantastic job with their internet.  I never really had a time I couldn't connect, for once.  In the past, you were hosed unless you got up in the middle of the night.  Then it was early mornings and late evenings were okay.  This year, it worked all day long.  Whatever they brought in to boost up their capabilities, they nailed it this time.

I'm still grateful to be home with soft, thick toilet paper, and not having to choose between privacy or space in a shower.  I love going, and I am always glad to be home, too.  I'm ready to get back to work.  Except it's supposed to rain now.  Naturally.  ;)

It's good to be home.  I have some things to study (C-47 material) and some things to work on (for the WASP movie).  Looking forward to every last bit of it.  Pictures coming, not many, but a few, whenever I get them done.

Winding Up

Steve and I took the day yesterday to wander all over. We went up to warbirds, where a guy named Michael stopped me and talked for awhile. He was the one who last year asked me if I’d thought about being a back-up pilot for Reno Air Races in T-6s. He flies Mustangs and jets and all manner of airplanes, and is a really nice guy. Shortly after him we ran into Chris H, who wanted a selfie with us. We talked for awhile, and he told us that one of the girls who did the photo shoot with the Mustang and T-6 in the 40s garb ended up being enamored with airplanes and joined the military and is now an A-10 pilot. That’s pretty sweeeet. I waved at Kim P as she went by, ran into Jim Z and he wanted a selfie with us too. Went over to the other end of the warbirds and talked to John S., who asked me for a hug, and then over to Walt G and his T-28. Steve T took our photo out there as a joke after we told him we’d had a few selfies requested. Then we had ice cream, and ran into Gayle D., and Dan and Diane S, who are out of Clear Lake, Iowa, same airport Doug R. is. She is thinking of taking some T-6 lessons with me. She currently flies a Stearman. So all in all we certainly saw a lot of people, did the connecting thing. It’s always good to stay in the forefront of people’s minds. I tried to see Tim S, who is supposed to be letting us check out in his TBM, but he wasn’t around when I was there. He was around when Zak went by, and he told Zak that his L-2 wasn’t flying and that he should come up and fly it. I told Zak I hope that works out, but Nathan was supposed to fly the A-26, didn’t happen, he and I both were supposed to fly the TBM, didn’t happen, his wife was supposed to take lessons with me in the L-2 all the way up to the T-6, didn’t happen, so I wouldn’t hold my breath if I was him. ;)

The WASP people hit me with an interesting text yesterday. They said that they hear I have a daughter who looks a lot like me, and asked if she’d be interested in coming down to Texas with me for the filming. They said I could fly the plane, then she could be filmed walking away from it in the gear, as if she was the pilot. First, I thought that was cool. The girls were young. Kaylee is 17 1/2, and they were like 18-20. Secondly, it would be neat from the mother/daughter aspect of it, and it probably makes for good marketing, too. Lastly, I think it’s hysterical how they fixed the “we can’t film that 46 year old overweight girl climbing out of the airplane for our movie” problem by putting my stunt double in...looks like me except young and trim. HAhahaha. I haven’t told Kaylee yet, I will today I think. But I have NO problem not being filmed on a huge screen walking around in a flightsuit. I told them she’s a little shorter and has straight hair, and they said “We can curl her hair”. So I think that’s pretty neat. IF it happens and works out, I’ll be flying and my daughter will be the face of a WASP. :)

Last night was our steak night. We had about 30 people over, including JP and Kathy Mellor, who gave me a challenge coin for NATA and a t-shirt with oil markings all over it that says “How do you know I own a radial engine?” Ha. I drove them over to Jordan Brown’s C-47 and talked to those guys for awhile. It’s the C-47 I’ll be checking out in, and it’s so BIG. But Matt, one of their guys, is SIC in it, and he says it’s pretty easy, at least as long as all is going well, and he also says “don’t stall it”. I’ve seen the video. I’ll be respectful of the stalls in it. lol.

I’m typing this Saturday morning, and we just had our last Oshkosh breakfast. Blueberry or chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, eggs, hash browns, orange juice, milk. No wonder I don’t lose weight up here even if I’m walking a lot more. ;)

This is our last day, we’re probably going to hit the seaplane base, and start packing up the campers, tents, fake grass and picnic tables, etc. It’s a lot of work to tear down and set up this campsite, and most of the work is done by AE and the guys who come ahead of the game. Tear down goes much faster with many more hands.

On to another beautiful day up here.

A Little Excited

It was another beautiful weather day, and we took advantage of it.  I woke up early, way too early actually, and headed to the T-6 forum.  I ran into Tom McCord and we spoke for a few minutes before we both ran out of things to say.  When I sat down early, I only recognized one guy in there, the head guy Todd Winemiller.  He said “Hi Laura!”  I otherwise sat in a row that remained deserted.  :D. They did the usual maintenance and accident talk, and announced that they wanted their members to go up once a year for a proficiency flight in the T-6 at their clinics.  Not a bad idea, but probably the people who need to the most will be too embarrassed to, and won’t. 

Afterwards I ran into JP and Kathy Mellor, and we talked for awhile, and Kim P came up for a few minutes, and then Vic S. Introduced himself.  He was the check pilot for the T-6 for the WI wing, who flew with Dennis after I did.  He said “Great job with him!” and was very complimentary.  That was nice.  He also told me a little about the next guy of his I’ll be flying with, Stan.  So all in all, that whole thing was a good thing to go to this year.  Plus I get the insurance form out of it.  

I was back at the camper this afternoon when I got a text from the president of the WASP group asking if I’d be willing to come to Sweetwater, TX to fly the T-6 (Nella) for their movie/video, Aug. 25-26th.  I said sure.  So, I guess I WILL be the pilot for the WASP T-6 for the movie too.  I think that’s pretty neat, really.  There are several neat things on the horizon.  That, the C-47 (DC-3) type rating, finishing up the FAST card hopefully.  I think maybe next year I’ll work towards flying formation at Oshkosh.  I might only do it once and decide it’s not worth it, but I think I need to do it once, sometime here while I have the chance once I get the chance.  The movie, again, it isn’t going to be about me or probably even clearly show me, but...WE will know it’s me.  :) I need to go work on aerobatics some more, too.  Lol

We went to dinner at Wendt’s on the Lake, and I was walking to the bathroom and heard “Laura?  Laura!”  I turn around and have no idea who it is, but try to put on a friendly face.  :). His name is Richard, and he’s a Facebook friend I’ve never met before in real life.  He said he loves my Facebook posts, and hugged me when I left.  He fliew a taildragger C-185, a beautiful airplane.   You always have to be careful around here, somebody who knows you that you don’t know may be watching you!  Ha.  

They rescheduled the night airshow for tonight, so after dinner Steve and I went down to watch it.  He just did it for me, but I really enjoy that.  The fireworks in particular.  The airplanes are becoming more routine now that we’ve seen them repeatedly.  But I can’t get sick of fireworks set to different music.  It was great.  Cold out there, but great. 

Again, a fitting end to a good day. 

Kaylee is planning on driving home tomorrow.  She’s been keeping in touch with text and Instagram now and then, and I sent her a picture of the lake and told her about the fireworks being set to “Greatest Show” music, which she would have loved.  I haven’t seen her for too long, it’s time for a hug!  Sunday, I guess!

Deluge

I am behind a day, but yesterday wasn’t a lot of note as far as what others would be interested in. I read a book with my feet propped up on a picnic table, drinking cold beverages, and didn’t go into the flight line. Steve and Nathan did, but I hung out back at camp, took a nap, rested, relaxed, read. We went out to eat at a place right by the airport, and as we are eating delicious pesto pasta, a. B-17 flies RIGHT over our heads right in front of us. It was a good end to a good day. The T-6 group had 50-60 T-6s in the air for the 80th anniversary of T-6s. They put up a huge arrowhead formation, and then the number ‘80’. It looked good, they did a nice job with it. Maybe for the 85th anniversary I’ll participate. Or the 90th. In 10 years I’ll still be young enough to do it no problem. If the T-6 is still around by then.

Today was gorgeous. Nathan and I did laundry, by which I mean we dropped it off and 90 minutes later I got a text that it was done, folded and pressed.  For $14.  Beautiful, man.  Steve and Nathan and I went in by the tower, and walked to Warbirds. Before we got there, we stopped and looked at a 1/3 scale bomber, and then Steve and I went onto Warbird Cafe while Nathan went through the buildings. I was meeting with some of the WASP people. We met Dennis, Ellie, eventually Kim, two sponsors and two other chapter officers/workers. It was my attempt at socializing and doing the right thing, and it was fine. A little stilted at first but warmed up by the end. :)

Steve and I walked back through most of the area, stopped at Kelly’s and had some hard ice cream (coffee and brownie batter, thank you). We had leftovers at the campsite for dinner tonight, and it was fantastic, with chicken, pork tenderloin, burgers and hotdogs, corn on the cob, all sorts of stuff. Killer. We hoped to go down to the night airshow, but as I type this, the skies have opened up and dumped. They canceled the show, which made us glad we did not actually walk down there (we saw the weather forecast and radar ahead of time). I hope it’s good Saturday, as that’s our last chance for a good night air show. It’s going to be Packed Out, too, but...say la vee so to speak.

D tried to take the 340 on a trip today, and it was canceled when he got no oil pressure after start-up. He shut it down after 30 seconds, and the fun began. The bottom line is that there are 2 more flights supposed to go this week, one Thursday evening and one Sunday evening. He was going to take them in the 340, so Steve called in reinforcements and they checked over the airplane only to determine it was definitely grounded. D can’t take any other airplane, so that meant I may have to get home and take these flights. I was pouting about this. I only have 9 days per year where I basically ask to not be disturbed, that this is my time, and only last year and this year. In previous years I DID take flights for them in the middle of my Oshkosh. I’ve flown over Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, my last two anniversaries, as late as 2-4 a.m., at the last minute, I’ve done it all, and I have rarely complained about any of it. It’s my job, I’m paid, I like my job. But THIS week, I want to myself. Nine days, I want to be left alone for 9 days, and every year we can go for a month without flying and suddenly during this week they have stuff come up. So I was pouting. But I offered to go back and do the flights, which would have effectively ended this trip for me. I’d have had to arrange a flight back to Kokomo from somewhere, flown them on late Thursday evening, and then if I came back at all, it would only be for the second half of Friday and first half of Saturday, going back for Sunday’s flight. Not really worth it, so I’d have probably stayed home. So late this afternoon I found out he’s going commercially, and I can stay. Probably bad in the long run for my job with them, but good for my mental health in the meantime. No more pouting. I have the rest of the week to myself again.

Except for the students who are texting and emailing me with questions. I will unplug tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the T-6 forum, at 9 am. I’m going to try to make it. Time for me to wave and say “Still here, fellas”. Ten years as of this October since I’ve soloed the T-6. Still here. ;)

Well, it’s only 10 pm here, but I’m beat, and it’s raining and storming like crazy tonight. Time to head out and get some rest...

Kicking it Off

Kaylee went to head for Ohio yesterday, and her Explorer wouldn’t start. Steve helped her get it started, but it’s a bad connection to the battery. So she had to take my car. Fortunately it was there! So she departed on her first solo long cross-country, about 2.5 hours away. She texted us when she arrived, and she made it safely and said it went fine. I’m placing bets that she wants to start going on road trips now. I did. I found driving very free-ing as a teenager, and I’d be very surprised if she doesn’t as well.

Yesterday was the first full day here at OSH, and we all scattered to the winds and hit all sorts of stuff. Steve and I were dropped off at the pedestrian gate and walked all the way around through vintage, homebuilts, warbirds, through building A, back through the Light Sport areas, into the Fly Market, had lunch back at Vintage. I was hugged by three people we ran into. We saw Doc (B29) and the B-1, I ran into Doug R the other day, and Bill S from Tuskegee Airmen, I bought two 2018 Oshkosh t-shirts and picked up two free “Women in Aviation” shirts, because this year they’re red and I like red, even though this year I’m not going to be in the annual photo. Kaylee’s not here, and I feel no need to go. But I’ll take the free shirt, for her and maybe for me, though I never wear mine from other years. ;)

Last night I went to the US debut of the documentary “Spitfire”. They had interviews of former RAF Spitfire pilots, both men and women, and actual historical footage and photos of most of them. A lot of time and effort went into creating it. They used no CGI, but only real Spitfires, and the footage was beautifully done. The sound of a Spitfire will make your blood hum too. A couple neat things from it. The 90-some year old men were telling stories, and the videographer would zoom in on their ancient hands, which were doing what pilots do, and making flying motions with their hands. It was a neat visual. The women ferry pilots were called “ATA”, and in Britain they were honored and popular. Unlike the US, those ladies were celebrated, the guys in the military wanted to talk to them, they had “lots of boyfriends”, and their country supported them. There is still at least one alive today that they interviewed. She’s 100 years old, and she had ferried 1000 airplanes during the war, 400 of them being Spitfires. On a whim, she signed her name on only one of them, on a romantic notion that a cute RAF pilot would look her up, which she said never happened. But as it so happens, that airplane survived the war, and a man currently flies it today, and he looked her up and flew the plane to her, and had her sign the baggage door again from today. When he flew away in the plane, they did a close-up of her face/eyes, and I can’t really describe what was there, but you can feel it. Wistful, longing, pride, strength, sadness, wisdom. She knew it would be the last time she’d see one like that. A lot of history in there. I’m not a huge documentary person in general, that’s more Steve’s style, but this one was worth your time. I went alone to it, nobody else wanted to go, but I didn’t mind sitting there with free popcorn and a bottle of water and watching the sunset by an 80’ inflatable screen filled with screaming Spitfires. There are many worse ways to spend an evening. ;)

I walked over 12,000 steps yesterday, including home from the movie. If only I hadn’t eaten 15,000 steps worth of food yesterday too. ;)

Goooood Morning, Oshkosh

I’m typing this up at 6:30 am, and I’m already “showered” and dressed and ready to start the day. That seems very wrong, but with the time difference being an hour early, and the sun beaming in at 5:30 a.m., you can’t help but wake up early. I have even been awake before any props are allowed to turn at Oshkosh, and often you are awakened by the sound of airplanes. I’m up BEFORE the airplanes. This is not right, but I don’t mind this one week. ;)

Kaylee called me yesterday evening, and talked for an hour about her experiences down in Puerto Rico, her decision to get baptized, her gratitude at how we treat her vs how see sees some other parents treating their kids (it’s always good to be appreciated ;)), etc. When she gets on a roll, the girl can talk, and we enjoy just listening. The trip was a very spiritual experience for her, and she got to see how people in the most need, sometimes with the least physical things, are sometimes the most generous, giving, loving people there are. She said every place they went to go help, the people there would try to give and support them, too, even though they had so little left. It was a good experience for her in several ways.

Last night we went to the Bonanza dinner. Huge amounts of food, and they had a bunch of give-a-ways including two rides with the Aeroshell team at Oshkosh. Man I’d kill to win that. Of course I’d have to buy a raffle ticket for everything they are giving away and hope you get drawn for that one thing, which wouldn’t happen. *sigh*. I complained about not winning the Aeroshell ride and Nathan said HE should get it, and that I get to fly a C-47. I whined and said that he’s gotten to fly all sorts of things. He said “That was before. This is tomorrow.” Steve tapped Tummers on the shoulder and said “I don’t think either one of them is considering either one of us in this equation.” He’s not wrong. I’d fight somebody to do that. ;)

I had my first person hunt me down at the campsite, a lady named Anne, from Ladies Love Taildraggers. I didn’t publicly post where I was to avoid people just dropping in as a surprise, as I’m not a fan of surprises, but she was nice. It’s just hard for introverts to do the “let’s meet up” thing, let alone when it’s a surprise and you don’t know when to be prepared for it. Some day maybe I’ll get better at that...

The rain stopped yesterday afternoon, the blue skies and great temps came out, and it is beautiful up here now. The hordes of planes arrived too. Mass formation arrivals, a ton of VFR only pilots trying to get in. At one point, more than 100 airplanes were sitting at an airport south of here waiting to get into Oshkosh because the air was saturated and people were being turned away. People who did get in said it was the most hairy experience of their lives. Sounds like my experience in Walt’s T-6 a couple years ago that I said I never wanted to do again. Except I also couldn’t hear and had to keep my canopy closed in the heat. About died, possibly literally. So I don’t envy everyone else their experience yesterday. I’m guessing today will be a little nuts too, as a lot of people still didn’t get in yesterday, and then it should settle in to normal Oshkosh mayhem. Fortunately no airplanes nor people were harmed in yesterday’s chaos.

The B-1 should be flying overhead in about 10 minutes, to kick off the official opening day at Oshkosh. The weather is beautiful, we’re all settled in, and we’re ready to go. Let’s do it.

Drrrrrip

Kaylee texted back and forth a bit last night. She’s having the post-trip let-downs. You know, the blahs you get when you come down from an adventure elsewhere and you’re back home now and you feel a little empty, like something is missing? I warned her about that before her first big trip overseas, because I know while some people are just glad to be home, others are wanderers. I was, still am a little bit, she is. So she hung out with a couple of friends and spent the night at a friends’ house. I don’t like not being able to be home and sit and talk to her when she gets back, just in time for her to leave for Ohio for a week for Vacation Bible School...

It rained off and on here at Oshkosh most of the day. Any time it would clear up, the hordes of airplanes would come in. The controllers were hopping. One guy made us laugh when he said “Bonanza, you’re killing me here, you can’t stop on the runway!” He had to have folks go around. A Mustang had to go hold over Warbird Island for a long time to let a gaggle of Cessnas in. The field was 2% full at the beginning of the day. Midway through the day I heard it was 25% full, and it was raining and IFR much of the day. Today after noon it stops raining and the sun is supposed to come out for the rest of the week, and I am guessing it’s going to be a super busy day to be in the air around here.

A CAF plane had an accident on takeoff down in Texas on their way here, and there is video of it going viral. No fatalities thankfully, but there were 13 people on board the C-47, the type of airplane I am going to get checked out in with Jordan Brown. Apparently they had too far aft of a CG, tried to force the tail up on takeoff, it wouldn’t go, they tried to horse it off the runway, it couldn’t fly yet, and they went off the side of the runway, and the plane burned to the ground. Everyone got out, a couple injuries, but out. I guess that’s the 8th airframe the CAF has lost this year, so insurance for the CAF is likely to become problematic. I don’t know what’ll all happen yet, but I know of four, and all four were naturally pilot error, a couple pretty bad moves (one was running it out of gas for heaven’s sake). They’ve been fortunate that I don’t think anyone was killed in any of them, but losing 8 airplanes in one year is going to be a real problem for insurance. It’s going to affect all of us in the CAF, I have no doubt.

It was my acquaintance Marty who crashed in the Venom that same morning. The part that haunts me a little isn’t the crash itself, but that his wife and kids were at the airport where he took off and had to be flown home afterwards. They think he had an engine failure/flame-out, tried to land it on a road, clipped something, and that was the end. Nathan said that’s why he sold the Gnat. In those single engine jets, if you aren’t high enough to be able to eject, you’re not going to survive an off-field landing most likely. He decided it wasn’t worth it.

This isn’t a very cheery post, but that’s what’s going on the first day. And hopefully that’s the end of the bad stuff for the week. Other than that, we’ve been setting up camp, hanging out, running around to get what we need, and eating. We went to “West End Pizza” last night and had some pretty good food there too. A new place to us. A group of 15 of us got in pretty easily, but that’s the trick. Restaurants are very full over here this time of year, and they don’t take reservations. First come first serve, and good luck, may the odds be ever in your favor. Twice in a row we’ve been lucky in the evenings, but the event hasn’t technically even started yet. So we shall see. lol

Right now our brand new trailer is having trouble getting the water heater to light off. No hot shower yet. Steve’s working on it, but so far...so wish us luck. Laura Wants a Shower now. ;)

Pre-amble

Well, we’re here!  Kaylee is on a plane right now headed home from Puerto Rico and should be landing in just a few minutes in Chicago. Picking up baggage, and then a good 3-4 hour drive back to the church, and they’ll finally be home.  Her car is parked there with her cellphone charged up and inside it, so she’ll be able to reconnect with the world when she gets in, if she so desires.  I look forward to hearing her stories from this trip.  :)

We drove this morning, and the weather looked awfully nice.  As in we could have flown.  But that’s okay, because Oshkosh still had some storms rolling through off and on throughout the day, and it still would have been a hassle, too.

The campsite is mostly complete, we just need to put the carpet down and put up one canopy.  Our trailer is brand new, and has three pop-out beds, all good-sized.  It’s super clean and new, so that’s nice.  We had dinner at a place called “Mahoney’s”, and I had fried cheese curds and clam chowder and pretzel-crusted salmon and it was all delicious.  There were just 10 of us for the first night here, before everyone is here.  ;) 

There was a jet that went down nearby.  It’s called a “Venom”, and it’s a British jet.  A group of guys own a “World Heritage Aviation Museum” where they sort of fix up and fly vintage (old) jets.  They aren’t known for great maintenance.  I did a formation clinic in Rockford with several of the guys, and have kept in touch with a couple of them.  They brought their jets to the Kokomo Airshow a few years ago.  The pilot who said he was flying the Venom to Oshkosh was Marty T, and I actually know him.  He has a wife and family of course, and it always weirds you out a little bit when someone you know goes down.  It hasn’t been contact d to be him yet, but I expect it will be. :/

Well, the weather is great as far as temperatures go. The campsite is in a good location.  The trailer is nice.  Kaylee is missing, but other than that, we are pleased with the set-up thus far.  It is finally starting to feel like maybe we’re on vacation.  On that note, I have a book to read before the mosquitoes get bad. 

Last Day

Flew this morning in the RG, ate lunch, flew this afternoon in the 172, then Ann and I went with John down to Tennessee in the 421 to start her visit with the lovely Cherry family.  :)  It's 11:30 pm now and I'm still packing (hadn't started until I got home around 8:30-9 pm), had some laundry to do, all sorts of stuff to do actually, just haven't had any time to do anything!  But now we have a mound of things in our living room ready to load up tomorrow to head to Oshkosh.  The weather looks awful for flying, which is nice, because if it was beautiful I'd probably regret driving.  lol

Kaylee's mission people posted that they got all of their projects done a little early, so they spent a few hours at the beach today.  Then they said "The most exciting part, by far, was Kaylee's decision to be baptized today."  That's a mass text message that goes out to all the parents in the group.  I was like "MY Kaylee??"  Then another mom sent me a link to a Facebook Live video feed that was posted on a page there.  Here:   https://www.facebook.com/radioluzdelyunque/videos/1800020806778596/.  It is indeed my Kaylee, being prayed over, and then the video feed cuts out right before hand.  Kaylee had not wanted to get baptized earlier, said she didn't want to do it just because some Christians thought you had to.  On this trip she decided this was the time and place that she wanted to be baptized.  I wish the video had kept on, I'd like to hear what she had to say, and to see it.  But I can see her face, and she's happy.  The only thing I wonder about is that they make it sound as if she was just "saved" for the first time today.  Repenting of sins, new life and leaf, angels rejoicing today in their new sister, etc.  We've discussed that in the past, a few times, starting with when her first grade teacher told her she'd go to hell if she wasn't baptized.  I wonder if that's what they meant/believe, or if they just mean it as a rededication of her life, etc.  Whatever the rest of the story, she did it in her time and on her terms, and that's a pretty Kaylee thing to do.  Why not get baptized in the Pacific in Puerto Rico?  I just got baptized in a church in I think Ankeny, Iowa.  lol

I'm super tired and still have lots to do, so am going to sign off.  Next post will come from Oshkosh.

Oddly Satisfying

You know it was a busy and extended day.  It was interesting, too.

First, I don't have any news on Kaylee other than they were chasing lizards and were on the radio doing a broadcast and that they worked on painting today, instead of outside clean-up work.  No other news, just those literal quotes of snippets of info, but hopefully they are doing well and getting done what they needed to.

So, my interesting day.  First flight of the day was in the 421. We went up to 17,500' to test out the fuel pumps and our idea.  Get up to altitude, run a test, and the engines stumble.  Do what we think will have it not do that, test it, and they both about quit.  So, that didn't work, and we do what DOES fix it, and continue our merry way, go to Ohio, shoot an approach, make a landing, and come home.  I get on the ground, and Steve and I run a couple of errands, go eat lunch at Subway, and head back to the airport where I fly with a guy in the T-6.  He has quite a few hours now, about 5 with me, and is doing pretty well. He's also the one that I had the flat tire with.  Today he wanted to go work on stalls, so we go high and get above the clouds and do slow flight, into minimum controllable airspeed, into power off stalls, and then into the more aggressive stalls.  We do a stall turning to the left, I've talked about what to do when it goes over, and so it stalls, flips us upside down, and he unloads the wing in a bit of a ferocious manner, and I see something go flying past by me. About 1000' lower later, we recover, and I look down, and it's a thick wooden handled screwdriver.  :o  Yikes.  I called off any more stalls after that as I really don't want it going down by the control surfaces, don't want it flying through a window, and super don't want it flying into my face/head.  So that was the end of that lesson!  The thing was, the map compartment didn't fly open this time.  That thing was already down there somewhere, and nothing else had caused it to fly up until this one.  Hopefully that's the last of the loose stuff! Surely nothing is left, because I'm pretty sure I'd have seen it today!  Next I flew in the 172 with a the new girl, and she did great, and nothing stumbled or went upside down on us and it was very uneventful.  Not bad now and then.  ;)  I had one hour, so I ran Kaylee's car through a car wash and got my eyebrows waxed, then it was time to run back out and hop in a different 172 down to Westfield, where the owner of the airport told me he'd been getting calls by people living in an apartment complex that airplanes were cutting their engines over their apartment and they were scared somebody was going to crash on them.  *le sigh*.  I took the Champ back to Kokomo so they could do some work on the tailwheel.  I can tell it needs it.  I can push the rudders left and right quite far in and the plane doesn't even swerve a little bit.  Talk about sloppy.  The 172 pilot flew loose formation off behind me for the fun/practice of it, and got a picture of me and I of him.  Finished putting that plane away, and Steve was done with his guy, so we ran to eat dinner, and got home around 9 pm.

One day to go before we leave for Oshkosh.  We're probably going to drive up with Nathan instead of fly up.  The weather looks yucky Friday and Saturday, and we want to get out of here and go up on Friday and not be all last-minute unsure of what's going on or how or when we're getting there.  I like flying into Oshkosh in theory and I dislike driving 12-14 hours in reality, but...I'm not feeling the flying this year.  So tomorrow I have students until it's time to run Ann down to Tennessee to be with Lon and Cathy, get home 7:30-8 pm most likely, and then I'll pack and get ready for Friday.  I think we're doing okay on getting most stuff done and ready...

This is literally me during every takeoff and landing and during stalls and during any sort of aggressive maneuvering.  I'm not in general a hovering type person while training in airplanes, but buddy, I hover here.

My guy today in the pattern

Justin in 32L behind me

The most relaxing flying I'd done all day. Alone. Window wide open. Nice breeze. Nothing exciting.

Sun on the face, feels good on a nice day.

I saw my shadow. Started flying with my left hand, leveling off while turning my camera on and snapping the photo with my right hand, just before touching down. Because I felt like it.

The photo Justin took of me in the air in front of him.  I think I see my hand in the window taking HIS photo and neither of us knew the other was doing it right then.  lol

A couple more photos from Ohio.  Me on the wing.

Going over a briefing..

Plowing Ahead

It was a day of lessons, which reminds me, I need to update my logbook.  They were good ones, productive ones.  Even had an engine try to quit at 19,000' today on the way to Ohio in the 421, when we'd turn the fuel pumps off on the right side.  It quit about 4 or 5 times before it quit quitting.  Gave John an adrenaline rush.  I have to admit, it didn't do the same for me after the initial sputtering.  He turned the fuel pumps off, was working on setting up for cruise, and the engine stumbled, harder, was dying, and I said "Did you turn off the fuel pumps?"  He said "yes" and I said "Turn them back on!"  lol  He did and it started running again.  I told him to turn them off again and he said "No!  Why would I want to do that?!"  It's troubleshooting, man!  It tried to quit on us 4 or 5 times.  So we canceled IFR, came on down, headed for home, and tried it again, and it was fine.  We figured out the likely problem in the end.  No big deal.  But still, in the end, he texted me an hour later and said he was still feeling the adrenaline.  I didn't think it was that big of a deal because even if it had quit quit for good quit, there were just two of us on board with only three tanks out of five of fuel...we'd have been fine.  Not like we were going to fall out of the sky or anything.  :)  Anyway, that was the temporary excitement for the afternoon.

I also went up with a new girl this morning, who calls me "ma'am".  She goes to a military school though, so I'll forgive her.  Quick learner, very focused, wants to get as far as she can this week and then come on weekends.  The last flight was to Sheridan with a guy who had never seen such a skinny runway in his life.  He kept mentioning "It's a sidewalk!"  It's 50', and that does look a little skinny if you're not used to it.  Others learn there and solo out of there no problem.  It's all what you're used to!

Kaylee used her leader's cellphone to text me today.  I was actually a little concerned because she said "This is Kaylee...doing fine but..." and for her to text at all using Kasey's phone is extremely unusual.  The "Doing fine but" made me wonder what happened.  Well, here's what happened:

First of all, in Kaylee-speak, she is on someone else's phone, so she can't really say what she'd like to say.  Her "Fine" is really NOT FINE.  Tarantulas, she decided not to visit Australia because of their spiders and tarantulas are naaaasty.  I sent back the face.  I know she's freaking out about the spiders. Trust me.  "That is all." She's quite loud and clear to me.   I also know she is not the one in the group killing them.  ;)

In between lessons I went with Dale Etherington to a meeting about the veterans parade they had for the Haynes Apperson Festival.  They wanted to meet me, and thank me for the T-6 flyover I did of their parade.  I guess they were impressed and excited about it.  When we got there, the building had a power outage, and after a few minutes they decided to reschedule the meeting and give up.  No lights, no power, no air conditioning.  A few folks came up and shook my hand, talked airplanes, talked about the BBQ Bash, thanked me for the flyover and said they loved it.  They want me to come back next year.  I can probably do that.  :)

These are a couple of photos the assistant took yesterday in Ohio for the WASP thing.  Two of them are on my Facebook wall but I don't think anyone can see them. I may repost the one, I like it.  I am glad to have been a part of the whole thing.

So here's the lovely group photo.  From the far left: Kara (film crew), Dunno his name but pilot of the photo ship, Adam W., the videographer, me, Tuskegee Airman Harold Brown, Mark N., Another pilot of the T-6 whose name I don't know, and the last guy I don't even know who he is or what he does.

Videographer getting film of me taxiing the T-6 back in after the first checkout flight

Check out that hair. Any wonder why it was a mess?? I remembered the hair scrunchy for the next one.

Me coming up on them.

If you blow this up, you can see me looking down at them as I'm flying formation off of them from above.

The Worst of Times, The Best of Times

Kaylee is in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico tonight.  They had MREs to eat for lunch, and we got a text that "God worked in big ways today", but we don't know in what ways.  Steve wanted to text her back and ask her but that wouldn't be cool.  ;)  We also know they got to the beach at the end of the day for a little while before heading to bed.  They sent on this one photo so far.  She looks happy.

That's all I know on Kaylee for now, so the rest of this is flying stuff.  I had set my alarm for 5:30 a.m.  I woke up at 4 am, then woke back up at 5:20 a.m.  Beat my alarm, again, but I was feeling good.  Rested. Alert.  Ready to take on the day.  I showered and took a little extra time with my hair and make-up, put mousse in and everything, wore a nice shirt, and was ready to show up a few minutes early and be ready to go.

I get to Kokomo, finish preflighting the Aerostar, open the hangar, pull it out, close the hangar, put all my stuff in, climb in, and...when I turn on the fuel valve for the right engine, I get no "zhooot" noise.  That's the noise a fuel valve makes when it turns on.  ;)  I tried it in the crossfeed position and didn't get the double zhoot noise either.  I decided to prime and start the right engine anyway to see, and it started, and ran for long enough I started wondering if I was wrong, and then the fuel pressure dropped to zero, and it was done.  So obviously I can't take the Aerostar.  I get back out, open the hangar, tug it away, close the hangar, and by now it's raining, by the way, and my hair, clothes, and face are soaked both with the 100% humidity in this heat, and the actual rain.  I'm now a mess, and now that all combined with me now being LATE, when they only have a short window to do this, makes me angry.  I go over to the other hangar after texting D and asking if I could use the 340, and there are tables and chairs all in the way, along with the T-6 in the front.  Nathan is there now too, taking the Cheyenne to PA.  We start sliding chairs and tables out of the way, hauling them like crazy.  I'm moving big chocks out of the way, opening the big door, hauling out the T-6, hauling out the 340, Nathan pushes the T-6 back away, all this takes awhile, and I am just completely drenched.  Still mad.  My flight plan was in the Aerostar, but I don't have time to file anything else, I need to GO.  So I decide I'll just ask Grissom to change it for me.  I taxi over and call up GUS, and get...nothing.  No answer.  I look up the NOTAMs, and sure enough, that frequency is notamd out of service.  I try their main frequency 121.05, and get nothing.  So I have to sit there running and call on my cell phone to get my IFR clearance, because the weather isn't good enough for me to depart VFR for long.  I'm on the ground running for a long time, and Nathan is waiting on the other runway in the Cheyenne.  Apparently Chicago was so backed up they just shut down the remote. Nathan asked the controller about it when he finally got in the air, and I heard the guy say "Chicago had a ton of reroutes for weather and they got too busy, and just don't care about Kokomo."  Anyway, I finally get in the air, and I have another problem. I can't pretend to be the Aerostar like you could in the old days, because now these planes have ADS-B on board. So I am squawking that I am the 340.  I get in the air and call the controller and tell him I had to switch planes and I'm in this N# now.  I had to give him my entire flight plan info over the air, because plane type and everything else was different.  He's not pleased, but he did it, so I made sure to thank him before I left him.  ;)

I also couldn't find my sunglasses this morning.  I know now that I left them by my printer, but I thought, no big deal.  Well, it sort of was.  I also couldn't find where I left my keys, but that one was not a big deal because the guys found them by the computer in the hangar.

You get the idea here that now my nice peaceful morning, raring to go represent womankind in T-6s, show up and look professional and all that, was a little strained.  The only thing that had gone right was that the 340 already had fuel in it.  I looked like a drowned rat, my makeup was rained and sweated off.  So I started trying to repair those things in the 45 minutes I had before I arrived.  I put the air conditioner on and put both vents on my hair to try to dry it out at least.  lol 

When I got there, I couldn't find the museum without asking Unicom, and once I parked I couldn't find the conference room, and once I found the conference room, nobody was in it.  I was 30 minutes late.  I had no phone numbers, just email addresses, so I sent an email "I'm here in the conference room".  Then I got a call, "Oh, we're all at the restaurant, forgot we were going to meet in the conference room."  From here on out, the day got much better.

I met with the film crew who had done the "Rise Above: Tuskegee Airman" film and promos.  And I met with a real Tuskegee Airman who was there, and Bill S. and Mark N., two of the CAF big wigs who were there for this.  The photo ship wasn't going to be ready until 10, and we had all briefed now, and it was just after 9, so they asked if I wanted a familiarization flight in the T-6.  Frankly, yes I did, but I also know that was as much for their benefit as mine.  They wanted to make sure I could fly the plane before we did this.  So I went up with Mark, who flies everything from gliders to supersonic whatevers, has had his own T-6 for 30 years, flies the B29s and flies jets for a living and so forth.  I went through and did my thing.  Found everything in the cockpit, asked a few questions, buckled in and fired it right up.  I flew around for a few minutes, then cranked it around a little and said "Yep, it flies like a T-6!" and came in for an almost perfect tail low wheel landing.  Taxiied back in, shut down, and he went up to Bill S. and I heard him say "Yeah, she's good. She flies it very well.  Probably better than you." and then they both laughed.  He repeated my "flies like a T-6" comment, guess he liked that.  He's kidding, but still nice.  I thought that meant I was going to take it up by myself on the formation flight, but that didn't end up happening. 

The photo ship ran late, so that we lost a lot of our sun to the clouds.  But we went up anyway, and Mark said he was going along to be a second set of eyes and such.  The formation flight went fine.  The Toga took off first, I took off second, and then I had to chase him down for several miles, because the Toga pilot isn't a formation pilot, and even though we talked about it in the briefing and even though I got on the radio and said something about him turning so I could join up, he made me chase him down straight ahead every time.  They wanted me to pull up on them as close as possible, but in the wrong attitude for actual formation.  I was way high on them, and as close as I could get, a low wing airplane on top not always being the best idea, but that was the angle they wanted.  Then they wanted a "break" away. I did two of those, then we did the next shot of being wing to wing with them and a break away, and the final shot was of me flying right over the top of their heads at an angle.  I hesitated on this one.  It puts me blind to them and them to me. It's basically the biggest no no you can do.  So we prearranged how we were going to do it.  I'd radio call in that I was coming over the top and for them to hold completely steady.  I had to do it twice, they wanted me to come a little farther back over the tail, so I did that, and they Loved the shot.  The photographer, two helpers, and pilot all inside the Toga all went on about how cool that was.  That they could hear me but not see me, and then Vrrrooooooom right over.  They think that ended up being their money shot.  That was the end of what we did.  No aerobatics today, which made me laugh. 

We then had to drive 39 miles back to the north to get home, because the photo ship took us on a cross country to the south instead of doing some turns to stay fairly local.  lol

Afterwards we had lunch at the restaurant on field, and then I asked Mark if he'd sign off my pilot proficiency for the year.  I expire in August, since that's when Doug R checked me out last year.  We didn't do anything checkride-like this time, but he marked what little we did do and signed it off for the year.  We were going over what we didn't do, and he said "I thought about having you do a go-around just to be a jerk.  And I thought about having you do an overhead break, too. But I didn't."  I offered to go fly some more if he wanted, to feel good about signing off the form, and he said "I don't need to fly with you any more."  When we got out of the plane, he said "You fly a good plane."  He also complimented me on the use of checklists and flows, and how I verbalize it. He said he really liked that.  I said I like it when I know what people I am flying with for the first time are thinking or doing or looking at.  Also, when we got out, I don't remember what words he used, but he said something about how he probably didn't need to go on the formation flight, but that none of them had ever flown with me before and didn't know me and just wanted to be sure.  I can understand that, with the formation thing involved, and they know I don't have a card, so they don't really know what or how I'd do, with their airplane the first time.

All this was for a trailer for the movie, not the actual movie.  They are filming for the movie next month, and didn't ask me to come down and fly for that so far.  They currently don't have any other female T-6 pilots, but they may do the rest with the guy pilots, Go Pro up the airplane and do aerobatic sequence, etc.  Or they may ask me to come down. I don't know yet.  We'll see.

Afterwards they took a lot of photos.  This was very unfortunate.  I was in clothes under my flight suit, which makes it thicker and lumpier than it needs to be.  I've sweated all day, my hair was a tornado from two T-6 flights, I had no sunglasses to hide behind and was squinting like crazy in the bright sun, I was extremely uncomfortable and messy and looked like a wreck.  I got my photo in front of the plane, with the Tuskeegee Airman, with the whole crew, with Mark, all sorts of photos of me looking like an overweight wreck.  I wouldn't mind my photo being taken if I could have cleaned up first.  I'm afraid to even look at those when they come out and hate to see them plastered all over.  I know that's sad, but who likes to look their worst, publicly?

When it was time to fly home, there were little thunderstorm cells all over the place, like popcorn kernels or whack-a-mole.  Flying up above it all was too much hassle and risky since I didn't know the tops, and wanted to stay in the clear to see them and avoid them.  That many with delayed weather, I'd fly right into something that just popped up if I was IMC.  So I stayed low, 3000', and just flew around all the individual cells.  Made it home at the same time as Nathan in the Cheyenne.  He literally landed as I was pulling off the runway, and we had nothing in common.  He was in Pennsylvania, I was in Ohio, we hadn't talked, and he left at the same time I did that morning.  Oddly coincidental!

When I got home, I decided to start a list of T-6s I have flown, and people I have checked out.  Today's WASP T-6 makes the 7th T6 I've flown.  T-6G, T-6D, SNJ-4 and SNJ-5 models, to be precise.  I wrote down their years, who owned them, their N#s and model.  Of those 7, one doesn't really count for more than yes I flew it, but it was my first flight in a T-6, in Tom Wood's T-6, with Duane Carroll up front.  I did the flying, but I was the rider that I now let do the flying, except I did the takeoff and landing too.  ;)  I've now checked out four people in a T-6 fully, with another 5 who are in process or almost done.  I wrote their names down too, but no other info there.  Maybe I should put a date there too, or something.  Anyway, I thought that was kind of neat.

There's more but I'm tired and it's late and I was up early and worked pretty hard and tomorrow is a busy day.  The rest of this week is nuts again.  Everyone is pushing us hard to get their flying in before we leave for Oshkosh.  Pushing so hard that there's no open space, that people are on top of each other.  One guy wants six hours before I leave so he can fly solo in the plane.  One guy scheduled every evening just to get his in.  One texted and emailed that he can't get a slot.  I KNOW.  Steve is having the same problems.  We're going to be too tired from all this to enjoy our first few days at Oshkosh.

Speaking of tired...

On the way there, no real editing, that's what it looked like.  

Welcome to Port Clinton, Ohio

Fifinella!  The panel in the T-6

Little popcorn cells all over.

Some angry mother nature shots.

One nicely formed decent sized cell out front of me, from a distance.

Missions

Kaylee is now firmly planted in Guayama, Puerto Rico tonight.  They are supposed to be sleeping right now, in the church where they are staying, on the floor.  Tomorrow begins all the work.  The leader is being very good about texting where they are and what they're doing so far.  ("They've all made it through security and are making a coffee run", "We are boarding the plane now for Puerto Rico!" "We have safely landed and are getting a car", etc.)  She'll probably be a little too busy to write much tomorrow, but I expect a few check-ins, anyway.  They have requested a lot of prayers over the next week, and even had people sign up for time slots to specifically pray.  I looked at the sheet and there weren't a lot of people signed up, so I did it, just so they'd know someone was out there.  I know Ann and Steve are too.  :)

Today Steve and I went out to Kokomo, and he had set up a Discovery Flight for today.  It was another hot one.  I went up with the guy while Steve stayed and talked to his wife, who is apparently paying for his lessons.  Their jobs keep them separate to where they only see each other about every 3 months, which would be odd, but it works for them.  Anyway, he did a good job with it, and seemed to enjoy it, although he's very quiet and that makes it hard to tell.  They claim they'll be back.

Next I was supposed to pull out the T-6 and practice.  Still couldn't bring myself to do it.  Hot. Tired. Muggy. No energy. So we came home, instead.  Tomorrow I fly Gumby to Ohio to fly the WASP T-6, and I already know how to fly a T-6, and I'm not going to get a ton better in one flight on what I can already do as far as the aerobatics, so...whatever will be will be!  I have to be wheels up around 6:45 a.m. to get there before 8.  That's going to be tiring, especially since it'll be about 90 degrees there tomorrow, too, on the lake, so nice and muggy.  I get to sweat to death while being filmed.  *sigh*  Hopefully they aren't filming ME, just the airplane flying along and maybe my sweaty head.  ;)

I'll need to go to bed early and soon here to get some sleep, and hopefully I can.  I wouldn't mind a prayer or two either.  I don't know what to expect. I asked if I needed to bring anything and got no answer. Do I need to bring a headset or helmet or is the one in there going to work?  (Yes I'll bring my own headset just in case).  Where do I park the plane?  I asked and got "Liberty is fully functional for our needs" which is not an answer.  What am I going to be doing?  Am I doing it by myself while the photo ship backs off a little, or per the CAF rules are they going to stick somebody in my back seat who is formation qualified so the photo ship can get closer?  I have zero answers or heads-up.  Just that "We'll be doing nothing different than we always do on these filming missions".  Nice, lovely, now WHAT would THAT be since I've never done one with you?  I really don't like going in somewhere feeling unprepared. I've never flown this plane and every plane has its own quirks, too.  So I feel a little unsettled, and I feel like these high end CAF guys who will be there will have their eye on me, too.  Well, frankly, I know they will.  But. Again, I can fly a T-6, and there shouldn't be anything too whacked out here, so things should be fine.  I just need to focus at a time I'm still usually sleeping and try not to do anything too messy.  ;)

YAWN

Well, Kaylee is sleeping at her church tonight, as they all are supposed to be on the road at 4 am to head for Chicago to get to their flight to Puerto Rico.  She stopped by the airport for a little bit tonight on her way there, to say goodbye to us.  Hoping for a safe and enlightening trip for the girl.

We held the Young Eagles event at Kokomo this morning, and the turn-out was lower than hoped for, but almost 40 kids got to go, so that's better than nothing.  It's just a bummer when you have a whole bunch of pilots and planes ready to go and it's kinda quiet.  :)  I didn't fly.  I haven't gone through the background check to prove I'm not a delinquent, so I just give rides to kids where I don't have to go through the program.  Sounds suspicious.  Isn't. 

I went up with Dennis in his Cub this morning, and he wanted to explore the envelope of it more.  So we took forever to climb all the way up to 3000', and I had him do aggressive slips, and then stall it in a full slip with the rudder all the way in, to prove a point.  It won't do anything with the power at idle.  He wanted to see spins, so I showed him a spin attempt with no power in...and it won't do it.  So that gives him an idea of the envelope of his airplane, and how it'll handle with power at idle.  Next I told him, here's how you make it spin, and I put in about 1500 RPM.  That did it beautifully with two of us on board, and it went right into a good spin that I actually had to pull power and do opposite rudder to recover.  If you're alone it seems to come out of it the second you relax the pro-spin inputs, but with two people on board it'll do a good spin.  He said "Well, THAT'S different!"  He wanted to see it again, so I did it again.  He decided he's not sure he likes the initial entry of it, but he wants to do more and get used to it, and we talked about the main hazard would be if your power is in and you are circling over something on the ground, uncoordinated and distracted and keep pulling back, that'll do it.  But otherwise, the Cub works pretty hard to not kill you. That's a nice thing about it.

Weather was moving in, so we landed it at Glenndale, his home base, put it in his hangar, and he drove me back to Kokomo.  That weather fizzled out and did nothing, this whole big line of it.  I ran to Soupley's and got some wine for tonight, and then went to Kokomo and took a nap.  It was HOT and muggy all day, high of 89 or 90, and I don't know what the heat index was, but it was miserable hot.  SO muggy.  I cannot stand spending the day sweating, just sweating sweating.  I was going to go up and practice in the T-6, because tomorrow's weather doesn't look good.  But I just flat-out didn't have it in me.  I was so hot that the thought of moving and doing much more of anything, pulling the plane out, putting it away, all the effort, moving tables to get it in and out...I just couldn't.  If the weather cooperates tomorrow I may try again,  but right now all I want is a day off and to sleep.  In air conditioning.

The Cheyenne checkout guy (B) went out to Glenndale today and hung out, bought three Glenndale t-shirts, chatted with the locals and had a great time, then came out to Kokomo for dinner.  Dale E walked up to me and said he had to hear about me today.  I said "uh oh, what'd I do now?"  He said "I had to hear about how you were one tough pilot."  I thought maybe Dennis had mentioned doing spins today, but no, I guess B said he was impressed by both of us. He'd like to come back and fly again and is thinking of coming from Colorado to attend the BBQ Bash in September.  He kind of fell in love with the community, and said we had it made here.

Tonight was a big steak dinner in the hangar, Nathan's birthday request, a shin-dig for his birthday.  It's also Sam's birthday, and Dale's, and Chuck and Justin's all coming up too, so apparently July is a popular birthday month!  The food was excellent; Tre always does a great job of course, and Justin did great on the steaks (and burgers for lunch), and if it would have been about 15 degrees cooler with minimal sweating, it would have been perfect.  There were good tunes  playing and lots of people there to celebrate.

Moist, but good day.

Finis

I went out this morning and did my Cheyenne flight.  I was a little rusty but the job got done.

I'd write more, but Kaylee is talking non-stop to us for hours, and she leaves for Puerto Rico tomorrow, so I'll go visit with her before bed.  ;)

Starting Up

Kaylee is getting ready to leave for Puerto Rico.  Her bag is mostly packed, her carry-on is mostly packed, and she's getting excited.  It's going to be HOT and muggy and dirty and a lot of work.  I'm glad she's doing it.  It wasn't supposed to be a building project trip, but then the hurricane came through, and, well, that's what they need now, so that's what the group will do.  The kids aren't allowed to bring cellphones on the trip, so we'll be out of communication for the whole week she's gone.  The leaders say they do this every year and they find it "freeing".  Probably.  The three chaperone adults will have cellphones in case of emergency.  So in that case, I guess no news really will be good news.  Pray for her to have a safe trip and time, and to make a good impact on where they are and what they're doing.  She's spending the night at the church on Saturday, and then they leave at 3 am Sunday morning for Chicago to catch the flight to PR from there.

Nathan and I started the Cheyenne recurrency stuff today.  We did a ground school starting at 8:30 am, going over systems, etc. Then at 10:45 I had to leave in the 340 to go to Olathe, Kansas to pick up four people.  Originally it was two people, so I was taking a young man with me.  Then an hour before the flight, while I'm in ground school, the boss calls, texts twice, gets Dustin to text me, gets Steve to text me and call me twice, to see about having two other girls come along.  That meant Tom was out of luck this time, as the plane would be very full as is.  So I had to cancel on him, which was a bummer for him, but it IS their airplane.  So I went out to Kansas, got fuel, loaded them up, turned around and flew home.  Nathan and Butch (instructor guy) went flying while I was gone, but now I was tired and he's here for three days, so I said I'd meet him tomorrow morning at 8:30 to do my checkout flight.  Plus, I looked it up and I hadn't flown the Cheyenne in almost 3 months, and I hate doing a checkride type thing, hand flying instrument approaches single engine and such, when I haven't even flown the plane in that long.  But I sat in the cockpit and ran through the checklist to try to remember where everything is so that tomorrow I won't stumble around as much, hopefully, and then I'm going to have to assume that I'll pick it up fairly quickly and smooth out on the approaches fairly quickly.  I don't have a lot of time hand flying Cheyenne approaches total, and none lately, so...hoping I don't embarrass myself.  I don't think I will, but that would stink.

Think I'll head to bed and get some sleep.  The schedule is still nuts.  Monday I'm supposed to go to Ohio and do the WASP T-6 filming thing.  I need to practice a couple things first which I will try to do Sat or Sun.  Tuesday I have lessons most of the day.  Wednesday I am booked solid 9 am to 9 pm.  Thursday, same.  We'll be running Ann down to TN somewhere in there, and then Friday we leave for Oshkosh.  I have to pack.  When am I going to pack?  Hmmm. 

Night!

Going

Tonight Nathan and I met the pilot who is doing our Cheyenne recurrent training for dinner at Outback.  I had had scheduled Fri-Sun for currency training, but apparently it was Thurs-Saturday.  So...I also had scheduled a MBros trip for tomorrow.  I thought it was going to work out anyway, because they were supposed to be picked up at 8 pm, which gave me all day tomorrow anyway.  But no, they changed it to high noon, which means I'll be gone a good chunk of the first day.  It's also been almost 3 months since I last flew the Cheyenne.  It would have been good to go up once and try to remember how to  hit the autopilot buttons again, but hopefully it'll come back to me quickly without too much embarrassment.  ;)

Steve was not feeling good today, so he stayed home and tried to recuperate and do some work, while I ran to Kokomo, ran to Glenndale, ran here and there and yonder.  At 3:30 Kaylee had her 3rd Class Medical exam with Mike, and she passed it just fine of course.  The lantern test they did for colorblindness she passed no problem because they got right up close to her with it this time, instead of across the room.  She could see it, so she could see what was what.  That was the big concern.  The weird one was that they did a blood pressure test on her wrist with a thing, and it showed up like 146 over 96!  NO WAY.  The lady wrote down 130/80.   We used our home one and her blood pressure was her normal 110/60.  So I don't know what that was about, but it was weird, man. 

But it's official, she's got her student pilot certificate and her medical in hand.  Hers is good for 5 years, and then she could do Basic Med if she wanted to continue in the future.  So, that's all good news!

When we left there, I had to walk to the next building over, where my dentist is, and get my permanent crown put in.  There was some filing and some time spent with cement in my mouth and such, but no needles, no numbness and no drilling, so all in all it was one of the least traumatic dental experiences I've had in awhile, even less so than a cleaning, which I also hate.

I celebrated surviving two doctor's offices with a DQ Blizzard. I asked for a pecan carmel one and they were out of pecans.  I asked for cookie dough and I heard her say "We're out of cookie dough too!?"  I thought, maybe this is God's way of telling me to skip a blizzard.  lol  But they ended up having it.

Steve is feeling better tonight, hopefully stays that way.

Now I have some flight planning to hit for tomorrow, and catch up on my logbook before I get too far behind again...

A teen and her flight medical.

Assembly Line

The day started around 9 am, which isn't bad.  I canceled my doctor appointment and just went out to Kokomo, knowing I needed to get fuel, wash the window, add oil, switch helmets/seats, pull out the plane, etc. by about 9:30.  Got all that done, and it was already hot and sweaty out there, another super humid day.  I'm really missing those gorgeous days we had over the weekend!

We flew for a good 1.3, and then he ended on a pretty good one, and the right strut dipped pretty far down on rollout, so we called it a day.  I called for gas again, and this time pulled out the 340 too, as I have a trip to Olathe, Kansas in it tomorrow morning early.  I'm putting things away on the T-6, and one line guy is fueling up the 340, when a mower comes racing by on the other side of the plane, and suddenly I feel it shudder.  I went jogging over to the other wing, only to find the guy on the mower had swung around and slammed his roll bar into the wingtip of the T-6.  I felt physically sick to my stomach, really.  I walked over to the other line guy and said "Hey.  He just ran into the T-6 with the mower."  He went over and looked at it, and the phone calls and such began.  The other guy was apologetic and all, but man.  That plane has a lot going on right now.  The plane hasn't had damage to it in the 10 years since restoration.  And it really needs to not be down right now.  And...just...ouch.  :(  I still feel a little icky about it.  I didn't do it of course, or anything wrong, but I still feel icky that it's damaged.  The guy thinks he might get fired for it.  I don't know; I'd guess it depends on how much this costs the city, maybe.  Stuff happens, but...ugh.  Why would you go whipping under the wing of an airplane?  Couldn't wait to mow that section?   :(

I had to swap the planes around, put the Six in the back and the 340 in the front for tomorrow's trip.  After lunch I met up with John and flew in the 421, and we did instrument approaches.  Walked out of the plane with him and my next gal was waiting for me, and we did a cross country and some takeoffs and landings.  She and I landed and the next guy was standing at the next plane waiting for me.  I pushed this one back in the hangar and walked right over to him.  2-4, 4-6, 6-8 pm.  We get done and I lock everything up, and around 8:30 we finally get away to dinner.  I'm a melted, sweaty, messed up mess.  My first flight of the day was in the T-6, so my hair is already a stringy mess, and then I had a salad with fruit on it for lunch, and then no food for 8.5 hours while I sweated in the humidity and heat all day.  I didn't feel very human until I got some tea and food in me.

In the T-6 we were working on takeoffs and landings.  There was a crosswind from the right of about 10 knots, not a lot, probably about 60 degrees off.  So, not bad.  But enough that you still had to do something about it.  The guy was just getting more comfortable with the plane, and said so out loud, and the very next landing he didn't put in proper crosswind correction, and landed a little flat so on the mains, and the tail started to come down and that thing started to trot itself right squirrely, so to speak.  I had to get on it, for only the second time in almost 5 hours of flight time with him, and save it.  We pull off the runway, and he says "Well, She heard me say that I was getting comfortable and decided to teach me a lesson.  Well, T-6, you have my undivided attention."  Mine too.  Always. and No Kidding.  The next landing he was still flustered so he did a go-around on final, and then he came back in and made two more pretty good ones, that we ended on.  That takes some concentration on both our parts.  I was tired by noon.  ;)

Kaylee stories.  First, she went to church Sunday with a friend. She was a visitor, doesn't attend there.  While she's there, the pastor wants to recognize the people going on the mission trip to Puerto Rico.  Kaylee is the only student there who is going, and they had her come up front, and wanted her to say a few words.  To a crowd of people she doesn't even know at a church that isn't hers.  So she does, briefly, and then they want to pray for the people going.  So she and the two adults are asked to kneel at the front of the church where a group of people come up and lay hands on her and pray.  She said she wasn't sure if she was supposed to pray too or not, but all she could do was go "UMMMM" in her head.  Talk about being a little out of your element.  So much for being a quiet visitor to a new church!  Ha.

She also purchased these glasses that "fix" your color blindness.  She tried them on with some friends, and at first she didn't notice any difference, and she was disappointed.  And then it started popping, and she could see pastels finally, and how bright the other colors really were.  Purple, green, etc.  She was pretty excited about that, to finally get to see colors in the world the way they're supposed to look. 

Well, she's here with some friends and I'm needing to go to bed.  Busy day tomorrow too...

Heh! 

Also heh!

Sleepy Kaylee and me

The Flying Squirrels washing the Champ 

Brett flying the T-6

The damaged wingtip.  :(