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...