Sunday

Sunday was a better day all-around.  The temps were slightly cooler, not by a whole lot, the heat advisory (or was it extreme heat advisory) was still out, and the radio and TV stations were all saying "Stay indoors unless you need to leave", which didn't help our event.  ;)  But Steve and I flew down to Metro together in the T-6 after a round of thunderstorms went through.   I was pretty careful today about how much I was in the sun, as heat damage is cumulative.  I spent a lot of time relaxing, sitting in the shade, I put sunscreen on, I drank water non-stop, even had two Cokes throughout the day in order to make sure I had some caffeine too.  So, you see, I tried to be a good girl yesterday, that's all I'm saying.  ;)

The crowd was a little better yesterday than Saturday, which surprised us all I think.  Usually Saturday is the big day.  I did a three ship formation flight with Tom McCord of Tom Wood Aviation and JP Mellor from Terre Haute.  I took Irving Washington in my back seat, and he took some photos of the other two planes.   I've only seen one photo of the formation from the ground so far, someone's cell phone photo, which I'll post at the end here.  It was my first formation flight since last year sometime, so I wasn't quite sure how that would go, but I'm finding it's a lot like instrument flying.  Once you get a certain amount of time in it, it doesn't take too long to get back into the groove of at least as good as you used to be.  So the three of us took off single ship, and I did a rejoin that came together nicely, and we flew around for...I don't know. I lost track of time.  We did some practice out in the area and then 3 or 4 passes over Metro, which I only know because Steve told me.  One of the things that you do lose is a wider situational awareness picture, because you're so focused on Lead that you even know when you're going over the airport most of the time.  The more you do it the more you can look around at other things too, I suppose, but I wasn't capable of that yet.  :)  I felt pretty good about how it went, though.

I then had a rider from IL who won the "Red Bull Air Race" T-6 ride last October, and he happened to be in town today, so could cash in on his win.  I took him up for about half an hour, let him do the flying, except for takeoff and landing, though I think he was wanting to do that too.   Showed him a couple maneuvers that he enjoyed, and by the time I got done with the formation flight and that ride, I was already wiped out and hot again.  I'm going to say, I understand some people work outside all day long in heat like that, and I know you can adapt, but *I* am not adapted and it's hard to describe how that wipes a middle aged lady like me out!  lol 

The guys did so much work out there in the sun.  The tear down, marshalling airplanes, everything that needed done.  I feel for them.  I lost 5 pounds over two days, which is actually not a great thing.  By the time Steve and I flew home, I was starting to get a headache, too much sun, dehydration I suppose, and no amount of fluid was helping.  I hadn't had any fluids to dispose of all day, until about 8 pm, even though I always had a bottle of water in my hand, all day long.  I had to go to bed at 9 pm to try to kick the headache, which didn't happen until about midnight.  I'm too old for that kind of thing, I think.  I would've been fine, I enjoyed it, but that heat index, dang.

I did get some fun news, though.  While we were there, Jordan Brown asked me if I had any type ratings.  I said no, and he asked if I'd be interested in coming down and getting typed in his C-47 once it was up all the way.  Yes, yes, I would!  :)  He then said that he'd made a deal with a guy to get his FAST card, and I would be included in that, too, after Oshkosh this year.  Now there have been other planes I was told I could check out in that didn't end up working out, one of them "yet" (the TBM), but Jordan is a pretty big get it done kind of guy, and I feel pretty confident that this one is going to happen this year, which excites me, honestly.  I could have a C-47 type rating and a FAST card by the end of this flying season!

The C-47 is huge, too.  I've never flown anything close to that, and it's sort of intimidating!  It has a 95' wingspan, , it holds I think 30 people, and max takeoff weight is 31,000 lbs.  I mean, holy cow!  Not sure what I'll do with that much airplane, but I intend on finding out.  ;)