Kaylee and I flew the Cub again today. We worked on takeoffs and landings. She got annoyed when she couldn't land perfectly, and started saying negative things about herself, getting frustrated, saying she wasn't any good, and scared herself, and didn't want to do any more, etc. I stopped the plane and turned around and gave her a little talking to and made her go back up and do a couple more. She did it, and the funny thing is, like I said, she's really good. But even really good has to learn and practice. After the second takeoff today, I didn't have to say a word or touch a thing. She can take off the Cub just as smooth and straight as anybody else. She can fly and turn in a coordinated fashion. She can get the plane down to the runway straight, and by the last landing she can catch the nose as it starts to drift off on landing, too. The last landing she did, I didn't have to touch it. I did have to talk through it still, because she's still learning the sight picture, but for heaven's sake it's her SECOND FLIGHT, and she's got most of it down except the flare/roll-out. I was glad we didn't have any crosswind yet.
I left from there to go to Kokomo where I flew with a girl Kaylee's age, in the 172. She too is unnaturally good. She's a perfectionist, hard on herself, good reflexes, listens and reacts well, and this was our second flight together, though she flew a different plane with someone else so she's not starting at zero either, and I'm already taking her into the pattern too. From her, I flew with an older guy who is a perfectionist, hard on himself, but not so much unnaturally good, not so much good reflexes, not so good at listening or reacting. But bless his heart, he's workin' on it. :) So that was my day, sweating in airplanes for about six hours.
I'd texted the three guys who work out there for us that I needed the T-6 topped off with oil, the back seat ready to go with the headset, pulled out and topped off and put in the front of the hangar. Nobody answered me, which is common, which annoys me. Let me know when it's done or if you're not doing it or something. So I'm getting out there after the FBO is already closed, and check on it, and the oil is full, the back seat isn't ready, and I have ten gallons of fuel on one side and half tanks on the other. They didn't fill it up, and early tomorrow morning I'm supposed to be going to Marion for the fly-in, and giving rides. I have enough gas to get there, but not to get there and start giving rides. I'm going to have to shut down and get gas asap. Not how that's supposed to go, and annoying.
When I left the airport after 8 pm, I pulled into Long John Silver's. I was there for 47 minutes in line to get my food. I was too tight on other cars to leave. And I was hungry. And I couldn't believe it would keep taking that long. I had to place my order twice at the speaker. I get up to the window and I had to tell him TWO MORE TIMES what my order was. Then he got the size wrong on my drink and gave me a small, and by then I needed a big drink. ;) He forgot sauces too, but I got them at home. Forty-seven minutes to go through a "fast food" line. Unreal. I'm writing corporate I think. A bunch of cars pulled out of line and left while I was waiting.
Tomorrow's going to be a hot one. Marion is usually a really busy one for us. We've raised our prices though, so we'll see!
Friday, August 31, 2018
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Pumped
What a great day. The weather is MY kind of weather. Blue skies, light winds, sunshine, warm but not hot, perfect. So I spent it mostly inside working on projects. lol I got bills paid, SMA Support stuff sent on its way, correspondance returned, several projects finished that needed it, and then went out and got my taxes paid for and signed off for SMA Support, and a few other more typical errands. So all in all it was a really productive day, one that leaves you feeling good about having the day to do that.
Kaylee and I were scheduled to fly at 3 pm. This time I wanted to take her in the Cub. I wasn't sure how she'd be about that, because you can't see out of it, it's trickier on ground handling, etc. She sometimes gets uptight in the 172 about doing things perfectly, and I just wasn't sure what she'd think of it. But it's important to me that she be in a taildragger too, if at all possible, so we tested it today.
Y'all, she's a natural at it. She's better in the Cub than in the 172. She had the taxiing down better after two attempts than a lot of people have after several lessons. She was boosting the power to spin us around, s-turning at a slow but good speed, and she did both takeoffs without me having to touch or save anything. She kept us straight down the runway the whole time, didn't overcontrol, got the tail up without losing it, climbed out straight. When we got up in the air and I had her do a turn, she kept it completely coordinated, even though there is no ball in there, and it has a completely different feel and action than the 172. She just did it right. I'll be honest, I was a little (maybe a lot) surprised by this. Everybody wallows around a little bit in the Cub at first. Nobody going in the taildragger the first time keeps it smoothly straight all the way through takeoff the first few times. I just...wow. The kid could be a seriously good tailwheel pilot if she so desired. The landings, I had to help with the rudder on roll-out with one stab, both times. I talked her through the rest. She doesn't see it yet of course, but she followed directions very smoothly. Still really, really good. I could probably get her to solo fairly quickly in there in the Cub on a grass strip on a nice day. Problem is, it's not my Cub, and it's not set up for solo operations with a student. I'd really like to borrow someone's Cub who could let me do that though. If we keep progressing, I could have her soloed before winter moved in, and I'd really like that. It was a fun flight, we had a good time, and she really impressed me. I'd have been impressed with anyone who got in a Cub for the first time and flew it like that.
Here are a few photos from the rainbows I saw from the air, and the airport we landed at. You can't see that the ground drops steeply away on three sides because I was zoomed in too close. But you'll have to trust me. It was. ;)
The rainbow on takeoff out of Kokomo. I haven't messed with the colors.
Zoomed in on the takeoff rainbow.
This was the huge double rainbow that went all the way from one side of the airplane to the other, behind us. Amazing and huge and this doesn't do it justice.
The airport on the top of the hill. Taking off you took off into the hills. Well, hopefully over them and not into them, but you know what I mean. Not a lot of room.
This road drops off down below to where you can't even see the bottom of the road. The airport's just sitting at the top.
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Rainbows and Unicorns
Okay, there aren't any unicorns in this story.
I was up at 6 this morning to fly to Upshur County, West Virginia with D. There was a big wad of rain and storms headed our way, so I told him not to delay, to let us get out of there. I figured getting home might be a trick. Right on takeoff we had a big fat rainbow right off the end of the runway. About 5 minutes later I turn around and there is a HUGE, fully rounded, double rainbow right behind us. Huge, and vivid. And cellphones do not capture that. I tried. It was stunning. I joked that I didn't care what ATC wanted, they were going to have to wait and keep their britches on while I took pictures of this thing. Just gorgeous.
The airport in West Virginia was sitting on top of a mountain/butte. There was a very big drop-off on three sides of it, and the fourth had a couple of small mountains off the end. You would not want to miss. Well, you WOULD want to miss the mountains. You would not want to miss the runway. We landed, D got a rental car, and I went into the terminal. There was a bathroom (later labeled INOP but fortunately not until it was close to time for me to leave), and a small concrete room with one lounger chair and a dirty noisy refrigerator in it. That's it. No air conditioning. No air FLOW. No TV, no cell service, no vending machine or water fountain. A concrete room, a chair, and a bathroom. I did okay once I hunted him down to give me a password for the slow wifi, which at least worked slowly, vs cellular service which didn't exist out there. Eventually I took the courtesy car into town to get brunch. It was an old Chrysler, manual windows, old radio, and he felt the need to tell me how the key worked because it was old style. He had to go start it up and get it running first for the day. You know I like this. Even though it was mega hot and the air conditioner only blew hot air, it was still a cool car. But Google Maps wouldn't work out there to get me to food. So I wandered around old school and just looked for a place to eat. I ended up at a diner that served breakfast all day, and had bacon and eggs and tea and a pecan pancake. I'm still full from that, for the record. I loaded up the airport on my Google Maps before I left their wifi this time, and it took me to...nowhere. The airport wasn't where the app said it was. So I wandered back the way I came and found it again on my own anyway. Gotta love no cell service and out of the way places without good georeferenced markers!
The way home was super hot, and we had two lines of storms to go through, but they were so widely scattered around our path that we didn't even really have to deviate. I could just see them over there. I waved. Hi. Bye. Yawn. I like easy.
When I got to Kokomo, I had a flight student at 6 pm. I'd been super hot all day long, and I wasn't really in the mood for a lesson, but I couldn't cancel the fella either. So I got more in the mood after we started going, and we had a good flight. Panera salad for dinner, something a little lighter, and tomorrow I don't have anything scheduled. This is kind of neat. I don't even have the pressure to take up the T-6 and practice anything any more. I accomplished that, and did the best I could with the training I had, and I felt pretty good about it. Next up is Marion's fly-in, which is always an exercise in not having a mid-air collision with the hoard of other airplanes buzzing around there. Other than that, it's fine. ;)
Nothing new on Kaylee today. I haven't seen her and she's just been in school anyway, but nothing too interesting...
I did get photos but will put them up maybe tomorrow...
I was up at 6 this morning to fly to Upshur County, West Virginia with D. There was a big wad of rain and storms headed our way, so I told him not to delay, to let us get out of there. I figured getting home might be a trick. Right on takeoff we had a big fat rainbow right off the end of the runway. About 5 minutes later I turn around and there is a HUGE, fully rounded, double rainbow right behind us. Huge, and vivid. And cellphones do not capture that. I tried. It was stunning. I joked that I didn't care what ATC wanted, they were going to have to wait and keep their britches on while I took pictures of this thing. Just gorgeous.
The airport in West Virginia was sitting on top of a mountain/butte. There was a very big drop-off on three sides of it, and the fourth had a couple of small mountains off the end. You would not want to miss. Well, you WOULD want to miss the mountains. You would not want to miss the runway. We landed, D got a rental car, and I went into the terminal. There was a bathroom (later labeled INOP but fortunately not until it was close to time for me to leave), and a small concrete room with one lounger chair and a dirty noisy refrigerator in it. That's it. No air conditioning. No air FLOW. No TV, no cell service, no vending machine or water fountain. A concrete room, a chair, and a bathroom. I did okay once I hunted him down to give me a password for the slow wifi, which at least worked slowly, vs cellular service which didn't exist out there. Eventually I took the courtesy car into town to get brunch. It was an old Chrysler, manual windows, old radio, and he felt the need to tell me how the key worked because it was old style. He had to go start it up and get it running first for the day. You know I like this. Even though it was mega hot and the air conditioner only blew hot air, it was still a cool car. But Google Maps wouldn't work out there to get me to food. So I wandered around old school and just looked for a place to eat. I ended up at a diner that served breakfast all day, and had bacon and eggs and tea and a pecan pancake. I'm still full from that, for the record. I loaded up the airport on my Google Maps before I left their wifi this time, and it took me to...nowhere. The airport wasn't where the app said it was. So I wandered back the way I came and found it again on my own anyway. Gotta love no cell service and out of the way places without good georeferenced markers!
The way home was super hot, and we had two lines of storms to go through, but they were so widely scattered around our path that we didn't even really have to deviate. I could just see them over there. I waved. Hi. Bye. Yawn. I like easy.
When I got to Kokomo, I had a flight student at 6 pm. I'd been super hot all day long, and I wasn't really in the mood for a lesson, but I couldn't cancel the fella either. So I got more in the mood after we started going, and we had a good flight. Panera salad for dinner, something a little lighter, and tomorrow I don't have anything scheduled. This is kind of neat. I don't even have the pressure to take up the T-6 and practice anything any more. I accomplished that, and did the best I could with the training I had, and I felt pretty good about it. Next up is Marion's fly-in, which is always an exercise in not having a mid-air collision with the hoard of other airplanes buzzing around there. Other than that, it's fine. ;)
Nothing new on Kaylee today. I haven't seen her and she's just been in school anyway, but nothing too interesting...
I did get photos but will put them up maybe tomorrow...
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Wrap Up
Stories from the weekend. I was driving four guys out to the arch to take a look at it. As I came up on the runway, a young man in the back seat said "Now, you're coming up on a runway, so you need to check both ways for traffic." I laughed, and said something a little back. Then I cleared the runway, got on the other side, and he said "Okay, we're clear of the runway now, we should be safe from anyone landing on us now." I'm in a flight suit, I guess he didn't know I was actually a pilot anyway. It was kinda cute though.
There was another young man there who worked with the camera crew. At lunch he went up to the table with all the other pilots and said "Which one of you guys was doing the passes?" They pointed over at me and said "That lady at the table over there." The kid turned around, looked at me, and paused for a really long time. Long enough that I then lifted my hand and finger waved and smiled at him. He was obviously a little surprised. lol He came over to show me the video he got of one of my passes, where he kicked it into SlowMo right as I was going over. It WAS a good video, I should have made him send it to me. lol
It's super muggy around here again, and I now have a trip tomorrow to West Virginia I think it is. There may be some thunderstorm dodging, we shall see. 7:30 am departure, which means leaving the house at 6:50 am, which means getting up at 6. It may be foggy there too, so this may be an all-around busy flight.
Kaylee is glad to be back in her routine in a way, back in Encore dancing, having a friend over, etc. Steve and I missed lunch today, as he's too busy working on BBQ Bash and other things. We both had flights this afternoon. And life slips back to normal.
There was another young man there who worked with the camera crew. At lunch he went up to the table with all the other pilots and said "Which one of you guys was doing the passes?" They pointed over at me and said "That lady at the table over there." The kid turned around, looked at me, and paused for a really long time. Long enough that I then lifted my hand and finger waved and smiled at him. He was obviously a little surprised. lol He came over to show me the video he got of one of my passes, where he kicked it into SlowMo right as I was going over. It WAS a good video, I should have made him send it to me. lol
It's super muggy around here again, and I now have a trip tomorrow to West Virginia I think it is. There may be some thunderstorm dodging, we shall see. 7:30 am departure, which means leaving the house at 6:50 am, which means getting up at 6. It may be foggy there too, so this may be an all-around busy flight.
Kaylee is glad to be back in her routine in a way, back in Encore dancing, having a friend over, etc. Steve and I missed lunch today, as he's too busy working on BBQ Bash and other things. We both had flights this afternoon. And life slips back to normal.
Kara the director clapping at my pass. lol
Monday, August 27, 2018
Next Day
Fortunately I had no students today, because I wouldn't have done well with them. After not sleeping for two nights, flying 10 hours plus round trip to Texas and back, flying the T-6 a few times, sitting in a hot flight suit in the 100 degree heat for two days, and being a little tense trying to be prepared and focused on what I needed to do, the mental fatigue, today I pretty much crashed. I didn't sleep late, woke up at 7 am, which stunk since I was awake until past 1. My whole system rebelled today. Eyes burned, stomach churned, runny eyes, felt like I was dragging in quicksand. So apparently I'm not as young as I used to be, but at least I'm still young enough to get it done when I need to. ;)
I went through pictures today, and Steve took some videos that I'll try to post a few of here. One of the videos is of one of the first passes, and the more fun part is the lady in the foreground who starts squealing a little and jumping up and down on both feet. That's just fun.
I heard from the guy in charge of the flying end of it, Bill, today. He's a P-51 pilot too, for Red Tail. He emailed me out of the blue and said he'd seen some of the footage and said "awesome awesome awesome" and that I'm going to love seeing it in the dome. I kind of can't wait, actually. I know my part will be small in the whole film. Just a few seconds of airplane a few times. But I still really want to see it. It's tough waiting a year!
Ole Richard, I haven't heard from him. He had a parachute set up that was special. It was so high that I was sitting so high up in the seat, it messed with me. He had a back board to push you closer to the stick. I couldn't even get the stick all the way back properly, which did about get me on my first landing. I had to get rid of the back, and let the rudder pedals out a notch. Normally I have them all the way forward for me, but this time I had to back them off a little bit. I've never sat so high in a T-6 before, and it's just not right. It messed with my sight picture on landings, and a little on aerobatics, though I ignored it. But it was different. Now I know how Nathan feels when he gets in after me. Like a munchkin was in there. lol It also shows a lack of...comfort...when a person has to stack up stuff to see that much in a taildragger. I know. I stacked up some stuff in the back seat of the T-6 for awhile. Still do if it's been awhile. But I CAN do it without it. ;)
I thought about a few people after this weekend. Bob R, who helped me get loops down, and with unusual attitude recovery helping me get the feel I needed for the envelope of the airplane. Nathan who I think would have been kind of pleased if he'd been there to watch. I'm in a T-6 because of him, and I'm very thankful for that. Steve, who pushed me past my comfort zone in a lot of ways and has been my biggest advocate, sometimes even when I was uncomfortable with his pushing and kind of wished he wouldn't. Kim and Ellie who were the two who arranged to have Kaylee taken care of as an extra. It was Kim's idea, and Ellie's follow-up and making it happen. I appreciated that. I let most of the above people know my appreciation today. Just because I'm thankful.
These photos aren't all in order but I'm too tired to rearrange them chronologically. So here ya go. ;)
I went through pictures today, and Steve took some videos that I'll try to post a few of here. One of the videos is of one of the first passes, and the more fun part is the lady in the foreground who starts squealing a little and jumping up and down on both feet. That's just fun.
I heard from the guy in charge of the flying end of it, Bill, today. He's a P-51 pilot too, for Red Tail. He emailed me out of the blue and said he'd seen some of the footage and said "awesome awesome awesome" and that I'm going to love seeing it in the dome. I kind of can't wait, actually. I know my part will be small in the whole film. Just a few seconds of airplane a few times. But I still really want to see it. It's tough waiting a year!
Ole Richard, I haven't heard from him. He had a parachute set up that was special. It was so high that I was sitting so high up in the seat, it messed with me. He had a back board to push you closer to the stick. I couldn't even get the stick all the way back properly, which did about get me on my first landing. I had to get rid of the back, and let the rudder pedals out a notch. Normally I have them all the way forward for me, but this time I had to back them off a little bit. I've never sat so high in a T-6 before, and it's just not right. It messed with my sight picture on landings, and a little on aerobatics, though I ignored it. But it was different. Now I know how Nathan feels when he gets in after me. Like a munchkin was in there. lol It also shows a lack of...comfort...when a person has to stack up stuff to see that much in a taildragger. I know. I stacked up some stuff in the back seat of the T-6 for awhile. Still do if it's been awhile. But I CAN do it without it. ;)
I thought about a few people after this weekend. Bob R, who helped me get loops down, and with unusual attitude recovery helping me get the feel I needed for the envelope of the airplane. Nathan who I think would have been kind of pleased if he'd been there to watch. I'm in a T-6 because of him, and I'm very thankful for that. Steve, who pushed me past my comfort zone in a lot of ways and has been my biggest advocate, sometimes even when I was uncomfortable with his pushing and kind of wished he wouldn't. Kim and Ellie who were the two who arranged to have Kaylee taken care of as an extra. It was Kim's idea, and Ellie's follow-up and making it happen. I appreciated that. I let most of the above people know my appreciation today. Just because I'm thankful.
These photos aren't all in order but I'm too tired to rearrange them chronologically. So here ya go. ;)
The extras all waiting early Saturday morning to begin.
This is dark, but the lighting on her is pretty. You can also see the sticking out wind sock, and it was only morning at that point.
The camera crew for several in a row here.
Line-up of airplanes.
This cup was at the FBO at Lebanon. Read the words. Hah.
Two people sleeping in my plane. ;)
Cows staring at us as we went by to eat BBQ and Brisket.
Sunset on the plains.
Kaylee by the Jeep early Saturday morning.
Talking to Steve
Wing buddies
The extras
The word "Sweetwater" on the roof to the left, under the wing of the T-6
The cast of pilots of the various airplanes, and their backseaters or significant others. Richard is in the tan flight suit in the front, middle.
Gumby on the way home at Sunset
And after sunset
My hair bun!
The awful gum by huge flight suit and the terrible hair.
Airplanes early in the morning
KayJo
Set up where I did the fly-bys.
One more of the pilots
This first one, you can see one of the girls jumping up and down with both feet and giggling.
Another pass. There are like four videos and I'm too tired to watch them all again to see which I should post, so here's this one. Enjoy. ;)
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Rise Again: WASP
This was really a pretty special weekend. I'm so glad Steve and Kaylee were both able to come.
A big part of what made it special was what Kaylee got to do. She expected to be an extra walking around in the background, with faint hopes they'd let her be one walking away from the airplane. The walking away from the airplane thing didn't happen, but she was called out Saturday and put on the wing of a T-6 and was front and center for quite a few of the shots from Saturday. They stopped and filmed right in front of her. She was in the first three shots that I know of, and then they even put her in the front of a T-6 in the seat, with another girl in the back, for another, later sequence. She was on the wing of the T-6 for hours, in the sun, on a metal wing, in 100 degree temps. It was a little brutal, but she did a great job with it. They'd cut and do it again, and again, and again, and again. Steve and I just sat and watched from afar sort of giddy looking at all the cameras pointed at our kid who was dressed up like a 1940s WWII WASP. That was just So. Much. Fun. That made the trip worthwhile right there, no matter what else happened. She got a chance to be an extra in a film, and she has that on her creds now. She got a chance to see what it was like filming something, vs a community or school play. What I thought was great was that she also got this opportunity because of me for once. Of all the things I cannot and have not been able to help her out with in the arts department, this time by George, they wanted to make me happy, and they deliberately pulled her in for it. And then the ball was in her court, and she had to run with it and make it happen, and she did just that. We were so darned...proud. It was just wild being part of watching her make a film.
That was Saturday, she had to be out there at 6 am, and they were setting up before the sun had risen, and they were out there all day. That also meant that the part I was supposed to go got pushed to Sunday. This was actually sort of hard for me, sitting there all day in a flight suit in the heat trying to be ready to go at any time they might finally be ready for me to go. I was told "after lunch", so from after lunch for the next 6 hours, I was trying to be mentally alert and ready to go do the flying thing. But I couldn't stay that way, and it was hot, and I didn't sleep the night before very well, because I'd waited too long to have caffeine and so I had a headache and had drank some Coke to kill the headache, and the Coke kept me up most of the night. So I'm tired, and hot, and on a tarmac in 30 knot winds (oh yeah, it was Texas windy all three days we were there, too) on a 100 degree day, and wilting. Finally around 5 something pm, the head guy said "Wanna beer?" I said "Is it time for that?" (Meaning, if you can drink, you obviously aren't flying). He said "Yep." So no flying that day. Now I have to wait another day. Waiting is hard.
Kaylee's part was all done by Saturday evening, so she slept in on Sunday and I was the one who had to be out there by 8 am. I had to deal with a little something that I'll talk about later, but then by around 10 am, I was up for my first solo flight in the WASP T-6, doing low passes over three women walking down a dirt road under an arch for Avenger Field. Folks, this was mega cool. I'm in the WASP T-6 at Avenger Field doing buzz jobs on camera for a film honoring women pilots. All those times I went by at Glenndale paid off today. ;) Even with high winds and occasional interesting turbulence, I would swing around, line up, part their hair, and pull up, and it was FUN, and I got to do it like a dozen times. The first time I went by, the three actresses who were walking away from where I was coming, didn't know what to expect, and when I went roaring by right over their heads, they ducked, yelled, and one jumped out of her shoe. The director loved it. Steve was on the ground just below me, along with several of the CAF guys, and of course the camera crew. My hard deck was 30', they said. Originally the director said "Go as low as you're comfortable, you know, like 500' or something." I stopped him and said "Five hundred feet and as low as possible are two very different things. Which do you want?" He said "As low as you're comfortable". Heh. You got it, buddy. I squeaked over the Fifinella sign on the arch a couple of times. SO much fun.
When we landed, we had lunch back at the WASP hangar on field, and people were looking at me differently. Another T-6 pilot came up and high-fived me, an older woman who works for the museum hugged me and said (pardon the language) "That was some seriously bad ass flying. You are a badass. Thank you." The guy in charge gathered all the pilots together (the other pilots provided background planes for ambiance) and said that was awesome, called me out for the flying specifically, a couple of camera crew or other pilots came up to show me video clips they'd taken, and suddenly the party had started there. lol
My next job was to go up with the photo ship and do a little formation and break-away action. That was easy. I had a WASP actress in my back seat who is getting killed off in the film, apparently. So I'm waiting to load her, and suddenly they tell me, with all the GoPros on, the back of my head will be visible, so they need hair and make-up to come fix me up before the flight. I have to put on one of their wool flightsuits, and I'm a little insulted, because the one they brought was HUMONGOUS on me. It would have probably fit somebody Chuck or Nathan's size. And then hair/makeup lady pulled all that gnarled up sweaty hair of mine into a 1940s style do. With all my hair pulled back away from my face/head, all the gray shows up really well, and without bangs I am NOT good. Kaylee and Steve concur that from the back it wasn't bad, but from the front, it needs to never happen again. ;) So I looked like a freak, but I'd be sitting down and the cameras only get the back of my head anyway.
The formation flight went quick and easy. Two shots, both good enough, break away and done. Then I went out and did some wing-overs and a roll with the girl in the back seat, before coming in to land, dropping her off, and going up for solo aerobatics on film. I just did loops, rolls and wingovers, and I was pretty pleased with how most of them went. Before I did my first loop, I was really missing a good tune, because pulling "angry" is easier when you're listening to something peppy. ;) So I hummed it out loud, and then I felt even sillier, so I laughed, and just did it anyway. It worked out.
When I landed, my part was done. It was now Sunday afternoon, and we had a good 4 plus hour flight home to do still. Steve and Kaylee kind of took turns napping in the Aerostar while I flew home. I hadn't had time to do much planning, so I didn't file the first leg, I just took off VFR and headed east, then figured out a fuel stop on the way. It was self-serve because everything was closed, but then Steve volunteered that we should just land at the major Class C airport on our way, pay extra, but get full serve fuel. This worked for me. I'm tired, I'm hot, I'm hungry, maybe they have free cookies too, you know, that kind of thing. We land there, and they have a $.40/gallon fuel discount on weekends, bringing the price down to about as cheap as the self-serve fuel at a little podunk airport. And they had free tea. Winning. We loaded up fuel, stretched, packed back up and had a 2 hour flight home from there. The smoke from the wildfires was there, making everything murky and hazy.
We got home late, around 10 pm, stopped for a quick dinner, unpacked a few things, and fortunately two of us don't have to get up early tomorrow. Kaylee still has school, the poor dear, but *I* don't have to get up. ;)
So here's the little bit of drama I had going on this weekend. There's a fellow who is the Operations Officer for the WASP wing, who flew Nella (The T-6) up to Sweetwater. Richard. When we first arrived in the Aerostar, he met us out there along with Bill, who is in charge out there for the CAF. Richard started asked questions about the Aerostar. I started off answering. Steve was doing some talking too. Now when we came in, Steve was in the back of the plane and Kaylee and I were up front. Richard kept directing all his questions to Steve. Steve didn't notice or think much about it because he was talking to the guy too. What he didn't see was me trying to answer a couple of them, only to have Richard just look right back at and talk only to Steve. Kaylee saw it though. She leaned in and commented on it pretty quickly. That sets the stage for me and Richard. Richard wanted to be in the movie badly. He wanted to do the flying for the movie. Keep in mind, that's why I'm THERE, which he knows. But it's basically his plane, as they don't have many others flying it right now, and he's put his mark on it. If he could have peed on the tire to chase me away, he would have. Saturday a group of female Civil Air Patrol cadets come up and want to see the plane. Bill asks me to go over and show them the plane. I walk up, and Richard is already there. He looks at me and says "I don't know why Bill asked YOU to come over." I am so slow sometimes, I didn't have the comeback I should have. I said "I'm here to show them the plane!" Ignored him, started talking to them until he walked away. But GEE, I wonder why maybe it might be nice to have a Female Pilot show the Female cadets the Female Pilot Airplane?! He has to have his thumb in it. He got himself put into the movie as a WASP instructor, is in there several times. He was condescending. Cocky. He liked to be around all the pretty girls. He hung out with them at dinner and wherever he could, the actresses and extras. One of those. He was always polite and friendly to me, but we obviously had a thing going here. He frankly has short man syndrome.
So Sunday, the day I'm supposed to do the flying, Bill, under pressure from Richard, says "Flip a coin, you two work it out--somebody needs to give rides starting at 8 am, and the other can do the flying over the Arch." Richard lifts his hand and says "That's me". I look at Bill, and then say something along the lines of having the woman pilot do the flying for the woman pilot's movie. We all get in our cars and go to the airport. This is my line in the sand, my hill to die on. I did not fly to Texas to give T-6 rides while a dude flies the WASP T-6 for the film. Just no. I can give T-6 rides in Indiana. So I told Bill that I didn't know why this was a question, that I didn't come down here for giving rides, I came to fly for the film. He said they'd still GoPro me up and do that sequence. I said the flight over the Arch is their main iconic WASP shot, as they already said, and that I didn't think there should be a question as to who should be flying. Why is the guy pushing to fly the woman's T-6 in a movie about women pilots. Especially (I did not say this part) a guy who doesn't really have respect for women or women pilots, but is mostly doing this whole WASP T-6 thing because it gives him cred and benefits him. I won, and I was given the Arch shot sequence. I'm not good at being pushy even when I need to be sometimes, but man, I couldn't have lived with myself if I hadn't done that.
And it made a difference. The young female extras all thought it was super cool that a girl was flying the airplane. The older women out there were lit up about it, fist pumping, you go girl. Most of the men came away with a new respect that gee, a girl can fly it and get it done too. If Richard had done it, it would be another guy in a T-6. The CAF has one female T-6 pilot right now. The country has maybe 4 or so. The CAF has dozens and dozens of male T-6 pilots, and the country has hundreds. And yet Richard and people like that doesn't seem to understand why it matters to some people to see a woman flying. You know I have never been big on being separated as a "female pilot" vs just a pilot. But we are telling the darned WASP story here. It NEEDS to be told by a woman pilot, or it's just saying "Here, this is a cute story, but let the men handle the actual flying, will you?" BITE ME.
So every story has a protagonist and an antagonist. I did not make a friend of the WASP squadron T-6 ops officer, and he may even keep me out of things in the future on it. He likes to be The One. But I don't care. I told the story, I represented the WASP as best I could, and frankly I'm proud of it.
A big part of what made it special was what Kaylee got to do. She expected to be an extra walking around in the background, with faint hopes they'd let her be one walking away from the airplane. The walking away from the airplane thing didn't happen, but she was called out Saturday and put on the wing of a T-6 and was front and center for quite a few of the shots from Saturday. They stopped and filmed right in front of her. She was in the first three shots that I know of, and then they even put her in the front of a T-6 in the seat, with another girl in the back, for another, later sequence. She was on the wing of the T-6 for hours, in the sun, on a metal wing, in 100 degree temps. It was a little brutal, but she did a great job with it. They'd cut and do it again, and again, and again, and again. Steve and I just sat and watched from afar sort of giddy looking at all the cameras pointed at our kid who was dressed up like a 1940s WWII WASP. That was just So. Much. Fun. That made the trip worthwhile right there, no matter what else happened. She got a chance to be an extra in a film, and she has that on her creds now. She got a chance to see what it was like filming something, vs a community or school play. What I thought was great was that she also got this opportunity because of me for once. Of all the things I cannot and have not been able to help her out with in the arts department, this time by George, they wanted to make me happy, and they deliberately pulled her in for it. And then the ball was in her court, and she had to run with it and make it happen, and she did just that. We were so darned...proud. It was just wild being part of watching her make a film.
That was Saturday, she had to be out there at 6 am, and they were setting up before the sun had risen, and they were out there all day. That also meant that the part I was supposed to go got pushed to Sunday. This was actually sort of hard for me, sitting there all day in a flight suit in the heat trying to be ready to go at any time they might finally be ready for me to go. I was told "after lunch", so from after lunch for the next 6 hours, I was trying to be mentally alert and ready to go do the flying thing. But I couldn't stay that way, and it was hot, and I didn't sleep the night before very well, because I'd waited too long to have caffeine and so I had a headache and had drank some Coke to kill the headache, and the Coke kept me up most of the night. So I'm tired, and hot, and on a tarmac in 30 knot winds (oh yeah, it was Texas windy all three days we were there, too) on a 100 degree day, and wilting. Finally around 5 something pm, the head guy said "Wanna beer?" I said "Is it time for that?" (Meaning, if you can drink, you obviously aren't flying). He said "Yep." So no flying that day. Now I have to wait another day. Waiting is hard.
Kaylee's part was all done by Saturday evening, so she slept in on Sunday and I was the one who had to be out there by 8 am. I had to deal with a little something that I'll talk about later, but then by around 10 am, I was up for my first solo flight in the WASP T-6, doing low passes over three women walking down a dirt road under an arch for Avenger Field. Folks, this was mega cool. I'm in the WASP T-6 at Avenger Field doing buzz jobs on camera for a film honoring women pilots. All those times I went by at Glenndale paid off today. ;) Even with high winds and occasional interesting turbulence, I would swing around, line up, part their hair, and pull up, and it was FUN, and I got to do it like a dozen times. The first time I went by, the three actresses who were walking away from where I was coming, didn't know what to expect, and when I went roaring by right over their heads, they ducked, yelled, and one jumped out of her shoe. The director loved it. Steve was on the ground just below me, along with several of the CAF guys, and of course the camera crew. My hard deck was 30', they said. Originally the director said "Go as low as you're comfortable, you know, like 500' or something." I stopped him and said "Five hundred feet and as low as possible are two very different things. Which do you want?" He said "As low as you're comfortable". Heh. You got it, buddy. I squeaked over the Fifinella sign on the arch a couple of times. SO much fun.
When we landed, we had lunch back at the WASP hangar on field, and people were looking at me differently. Another T-6 pilot came up and high-fived me, an older woman who works for the museum hugged me and said (pardon the language) "That was some seriously bad ass flying. You are a badass. Thank you." The guy in charge gathered all the pilots together (the other pilots provided background planes for ambiance) and said that was awesome, called me out for the flying specifically, a couple of camera crew or other pilots came up to show me video clips they'd taken, and suddenly the party had started there. lol
My next job was to go up with the photo ship and do a little formation and break-away action. That was easy. I had a WASP actress in my back seat who is getting killed off in the film, apparently. So I'm waiting to load her, and suddenly they tell me, with all the GoPros on, the back of my head will be visible, so they need hair and make-up to come fix me up before the flight. I have to put on one of their wool flightsuits, and I'm a little insulted, because the one they brought was HUMONGOUS on me. It would have probably fit somebody Chuck or Nathan's size. And then hair/makeup lady pulled all that gnarled up sweaty hair of mine into a 1940s style do. With all my hair pulled back away from my face/head, all the gray shows up really well, and without bangs I am NOT good. Kaylee and Steve concur that from the back it wasn't bad, but from the front, it needs to never happen again. ;) So I looked like a freak, but I'd be sitting down and the cameras only get the back of my head anyway.
The formation flight went quick and easy. Two shots, both good enough, break away and done. Then I went out and did some wing-overs and a roll with the girl in the back seat, before coming in to land, dropping her off, and going up for solo aerobatics on film. I just did loops, rolls and wingovers, and I was pretty pleased with how most of them went. Before I did my first loop, I was really missing a good tune, because pulling "angry" is easier when you're listening to something peppy. ;) So I hummed it out loud, and then I felt even sillier, so I laughed, and just did it anyway. It worked out.
When I landed, my part was done. It was now Sunday afternoon, and we had a good 4 plus hour flight home to do still. Steve and Kaylee kind of took turns napping in the Aerostar while I flew home. I hadn't had time to do much planning, so I didn't file the first leg, I just took off VFR and headed east, then figured out a fuel stop on the way. It was self-serve because everything was closed, but then Steve volunteered that we should just land at the major Class C airport on our way, pay extra, but get full serve fuel. This worked for me. I'm tired, I'm hot, I'm hungry, maybe they have free cookies too, you know, that kind of thing. We land there, and they have a $.40/gallon fuel discount on weekends, bringing the price down to about as cheap as the self-serve fuel at a little podunk airport. And they had free tea. Winning. We loaded up fuel, stretched, packed back up and had a 2 hour flight home from there. The smoke from the wildfires was there, making everything murky and hazy.
We got home late, around 10 pm, stopped for a quick dinner, unpacked a few things, and fortunately two of us don't have to get up early tomorrow. Kaylee still has school, the poor dear, but *I* don't have to get up. ;)
So here's the little bit of drama I had going on this weekend. There's a fellow who is the Operations Officer for the WASP wing, who flew Nella (The T-6) up to Sweetwater. Richard. When we first arrived in the Aerostar, he met us out there along with Bill, who is in charge out there for the CAF. Richard started asked questions about the Aerostar. I started off answering. Steve was doing some talking too. Now when we came in, Steve was in the back of the plane and Kaylee and I were up front. Richard kept directing all his questions to Steve. Steve didn't notice or think much about it because he was talking to the guy too. What he didn't see was me trying to answer a couple of them, only to have Richard just look right back at and talk only to Steve. Kaylee saw it though. She leaned in and commented on it pretty quickly. That sets the stage for me and Richard. Richard wanted to be in the movie badly. He wanted to do the flying for the movie. Keep in mind, that's why I'm THERE, which he knows. But it's basically his plane, as they don't have many others flying it right now, and he's put his mark on it. If he could have peed on the tire to chase me away, he would have. Saturday a group of female Civil Air Patrol cadets come up and want to see the plane. Bill asks me to go over and show them the plane. I walk up, and Richard is already there. He looks at me and says "I don't know why Bill asked YOU to come over." I am so slow sometimes, I didn't have the comeback I should have. I said "I'm here to show them the plane!" Ignored him, started talking to them until he walked away. But GEE, I wonder why maybe it might be nice to have a Female Pilot show the Female cadets the Female Pilot Airplane?! He has to have his thumb in it. He got himself put into the movie as a WASP instructor, is in there several times. He was condescending. Cocky. He liked to be around all the pretty girls. He hung out with them at dinner and wherever he could, the actresses and extras. One of those. He was always polite and friendly to me, but we obviously had a thing going here. He frankly has short man syndrome.
So Sunday, the day I'm supposed to do the flying, Bill, under pressure from Richard, says "Flip a coin, you two work it out--somebody needs to give rides starting at 8 am, and the other can do the flying over the Arch." Richard lifts his hand and says "That's me". I look at Bill, and then say something along the lines of having the woman pilot do the flying for the woman pilot's movie. We all get in our cars and go to the airport. This is my line in the sand, my hill to die on. I did not fly to Texas to give T-6 rides while a dude flies the WASP T-6 for the film. Just no. I can give T-6 rides in Indiana. So I told Bill that I didn't know why this was a question, that I didn't come down here for giving rides, I came to fly for the film. He said they'd still GoPro me up and do that sequence. I said the flight over the Arch is their main iconic WASP shot, as they already said, and that I didn't think there should be a question as to who should be flying. Why is the guy pushing to fly the woman's T-6 in a movie about women pilots. Especially (I did not say this part) a guy who doesn't really have respect for women or women pilots, but is mostly doing this whole WASP T-6 thing because it gives him cred and benefits him. I won, and I was given the Arch shot sequence. I'm not good at being pushy even when I need to be sometimes, but man, I couldn't have lived with myself if I hadn't done that.
And it made a difference. The young female extras all thought it was super cool that a girl was flying the airplane. The older women out there were lit up about it, fist pumping, you go girl. Most of the men came away with a new respect that gee, a girl can fly it and get it done too. If Richard had done it, it would be another guy in a T-6. The CAF has one female T-6 pilot right now. The country has maybe 4 or so. The CAF has dozens and dozens of male T-6 pilots, and the country has hundreds. And yet Richard and people like that doesn't seem to understand why it matters to some people to see a woman flying. You know I have never been big on being separated as a "female pilot" vs just a pilot. But we are telling the darned WASP story here. It NEEDS to be told by a woman pilot, or it's just saying "Here, this is a cute story, but let the men handle the actual flying, will you?" BITE ME.
So every story has a protagonist and an antagonist. I did not make a friend of the WASP squadron T-6 ops officer, and he may even keep me out of things in the future on it. He likes to be The One. But I don't care. I told the story, I represented the WASP as best I could, and frankly I'm proud of it.
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Onward
It's getting late and I need to finish packing and planning for our trip tomorrow. Just having trouble figuring out where to stop for fuel--more expensive but easier, or cheaper but with more potential problems. Mmmm. Also having trouble figuring out what to pack. I guess normal stuff. I'm there to fly the plane, so what I wear under the flight suit (ack) shouldn't matter.
This afternoon I took the T-6 up and did loops and rolls until I literally tilted my own gyros and had to quit. Even if I wasn't doing this filming thing, which I don't even know for sure what if any aerobatics I'll have to do, but even if I wasn't, it's a good excuse to work on that stuff. The only question I have, is, can I actually do this without listening to music? I've had earbuds in every time listening to good tunes while I throw myself around. ;) I'll have to pretend to have music going. Sing loudly to myself and hope no cameras have sound in there? Or sneak it on. ;) I also did not try to record myself this time. Figured I'd focus on the maneuvers more. I'm about ready to have Bob come back and work with me on the next maneuver. Barrel Rolls are next. Or Cuban 8 maybe too. Still not trying to be competition ready or anything, but I'm enjoying improving the skill set.
When I was done, I had a flight lesson in about an hour, and we ended up doing steep turns, and it cracked me up, because he's still working on that, so they were a little rough, and by the 3rd or 4th one, I was feeling it again, because I'd already been swung around plenty. Not bad or sick, I could just feel it in my head a little. Kinda made me smirk, actually. First time steep turns with students has ever, in my history, gotten to where I can feel anything on it. Of course I may have had a little help ahead of time. lol
Well, trying to pack, picking a fuel stop for tomorrow so as to not be tempted to push all the way through, and trying to get to bed shortly here and get some rest. It's gonna be a busy weekend.
This afternoon I took the T-6 up and did loops and rolls until I literally tilted my own gyros and had to quit. Even if I wasn't doing this filming thing, which I don't even know for sure what if any aerobatics I'll have to do, but even if I wasn't, it's a good excuse to work on that stuff. The only question I have, is, can I actually do this without listening to music? I've had earbuds in every time listening to good tunes while I throw myself around. ;) I'll have to pretend to have music going. Sing loudly to myself and hope no cameras have sound in there? Or sneak it on. ;) I also did not try to record myself this time. Figured I'd focus on the maneuvers more. I'm about ready to have Bob come back and work with me on the next maneuver. Barrel Rolls are next. Or Cuban 8 maybe too. Still not trying to be competition ready or anything, but I'm enjoying improving the skill set.
When I was done, I had a flight lesson in about an hour, and we ended up doing steep turns, and it cracked me up, because he's still working on that, so they were a little rough, and by the 3rd or 4th one, I was feeling it again, because I'd already been swung around plenty. Not bad or sick, I could just feel it in my head a little. Kinda made me smirk, actually. First time steep turns with students has ever, in my history, gotten to where I can feel anything on it. Of course I may have had a little help ahead of time. lol
Well, trying to pack, picking a fuel stop for tomorrow so as to not be tempted to push all the way through, and trying to get to bed shortly here and get some rest. It's gonna be a busy weekend.
In Review
It's a beautiful morning and somehow I have time to catch up on a few things and not fly. That's odd, but I appreciate the time!
Wednesday was a busy one; I accomplished outside the house things that needed done during the morning, had a quick lunch, then flew the Aerostar to Metro both to test it out with the GPS work Steve was doing on it and because I needed to go to Metro anyway to instruct in the PT-26. I had a tailwheel guy who was used to the L-2 who needed to transition to the PT-26. I had to save the first landing, and then after that he progressively got better, until I was able to sign him off after about 2 hours of air work and pattern work. Most of flying the plane isn't in the air. It's the short field and the no flaps landing and the go-around and the wheel landing and the 3-point landing and the engine-out landing and the crosswinds. It's all pattern stuff where it gets tricky, not flying around in the air. The PT was designed to force you to use a lot of right rudder on takeoff and climb-out, and all of our legs get tired doing repeated pattern work. By the end he said "My leg isn't responding to me any more" which made me laugh, but fortunately we were done anyway. He sent a nice email afterwards, that I'm only quoting it for my mom to get a smile out of, because moms like hearing nice things. ;) He said "I can’t thank you enough for a great afternoon of flying. You really are a good instructor - calm, clear, direct, never in doubt. I had fun during our two hours this afternoon, as well as learned a lot and got comfortable with the PT." We finished up, and I flew the Aerostar back home, got it topped off and put away and almost ready for Friday, and my next guy was there waiting. We needed to do tower controlled field operations. So we did four or five practice takeoffs and landings, and then I got out and he did his three solo ones before picking me up. First, my usual thing to do is go to Merk's restaurant on field and have a piece of pie and coffee while I wait. They were CLOSED. They used to be open until like 10 pm every night. Now they close at 3 pm during the week. That's a bad sign. And a bummer for me. So I just had to stand in the FBO and watch the whole time, which is not nearly as much fun. When he got it done, he picked me back up, and wanted to do some wingovers at sunset on the way home. So we did. He got his medical renewed (special issuance so not an easy thing), got his solo towered ops done, got to try out his new ANR headset, and got to do wingovers, so all in all he had himself a very good day. :)
We didn't land until almost 9 pm, and then it took me a good 30 minutes to get through Steak-n-Shake for dinner. I hadn't eaten since a salad at noon, so I was a little hungry. By the time I got back home, and ate, and did some paperwork that needed done, I was beat and it was time to hit the hay.
We didn't land until almost 9 pm, and then it took me a good 30 minutes to get through Steak-n-Shake for dinner. I hadn't eaten since a salad at noon, so I was a little hungry. By the time I got back home, and ate, and did some paperwork that needed done, I was beat and it was time to hit the hay.
Rain sheeting down the window at Glenndale before the Big Lake Glenndale
And this is Lake Kokomo
Mark in the PT-26 entering downwind Runway 33 at Metro.
Me in the PT enjoying some sunshine.
Dan enjoying the sunset in the 172
All those bugs on a summer evening.
T-6 at Westfield.
I just enjoy the old school vibe out there.
Pilots, still looking up. ;)
Justin getting the windshield temporarily wiped off.
AE tearing down at the end of the day.
You can't see this, but that is the Blue Angels off my wingtip, and a whole flightline row of tents and people who were watching as I came in to land at Terre Haute right in front of them over there. lol
Airshow guy and smoke over the Blues
Mustang in the foreground, T-28 Trojans in the background.
This pic of the PT and the T-6 at Glenndale during the BBQ Bash made it into the Terre Haute program.
Me on my way home from Terre Haute, on National Aviation Day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)