Yesterday was a short day. I had one flight in the morning, doing a complex endorsement, and then I was done for the day, because the rest of the day I spent getting my hair permed and then staying away from the rest of humanity so I wouldn't stink them out. It wasn't too bad this time, took under 3 hours. The lady who did it gave me her ENTIRE life story. I know all about her boyfriend, her ex-husband, her ex-boyfriend, his ex-wife, his gay brother and his husband, their boat, their finances, his step-daughter, her son (from none of the above men), her 3 grandchildren, how she surprises him where he's working in Pennsylvania...I mean, I could walk up to this woman's boyfriend and shock him with what I know, including how he treats her sometimes. She didn't ask any questions about me, which is unusual. Not that I'm sad. She didn't want to hear anything about her customers, she just wanted to tell her whole life story. She about got through it, starting with her childhood! But in the end, she did a nice job with the hair, so I tipped well and wished her the best. By the time she had me up at the desk, she wasn't making eye contact and was already ready for the next person. It was like we hadn't spent 3 hours of our lives discussing her whole situation. ;)
I spent most of today watching the weather. I had to go back out to Oklahoma City to pick up Nieta and Klara. The forecast was not good for the entire route of flight. But it just got good enough. I took Tom with me, a young fellow who has been working for us, and doing a good job working hard and self-motivating, super nice kid. He's going to Purdue soon for the aviation program, has his Private already. He loved it. We had weather to work around, music to listen to, I let him fly for awhile and he kept it much better than the last poor fellow. He did well with it. I had to beat in a storm system into Oklahoma City. We got parked, got inside, got gas, and it DUMPED rain. It was IFR with wind and rain for awhile. The line moved through, my people showed up, and off we went for home, just about 30 minutes late (they were running late).
I had filed for FL330, because it should have been on top of everything. But everything had built up a lot, and what was smooth was now not smooth, and what was clear was now not clear. I even picked up some ice up there, so I requested FL350. It was no smoother, but at least I wasn't getting ice now. We were droning along fat dumb and happy at 35,000', when suddenly the master alarm went off (generally a bad thing) with the "Cabin Altitude" alert (also generally a bad thing at 35,000'). I whip my head over to the pressurization system, and we're still pressurized, but it's not at the right cabin altitude. I turn my head and see one of the oxygen masks has fallen in the back. Before I continue here, let me just say that this ended up a non-event, so don't get scared. But at the time, what looked like a slow decompression was happening, and there isn't a lot of time of useful consciousness up at 35,000' without pressurization (or the masks), so I requested a descent for pressurization issues. He got me down to FL250 first, and I started down rapidly. I had the mask hanging on the hook by my hand, and watched the pressurization just in case I had to don it and dive down. Once I was at 25,000' for awhile, the cabin alert warning was still on for awhile, but then I saw the differential go back up and the cabin altitude start adjusting to where it was supposed to be. So I stayed up there. The next 3 controllers all asked if I needed assistance with my pressurization issue. So obviously even though I didn't declare an emergency specifically, they flagged me and alerted people about me anyway. That's good, that's how the system is supposed to work. Tom got an education today on turboprops, pressurization and how it works and what to do if it doesn't, how not to let non-pilot passengers know if there's a problem so they don't worry yet, storms and weather, the IFR system in general, turbulence, ice, fancy FBOs with free cookies and popcorn, and how to drink, eat, and listen to music while you get paid to fly at the same time. ;) Good stuff. ;)
Hard to see, but this was a pretty bright circular rainbow.
On top, 25000'.
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