Whew

It's been a busy few days here.  Yesterday I headed to Batavia, New York in the Cheyenne with Dustin.  When I drove out to the airport, it was less than 1/4 mile visibility and 100' overcast, which means it was below minimums.  When I pulled into the airport, you couldn't see past the entrance sign.  It was just soup out there.  Taking off, you could barely see past the numbers.  This is where I'm grateful to be Part 91,  because I can take off anyway.  But I still had a plan.  8 miles away it was VFR, so if I took off and had an emergency in the Cheyenne, for one thing it'll fly on one engine with two people like nothing happened, but for two, I'd pretty much already be on downwind for another, VFR runway, so I was able to safely depart.  The trip itself had storms and clouds most of the way.  I went up even higher because I was picking up ice, bumping around in the clouds, dodging the tops of some cells.  I thought it was funny that in two days I had dealt with fog, storms, ice, turbulence, just about everything except high winds.  I suppose that's coming next.  ;)  When I got there, they had a quiet room I could go, and I actually passed out for a little while.  I was so tired from having gotten up early several mornings in a row, not enough sleep, working kind of hard at it, etc.  When I came downstairs to pay my fuel bill, the guy asked if I was doing okay up there, and I said "Actually I passed out for awhile."  He laughed and looked startled and said "Well, I guess that's a good thing."  It was.  The trip home was less eventful.  No fog to come back to.

This morning I had a T-6 rider.  It's her birthday, she's retired Air Force but was ground support, not a pilot.  She loves old cars and old airplanes, and wanted to go up and do some aerobatics.  So we went over her house first, I let her fly it for awhile, and then I climbed up to 5500' and went through the aggressive steep turns, wing-overs, aileron rolls and then a loop.  The loop did her in--she didn't say so, but she got quieter and quit "whooping", so I headed us back to the airport.  It was time anyway, and that's why you wait until the end of the flight to do anything like that.  She got on the ground and said "Whoo, I was okay in the air but now my stomach is feeling a little topsy turvy!" But after a few minutes of sipping Sprite, she was good, and she gave me a hug, took her video, and headed home.  She had fun, and I had fun too.  Going upside down is a really nice way to start a morning.

August is SMA Awareness month.  I don't talk a lot about SMA any more, but it is always there.  Today a young lady I know with SMA is basically a miracle.  She flatlined last night.  Her parents woke up to find her unresponsive and not breathing.  Her dad performed CPR/chest compressions, and her mom bagged her with an ambu bag and oxygen.  They did this for ten minutes before the EMTs got there.  The Mom said this: "Emily flat lined last night.  The Doc said she believes Emily will recover well, because we responded quickly. Nathan gave perfect chest compressions, which require a lot of force on her little body, but no bruising or breaks. I didn't know chest compressions could be done poorly which makes them ineffective... I don’t think I could have mustered myself to give such forceful compressions, worrying that I’d break her bones. As I spoke with 911 and Ambu bagged her with O2, Nathan did compressions for almost 10 min".   These people aren't doctors or nurses.  They are just a stay at home mom and a computer guy dad who have had to become ER docs, who had to bring their child back from the brink of death.  She's awake now, alert, talking. But they are exhausted, scared to death, traumatized, and grateful.  I've had to talk with other parents who did CPR but their child had brain damage, and they had to choose to disconnect life support and let them go.  This is the perspective I think a lot of people are lacking when they think about their own problems in life.  This is still SMA.

I have some photos to post, but can't seem to get up the energy.  So you'll get a few photos later.  For now, here's a link to Kaylee's senior photos.  You can actually download them all or some on your computer, if you wish.  Go to https://morganlynnphoto.pixieset.com/kayleestants/, click "Open", and then on the upper right side you'll see a "download" symbol, next to the heart.  Click on that, enter your email address, and the PIN is 6644.  You'll then be able to choose which ones, or all, that you'd like to download to your own computer, and in small or larger sizes.  I can't pick, man.  ;)