Two Pilots & an LSW: Man

Here I thought it had just been a day or two since I posted, and it was four. Sorry Moms! Goodness it's been busy around here though. I don't even remember what any of us did on Monday. Kaylee had Encore practice and always comes home and shows us all the moves she learned though. lol

Tuesday I had a trip to New York. Genessee County, Batavia, NY. It's about a 2 hour flight each way. I tried to go to bed at 10:30 or so, but I laid awake until at least midnight. I then woke up at 4 am, and Steve was snoring a bit (he normally doesn't), so that kept me up and woke me up the rest of the way. I ended up getting up at 5:30. After getting ready, I got a text that we were going to be delayed by about 15 minutes, no big deal, I knew it would be more than that, but I was okay with that. Kokomo was reporting fog below minimums, and I got a text that Kaylee's school was on a two hour delay for it. And NY was reporting low IFR in several places as well. So a delay wouldn't hurt.

On the drive over to the airport, it was interesting because it wasn't one of those thick pea soup fog kind of days, it was a wispy fog that was hovering from the ground to just about treetop level. I pulled over and took a photo of a field, where the fog had made all the weeds a misty white almost frost looking thing. It was a little surreal looking, but of course the cellphone camera didn't do it justice. Or I didn't. But it was cool.

When we took off, we got just a few feet in the air, where the world was pure white, and then poof, we were on top and it was clear, and you could see trees and cell towers sticking out of the white ground fog. I tried to snap a few photos but they don't really show it well. You get the idea though.

We cruised over at 21,000', mostly in the clear. When we got to New York, we had to shoot an ILS in, and it was raining. It was good practice, and we broke out not too far from minimums. I then had a bit of a long day. There was no computer there, no courtesy car, internet was slow. I hadn't slept enough, but when I tried to sleep people would come in or out, and I had nowhere to go for privacy. Except the back of the plane and I've done that before and it's not comfortable. lol We were supposed to leave by 3:30 pm. I had a student at 6. Long story short, we didn't leave until after 8 p.m., as the airport FBO was closing and I was about to be sitting in the plane anyway. I'd rescheduled my student, but I had another flight the next morning early that I now wasn't looking forward to, in the T-6, after getting home late and no longer feeling all that well.

Because the airport didn't have a courtesy car, I couldn't go anywhere. For food or anything else. For like 11 hours. But I WAS able to order in from a pizza place and have it delivered, so I did that, and then ate on it for both meals of the day.

I got home around 10:30, and crawled right in bed, and then promptly couldn't get to sleep again. Too wound up? I don't know. But I pushed my morning flight back by an hour, so that helped. I woke up not feeling very peppy, not sure I was peppy enough for a T-6 training flight, but went for it anyway. The plane wouldn't start, but fortunately this time Jon was there to help us jump it and get it going. We were taxiing out when I felt my head start to throb. That wasn't good, because, well, duh. But I couldn't take anything for the next 2 hours because I was on a lesson, and by the end of that 2 hours, I was NOT great. I skipped airport lunch and just came home, tried to medicate and lay down, and it took the rest of the afternoon to kick it. Then I had another flight at 6 pm, in the 172, and I was good enough to get that done. On the way home from that flight, it was already getting dark. That really kind of depressed me, because it's coming. Shorter days, earlier darkness, and even though 8 pm darkness shouldn't depress me, it did anyway. I'm not ready. I'll never be ready.

Steve's working on taxes which are due NOW at the same time as finalizing the last few days of the BBQ Bash stuff, which is always chaotic. So he's going a little nuts. I'm sending out letters I'm not good at sending, to people with businesses, asking them to donate to SMA Support for the Bash. I hate, hate, hate asking people for money. Like, really, truly dislike it. Steve has no problem doing it. But this year he wanted me to send them out instead of him. I feel so weird asking people I know for money, for anything. You'd think I'd get over that after years of SMA Support and even years of Kaylee fundraiser stuff. But nope. Not yet. Still don't like it. lol

Kaylee has a little mini concert tomorrow at the PAC with Encore, but I won't be able to make it. I have a student, and it's not an actual performance where I could cancel the guy and feel good about it. Hopefully Steve can make it, but the day before the Bash is tough...

Anyway, here are some photos from the trip to New York. It was a beautiful day, even if it was long and less than perfect.