Two Pilots & an LSW: More

A student of mine talked his financial adviser into going on a T-6 ride with me Sunday. This fella is a gyrocopter pilot, but hasn't flown fixed wing in almost 20 years. I'm taxiing out, and he says "So, um, let's say I had to land this thing myself, like if you died up there or something. Where's my push to talk switch back here?" I paused a good three seconds before saying "Your push to talk switch is the round button on your throttle. However, if you have to land yourself from there, your push to talk switch is going to be the least of your problems," He just says "Yeah", then a moment later. "So, um, what's your speed down final in this?" I said "No slower than 80 mph". He laughs nervously and says "You can probably tell I'm not very confident here." Well, really? Do you think he thought I was going to keel over on a 20 minute ride, or do you think he was concerned about who was flying him around and wanted to know how to land it himself? Either way, the fact that his first question was "Where's my push to talk switch" tells me most of what I need to know about how successful he would be at it. ;) I told him I'm young-ish and relatively healthy if it made him feel any better. He had a good time once we got going, and when we landed he proposed marriage, but I think he was just happy to be alive. ;)

There's a teenager named Mikey who every year asks every pilot he can for a free ride at the event. He asks me for free aerobatic T-6 rides, he almost always gets at least one, sometimes multiple, free rides, at a charity event where people buy rides for a purpose. He followed Kaylee on Instagram, and private messages her fairly often trying to buddy up. He asks her questions, etc. The other day he messaged her and said "Are you mad at me?" Keep in mind she doesn't know him in person. She has become uncomfortable with his messaging, and thought about deactivating her entire account over it. I told her not to do that. But he's likely using her as a way to get "in" and maybe get more free plane things, and he is also likely kind of an awkward, socially inept teenager trying too hard and in the wrong way to be friendly. He needs to let it go though, and he may find himself dealing with her parents shortly. We will be nice, of course.

Another young man, he was 13 and had never been in any airplane before. He went up in the Stearman, and loved it. Went up in a 172 next. Then he signed up for a T-6 ride. When I took him up, I had him fly, and he was doing fine. I explained the rudder then, and he just took to it. He was flying around coordinated, swooping left and right, from one turn to another. It was his first day and third time ever in any airplane. He was hooked and hard, and just wanted to keep going and going. We'd better watch out for him, he'll be in the air as soon as he can, I'm sure!

Steve and I were driving out to Greentown today when a police or first responder car went tearing past us lights ablaze. I pulled up the Kokomo Scanner app, and saw that a serious accident with injury had happened on a road nearby, and a helicopter was being called in. That's obviously not good. Worse, it was on the road that the kids take from school to Kokomo, the back way, and it was after the after school stuff had let out. Steve wanted me to text Kaylee and make sure she was okay, but I had been living in denial that it would possibly be her, she's fine. But once he started worrying, and basically made me text her, and she didn't answer right away, I knew it was because she was probably...driving. The timing was about right, the area is about right, and I can't find her on the tracking apps because she hadn't been online. I didn't worry a lot, but it puts a little knot there. Then she called me, and when I answered, she was upset, and said "MOM, WHAT IS GOING ON??" She had been stopped and saw a bunch of emergency vehicles zipping past, then drove right up to the accident, saw the car, saw the driver who was sobbing in someone's arms, and saw the passenger who was not responsive, slumped over unconscious and still in the vehicle. A ton of ambulances, and people running around, etc. So I just talked to her for awhile using my "I have someone scared in an airplane" patient and soothing voice as she tried to kind of process what she'd seen. I know how sobering it is to see something like that, and while you hate that she saw that, if it had to happen, it doesn't hurt to keep some healthy respect for driving, distractions, etc. She was fine after awhile, but we both said a prayer for the lady.

(Update. The woman driving was the step-mom of a kid in the class below Kaylee. Her two little sisters were in the car with her, ages 9 and 10. One of the little girls was lifelined to Indy where she is undergoing brain surgery and they expect she probably won't make it. Not sure of the condition of the other little girl. The driver was unharmed, but has got to be devastated right now.)

On politics, I saw on my facebook wall a post from a Democrats site that said "The Republicans' gamble with the economy has been a massive failure and cost thousands of jobs. So instead of fixing it, they are doubling down and betting even more money and it is the middle class who are going to pay." That made me laugh and wonder which country they were living in. You can say a lot of things, but pretending like the economy is a massive failure and thousands of jobs have been lost is a little, well, funny. First they were ignoring it, then when it became obvious they couldn't ignore how good it was doing, they were crediting Obama for it for awhile, and now I guess some are deciding it's in their favor to be bad after all, and therefore it's bad, somehow, which is of course now back to Trump. I have a harder and harder time even wanting to keep up, because things are so ridonkulous. Yes, that's a word. ;) And while I'm at it, I love that the Supreme Court picks are Constitutionalists vs emotional "what's popular today so I can interpret and twist it how I want to" people. Then people are Freaking Out over the National Texting thing. People screaming about Trump texting them as if it's him. They hate him so much they can't stand anything with his name on it even if it's no big deal. The Emergency Alert system for the president was authorized by Congress in 2015 and says the system can't be used to transmit a message not relating to natural disasters, terrorism, or other disasters or threats to public safety. So it's not like he's texting people "What's Up Yo". So everyone can calm down, take a deep breath, stretch, go play with your kids, and move on. It'll be fine. There, that catches me up. The rest is noise and fluff, and boy is there a lot of it. America is messy, y'all.

Kaylee's Fall Concert is Wednesday the 26th. I got tickets, late. They apparently went on sale during our BBQ Bash and I didn't know until the next day. So, I got them in a hurry yesterday. Mom, if you guys can come we're set, if not because it's a Wednesday and last minute here, I understand that too! Proud Mary, Love Me Tender, Heartbreak Hotel, A Little More Conversation, Armed Forces Salute, some good stuff coming up. :)