Singing Along

Tonight was Kaylee's Encore performance in Tipton with Tipton's choirs.  This is Tipton's only/main concert, and they like to merge it with Eastern's choirs, and have a little longer of a concert and have more folks in the audience too.  Their choir did a really nice  job, and Encore as well.  I like that Mrs. E wants the parents to come too, to fill up their auditorium.  Kaylee and I were talking about how even after she graduates, we might like to come to some of their concerts and programs.  I haven't felt that way about attending anything from any other school I've ever attended. I've never gone to any of my own class reunions.  I've never attended any Purdue or Vincennes functions.  I'm not very sentimental, and once I'm gone, I'm gone.  But in this case, I enjoy these programs enough that I just may come back, at least until Mrs. E retires, and enjoy future programs.  :)

Interesting note of another airplane opportunity that I won't be surprised if it doesn't happen but I am pursuing at the moment.  There's a group called the Liberty Foundation that operates a B-17.  They need more pilots and have a hard time finding qualified people.  Unlike the CAF, there is no money required from the pilots.  They pay for your SIC (Second in Command) training, a two-day event that is a full SIC checkride.  You are expected to attend one day of recurrent groundschool per year, and can often be done online.  You are expected to fly the B-17 one weekend a month, but many do one every 6 weeks or so and they're okay with it.  They pay your airfare from the nearest airline hub (Indy for me) to wherever the airplane is.  They pay your hotel room, and you don't have to share it with the other pilot (er, that's good in my case in particular).  They pay you a $90 per diem to feed yourself over the weekend, and they pay your airfare back home.  The Captains all have company credit cards.  Upgrade to Captain is usually within a few short years if you're capable, but also comes with required media interviews.  One of the current pilots is a friend of mine from an internet forum.  He said he's meeting with the group tomorrow, and that he's going to throw my name into the mix.  I know another of their pilots, but I'm not sure if he'd support me or not.  He and I have an...odd...history and relationship, and we're sort of competition and sort of not.  He's always friendly to my face, but I don't know.  If he backed me too, I ought to have a good shot at getting in, with two existing pilots putting my name in the ring.  Especially if they need pilots, and I have a lot of time.  The one thing I'm short on is multi-engine tailwheel.  They want 25 hours.  I have like 3 hours.  So I need to get the Twin Beech time in soon.  But it could be really neat, and fun flying, and I love flying the old warbirds, and seeing the history come alive for some people.  As I said before, I'm not going to get all excited about it only to have to add it to the list of planes I almost got to fly.  But I told James (the guy putting my name in) that I'm definitely interested and would like to pursue it.  Step One.  We'll see how it goes.

Tomorrow I'm taking Kaylee and two friends to see "Mary Poppins", a musical down in Noblesville, where our Stearman pilot (also flies a T-6) is a saxophone player in the musical.  He sent me the link for tickets, she jumped on it, so we're doing it.  It'll be fun!