Blustery

Kaylee got her paper in on time, and got to bed before 1 am, which is the earliest she's made it to bed in awhile.  She is officially on Spring Break, as of today.  :)  Tonight she went down to Indy with some friends for a birthday dinner, and was horrified when her friend ordered her steak Medium Well ("Can't you at least make it MEDIUM if you won't do it properly at medium rare??).  We snickered at that.  She has good taste, eh?

I made another meal tonight, a pasta with cheese and sauce.  The only thing that didn't work out is the sauce.  It never thickened up like it was supposed to.  But the cheese was fresh Parmesan and mozzarella in blocks that I grated.  I had to ask Steve where our cheese grater was, because I assumed we got rid of it ever since the advent of shredded cheese in a bag.  But you know what?  That fresh cheese was A-Mazing.  The taste isn't close to what comes in a bag.  Daggone it, they're spoiling me.  That one wasn't a hard meal to make, other than something being wrong with how I did, or how they said to do, the sauce.  It should've been good, with garlic, olive oil, tomato paste, and cheese in it.  Instead it was watery.  Oh well.

Ann was feeling pretty poorly most of today, weak and dizzy and head pain from the sinus infection.  I know those are no fun, I've had one too.  I think she was starting to feel better by this evening though. 

The Champ needed leak checked (after an oil change) and test flown (after an annual), so I wanted to get that done yesterday or today, so we can get it back in service quickly, as I'll be gone all day tomorrow.  Thursday I was too busy with doctors, and it was cloudy and dreary anyway.  Today was bright and blue and sunny...and winds were blowing like crazy.  I waited until 6 pm, thinking it would calm down by evening around sunset, and that would be a pretty time to fly anyway.  I was looking forward to it, too.

I pulled out the Aerostar with the tug, pulled the Champ out of the back of the hangar by hand, stuck the nose into the wind and the tail in the grass, and chocked it.  The winds were still really blowing about 26 knots or so, and the airplane rocked back and forth, even into the wind.  Every time a wing came up I flinched, but it never went over.  Then I pushed the Aerostar back in place and locked up the hangar, because the Champ was going to go in a different hangar after the test flight.  I got my headset hooked up, figured out the radios, preflighted, fired it up, while the wind pushed it around, and smelled a terrible burning oil smell.  Like, not a little bit, a lot.  I was concerned, kept an eye out, but the wind was so strong that if there was any smoke, it was blown away too fast to see.  The smell stayed the whole time I was running, too.  I had also noticed the primer didn't seem to be squirting fuel, which was one of the things they were supposed to fix.  So I ran it for the leak check, shut down, got out, couldn't smell anything under the cowl (wind), and didn't see any oil leaking anywhere, so at least the leak check was good.  I called Steve and asked if they'd fixed the primer and he said probably not and to put it back away so they could do that.  Well, phoo, I have to open the hangar, pull out the Aerostar, push in the Champ, put away the Aerostar...it was a bit of a hassle, but I lived.  ;)

I debated taking it up for a flight anyway.  I wanted to go fly.  It was beautiful out.  The winds were close to down the runway.  But I didn't like that smell, even though I assume it's just oil burning off, maybe some spilled in there, and watching the wind rock the wings around with it sitting still, I thought.... Eh.  Discretion seemed the better part of valor there.  It's not like I haven't flown a tailwheel in 26 knot winds before, but today...today I didn't feel like it.  I haven't flown a tailwheel in like 4 months, it smelled funny, and it was gusty and seemed like way more work than fun, even just to taxi all the way down to Runway 32 without getting blown off a taxiway.  lol  So I just put it away like an old lady.

Finally got hold of Jordan B, he called me back, actually.  He wanted to let me know about the formation clinic they'd done in California, and that I might be interested in it.  I would have liked to have gone with them, as you need to bring your own group of people to get it done, but it does sound like a good deal if you can do that.  The group out there dedicates the weekend to serious flying for two to three days at $200/hour for plane and instructor both (which you cannot beat, anywhere, for this kind of thing), and at the end you have a checkride if you're ready to pass, and get your FAST card out of it.  He also said he could use another PIC in the C-47.  He's apparently forgotten that he already asked me to do that and even gave me all the materials, so I said I'd love to, and that I still have all the manuals and such, though I haven't looked at them in awhile now.  He also said we'd get the C-45 flying in.  But right now he's working on getting his C-47 ready to go over to Normandy.  A super cool trip, and he'll be gone in about a month, so right now he's swamped with it all.  I can only imagine the logistics and costs involved in this.

Tomorrow I fly in the back of an RV to go to T-6 and PT-26 required annual ground schools up in the Wisconsin Wing for the CAF.  Dennis is flying, I don't think the back even has controls, and he asked if I cared if we went over the water (Lake Michigan) or land.  And he said he has a brand new engine with 30 hours on it going great.  Considering an engine is way more likely to poop out in the first 500 hours than any other time after that all the way to 2500-3000 hours, I'm not going to take that as much of a positive as he did.  I said "LAND, please.  I like land."  Don't wanna die of hypothermia and disgust in Lake Michigan's very cold waters out there in the back of an RV.  Or in anything else for that matter.  ;)

Steve's hosting some stuff out at Kokomo Airport tomorrow most of the day, and Kaylee is Spring Breaking.  Here are some photos of the blue sky and the Leah Marie (Champ) today.