Prom

It's a rainy, yucky weather week.  I'm glad we took the 340 over yesterday, because today would have been a bigger problem, and would have been the last day to get it done.  So, that went well.

Steve and I have just been plowing through emails, paperwork, and various issues.  He has more than I do, but even I have more than I can get through, and you get tired after awhile.  Can only do so much before my brain starts melting.  :) 

Kaylee called me freaking out yesterday.  She was eating the left-over grapes from the Bonanza clinic. She'd stuck them in the freezer because she likes frozen grapes.  As she was eating them, there was white stuff on some of them, so she'd flick it off, thinking it was ice.  It wasn't ice, it was spider web.  She found an actual web down in there, and at least one spider.  She'd been eating the grapes unwashed, where a spider had been crawling around on them, and she was really afraid she'd eaten a baby spider along with it.  She was Freaked. Out.  Crying.  We may have to save up for some therapy for her.  I told her she'd live, and it would be okay, but I understand her horror.  I was pretty grossed out too.  I mean, there was a spider in the bag in my fridge and we all ate grapes out of there.  Nasty, man, just nasty!!  If nothing else, it reiterated the point that you should wash your grapes before you eat them.  In case you're wondering, places that grow grapes love spiders because they keep the bugs that burrow into the grapes away.  That's lovely, but...did it have to be spiders??

I put most of the prom pictures I had up on my site.  I can't get it to show up on the normal page, but if you go right to the link, I think they'll show up there.  So click Here and hopefully that'll work for ya.   So many nice pictures.  The kids just look amazing.  Even the attention to detail is something else.  Only a couple months left before graduation, and SO much to do.  I have her graduation announcements ready to send out too.  Need to do that soon.  And this darned Senior Fling.  And her Senior Open House.  And all the photo stuff to put together.  And...  Eye yi yi.

Here are a few, anyway.  The rest are all up on the site.  Enjoy!

Chicago

The weather went up and down, up and down.  My two students cancelled, but I had to get the 340 to Aurora for its annual before tomorrow at midnight, after which it would be out of annual and not legal to fly to Aurora.  So I needed a chase pilot who would fly IFR, which is sort of hard to find.  Fortunately Jerry L was available, so I ran over to Aurora and he chased me over in the RG.  We had a little band of light to moderate rain, and IFR most of the flight.  I did the RNAV into Aurora, down to about 800', and we did the RNAV into Kokomo too, with a widely varied ceiling from 400-1000'.  It was a good day for IFR practice.

It's midnight and I'm wiped out, so will just throw these photos up and go to bed.  Might put all the prom pictures up on my actual website tomorrow if I have time...

340 on top

Somewhere in IL

172RG on top on the way home

Formating

It's been a loaded weekend.

The Bonanza formation clinic was this weekend. They arrived Friday, and we had groundschool Friday until late, then went out to dinner at Half Moon afterwards.  Got home at like 11 something pm.  The first safety briefing started Saturday at 8 am, so we were all out there by then.  I sat through that, and then we pulled all the planes out and got the T-6 out so I could do a fly-over of a community day in Fishers, with Tom M in his T-6.  We beat the rain by a little bit, even.  Steve Tummers went with me.  I felt pretty good about that flight, I stayed acute instead of doing the typical 45 degree NATA line, and it felt smooth.  I only remember being out of position a fair amount twice on the whole flight.  One of those times Steve T took a picture and posted it.  Of COURSE.  :D  But it was good practice on a low pressure event, and I felt much more in the groove than on the Purdue flight.

Sunday I went up as a safety pilot for two Bonanza guys.  We did an element takeoff and landing, aka both planes taking off and landing at the same time on the same runway.  I haven't really done a bunch of those myself and now I'm in charge of two brand new people doing it.  No pressure.  Lol  We did fine, we had fun.

So, what you actually care about, Kaylee's prom.  I put a bunch of photos up on Facebook, as you can do more photos there.  She had a great time, she looked beautiful, and they went to a friend's house afterwards for the "after party", and then the guys went home and the girls spent the night there.  She was up till 4:30 a.m., and had a pretty magical night all in all.  I was at the formation clinic Saturday, but I left for an hour to go take photos for them.  Kaylee said several of them were glad I was there because I have the best camera and take the best pictures.  Always glad to serve.  :)  I had them come out of the barn and do some outside in natural light too, which was a good plan.  They had more group photos taken at 6 pm, but at that point I was responsible for getting the Bonanza guys' pizza in, and getting dinner on, and it was just too busy to leave to go an hour away to take more photos somewhere else.  So I left that to the other moms, and I think they did just fine with it.  I stole those pictures to have too.  Kaylee went to Meredith's house around noon, and she did her hair.  Then she went over to another friend's house, who did her make-up.  Then the girls and boys met at the barn for photos at 1:30.  From there they drove down to Indy to Tocano's to eat, a fancy restaurant, because Kaylee didn't want to stay in town and go to Outback.  lol  Then they went back to Marion for round two of photos, at 6 pm.  From there they hit the prom, then the after prom party.  So it was a busy, fun, exciting day for them.  A memorable Senior Prom for Kaylee.

We had two guys come to the clinic this year who are memorable, speaking of memorable.  They were both brand new, and loners to everyone but each other, and smart--too smart.  Glenn called them "Smart and Smarter" in lieu of "Dumb and Dumber".  They are used to being the smartest person in the room, and have big egos.  They think that their life experiences to date would make them really good at formation flying, and got condescending about geometry and the "science" part of it.  Meanwhile, they had no "art" for it, but they didn't want to hear it.  Come to find out, the worst one, Henry, who asked condescending questions designed to point out flaws in the training, had three pages of typed up notes in outline form.  He's written a few articles for the American Bonanza Society, and this looked like another article in the works.  Glenn found the notes.  Henry was rude, wouldn't look at or pay attention, and as I said, asked condescending, leading questions. When he left today, he didn't say goodbye to Glenn, either, just left.  If he does write an article, ABS will send it to Glenn before they publish it, and he has pull on what they will or won't accept and publish.  So, it'll be interesting to see what happens there. I doubt we'll see Henry or his friend back.   No great loss, there.   Don't be a Henry.

It's late, I'm tired, I may put more photos up tomorrow.  For tonight, it's bedtime.

Springing Around

Today is Richard's birthday, so we're all thinking about him and Ann today.

It's cold and rainy, it's warm and sunny, back to cool and rainy.  Hello, Spring.

Kaylee was sad today.  There was another round of auditions for solos for the Spring concert.  She is the only Senior who didn't get a solo, and she said she didn't get "alternate" for any solos either.  She said that some people got multiple solos and multiple alternates, and she didn't get anything.  So she was kind of hurt, and felt bad that she was not only the only Senior, but one of the only girls who didn't get a solo, out of all of them.  I sent her a message that I hoped would help.  I didn't see her until like 8:30 tonight, and by tonight she seems to be okay, at least.  I don't like it when Kaylee is sad.   It makes me sad.  And I get mad when I get sad.  :p

I flew in the Cheetah with Dave for checkride prep after lunch, and he's really close to passing his checkride.  He has to get his plane annualled, and then he has to get his checkride in by the end of next month, or his written expires.  He's got about 100 hours in now, but a lot of it is good overall experience, not just in the local pattern.  He turns 79 years old next month, and is just now getting his Private.  He'll be a pretty good pilot, too.  As long as he doesn't have to deal with a tower, he's good.  :) 

Next up I had another flight in the PT-26, this time with Jerry L  He did a great job too, had a much better feel for things than after the initial checkout too.  Nice and smooth and quick.  That's two guys in a row who really improved overall.  I'm hoping Rich will do well too, and then I'll feel really good about our crop of pilots on the PT!

Steve and I went down to Breeze-In Pub tonight with the pilot group.  It was a smaller group, only 8 of us this time.  Usually there's a good dozen or more.  We got served faster that way, though!  I brought Kaylee back a grilled chicken sandwich, which she noshed down pretty fast.

Tomorrow looks rainy.  If it holds off I'll have one flight in the afternoon, and the rest of the day I need to do other stuff anyway...

Here's a picture Steve took from the back seat on Easter.

Quieter

I actually slept in this morning until 8:30 and it felt good.  I worked on some things this morning, and then after lunch needed to take the 340 to Muncie to swap out the 530.  Of course it happened to be IFR, but I actually didn't mind, I was looking forward to flying over and shooting an approach, etc.  Steve invited Zak to go along with me, so we went over at 2, I shot the ILS 32 over at MIE, they swapped out the stuff, and I flew back and did the RNAV 23 at Kokomo.  I hand flew the ILS and had the autopilot do the RNAV, so I got a little practice at both.  That was good.

I was supposed to fly with a student after that, but the weather was still really bad.  So he canceled. And then an hour later the skies cleared and it was beautiful.  So.  Zak drove 2 hours up here to fly this morning when the weather looked okay, and the weather tanked as soon as he got here.  My guy had a 2 hour drive so didn't come up because the weather did not look good, and then it cleared off as soon as he didn't come.  In other words, everyone lost today.  Except me taking the 340 over, because I didn't care if it was IFR or not.  ;) 

Kaylee was sad because she stayed up until 2 am practicing to audition for solos for the spring concert. She didn't get any of the solos, and she was pretty disappointed not to get a solo her final concert of her senior year.  I understand, but I also mentioned that she and Meredith were given the honor of choreographing an entire song for the whole group, which Mrs. E ended up loving and using.  That's a lot more rare, and a bigger honor, than a quick solo line.  They are very strong and talented at choreography and dance.  She didn't answer me on that, but she seemed more okay when I saw her this evening at least. 

I had told Kaylee this past weekend to clean off the bags from the kitchen table.  She didn't do it.  I reminded her Sunday, and she didn't do it.  So today, Tuesday, I sent her a text that went "The bags on the kitchen table will be disposed of shortly, one way or the other, FYI" with a little kissy love face emoji.  By the time I got home in less than an hour, the bags were taken care of.  She has 18 years of living with us, and she knew that I was threatening something that 1) she wouldn't like and 2) I would follow through on.  And yet she still likes me somehow.  :D

No pictures from today.  They were short, fast, IMC flights where I was mostly hand flying the whole time, so no good time to take photos, nor much to take photos off but white...

Air Work

I flew from 8:30-10:30, and then ran Kaylee's cell phone to the screen fix-it place, hit a drive through and came home for a few minutes. I had a 1 pm flight, but he canceled because of the high winds, which was fine, because our tug wasn't working.  I went back out to the airport, and at 2:30 the next guy was there, and we flew until 3:30 in the PT-26. The guy I flew with had previously been not very good.  The weak link in the group, in fact.  Today he did much better.  I commented on it, and he said that he'd gotten T-6 time, and it had completely changed him and made him a better pilot.  It had certainly helped, and I commented that they don't call it the Pilot Maker for nothing.  :)  This was the same guy who wanted me to give him "a quick hour maybe hour and a half checkout" in the T-6 who I told nobody can check out in it in one hour, not effectively anyway.  He blew me off.  And then learned that for himself.  He was much more pleasant to deal with today than he has been in the past.  He got some humble pie from that experience, or he got better at acting humble, one or the other, and either way, I can handle him much better.  After him I did pattern work in the 172RG with a guy struggling with crosswinds.  We had those today, 40-50 degrees off gusting up around 20 knots.  After him I had a checkride prep guy.  I started at 8:30 am, I ended at 8 pm.  It made for a busy day, a lot of walking, but a good day.  That was one flight in a Grumman Cheetah, one in a PT-26, one in a C-172RG and one in the C-172.  Made for a different day, anyway.

Kaylee works as an office aide.  Today she got to record a video of a military dad reuniting with his son at school as a surprise today.  She loved it.  She said everyone was crying and hugging.

She also ordered her flowers for prom, which is this Saturday.  She's so annoyed because her "prom group" is not getting on board with helping her plan what they're doing.  Where are they going to eat.  Where are they going to meet up.  Who is driving.  Where are they getting their nails done.  All this stuff.  So she finally just took charge and made reservations at places and told them that if nobody else was going to help, she was just going to do it, and if they had any objections to what she picked they'd better speak now or forever hold their peace.  I like that about her.  ;)

Mr. S. coming in for a landing.

Wing View Monday

Me back there, and a runway too.

Easter Rising

What a perfect Spring day.  Trees are blooming, Steve just mowed the grass for the first time today, the pretty little purple wildflowers are growing, and I was actually sweating in a t-shirt moving things around in the hangar.  I'm going to have to see if we have any sunscreen around here.  There was also a huge, nasty, big, I mean really BIG spider in the maintenance hangar today.  Even Steve hesitated before stepping on it.  I told him if he threw that at me, I'd leave him.  I don't think either of us thought I was kidding.  :D  

Kaylee went to Easter services with her friend, and then on down to Columbus, IN to spend the day.  Steve and I went out to the airport, moved out the Cheyenne and 340 and T-6, and Nathan came out to run Jamie back home, so the Aerostar came out and headed to IL too.   I got gas in the 340 and the T-6, and then Steve and I went up flying in the T-6.  We visited Glenndale, John's house, AE's house (he was outside and waved at us and said we made his day), Sheridan, Noblesville, Tipton, and back to Kokomo.  I only did two 3-point takeoffs and landings, and I noticed something I'd noticed when I went to LAF and back.  Something's different.  The sight picture is different.  The plane is closer to the ground, or my seat is lower than it was even all the way up.  I don't know WHAT is different, but something is different, and it's throwing me off.  I landed fine each time, but it wasn't normal; the wheel landings last week turned into almost 3 points because I wasn't touching down when I expected so I had to keep pulling back to keep it from bouncing, and the actual 3-points I did today look more like I'm doing them from the back than the front. I only got two in though, so I need to do more soon.  The struts seem a little low, but I don't know that that can be all it is. Something's different.  My original plan was to do takeoffs and landings, three point, wheel, engine out, one wheel, etc.  And maybe go up and do some stalls and a loop and roll.  Get current.  Instead we went up and relaxed and flew around and visited friends, and that was a nice way to spend Easter Afternoon together anyway.   So darn, I'll have to go back up and do the rest another time.  ;)

Steve worked with Nathan when he got back from IL to crack the case on the Cherokee 180's engine.  That way the guys can work on the engine this coming week.  Kaylee got home late, and tomorrow is calling to get her flowers for prom for both Sam and herself.    Tomorrow I've got flight students from 8 am straight through to 8 pm, with one hour for lunch.  All day, solid.  I should fall down and sleep well tomorrow night...

Me unsuccessfully trying to get a photo of Steve and I

A more successful attempt.

A generic wing view of the Six

Flat head helmet hair, don't care.  ;)

Everywhere we went today, and it ends up being in the shape of an almost-heart. 

Steve working on 19R's engine case.

Steve at Wendy's

Drippy

Another dreary, drippy, windy day.  Steve and I didn't go to Glenndale today.  Instead we met Nathan at Wendy's, then he went out to the airport while I went to Meijer for some things, Grindstone's for some take home stuff, and Kroger for some groceries.  I had several things to catch up on today, and some house stuff.  Not exciting for Good Friday, but is what it is!  I will say that Meijer was a surprise.  I went in there and wondered What On Earth was happening, why was it so blasted busy.  Then it occurred to me that it was Good Friday and everyone was probably shopping for Easter.  I thought about getting Kaylee a basket for her last Easter at home, but I couldn't find anything I liked, and I didn't want to just get her a bunch of candy, so...

I ended up talking to the FAA tower guy from LAF on the phone today.  He is sending me the audio clip with the understanding that I don't share it around or post it.  He talked about calling FSDO, as he is an FAA employee, and I said no, I don't want to torpedo the guy's career, I Just want to talk to him.  So early next week I'll have his contact info, and go from there.  Every time I think about letting it go, I can't. And I shouldn't.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to give 2 T-6 rides and have a student.  Of course we've got 30 knot winds again, and rain, so the likelihood is low. Again.  Good ole Spring.  I have stuff to do with the T-6.  I need to get current from the back again.

Watching "I Can Only Imagine".  That song hit me in the gut when it first came out.  I was sitting in a church, testing it out to see about going with Kaylee, and they played that song and a girl did an interpretive dance to it, and I found myself with tears streaming down my face.  Pretty rare, and unheard of in public, it really did punch me.  Devon.  So I did my PowerPoint presentation for SMA Support with photos of Devon to that song.  It still gets to me.  I haven't gotten to the point of the movie yet where they play that song, but I'm guessing it'll get me then, too.

Kaylee had a blast judging auditions.  The list came out today at 3 pm, and one girl she really wanted to get into Starlets, named Faith, did. She was a Senior this next year, so odds weren't in her favor. She was also not from that school, so she wasn't a "legacy" audition, and she was the first audition of the night, which is just tough.  Kaylee doesn't know her, but said she killed the audition, did a fantastic job, and Kaylee advocated for her to get into the Starlets.  Kaylee was super excited when Faith got in, said she really deserved it.  I was glad too.  Kaylee also took it seriously, and judged fairly.  One other judge would score high for people he liked and low for people he didn't like.  Not mature, or fair.  They also weren't supposed to talk about the auditions with other kids, and she took that seriously too.  Small things matter and show character.

Didn't

Tonight Kaylee is getting to do something she has been excited to do ever since she got into Starlets.  She wanted to be an Encore Officer so she could be a judge for Encore/Starlet auditions.  She wanted to do it so badly!  She ended up the Librarian in Encore, but it was an officer's position, so she still got to be a judge for auditions.  So she's sitting there with her pencil and her grading papers and a glass of water, and pumped up.  She's so excited that I didn't tell her that her school called me to tell me she needs to get her last Hep A shot before graduation.  I'll wait to another day to tell her it's time for that.  ;)

I can't remember if I mentioned it, but I'd thought about dyeing my hair for the first time.  I don't mind the gray in general, but it's also growing in darker and duller. So the thought process goes "Once I start it, you have to keep it up or it looks bad."  And "If you're going to do it, do it before it becomes drastically noticeable."  "I would probably stay looking a little younger without the gray and duller hair."  "Does it matter? I've never really cared."  "But I'm not ready to start looking older just yet."  "If I dye it I maybe can't curl it too, and flat thin hair was never good on me." "I don't often like dyed hair on women. If I hate it I'm stuck with it for awhile." 

So, you see, I had questions.  I floated it past Steve, who said he didn't really have an opinion.  I asked Kaylee, said I was thinking about trying it.  She just said "Why?"  Later, Steve asked me what she said, and I said she didn't really say anything, so he asked her himself when I wasn't around, "What do you think about it? What do you think about your Mom's hair?"  She said "I think it's beautiful. I think her hair looks beautiful just the way it is."  She likes that it has lots of different colors in it naturally.  She didn't tell me that, so she wasn't sucking up or anything.  ;)  I just thought that was super sweet.  I don't know if I'll try it once or not. I'd rather talk to a professional first, and someone good, for once not something I'd just do myself.  Chemicals on hair can go really, really wrong.  Bald is not a good look on me.  ;)  So, I don't know, I'll see.

The tower from Lafayette got back to me; they pulled the tapes on the RV that busted into our formation, and I'm waiting on a call from him.  Meanwhile, today I was supposed to do a two-ship fly-over for a WWII Veteran's funeral services.  The winds were gusting to 30 knots off and on, the ceilings were okay-ish, and it was raining pretty good.  First #2 backed out because of the weather, and I hesitated.  I could maybe have made it, but I wasn't sure about the rain or the winds. Gusting that high at a crosswind isn't my favorite thing in that airplane.  And rain coming in could ruin the Garmin again. And we'd have to pull out the Cheyenne and the 340 in the rain too, put 'em back, do a fly-over, then pull them out again, and put it back.  But if I truly had to, I could make it happen safely.  And this isn't something you get back, I can't just do it later.  A man is being buried at home for the first time.  I didn't do it.  I wanted to, but I had to decide Right Then, for an hour from then, and I couldn't tell if the rain band would thicken up right then or not.  I couldn't tell if the winds would stay at 25 knots, or kick back up to the forecast 30+ knots. So I bailed.  And don't feel great about it. But it's done now.

Tomorrow I was supposed to take the 340 to Muncie for avionics. The weather tomorrow looked like the weather today.  But 30 knot winds and rain and marginal clouds are what the 340 is made for.  Noooo Problem.  :)  Except he emailed me and let me know that they're off work for Good Friday, so I had to reschedule again for next week.  I had another guy that I agreed to fly with every other Sunday because apparently Sunday is the only day he can fly and he only wants to fly with me.  Except he's scheduled for this Sunday, which is Easter Sunday.  I'm not sure if he knew that or not, so I emailed him earlier today and haven't heard back yet.

Tonight Steve went to dinner and the EAA meeting, and Kaylee is judging Encore/Starlet auditions until like 10 pm tonight, so I had the house to myself to get in my walking, do the arm weights, and push ups, and other upper body exercises.  That's definitely getting stronger again.  Wish I could drop about 30 pounds and just have it be gone.   Like most of America I guess.  lol 

On to tomorrow.

Alabama Blooms

Unfortunately when I went to bed Monday night, I was starting to get a headache, and I ended up having to take Vitamin I in the middle of the night to make it go away.  I also had digestive issues most of the night.  There wasn't much to the night, since I had to get up at 4:30 am.  But I ended up doing better than expected after that, so I was grateful for that.  I told D that I wanted to fly the morning leg, for my own currency and proficiency, which I did.  Felt good, went well.  After enough time in it, the plane becomes kind of like hopping in your car, at least when things are going well.  :)

I landed in Birmingham first.  When I walked into the FBO, I was the only pilot there, so I went into the fancy dark room with all the leather chairs, muted the TV, and curled up to try to rest for a little while and catch up on some sleep.  I don't know how long I was lying there, but I was mostly drifted out, when someone came in, picked up the TV remote, turned it up fairly loud, sat down in a chair behind me, passed gas loudly, then fell asleep and started snoring.  Well, I was up.  Rude.  So I went to the front desk, paid my bill, and went to take a courtesy car to get some brunch.  I ended up in downtown Birmingham, which was actually very scenic.  Rolling hills, lots of trees, interesting archaeology structure.  On my way back, I spotted a scenic overlook thing, so last second I pulled over and into that.  You could climb up a big wad of stairs to get to the top of a historic site, and there was a big statue, with a great view over the city.  I was reminded of something.  I can walk on a flat surface all day.  I can climb down stairs just fine, flights of them.  Anything that requires me to climb UP?  I have a problem.  Going up all those stairs my heart was pounding, my lungs got tight, I didn't feel well.  Going back down? I skipped down them all, no problem.  I've started doing more weight bearing exercises during the day...sounds like I need to add a stair stepper to the routine.  I'm kidding, but not really.  When I was in California hiking up a hill, it about took me out going up.  I had to stop. The time I had what had to be an asthma style attack zip lining...it it was after climbing and climbing and climbing in high humidity. I can't seem to climb and get air at the same time.  Anyway.  It was a great view.  I hung out, got some sunshine and fresh air, and then wandered back to the FBO.  I didn't like walking back into the pilot's lounge. The seats were mostly full, the room is dark, the TV is on, it's awkward and weird, and then Mr. Flatulence grabbed a cup and started spitting his chew juice into it every 10 seconds or so.  It was so regular I'd be counting it off in my head until he picked up his cup, spit, splant, slurp, grunt.  Over and over.  Finally I got back up and bugged out of there and sat in the main front room, with lots of sunshine and open windows and view of the runway.

Dustin got back shortly after that, and we flew to Demopolis, Alabama.  One runway, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by lush green trees and water I wouldn't want to end up in.  Dustin headed out for his meeting.  There were flowering bushes lining the walkway, a self-serve pump near the shack, which was the FBO.  A guy came out and parked us, and took my credit card to do the self-serve for me.  They had an old Mercury Grand Marquis as the courtesy car, and I took it into town for lunch, and went to the "Bistro".  It was a tiny place downtown Demopolis, with a fun ambiance.  I doubt they'll stay in business for long there, but it was a cool little place, and when I got there, only the owner was there.  Even his cook and waitresses were running late.  He was very personable and good to deal with.  It was a nice area to wander around and look at.

I finished up just in time for Dustin to say he was on his way back.  Meeting done.  We flew home and watched the sun go down.  Both on the way there and on the way home we were doing about 208 knots on average, at 20,000' and 19,000', watching the sun come up, watching the sun go down.  Listening to music, having a Starbucks on the way there and a water on the way home.  It was quiet, good weather, peaceful, and calm, and I was grateful to not have a big challenge that day.  It was a long day though.  I didn't get in until after 11 pm.  After a 4:30 am wake up call after a night of not feeling well, I crashed pretty hard last night.  :)

I've said it a lot, but the difference between those two FBOs completely reaffirms life choices.  The fancy FBO has all the amenities, is comfortable, expensive.  And dim, full of starched people in starched shirts who are bored, tired, annoyed, and sitting in the dark waiting to do their next round of paperwork and their next leg of the day.  Someone goes and gets a coffee, and they sit in there and wait.  I don't know if they can't leave, or just never do.  It's impersonal, cold, and everyone there is looking down at others there, depending on what they fly.  They are dismissive of me, and I am amused by them.  Then I go to Demopolis, and it's warm, and open, and the guy in jeans and a flannel shirt brings me anything I ask for, and leaves the key to the courtesy car hanging up on a board in the main room, and there's wifi and drinks and computers and a car and cheap fuel and snacks.  They have everything you need too, but they do it out of a small wooden shack in a relaxed atmosphere where any people that come up are excited by your plane and you and want to know more.  One I can kick back and relax, and if I need something, it will be done with courtesy and wanting to please, not done by a frazzled front desk girl who has been yelled at by condescending pilots mad that their plane got tugged so far away and their catering isn't ready on time.  With cheaper fuel, friendlier faces, and better places to take a walk in peace.  I. Am. Not. Interested. In. Jet. World.  It's so nice to reaffirm that now and then.  I'd like to think that even if I Did fly jets, I'd still do the same things, even if I did have to wear the scratchy white starched shirt and black dress pants.  Unless they're not allowed to leave because they're on call constantly.  And that would be yet another reason not to do that job.

Today I met with a young lady named Ana who wants to be a pilot.  We got together to do her student pilot certificate.  She doesn't have a driver's license, she doesn't have a passport, and she doesn't have a school ID.  She has no form of government ID with her photo on it, which is required.  So I put in her birth certificate, and submitted it, and we'll see if they take it.  She thinks they will because it didn't kick it out right then, but I know that's not how this works.  I told her to keep an eye on her email, and if there's an issue they may email and let her know.  She needs it to apply for scholarships, so that's what we're trying to accomplish.  She's another lit up, excited young lady, and we talked for a good hour and a half where I'd answer her questions.

One more flight I'm headed to in about 10 minutes if I can get these photos uploaded.  Or downloaded.  Or whatever it is.  Posted.  ;)  These aren't in order, but the first ones are all sunrise, and the end are all sunsets.

Architecture in Birmingham, right next to the next picture.

The Stairs and the Monument

The view from the steps

Landing in Birmingham, photo by D

The next few are The Bistro photos

The outside of the building.

My Studly Courtesy Car

I really, really wanted to climb that pole.

So pretty.

The Shack FBO

Dustin flying us home.

Home sweet home.

And back to the sunsets.  :)