OK

Last night I went back out to Oklahoma.  This time I went to Oklahoma City instead of Tulsa.  But the flight path is the same all the way to Tulsa, and I even crossed right over it.  The path is also the same as the trip to MO I took in the 172RG three weeks ago.  I've seen a lot of that path, lately.  One I was low and slow and deviating around thunderstorms for 8 hours and went through the St. Louis Class B airspace. One I was low and slow and went under the Class B in the T-6.  And the third I was high and fast and right over the top of the airspace.  But it all looked the same.  I smiled when I went by Tulsa, and saw the runway I did my first Harvard landing on.  :)

I dropped off two ladies in OK, filled up, grabbed a blueberry muffin, and came right home.  That was over a 7 hour flight, plus ground time.  Long way out there, and I had to play with fuel the whole time to keep my 1 hour reserve.  Most funny was that I had a headwind both directions.  I'm not sure I appreciate that.

I took a lot of photos of the sun going down, and a good one of St. Louis at night.  I could have taken someone on that flight, but I'm glad I didn't because with full fuel, even though those ladies are slim, their bags were fiercely heavy and copious, and had I taken someone else along we'd have been over gross on weight.  So that answers the part where I can't take anyone with me on the return trip to get them next week, either.  Ah well.  I have to like someone a lot to want to spend 7 hours plus in a cockpit with them.  That's too much.  If I wanted that I'd go be an airline pilot.  ;)

Kaylee texted me that she wasn't feeling well, shaky, and someone came in and took her blood pressure, and it was 167/96.  She normally has very low blood pressure, like me, so that freaked me out a little bit.  She got a former EMT in there who took it again and it was coming down to 150/95.  Still too high for her.  I made her tell them to call a paramedic there, which they did.  She said they said it was fine.  I said "It is not fine."  She expanded and said "Because I'm young, otherwise healthy, it was the first time, and it's coming down and I feel better, that I don't need to go to the hospital."   That if it happens again they'd want to look into it.  I said yeah. I wouldn't have gone into the hospital either for that, but I said "but if that number gets any higher, girl!"  I think we figured it out though.  She is on a medicine temporarily whose listed side effects I just looked up and showed "high blood pressure" as one of the potential issues.  Well, there we go. Like anything else, gotta watch out for medicines and their side effects, even in healthy 18 year olds.

I have another night flight tonight, starting 9:30 pm.  Home after midnight again.  Nothing in the morning though at least.

We're Home Recap

Steve and AE were some of the last people home.  They rolled into Kokomo Airport at 11:40 pm after a very long day of driving, a dinner stop, and a few rests to stay awake.  AE was so tired, he slept in his camper again right there, as opposed to driving the 45 minutes back to his house.  When he woke up this morning, he found this.

It's amazing that there was no damage when that wheel came off, that they didn't even know it happened, and that they were able to continue home late at night on back roads and make it to Kokomo missing a wheel.  They used up one of their little guardian angels I think.  ;)

I went out at 11:30 pm to pick up Steve and bring him home, so AE wouldn't have to come out to our house.  We unloaded all our bags; our suitcases, bedding, dirty clothes bags, shoes, all of it, and got almost all of it put away before we went to bed at 2 am.  That was only 1 am Wisconsin time, so it wasn't even that late to us.  But it's just nice to have everything back in place, in order.  I even got all but two loads of laundry done while I was doing it.  Speaking of laundry, I'm amazed that you can pack for 10 days, do laundry halfway through the week, which means you really only used up about 3 days worth of laundry for two people, and still have a mountain of laundry to do when you get home.  Of course I wash my fuzzy blanket that smells like damp camper, and the sheets and towels and such too, which adds bulk, but still.

Saturday was a quieter day for me.  I actually felt pretty beat up and tired most of it, and only after turning on the generator and air conditioning and taking a more substantial nap did I really perk up.  I took on golf cart duty as Gail and Doug left.  We watched as the campground emptied out.  Most of the California/Texas contingent left, Greg and Dora left, and spaces opened up in the campground.   The guys started tearing down the tents, the fake grass, the picnic tables, everything that they could while the ground and everything was dry, and we were left that night sitting around the last big bonfire, piling the wood up high to burn it all off before we packed up the fire pit.   The night airshow had a compliment of Mother Nature, too.  Huge thunderclouds lit up orange and yellow by the sun, then sunset, then just internal lighting, just off to the south of us, flickering constant lightning, while the night show went on nearby.  It was beautiful, truly.  We sat back at camp and watched the show from a distance this time, and you could still see the fireball at the end through the trees, looking for all it's worth like a bomb went off.  I guess technically it pretty much did, it was just a controlled bomb.  It made for a nice way to end the week.

Sunday Steve went out and helped AE and everyone left tear down what was left, and I got together all our stuff from the trailer and loaded it into AE's truck.  Zak, Misty and I went home in the Aerostar, and Steve Tummers picked them up at Kokomo, while Nathan took home 70 cases of water in his truck, and Steve & AE drove home the long way with the camp trailer.  As people would arrive home, they'd shoot a text off "Home Safe".   Nathan said if they got in an accident on the way home, they'd drown with all that water in the car before help could get to them.  :D  We need to have a water unloading party at the hangar.  Thank you, Cirrus, for the generosity, it saved us a bunch of money on more than one event now with that gift, just for "putting up" with their "reefer" truck being noisy the first night there.  I still think you land your planes too fast, and don't agree with your assertion to pull the chute at every emergency rather than just flying the plane, but I greatly appreciate your hospitality!

I don't feel like I took a bunch of great photos, but here's what I have.  In no particular order.

I'm in the back of the yellow T-6, JP's "Spanish Lady".  It's the 10th T-6 I've been in, but I didn't touch the controls nor was I PIC as instructor, so I didn't count it.

I love these.  From the night airshow.

I didn't take these next two, just thought they were awesome.

See?  Bomb.

My Boys.

This one's mine again.  Love the DC-3 as the backdrop.

The three tails of the planes that went up on a formation flight that morning.

The inside of our trailer for this year.  It was nice!

Home for 9 days

Specialty beer they made for the 50th anniversary of OSH at OSH.

Dinner at the Fox's Trail in town.

Gloomy and wet, but going up.

Mother Nature unleashing

This box was in the local "Fleet Farm" store.

Obligatory Oshkosh tower sunset photo

You can see the standing water in the road reflecting the sunset.

Nathan fitting right in at Johnny Rockets.  ;)

Oshkosh definitely has more conservative leanings.

View from our canopy.

This lady dances while you fly.

Views from a Stearman at the hold short line at OSH

The 9th actual T-6 I've flown/instructed in.  

Taxiing past the Aerostar in the T6

Line up and wait.  :)

Oshkosh from the air again.

Taxiing past Aeroshell Team

Kaylee on screen during the WASP Movie premier.  :)

Steve at chapel.  Briefly.  It's a long story.

The un-cropped versions of the night airshow fireball stuff.

I edited the post out of this one

Part of our morning breakfasts every day.  Plus eggs and hashbrowns.

Dennis driving us in his Model T

Steve in the Model T looking out at warbirds.

Didn't know at the time this was blurry, but here we are in the car.

The annually decorated up ladies port o pot,

Our camp row

Checkertail flies

Ardy & Ed's for one last meal the last day.

Breaking apart camp

Mother Nature's show at the start of the night airshow

Just gorgeous

Big fire, small tired crowd.

AE hooking up his camper to head home.

My last view out the car window on our way to Fond du Lac to leave for the year

An image of the night airshow, just the small center section of it, that I found stunning.  The crowd line goes for miles up and down this one small area.   Goodbye for this year!