Wednesday was a hopping day.
When I got up, I went out to the Vintage flight line, and waited for a Stearman to land and pick me up. He ran about 15 minutes late, and then I saw a Stearman come in, but it had two people already in it, so I wondered how that was going to work. Apparently he was dropping someone off at OSH though. ;) I climbed up in the front, and there were no controls up there. Bah humbug. But I got a nice ride, and he's very comfortable with the plane, and obviously so, which was more comfortable for me. Nothing like being in the front of a plane with no controls and the guy flying you around is sketchy. :D Fortunately he wasn't. It took us over 35 minutes to get out of Oshkosh, sitting at the end of the runway, running and waiting, and while everybody and their brother came in and landed. It was a swarm of jets, warbirds, GA airplanes, the whole ball of wax. It was a fun view. We finally got out of there, with traffic all around us, and went to Fond du Lac, with traffic all around us. Got in, and got the Stearman tied down, and walked over to the SNJ-6. I think that's a new model for me but I'm not positive. I'll look when I get home.
It took us a long time to fuel up, preflight, and get out of Fond du Lac too. He does probably the slowest preflight I've ever seen, but what can you say about that to someone, you know? We went up and did air work. That T-6 does the straightest stalls of any T-6 I've ever stalled. It just shook and broke straight ahead like no big deal. We only went right wing down when he had the gear and flaps down and held the stick back. Do that in our T-6 and you're inverted before you even know what hit you.
We went to another airport and did wheel and 3-point landings, which he did well, so then he had to get me back into Oshkosh. Another cluster. This was supposed to be a quick morning thing starting at 9. He got there at 9:15, and we didn't get done until about 1:30 pm. We were parked clear on the furthest possible end of warbirds, as far away as you can get, so I had a really stiff hike to even get to a tram, or a gate for the golf cart. When I get my Fitbit charged back up here, I'm going to see what these last few days had, because I know it had to be pretty impressive. I've had to recharge it sooner than normal. I guess I used it more than normal or something. ;)
When I got back to the trailer, I hit the showers around 2:30, when everyone else is at the airshow, so I can have the place to myself. That worked. Came back and got dressed, and Steve and I went to the premier of WASP: Rise Above. They did a great job telling the story. From a little girl early on, to the culture of the time, to interviews of the actual women, to video and photographic footage of them back then, to little acting clips in between at various phases to flesh out the story. It was super well done, and I wish they could release it in more ways to a wider audience. I saw Kaylee up there, and I was in there three brief flying times. One quick pass in the background, the "iconic arch" pass, and then one air to air shot flying next to the photo plane. They used back of the head aerial footage from Amelia, the blond pilot, and didn't us any aerobatic stuff. But they have it, at least, so you never know where it may come out.
We had a terrible time getting to it. The roads were all blocked off, and we couldn't get in with the truck. So we were good and late, after driving back to the campsite and taking the golf cart as far as we could get, then walking the rest of the way. My head had started hurting around 1:30. It wasn't getting better with normal medication. I had caffeine, water, I tried, but it was getting bad. I had brought a big gun pill, which I finally caved and took while watching the night airshow. Because as soon as we got back from the WASP thing, we got back to the trailer, changed clothes, turned around and went to the night air show. For the first time, I couldn't wait until the jet demo was done, and Aeroshell, because they were KILLING my head. I popped the Vitamin I, closed my eyes during the boring helicopter part, and then enjoyed the best of the show at the end, and the fireworks, and the fireball.
They outdid themselves on the fireworks and fire. They shot off fireworks during the actual flights, too, which is new. And they did kind of a mini wall of fire, and we were all like...hey...and then kaBOOM, they blew what looked like an atomic bomb. Big, huge mushroom cloud went up, and you could feel the heat from that fireball waaaay back. And then they shot fireworks into the middle of the fireball. It was sweet. Coolest thing ever. I love fire. ;)
We did the long hike back to camp in the herd, sat around the fire for a few, and then I went to bed almost right away, because it had been a long, long day and I hadn't felt well for 95% of it. It was a good day, too, full of good stuff. I got a Stearman ride, checked out my second new T-6 in less than a week, saw the WASP movie and saw my daughter and self, and saw the night airshow. That's a lot of goodness in one day. :)
This morning was the T-6 forum, and Zak went with me. This year they didn't do anything but show pictures of maintenance parts and cracks or things that could go wrong on them. It was super boring, and not very applicable to someone like me who is just an operator, not a mechanic. But I get my certificate for insurance, and I get my "I'm still here" button. It's been 10 years. A lot of the guys who gave me a hard time aren't there any more. But I am. And I will be.
I ran into Bill Shephard, the former honcho at CAF who helped with the WASP movie, and he said he'd called me the one time because he'd heard through the rumor mill that I'd had an accident in a T-6, so he was calling to check on me. 1) That's sweet. and 2) What? Apparently a female T-6 pilot went down and it went round the rumor mill that it was me. It most certainly was not, obviously. It's nice to know that if it's a woman T-6 pilot that I'm the first person "they" think of though. :D But I've never even heard of a female T-6 pilot who had an accident or incident, so I didn't even know what he was talking about...
I was glad Richard wasn't there, even though some other Texas people were. I didn't miss him.
My former roommate Melissa private messaged me and wants to meet up up here. I don't want to but she's being pretty persistent. Actually a few people up here want to meet up and I'm avoiding most of them. Not in the mood.
Nathan and I hit Ardy & Ed's for lunch, then picked up our drop-off laundry where it came home nice and clean and crisp. Steve and AE went hiking, and everyone else...I have no idea. I'm worn out after yesterday though, so a little sitting down doesn't sound too bad to me. It's airshow time.
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