Marion

Jon and I arrived at Marion in the T-6 around 8:30 this morning.  I would have been earlier, but I didn't get my chance in the shower earlier after all, so it was what it was.  ;)

Steve and AE and Justin P and Misty came out and we worked the event.  There was a P-51 there doing a pass or two, and the Ford Trimotor was giving rides too, and the PT-26.  A BT-13, Larry's T-6, Walt's T-28, Ft. Wayne area T-28, a Spartan, lots of pretty airplanes.

The morning started off a little slowly, as it usually does these days, and then my first rider came up, and as soon as we did our first take off, I kept it low to the runway and the prop up, and we made lots of noise.  When I landed we suddenly had three more riders in line.  ;)  I ran those, then we stopped for fuel, and I had five more to go in a short period of time.  So nine rides for the day, which was a good amount from 9:30 a.m. to about 2 pm with one fuel break.  Human nature is so funny.  They see the T-6 sitting there and nothing happens.  The T-6 goes roaring by, and suddenly people are willing to shell out $250/$275 to go too.  "If someone else is doing it, I'm gonna do it too" kind of thinking.  It works almost every time.  The only place it never did any good was Logansport.  We've been there maybe three times, and I don't think we've ever sold one single ride there even doing a few "rides" to get it going.  But we go to support the locals, too, and they appreciate us just being there.

Anyway.  There was some weather out there, and the winds were a little swappy close to the ground at times, but in the air it was smooth, and all in all it was a nice cool day.  No sweating to death or anything for once, and also for once I didn't wear the flight suit.  I sold the rides just fine in my t-shirt, 'cause sitting in the airplane they can't tell what I'm wearing anyway.  ;)

At the end of the day, my last rider finished up when nobody else hardly was around.  The P-51 (Scott) took off to head to Ohio, and I took off behind him to head home to Kokomo.  He did a fly-by, then I came around and did a fly-by before heading home, the only one I'd done all day.

When I landed at Kokomo, I had this text waiting for me.

I'm a still a kid at heart, I can't help but be pleased by the compliment.  It doesn't take much. ;)

Afterwards a group of ten of us went out to eat and hang out for awhile, until the early morning and the busy day caught up with all of us, and we crawled home.  Steve passed out on the couch within about 15 minutes of sitting down, with a little "I just have to close my eyes a little bit here" to go with it.  That was an hour and some ago.  I'm trying NOT to do that so I'll get to sleep okay tonight and not wake up at 5 am raring to go or something horrible like that.

It's funny, I was tired after nine rides.  I've done almost double that before, and I was wiped out then, but I was Tired after 9 today.  I wonder if I'm getting old.  ;)

It was a good day.

Some of us

Part of my flight track.

Friday

I'm trying "Hint" flavored water.  Steve likes "Propel".  It's a little too sweet for me.  But the "Hint" really is just a hint of flavor, and it doesn't have sweetener added.  I do believe I like it best.  I'll have to get him some sweet water and me some hint of water and we'll both drink fewer Cokes again.  (Actually I don't drink much anymore anyway of that, but having a flavored water alternative that doesn't taste like Kool-aid would be great).

My morning person canceled, so I took the Aerostar over to Muncie for Kenny to work on the XM/avionics.  I was there about two hours, so I waited in the restaurant and had bacon, eggs, and toast.  They make their own bread, and it's delicious.  The bread and eggs were awesome.  The bacon was thin and wimpy.  But that bread made it worth while.  ;)

I had a student on a cross country today, and we went to an airport that had skydivers.  We watched a herd of them float down and land, while we waited with our prop turning and my mental hand not far from the mags just in case someone veered off course and came towards us.   Nobody did.  They all did great and went where they were supposed to. 

Steve, AE and I drove over to Marion airport tonight, to set up for the fly-in and doing rides tomorrow.  There is also a dinner over there tonight, so we schmoozed with people, said hi, ate at a food truck (I had a chicken salad sandwich that was REALLY good, big chunks of real smoked chicken), and drove home sort of late.  I should go to bed now as we're all getting up very early tomorrow to be at the fly-in.  Weather looks good so far.  There's already a Mustang there, and Ray and his wife got rides in it.  The sound of the airplane makes me sniff in a nostalgic and melancholy way.   The Ford Trimotor is also there doing rides, and tomorrow we will be.

No news from Kaylee.

The first picture is a giant boat in a hangar at Kokomo.  He's moving it out Tuesday.  I gotta see this.

Next is the fire in the back yard tonight before I came in to do laundry for tomorrow.  I'm not wearing the flight suit.

Stuff

The days keep flying by.  (Ha ha).

The T-6 guy did indeed want to go up in the gusty crosswinds, and he did a good job with them.  I enjoyed that, actually.

Tomorrow is Friday, and we have the Marion Fly-In's Friday evening thingy tomorrow.  Saturday I do rides at Marion and hopefully the weather holds out.  I had people the usual non-stop yesterday, and last night both Steve and I slept terribly.  I was awake most of the night and no idea why.  Just was.  So I finally fell asleep after 6:20 am sometime...and my alarm went off at 7:20 a.m.  I dragged out of bed and did my 8-10 am and 10-12 flight students.  Went to lunch with Steve, came back and took the monitor off of Ann and ran it back to the hospital, stopped for a drink, and then came home and started working on stuff and tried not to sleep so that I'll sleep tonight.  My last guy canceled which I wasn't sorry for at all.

So far tonight I emailed a guy about a formation card class out in California. I emailed a guy about a seaplane rating in Michigan.  I emailed a guy about becoming an examiner for tailwheel Sport/Private.  I'm on a roll.

Haven't heard a lot from Kaylee, other than the occasional "I love you" text.  :)

I'm going to crawl in bed now that it's 10:55 pm and hope I stay asleep allllll night long.

Heartily

Today Ann had her procedure.  Unfortunately it didn't put the heart back in rhythm.  It wouldn't stay there, after they tried three times.  They wouldn't try any more times for today.  Her heart rate is still too high, so they gave her a medicine to take to add in to try to get that rate down some.  We have a follow-up in 2 weeks with cardiology, and shall go from there.  She's wearing a heart monitor for the next two days to make sure the new meds don't lower her heart rate too much, and to check again to see if she needs a pacemaker.  Hopefully that medicine helps with that, and we'll go from there.

Steve had a flat nosewheel on the 172 tonight with his student, but the guys got it back to the hangar with some effort while I was in the pattern in the other 172 with my guy. 

Tomorrow I've got people from 8:30 am until 8 pm, and I have one break between 5-7.  Not even a lunch break marked off.  We'll see though.  The winds tomorrow are supposed to gust up around 25 knots at a 40 degree crosswind, and we'll see if this T-6 guy wants to do that or not.  He actually probably will.  So that'll be a work out.

The Aerostar next to the Citabria at Muncie

Damply

My evenings just opened up this week as my one T-6 guy is being postponed until next week.  Whew!

Kaylee updated her blog finally.  About time, girl!  She's still alive, that much we know.  ;)

Tomorrow is Ann's heart Aversion, to hopefully get her heart back in rhythm.  Tomorrow at 12:30 we go in, and the procedure is probably around 1.  Say a prayer for an easy and successful procedure!

The weather today stopped me from getting the T-6 to Muncie, and prevented my students.  Tomorrow isn't looking a lot better, but at least that gave me time to start catching up on a lot of things I am pretty far behind on. Tomorrow I have more of the same.  And if I can get the Six to Muncie, even better.

Steve and I need to run down to Indy to swap Kaylee's backpack out with a big one, maybe we can do that tomorrow too if the weather stays crappy.

I met up with an internet board guy and his wife at Bob Evans today.  We chatted for about an hour before they headed back on their way home to Atlanta.  We took a picture, and I couldn't help but cringe.  I look and feel both like an oompa loompa.  Gotta do something about that. But it was nice to see them.  Super nice folks.  :)

P.S. to my last post

Two-fold.

The most important one is that my student passed his checkride today.  When I went out to Kokomo to pick up Chuck in Muncie after he dropped the Citabria off, my guy was out flying his family around.  It made me smile to hear him on the radio, and it makes me smile every time I think about it.  I'm so very happy for him.

This is a weird one and not actually a p.s. to my last post.  When I got home from my Muncie trip, I was doing usual Sunday stuff catching up on life, and I watched "Over the Top", a cheesy Sylvester Stallone movie from the 80s.  It made me smile, because it was definitely a blast from the past.  I was 15 when it came out, so probably a little older when I actually saw it, since I didn't go to movie theaters back then.  So I was watching, but what really took me aback a little bit was that I knew EVERY SONG in the movie.  Almost every word to every song.  And they weren't popular songs back then.  I knew the songs because I'd rent the VHS tape and watch a movie I liked and I'd record the songs on my little Sony tape player.  Then I'd listen to the songs all the time.  I had a whole case full of tapes I made from radio, TV, movies.  Couldn't afford to buy them, so I just made them off of the radio or held the recorder up to the TV.  They were good enough for me.  :)  I haven't heard those songs likely since the 80s, haven't seen that no-name movie in decades, and I still could sing along with them today.  All of them.  That kind of weirded me out a little bit.  It made me think about the movies whose songs I recorded off and listened to like that.  Rocky, Rocky IV, Over the Top, Karate Kid, Iron Eagle, Youngblood, for starters.  You know what most of the movies whose music I recorded all had in common?  Underdogs.  A person who was dismissed and scorned by everyone around them, nobody thought they were worth anything or would do anything, who had grit and determination and fought back, and won.  I didn't really think about it, didn't do it on purpose, but I'm pretty sure I recorded songs like "Eye of the Tiger" and "Burning Heart" and "One Vision" and "Winner Takes it All" and so forth to help me try to be that person too. As a teenager, I certainly needed all the help I could get on that front.  To be honest?  I am pretty sure it actually helped.  The power of music.

Busy day tomorrow again.

Night!

Ant vs Grasshopper

Still a whirlwind around here.  Many days I"m still not getting home until after 10 pm, and I think I made it to lunch one day.  Yesterday I ate lunch at 4:30 pm...and that was after I canceled one student who I just could not fit in after all.

Thursday I had a Discovery Flight with a 16 year old girl, who looked about 13, and was so short she couldn't reach the rudders while sitting in the pilot seat all the way up.  She said her first experience in a small plane was really scary and she was definitely scared.  When the engine started, her window which was open, opened wider, and she screamed and curled into a ball on the seat.  I thought...uh oh!  So I did the take off and just climbed straight up and out, nice and easy.  Within 5 minutes she was looking around and talking about how beautiful it all was, and soon after that I convinced her to try it, and she flew around, held her altitude, and started doing steep turns and loving them.  She looked over and said "This is so much better than Driver's Ed!  And my Driver's Ed teacher keeps grabbing and yanking things and shouting, too.  This is a lot better."  She gets on the ground, and her poor mom was so scared too.  Her mom can't stand flying, won't get into a plane, but let her daughter try it again because the daughter really wanted to try it one more time.  The daughter said "Well, you've probably seen worse reactions than someone screaming when the engine started."  I said "There was no crying, throwing up or wetting of pants, so I think you did great."  She laughed, and her mom said "Well, all those things might have been happening down here."  But the Mom is supporting her, and says she'll be back to start lessons after they gather some finances.  I always admire that in parents...like my Mom who wasn't, and maybe still isn't real thrilled about all the things I've done/do, but always supported me being me.  I always try to be that for Kaylee, too, let her live her way and be a safe place for her.  Right now she is off camping somewhere for the weekend, and that's all I know about it.  :)

We barely had a weather window to get that flight in.  After that, the clouds came down and my new T-6 guy had to cancel.  So that gave me the chance to finally make it to the store and get some other things done.

Friday was an airplane shuffle day.  First thing in the morning, Jerry Long and I flew the 172RG over to Muncie, where I picked up the Aerostar and flew it home.  From there I had a problem, in that all the planes were busy except one 172, so Jerry and I flew the 172 all the way to Aurora, Illinois.  That took awhile.  Got there and I picked up the 340, and flew it home. By the time I got home, I had 20 minutes to run to town and get a cheeseburger, before flying with my 4-6 guy, then my 6-8 pm guy.   Had to spend some time with him afterwards, then do things like get gas and drop off mail and pick up Japanese for late dinner.  ;)

I was right back out there first thing Saturday morning, and went on a long IFR cross country with a guy.  We went to Louisville, Kentucky, back to Indianapolis (except they waived us off because they were swamped with traffic and had one runway shut down), so diverted over to Mt. Comfort, then back to Kokomo.  It took 3.6 hours, shot three approaches.  I had to cancel my Chief tailwheel guy because I didn't have time to fit him in, and my 1:30 student was there and waiting.  Flew with her, and then my student who has a checkride today was there and waiting, so I went through his logbook, checked his endorsements, and signed him off for his checkride.  By then it was 4:30 pm.  I couldn't eat a lot because we were going down to Indy for dinner, but I couldn't not eat anything, because I hadn't eaten all day yet.  So of course I hit Taco Bell to get one little soft taco.  Just enough to tide the hunger without influencing dinner.  ;)  Back to the airport in time to get the 340 back out and ready to go.

MBros had donated a ride to dinner at a charity event, and the winning couple needed flown down to Eagle Creek to eat at Rick's Boatyard.  That's got some good food, so my plan was to maybe do carry-out while they ate, or take Steve with me and we'd go separately.  We called in and they weren't taking any reservations though, they were packed out.  I didn't want to wait with this couple we didn't know, separately, it felt too awkward.  So AE met us down there and we ate somewhere else, Union Jack's I believe it was called.  It was no Rick's Boatyard, but it had nice ambiance including live music, and my pizza was good.  We got back to the airport, and a pilot let us in even though the FBO was technically closed.  We only waited about 15 minutes, and the other couple was back and ready to go.  I flew them home, and we got in fairly late again.

Sunday morning I was awake at 6 am, mostly because I have this fellow going on a checkride at 8 am, so I needed to be awake by then in case there was an issue and he needed to call me.  I'm a little worried about him.  He's in his 80s, and he's a very good man.  He'll be a fine pilot, and he knows his own limitations.  I believe in him as a pilot. But he has trouble doing all the maneuvers exactly like you're supposed to all in a row all at once.  So my fingers are crossed for him today, that he can do what he needs to do to pass this test, achieve this accomplishment, and be able to fly his wife to visit grandbabies nearby, as they both desire most.

And that's what been going on around here the last few days.

Sixing

I hate to sound like a broken record, but man it's been a crazy week.  I am...wiped out.  I crawled in bed at 10:30 last night, and I can't remember the last time that happened.  It's 9:30 right now and I could go to bed.  This is also the earliest I've made it home in a long time other than Sunday when I don't remember what I did but I don't think I left here. 

I flew 10 hours with Charlie in the T-6, most of it in the last two days.  We did it all.  Short field, 3-point, wheel landings, full flap, partial flap, no flap landings, go-arounds, out of trim takeoffs, engine out landings, stalls, steep turns, grass field landings, skinny short runway landings, all of it.  He did a great job with it.  At the end, I gave him a challenge coin, and he got watery eyes from it.  It meant a lot to him, which is neat.  He kept saying "I know what this is.  It means a lot.  I earned this, you're not just giving it to me."  All of which is true.  Which we think is pretty neat.  He's coming back Wednesday to do some back seat flying.  That's even easier for me, I can ride around up front just fine.  ;)

The days I was flying large numbers of hours with Charlie, I was still also flying with other students, before and after him, until late in the evening.  Yesterday we started flying early, and then the weather was going to move in, so we flew right through lunch.  It has been very hot and muggy, I didn't eat until 3 pm, you can't stay hydrated, and after days in a row of the temps and heat and humidity and activity and late nights, it caught up, and I was pooped.  Yesterday took it out of me, and I fought off a headache most of the day.  Went to bed at 10:30, and woke up at 4 am.  Couldn't get back to sleep so I just got up, until about 6:30, went back to bed and half slept until 8, and fought off a headache most of today, too.  I had trouble finishing out my schedule today at 8 pm, I was soooo tired, and hot, and my head felt pretty icky.  But I made it.

The B-17 "Aluminum Overcast" was here at Kokomo Monday and Tuesday.  I was up in the air in the T-6 when they flew in, and it is pretty cool watching them land from over the wing of a T-6.  The whole time we were in the pattern, we'd taxi past them, or they'd roll past us when they were doing rides, and I just love that view.  Made me smile every single time.  I wanted to do a tour of the airplane, considering I've never even looked in one, but I was so busy, all day, both days, that they were closed up for the day by the time I got done and able to go look.   Apparently they did really well here, selling 20 rides and a lot of merchandise, which they say is great for a one-day stop over.  They said we'd be a great location to do a full weekend in the future, and they like our area.  They also really liked us as people, and Tuesday evening they joined us and our EAA chapter in our hangar for huge thick burgers and baked beans and cole slaw and veggies and fruits and cheeses and home made ice cream.   Even with a headache it was enjoyable.  :)

Today, fortunately, there was fog at 9 am, so I couldn't do my first flight.  I appreciated that, having woken up with the head still, and just needing a break.  Some last minute shenanigans changed a plan from Dale E. driving his Jeep over to Richmond in order to pick up Ron & Michelle and AE after they got a ride in the B-17 from Kokomo over to there.  Instead, we added in Jerry Keller and Jon Tharp, and they rode over in the B-17, and I took the Cheyenne over to pick them up.  It was still IFR, so I got the practice of shooting an RNAV approach into there, and an ILS back into Kokomo.  I needed that, so much time goes by before I fly that plane again, that I get all rusty, and then my yearly check out is coming up again.  Last time I was embarrassingly rusty during my checkout, and I swore that wouldn't happen again.  So I appreciated the trip too.  Also fortunately the ceilings were high enough that I didn't have to be right on my game.  I had safety margins and wiggle room. 

On the way into Richmond, I heard "Fortress" calling in on its approach.  It was ahead of me--I thought it would have landed already but I was a few minutes early.  The controller told me a B-17 was on the approach ahead of me and I may have to hold at a fix if I got to the fix before the Fortress cancelled.  Well, I slowed way down, and the Fortress canceled their approach as fast as they could, and I was able to come right in.  We worked well as a team there.  I enjoyed hearing them on the radio, and I enjoyed them hearing me on the radio.  We all sounded like professionals and it was...fun.

The crew I picked up were excited to get to fly in a B-17 and a Cheyenne on the same day.  Said it was a good aviation day.  AE said that if Ron's grin got any bigger, he'd have been blinded.

One of the B-17 pilots seems to have decided I'm good people, which is nice, and he wants his wife to fly with me in the T-6.  She's also a B-17 pilot, and he's a T-6 instructor as well, but says that the two of them don't do well in a teaching/learning role.  So he'd like to send her to me to polish her up in the T-6.  That's a vote of confidence from a fellow warbird pilot.  :)  He also says he has a guy who he's trying to keep from killing himself, who bought a little L-2 to learn tailwheel in, and then has built a 3/4 scale P-51 Mustang which he is going to fly by himself off a 1/2 mile short strip.  No other high performance tailwheel time.  He was told this guy has "no stick and rudder skills".  Great.  He has told this guy to get with me and get 10 hours in a T-6 first before he kills himself in his Mustang.  So we'll see if the guy is willing or not.  He also asked me if I had any King Air 200 time.  I said no, just the Cheyenne 400 time.  The Cheyenne is faster and goes higher than the King Air 200 though, so whatever purpose he had for asking, which I am curious about what he had in mind, in theory I shouldn't have a problem with it.  One of the other crew there said I should come be a pilot for them.  They have to be gone for 2 weeks at a time a few times a year though, so I don't know.  I'm more leaning towards Collins Foundation, who is also looking for pilots, but need fighters the most.  I meet all their requirements except the "Good Buddy" clause.  I don't know anyone in there to vouch for me which hurts me.  Also, I am pretty sure Zazas and another guy named Rich are aiming for the same thing shortly here, for the same group, and I don't know how many slots they'd have open, but those two meet the "Good Buddy" clause way better than I.  They have all sorts of connections in there.  So...I don't know.  We'll see.  But I want to fly more, and bigger warbirds, and the ones that came to me haven't panned out, not a single one so far, so I'm going to go to some of them instead.

I have yet another new guy in the T-6, starting tomorrow, for his first flight with me.  He flies an RV and was recommended to me by Greg M, a test pilot and former Gauntlet Warbirds owner.  So that was a hefty recommendation for which I am appreciative.   Then next week I'm going to Fort Wayne to fly with yet another new guy in a T-6 he just purchased, and which was ironically delivered to him by...the B-17 pilot who wants me to fly with his wife in our T-6.  Sing along with me now folks, "It's a small world aaaafter all."  :)

Seriously, I don't know where the explosion of T-6 people came from.  It's good though.

Kaylee.

She says she's too busy to update her blog.  I said "Too busy for 16 days?"  She didn't answer me there.  ;)  She did call Steve today though, fairly emotional.  She said that one of their classes today was something about fathers.  An assignment of theirs was to talk about their fathers and the impact they've had on their lives.  She was almost in tears on the phone, telling Steve how many people had such awful stories, and such a negative impact, and how grateful she was for the "amazing parents" she has.  She has Steve's pocket knife with her out there, and she talked about how he was always a protector for her, always looking out for her in every way, etc.  She just wanted to let him know how much she loved and appreciated him.  It meant a lot to him, and her, and me.  We're grateful she's made it to this phase of her life and she knows that she is loved, and appreciated, and supported, and I think it's good that she doesn't take it for granted, but sees that it isn't always the norm out there, sadly, but that her parents are on her side, 100%.  (And so are her grandparents, and so are her aunts & uncles, and more than one airport bum out here, for that matter!)

Now...I have another new Discovery Flight in the morning, and then the next new T-6 guy.  If I'm lucky I may get lunch for the first time all week, too.  And dinner before 9 pm!  What a thought!  ;)

Taxiing past the B-17 in a T-6

Charlie in the T-6

Me in the back of JP's T-6 at Oshkosh.  I didn't "count" this one as a T-6 I've been in because I wasn't instructing nor flying it myself, just riding.  So it doesn't count.

A rainbow in a rain shower on the way home from ARR.  I hate how hard it is to get a good rainbow picture.

Wicked gust front moving through.  Look at the wind sock down there, and that sky.  Gorgeous. And a good time to be on the ground.

Our hangar last night, with the sunset, the B-17 guys had gone home, the place was mostly cleaned up, and getting ready to head home.

It's About Food

I was today years old when I learned that it's pronounced "Mick -a-langelo" and not "Michael-angelo".  Unless CBS Sunday morning is mis-pronouncing his name, which I highly doubt.   Learn something new every day.  ;)

Kaylee and her friends went on a road trip this weekend.  They left Friday after duties were done, and drove over 7 hours up to...Canada.  They started in Salem, went up to Seattle, then went up the coast there.  They have to be back to school by this afternoon, so it's a long drive and a quick trip, but an adventure none-the-less.  I'm glad she's able to go explore and seek!

Yesterday was a fun aviation day.  Steve and I both had a little trouble getting going, so we ran a little later than intended, but oh well.  We took the T-6 into Noblesville for their fly-in pancake breakfast first. The proceeds go to Young Eagles, scholarships, etc., and it's always kind of the who's who around.  Everybody you know in aviation shows up at some point if they can.  It's kind of fun. I wish our BBQ Bash would be that way too, although I'm not sure we have the room at Glenndale for that kind of traffic, come to think of it.  :)  I landed after a 4-ship of Stearman, which was a nice view.  People came over to check out the plane, and I felt a little bad deserting them, but I really wanted my pancakes and they were about done serving by then, so I had to go.  ;)  It was fun running into so many people though, that I hadn't seen in awhile.

From there we were supposed to head to Westfield's brat lunch fly-in to give T-6 and PT-26 rides.  I fired up the T-6, and then sat on the ground and waited for probably a good 10 minutes while a set of biplanes took off and beat up the pattern over and over doing low passes.  It got annoying after awhile, actually, and one of them is going to get himself in trouble if he's not careful.  He was yanking it up really hard, getting slow, high angle of attack, low to the ground.   That's the guy who is going to kill himself one of these days being "cool".  He doesn't get you can do a nice pull up with plenty of energy and still look good without taking it to the edge of an accelerated stall.  Anyway.  He didn't run out of luck today, at least.

Because those guys did so much of that, when it was time for me to takeoff, I decided not to do a farewell pass like I usually did.  Instead, I just took off from 27, kept it down reasonably low, pulled up the gear, then flew by the crowd with the prop all the way up, making some noise, then did a nice safe but steep pull-up from there, departing the area.  Seemed like the best way to make noise and announce your departure without adding to the pattern chaos low pass business that had been going on. 

Weather was moving in.  I could see it from the air coming into Westfield.  As I was landing, the PT-26 was taking off and running home.  So the two PT rides I was supposed to give apparently were not happening.  They didn't even expect me to land or stay, but we did land and stay for about 20 minutes, before I had to bug out of there and beat the weather.  We talked to a few people, and then Steve stayed behind to ride home with AE, and I took off, did one rather aggressive farewell pass below, then ran back home.  I got the T-6 put away and then not too long after that, the skies opened up for a nice big rain dump.  The worst part was that the weather cleared off and was beautiful the rest of the day.  So the only time it was bad, was during poor Westfield's fly-in.  Which stinks for them.  :(

Steve, AE, Nathan and I went to Outback for dinner last night, and ended the day on a good food note.  We've got another busy month, with students all over the place, and the Marion Fly-In coming up in a couple weeks, then the Grissom Air Show, then the BBQ Bash.  So, lots to get ready for.

Tomorrow it's back to T-6 training with Charlie.

Steve's staring at someone through his camera as we go by.  :)

I like this one.  Gear up on takeoff.

Kevin, me, Nathan, Steve, Andrew

I'm waving at someone after landing. Probably a small child. 

Lots of folks like to look in the T-6

The biplanes tearing it up.

Mike Mahoney from Marion made up this model on his own. I thought it turned out neat.

Jodie (left) is a pilot and mechanic. Juliette (center) is a post-solo Private student. Jacenta (right) is a pre-solo Private student.

Me on takeoff back there.

Why it was good to be back inside.

On the beach

Of course she went past that point anyway.  Because that's what we do.

Tired

Yesterday was one long day.  I started off out at the airport by 8:30 am, and I got home for good at midnight.  In that, I flew with one scared wife trying to overcome her fear of flying by flying with me, then a guy who has 25 hours in a tailwheel and can't even do a takeoff properly yet, whose instructor is having me give it a try.  Followed by stalls in the Harvard with the guy from N. Indiana.  Then a Discovery Flight with a young man while his dad was also up flying.  He told me that it was life-changing for him.  He was lit up pretty good, and I have no doubt he'll start in on lessons next year, as he said he would.  Last but not least was a night cross country to Danville, Illinois, from which I got home at midnight.  Long day, and actually today I'm pretty tired.  Fortunately I only had one flight today, thanks to the fog all the way past lunch.  So that actually helped.

I saw this today in the CAF WASP newsletter, and I thought... "Huh.  She is?"  All we can come with is maybe they meant the first fully paying squad member, if she is.  I'm a WASP squadron member female pilot who flew Nella.  Last year.  It's kind of like when they did a CAF magazine on "women in the CAF" and had pictures of all the ladies who sell rides and the couple of female pilots they have in the organization--but didn't include me, who was the only female instructor and check pilot they had in the organization.  In neither case am I seeking out accolades or publicity.  But when I'm in a bad mood, it annoys me to be completely dismissed, too.  It feel like the CAF is a dismissive boyfriend taking advantage without caring if you stay or not and only going out in public with the the most attractive option while leaving the other in the wings just in case they get desperate.  I'd like to find an organization that I can help, keep the history going, keep the planes flying, keep veterans flying in it, and who will actually appreciate that I'm even there.  It's a little counter-intuitive, that I say I'm not looking for credit, but feel like leaving because I'm not getting credit.  But it's not that.  I like keeping the planes flying anyway, and if they never did a single news clip on it or pilots in it or whatever, I'd be totally fine with that. Perfectly happy. Don't need it. But being left out a few times in a row of something that I should have been a part of if they are telling a particular story, that IS annoying.  And the below is just untrue, like I didn't exist.  She's more active, flying the plane around to events, so that's great that a woman pilot is finally doing that in the WASP airplane.  I live too far away to be able to, so I'm glad she can.  I am also grateful that I had the opportunity to fly a WASP plane at Sweetwater, Texas, where the WASP learned to fly and broke ground.  I am grateful I had the experience of that history, and of being able to participate in the documentary they did.  That was a special thing to be a part of.

Mountain Mama

I was so tired yesterday that I actually just went to bed around 10 pm.  That's super early for me, but it's a good thing, because at 1:40 a.m. our power went out thanks to a huge line of noisy and bad thunderstorms.  Our bedroom fan kicked off, and the house was dead quiet.  I assumed the power stayed out, but at some point it kicked back on and I didn't know it, but still didn't have the fan on in the room, so I was mostly awake from 1:40 on.  My alarm went off at 4:45 a.m. and boy did I not want it to.

There was weather I'd been watching from the day before, partly the weather that went through and took out our power.  When I got up, the wad was still there, but the trend was for it dissipating, and the forecast wasn't bad.  So I got ready, got out to the airport by 5:45 (yeah), we launched at 6 am, and as we were climbing out, saw that the trend had reversed, and the weather was now back to big, and growing bigger.  I couldn't go south around it, couldn't go through it, and couldn't go over it.  To the north I'd have ended up in Pittsburgh.  So...we landed in Ohio just at the edge of it, shot an ILS in, which the controller messed up big time on vectors, blowing us through it and dumping us on it, but that's another story.  Anyway, landed there and waited about two hours.  After it had moved far enough along, we took back off and headed for W. Virginia.  The way there was clear, but low ceilings had moved into the mountains.  So we ended up having to shoot an RNAV approach down to minimums into this strip on a mountain.  One side has a big drop off, the other side has little mountains off the end.  As we broke out of the clouds and came down, there was a mountain right off my right wing on landing.  Sure wouldn't want to mess up on that approach. 

The airport courtesy car was broken.  They are in the middle of nowhere, and nobody delivered up there.  I asked the FBO guy if there was a way to get lunch, and he said no.  Well, we were going to be there until 4 pm or so.  No uber.  Nada.  So I'd packed my customary peanut butter crackers, which I enjoyed, and a Coke Zero, and some water, and some jelly beans.  And that's what I had to eat since I had a bowl of cereal for dinner at 6 pm the night before.  When D came back, I asked him to bring me food, and by the time he got there, I was almost sick to my stomach.  It was hot, no air conditioning, there was one chair, which smelled, there was no computer, but at least I had my iPad.  I couldn't sleep because...one chair in a tiny room where everybody goes by and in and out.  The flight home I ate the Wendy's D brought, and my stomach decided it was unhappy with that, and I just didn't feel good all the way home.   Finally now a few hours later my system settled down and got more agreeable.  The weather was good for the trip home, fortunately.

A funny thing was that D was supposed to meet his wife at his pastor's house for dinner at 6:10 pm.  He was running late, and about in a panic over it.  He pointed the nose down and dove for the runway like nobody's business, hopped out of the plane, threw his stuff in the truck, and was gone.  Stopping for food made him later, but flying home with cranky un-fed me was just as unpleasant a thought to him as being later for his cranky wife.  ;)

Kaylee sent me this today to make me jealous of her chocolate macaroons.

Sunrise and Storms

Sunrise and storms from a distance.

Pattern

Today was pattern day.  We were both up early today because the cleaning people were going to be here sometime between 8 and 9 am.  I don't like that, I wish it would be 9 am.  Otherwise I get up extra early to be ready to sit there and wait for them to arrive.  I don't want to get up early.  But the house looks and smells good.  It hadn't gotten very dirty in the last month.  With Kaylee gone, there is a lot less clutter around, for sure, but Steve says not to tell her that.  lol

Starting at 9:30 am, I met with a B-777 pilot who was giddy about flying the T-6.  It was his first radial engine experience, first T-6 experience.  He absolutely loved it.  We spent some time on the ground going over the systems and procedures, then went into the cockpit and went over where everything was and how it worked, I stood there while he fired it up, then I buckled in and away we went.  The ceilings were too low for much, so we did turns, steep turns and slow flight, then came in for pattern work.  Three points, wheel landings, and go-arounds.  We broke for lunch, came back and flew again.  Total was 3.3 hours, which is quite a bit of pattern work for one day.  He was ready to keep going, but he was starting to make mistakes he hadn't made before, and I was getting tired too.  I don't want to lose focus either, so I called it there.  He was almost like "Aw, mom, do I have to?"  :D

Right after him I had another fellow.  Some days you're the bug and some days you're the windshield.  Today he was the bug, poor guy, and the windshield definitely won.  I cut that one short as it was doing more harm than good today.  At one point he pulled the power mostly out right after takeoff while we're still over the runway and not very high up.  I calmly asked him to please leave his power all the way in, and he was shocked, had no idea he'd even done it or why.  Just one of those days. It really was the tale of two different people.  One flight focused, doing most everything right, the next flight skipping items on the checklist, forgetting how to take off properly, wandering around on the pattern, not responding to directions like "power back" after three reminders and probably 7-8 seconds going by, etc.  The first guy needs to show up at the airport and leave the second guy back at home.  ;)

Dinner was a bowl of cereal, and I need to go to bed early as I have a 4:45 a.m. wake-up call for West Virginia tomorrow.  The weather right now isn't looking so great.  There's a tornado watch until 4 am, and I assume all that weather will continue traveling in between me and W. Virginia.  So...we'll have to see what we get here.  In the meantime, I'm already beat, so going to bed early won't be a problem for me for once.  It's 9:27 pm and I'm ready to wash my face and head in shortly, believe it or not.

Charlie flying the T-6

Coming around final

He & I.

Man

I'm getting home really late most nights, and just trying to catch up from there.  I've been perpetually tired, too, so that doesn't help.  Steve is hopping too. Our schedules are so full that we have people wanting to fly and not enough instructors to take them all...and our Sheridan instructor is going to be gone for about 2 months, in the middle of our busiest flying season, so we're supposed to take on all his students too.  And he's busy.  I'm not quite sure how we're going to go about this, especially since we also have new people still signing up.  Three this week.  Of course it calms down in the winter, but holy hopping, Batman!

So that's why I haven't updated my blog.  Besides, most of it will bore you anyway.  I don't have much Kaylee news.  She called and talked to me for over an hour a few days ago, and is a little tired and misses us a little, but is doing well.  She's excited about Thailand.  I wonder if she knows they have squatty potties, but I haven't asked her.  ;)  She said she's learning a lot of new things about the Bible, some she didn't believe before, but she always does her own research before she just jumps in and believes what they're telling her.  I told her I was glad to hear that.  She asked me how I believed on some of it, and we were fairly close most of the time.  I think she was happy to hear that.  She wishes we'd come visit her, but it's hugely expensive and difficult to get out to Oregon and stay.  And...we're swamped as is.

Part of the swamped is that I've gotten a bunch of people set up to do T-6 training all of a sudden.  I've got one excited guy starting tomorrow, flying twice a day for at least three days coming up here.  The Harvard guy coming back to do stalls on Wednesday and finish up.  And then a new guy just contacted us, and he is transitioning from a Stearman, so I bet he has no trouble.  It's all good, but man those T-6 training flights wear me out.  They're a lot of work, and focus, and responsibility.  It's not like a Cub flight, or a 172 flight.  It takes it out of me and I honestly find it a little stressful.  Maybe it will be less so as I do more and more, but for now it just is.

Back to "what we did this day" since I last posted.

Thursday, the thing of note was sitting in an airplane with a pilot's wife, on the ground.  She's scared to death of flying, but wants to overcome it both for herself and for him.  So she's willing to go up with me and learn.  So Thursday was super windy and bumpy, and I said "how about we sit in the plane and just learn what everything is and how it works, first", so that's what we did.  She got tears in her eyes, she kept saying how bad of a student she was going to be, and I said I disagreed, and that she wasn't some 18 year old Top Gun wanna-be, and that I was on her side, no judgment.  She's going to have a hard time these first few flights, she's so scared.  So keep her in your prayers.  We go up for the first time next Wednesday.

Thursday night I had a night flight with a guy heading to college, who needed his Private done before he went, but like a bunch of young guys like that, procrastinated until the last minute, and now can't get it all done.  He did a good job with the night takeoffs and landings.  But he didn't have his written done, didn't have his requirements met, didn't have the oral prep ready to go, and then wants us all to panic and get it done for him.  I flew with him, but today his instructor (Steve C) basically told him this wasn't happening.  And if he doesn't have it done, it messes him up for entering college, and he has to start over there, loses a bunch of money and a full semester, etc.  He and his parents will probably be mad at us, but he's the one who didn't show up, didn't start working on it, and didn't do his written (still hasn't taken it for the record, and his checkride was scheduled for 4 days from now).  We told him ahead of time.  He didn't take it seriously.

Friday I took my friend and student Peg up for a fun flight in the Cub.  The owner will be back the end of August, so I won't be able to just go fly it whenever any more.  Probably won't be able to fly it much at all.  So I will take it up a couple more times here before he gets back, and I wanted to take her up in it too.  She loved it, and we had a good time.  I had students until 7 pm, and then I went out to AE's house and met up with Steve and Kenny, and we had a big burn pile fire.  Old brush, chopped up dead wood, etc.  The flames hit the high branches on nearby trees.  It's an amazing fire.  We sat out there in lawn chairs with beverages and snacks and watched the fire burn down, and moved closer as it got lower.  We all had to back up and move the vehicles to start with, to avoid peeling paint and burning off eyebrows.  ;)  By the end of the night we were fairly close to the edge of the pile, which was still a good 6' in diameter.  Huge.  Enjoyable way to spend the late evening.  I came home before Steve, and crashed asleep, didn't even hear him come in.

Saturday I was supposed to do a formation fly-over in Ohio.  Originally they were going to pay for our fuel.  That fell through.  It would have cost me about 130 gallons of fuel to do.  So, I passed on it.  Instead, Steve, AE and I took the Aerostar over to Muncie and had lunch.  Steve wanted to do the flying, so he flew us over there from the right seat.  I had this big ole taco salad with a huge crispy bowl, and even though I didn't eat the whole thing, I was stuffed.  It was good.  I flew us home while Steve enjoyed a food coma.  I had a student, and we did some other work, and then the three of us decided to fly over to Rensselaer, pick up the courtesy car, and drive into town to eat at the "Farmhouse Restaurant" at Fair Oaks Farms.  It's an amazing place, with a fantastic cheese platter for an appetizer of things like smoked baby swiss, all of which they make there on field.  All dairy products and meat products are theirs.  Steve got a 32 oz. "Cowboy" Ribeye, bone in, huuuuge.  Huge.  I got an 8 oz fillet.  The food was amazing.  After our cheese plate and fresh made cornbread with jalapeno hints in it and steak and potatoes and vegetables (all grown and made there), for dessert I had a dark chocolate and raspberry bread pudding with butter pecan ice cream (also made there).  We rolled out of there wishing we had worn bigger fat pants.  We get back to Rensselaer, take off, and I fly us home.  Hangar door is open, I am pushing away the Aerostar, and AE says "Uh oh."  He still had the courtesy car keys with him.  Oops!  He offered to drive them back tomorrow, but we didn't want to not have the keys there overnight or half of Sunday, either.  So I sent AE home, and Steve and I took back off and flew back to Rensselaer.  He wanted to do the work, so he flew both legs, and did one of his first night landings in ages.  The first one sneaked up on him, though it turned out all right, but by the second one the sight picture was more dialed in.   We got home late, of course.

Sunday.  I was up by 8 am to take the Cheyenne to Aurora with John R, pick up his 421, fly the Cheyenne to Muncie for repairs, be picked up by John in the 421, and back home.  It was a good plan, because I need some currency in that airplane too before our annual checkout, and I needed a ride home from Muncie.  I pull out the Cheyenne, and we wait for a wad of weather that was over in Aurora.  And wait.  And instead of 10 am, we leave closer to 11:15.  Well, we try to leave.  I am careful, I use the checklist, it's been awhile.  Starts up great, taxi out, line up on the runway, props up, flaps set, power to 30% and rolling...while it's aggressively trying to go off to the right side of the runway.  I pull the power to idle, get it back under control.  I hadn't held the brakes, because the brakes are groaning and the nose is down, and it wants to roll, so I let it.  Well, that's why you hold the brakes.  I try again, and the right engine isn't getting any power.  I stop and pull the throttles back into reverse and out a couple times.  Doesn't help.  I pull off the runway, call Grissom and tell them I need a minute.  They hold my clearance.  I run the checklist again, look at everything, cycle the props and the throttles in and out of beta again.  Nothing.  I try to call Nathan, but he's busy.  So I park the plane, put it away, and John and I pull out his Bonanza, and we fly to Aurora in his Bo.  Get there, pick up the 421, and I fly the 421 home right out of annual.  It has four EGTs and CHTs that are flashing redline, which isn't good, but they're obviously probes.  It's been awhile since I flew that, too, but I got the avionics figured out and got it back to Kokomo all right.  He's annoyed because they were supposed to fix that issue and didn't.  Nathan got back to me with a couple suggestions, so I pull the Cheyenne back out, fire it up, get out to the runway, and even without doing anything different, I didn't have a problem.  Torque came up, so I took off and did a once around the patch-er.  Texted Nathan that it's working, and he says 'Deliver it'.  So I landed so John could come get me at Muncie (he was with me), and then took right back off for Muncie.  Get to Muncie and somebody has me check a couple things, which were normal, and then John flies me home in the Bo.  By now it's 3 pm.  I haven't eaten a thing since that huge meal last night.  I didn't intend on eating a lot today, but I did intend on eating SOMETHING.  I was starved and hot and sweaty and tired and I didn't get home until about 4 pm.  That was a long day for what should have been a couple hours at most.  But at least the jobs all got done, even if I did bug Nathan with a few too many texts on his day off.  lol

I tried to take a nap, but as usual, as soon as I close my eyes, someone calls Steve or Steve calls someone.  I could circumnavigate that by going into the bedroom, but lying in bed seems like a much more serious way of taking a quick nap. ;)

So, that's what we've been up to these last few days.  Still plugging.

Kokomo at night from a 172

Cub at Glenndale

With Peg 

Sunset by the fire burn pit

AE lights it up

Steve, Kenny, AE, me, and one big blaze

As it fades out

The moon and the fire around the trees

AE rounding up the coals

Steve with his 32 oz. Cowboy Steak

One big steak

The big bone steak carnage

The Aerostar on the ramp at Rensellaer 

Taxiing back in at Kokomo

Kokomo at night from the Aerostar

Lights in the prop arc

The 421 set-up in the air

Me in the 421.  I look tired because I am.  ;)