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.
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