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.
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