Two Pilots & an LSW: 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.