KayJo

I flew with my tailwheel lady today. She won the Ladies Taildraggers scholarship for a tailwheel endorsement, and is about 4 hours into training.   She told me about an examiner she had for Private, that she kicked out of her airplane and that almost made her quit flying.  Unfortunately we have someone using him for the first time for a Sport Pilot certificate, and he's not a strong candidate.  We'll have to see how this goes, but I have a bad feeling about it.  He's not my student, but I feel bad for his instructor.

My next flight was with someone who couldn't get their act together, just had a bad day all around, and didn't seem to care that they pretty much wasted that flight.  Didn't have the flight plan ready to go when we needed to leave, didn't have the plane preflighted, we only had it for 90 minutes anyway.  Didn't hold any kind of heading or altitude, just basically wandered all over the place.  And wants to be a professional pilot.  And hasn't started ground lessons yet.  And hasn't gotten medical issues covered.  Better get his act in gear if he actually wants to do this.

In another 3.5 hours, I'll break 11,000 hours total time.  I had 93 hours last month, and 19 so far in these first 12 days of this month, with the BBQ Bash coming up, but prior to that my flying had really been slower.  Each year I seem to have fewer hours, but I'm mostly okay with that.  Corporate trips are way down from what they used to be, and we have two more instructors now to help me take the load off of instructing.  So so far this year I only have 370 hours.  I only have three more months to get 130 more hours to at least break 500 for the year.  ;)  But my schedule is still booked up most days until dark, for now.  And my T-6 hours are way up this season too, with a lot more training.  I just had another guy contact me about doing T-6 training.  They're coming out of the woodwork.  That's a good thing.

Kaylee just called me, and she is getting ready to try to get some sleep before leaving for Thailand.  They'll have quite a journey to get there.  She somehow has one of the lightest packs in her group--my girl who overpacked for every trip, camp, Oshkosh, all of it, by far, has the 2nd lightest pack in her group.  This has flummoxed both Steve and me.  ;)  She's ready to go, looking forward to it, a little nervous.  She got several cards today, which was perfect timing, right before she left.  She's a little concerned about the Squatty Potties, as she should be.  ;)  But she called me and talked for awhile, before talking for a few minutes to Steve.  Then she texted me that I looked pretty in my Instagram post, which was sweet.  It's weird to think that at 7 am my time tomorrow morning, she will be boarding her first flight towards Thailand.  *sniff*  We're not sure how well she'll be able to communicate from over there yet.  She also says they hope they can get into Laos and China for a day while there.  I pray that all goes well, their missions are accomplished, they make a difference, and that the changes in her life are positive and enriching.