Two Pilots & an LSW: Formating

Steve worked outside all day in the yard and the garage and the gardens, and some out at the airport in the hangar organizing too. I don't even know what all he got done, but I know he was tired, sore, and very pleased with his day's work. I know he got the hoses winterized, and vegetation trimmed, and...just a full day of outdoor work. His muscles are even yelling at him.

I had an interesting afternoon/evening. I went out to the airport, did some arranging of my own. I pulled out the Cheyenne, pulled out the 340, pulled out the T-6. I put away the 340, then put away the Cheyenne, and closed up the hangar. By then it was time to get the plane ready and take off, and I headed over my house, where I saw Steve working outside, and circled around him and gave him a big wing wag when I saw him waving his arms up at me. Hiiiiiii! :) From there I hopped over to Glenndale and said hi to Ron, Michelle, and Dennis at least. All of these things were on my way down to Indy Metro. I made an accidental basically perfect roll-on 3-point landing, and nobody saw it, which means I've wasted my one chance in awhile. ;)

Down at Metro I met up with Greg M and Tom McCord. Tom got out the Mustang, and Greg got set up in my back seat, and we did a brief and then a photo flight during the "golden hour". There were parts that didn't quite work out as well as hoped, like the takeoff and landing sequence, partially on me and partially on Greg, but he thinks we got some good photos in and seemed pleased. So I took off first, then swung around the pattern, called for Tom to start rolling, and then the goal was to swoop down past him a little and get some shots of him taking off. I was so low I had to lift up to be sure I was clearing the wind sock in my way, which was fine, and I shot past him a little too fast, which was not as fine. I thought he'd accelerate faster than that and outpace me quickly, but he didn't, and meanwhile, Greg was waiting to get the shots from the other side of the plane. He was facing backwards. We flew around and did a few circuits over the water and over some fall foliage trees. When coming back in to land, I followed him around the pattern, and this time stayed good and low with him while he landed. My gear horn is going off, I'm trying to slow way down as he's rolling out and stay with him, and I'm keeping an eye on the trees at the end down there. One had best pay attention when one is getting low, slow, and lower and slower. I then swung around the pattern and came in for my landing. I dropped off Greg and equipment, shook hands, and got some gas. I didn't want to get gas, but I was down low enough I wanted some before I headed back. The sun was going down, and I didn't want to get back in the total dark if at all possible. I'd also had a cylinder run rough during the flight a couple of times. So, daylight was preferable.

I took back off as the sun was close to the horizon, and then I was treated to the most magnificent sunset for that 15 minute flight. I mean, seriously. The whole sky was rose and golden and on fire. I couldn't whip out my phone and take my own photos of the Mustang off my wing or me off his, but when I was alone I whipped out my phone and took a ton of photos of the sunset. I'm going to post too many of them, but I couldn't decide too many to just leave out.

Also on the way home, someone got on the radio and asked me if I was still "up", and wanted to know if I still did "Bienniels" and "Checkrides". I don't do checkrides and biennnials are called Flight Reviews now, but yet. :) He said he needed one soon and I told him to contact me on the ground with details. I didn't even know who it was until I got home and he messaged me. Kind of funny.

So when I got back to Kokomo, landing at the perfect time where I could see the pins on the wings for landing without needing the flashlight, I then got to do the reverse. Open hangar door, pull out Cheyenne, pull out 340. Hook up and put away T-6, put away 340, put away Cheyenne, plug all the tugs in, put all the chocks back, hook up the oil drain system, close the door, head home. Takes a little time when you're by yourself. Still, a good day of flying, and it was worth it. It was nice to be up close and personal on a Mustang again.

The photographer did ask me if I'd be willing to do it at Oshkosh. I said we probably wouldn't take Checkertail up there and why, and he says he's not sure if Walt wants his plane used that way any more. So not sure if that'll work anyway. Plus those photo shoots are at the buttcrack of dawn, as in getting up at 4 am and getting all the way over to warbirds. Partly I want to because I love the view, and when I get to meet people it helps, at least as long as I do a decent job. Mostly I don't want to because this is my vacation and that's not very relaxing. But I'd be paid. And I'd get to fly off of all sorts of cool stuff. But...4 am. So...I don't know.

After I got back home tonight, two people had happened to see us flying around out at Metro and snagged photos. One was Jodie with her cellphone, which she posted as a story on Instagram, and the other was Trevor with his camera. He hasn't shared his photos yet, just a screen shot of the back of his camera, but I look forward to seeing what he got.

So here's what I got. Sunset galore. Beeeeeautiful.