I haven't really stopped since first thing Monday morning. Right out of the gate I had a young lady in the 172. Then I flew with a guy in the T-6. I was up front, he was in the back, and we went up and worked on Commercial maneuvers. It went pretty well, actually. We figured out power settings and maneuver specifics and all sorts of stuff. Then I ran into the next plane, a Bonanza for an hour, "Pinch Hitter". Then I hopped right back into the blue T-6 and did more maneuvers and flying. We finished as the day was ending, spent some time on the ground going over everything, went to a late dinner, came home and I crashed. I woke back up at 5 am, and was out at the airport by 7 am. As I was pulling into the airport, the people coming to pick me up let me know they were running 45 minutes late. So that was nice. I sat in my car and watched the sun come up. When they got there, they put me in the back seat of a Cirrus. At least I could reach the chute. ;) Actually, the SR-22 is a lot nicer than the SR-20. Anyway. We get to Evansville, and I'm there to pick up a yellow T-6. The seller doesn't want to sell it. A woman's husband restored it beautifully, and a nephew flew it and put time on it. Neither wanted to see it go, both had tears in their eyes, and they stood there with cameras and video waiting for me to start up and fly away. Gee, I hope I get it started up right away the first time! No pressure! ;) Fortunately I did. They take pictures, I taxi down, take off, pull up the gear, look out the window, and there is oil everywhere on the right wing. I jump a little, scan the gauges, everything looks fine, and I figure it's blow-out oil, but man it's a lot of it. More than I normally see on a plane even if it's been sitting. I can't stand the thought of staring at that on an almost 2 hour flight and "hoping" for the best, so I tell Evansville tower that I need to return for a landing. They ask if I need any services, and I say no. I took off on Runway 18 and was cleared to land on it, and promptly turned and lined up with Runway 22. Brilliant. They cleared me to land on 22 since I was lined up on it. Runway 22 is really big, Runway 18 is much smaller. It just didn't stick out to me in time. Anyway, I land, taxi up, and the folks are there waiting to ask me what's wrong. I feel a little stupid, wish they weren't there, but I said I needed to check out all the oil. We wipe it all down, it ends up being nothing but blow-out oil, and I taxi back out for one more takeoff. But it was the right thing to do. It would have been hard to defend if I'd continued on a trip with that much oil coming out and I really DID have a bad leak or problem. Putting a brand newly acquired airplane I'd just promised to take good care of down in a field somewhere is not my idea of a good time. So I don't regret it even though I find it a little embarrassing.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. My landing back at Kalamazoo wasn't that great, but I'm down. The Cirrus guy flew me back to Kokomo. I ate the last half of my Mennonite sandwich from the day before, for lunch, at 2 pm. And then went flying in the other, blue T-6 for another hour and a half. More maneuvers. It was windy, gusty, bumpy. I actually hurt tonight, stiff and sore neck and shoulder. Leg. Oh, and I fell off the Cirrus step and scraped the daylights out of my shin, so that hurts too. I didn't have a very graceful day. I fell off an airplane, I didn't have very good landings, I had trouble on the radio (I couldn't hear it very well, but I also couldn't remember long instructions today at an unfamiliar airport, and I didn't have anything to write stuff down with), I lined up on the wrong runway, and all in all I wasn't my most impressive. But I got the jobs done safely, minus the scrape on my leg. ;)
I've now flown 12 different T-6s, and the 12th one had an autopilot on it. I let the autopilot fly for a little while, but that just isn't right. So I let the guy in the back seat fly us home instead. That's better. ;)
Strapping in to the SNJ in Evansville
The SNJ at Kokomo with the sun going down.
Parking on the ramp for the night
The sun coming up this morning on the silhouette of the T-6
Flying to Michigan in the Yellow T-6
Proof that the autopilot was on and the plane was flying by itself.
The first smoky start-up.
Just running.
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