Next up we had the Biplane fly-in stuff happening. I went out to Glenndale, and met up with a guy who flew his from Texas, one who flew his from Ohio, and two locals. We had dinner, got t-shirts for the occasion, there was some flying going on, etc.
Saturday it rained, and rained. I had an 11:30 am and it quit raining long enough to do that, but the bi-plane fly-in was done. It rained so hard that Glenndale flooded. Later that afternoon it rained some more, and then some more again. I was supposed to go to Atlanta. There were storms that kept rolling through Kokomo, a large line of storms mid-way in Kentucky/Tennessee that kept firing up all day, and another line of storms in the Atlanta area that kept generating and rolling through. It wasn't just one line of storms to deal with, it was three lines, and none of them were super light. I spent hours working on a plan and a path and a timeline, and finally got it figured out. My plan, my back-up plan. Then the fellow asked if ti was going to be bumpy, and I said probably, yes. He asked if Sunday morning would be better. The forecast seemed to say so, so he said "Let's wait for Sunday". Cool
This morning I woke up at 6:30 am and looked at the weather, and find a big wad of storms in Kentucky/Tennessee that are forecast to get worse as the day progresses. Naturally! There were a few in Indiana as well, but nothing like Saturday, and Atlanta was clear. So it was still a better day than yesterday. We launched at 8:00 am, I immediately had to deviate around the first line, and then I spent the next hour very carefully planning my route through the wad down south. It is a little bit like being a weather whisperer sometimes. Left or right of that cell? Left through mostly rain, closer to the big mess, or to the right through some clear areas, but dotted with red cells that seem to be merging? Either way you can't see because you can't get above it, so you're in IMC. So I picked my path and evaluated it all the way up to it. It ended up being a good choice, I only got hit one time for 3 seconds flat of moderate rain and one bump, and the rest of the time we were in smooth air. It was a lot of work, but it went well. I was more concerned about the trip home as all this had time to solidify, grow, and move more into my path.
So I landed in Covington, GA, dropped off the lady, got full fuel, picked up a guy, and turned around and headed right back home as fast as I could. The later we waited, the more heat of the day, the worse the storms got.
I had two choices again. Go east, farther east than I'd like, and hit the gap I came through, which had filled in some, but was still good enough to get through. Or go west, farther west than I'd like, to the back side of the worst of the storms, where things kept firing up, but it wasn't in the middle of the wad, and you always had options/outs. So I took a huge deviation, and went west. The storms by then were really nasty. Red, hot pink on radar, with tops at 55,000' and hail. I gave that bad boy a wide berth. It took an extra 20 minutes or more to go all the way out of my way, but I was just glad the storms firing up behind the main wad were doing so in scattered enough fashion I could get around them before they all filled in. The rest of the flight was uneventful, and we landed to a hot, muggy, steamy, icky day. Nobody else was out and about either. It was too oppressive out there. It's supposed to be this way all week. Bleh.
Kaylee is in Ohio today visiting with a friend from her former camp over there. We haven't seen much of her all week. :)
Kaylee also had her second job interview today for Outback, and was hired. I don't know when she starts, but I assume soon. One thing she'd like to do with her money is spend $10/month on a gym membership in town. They have a place in Marion too where she'll be at school. She uses our treadmill a lot, and our weights, but she wants more equipment and more structure. So she's excited about earning her own money, and as a people person she's ready to have a job where she's around a lot of people. We all know that having a job isn't as much fun as you then can't go do things with your friends when they want to because you're...working...but, welcome to life. Childhood is over, hope you enjoyed it. You can have another when you get old. ;)
We will be leaving probably Friday to go to Nashville for Rania's wedding. Ann's been having some trouble, but I think we'll be able to manage the trip, and I know she wants to be there!
I think we're caught up now.
Just different views of the weather
The Six in the hangar
I dig the flag
After I broke out of the first round of weather. Sun shining always looks good.
Oh, and me sitting in a Baby Great Lakes airplane, which is way too small for me.
Like seriously.
Like seriously.
Lake Glenndale.
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