Did I mention it was super hot again?
We had quite a few folks come out for breakfast, and the P-51 flew in with Tom McCord, and Larry and the Stearman, and Walt and the T-28, and RVs and taildraggers and the ramp was looking pretty good. Around 10:30 am, an 11-ship formation from the Red Star guys showed up, did two passes, landed, got gas, ate lunch with us. I was supposed to go up flying with them, but between you and me, I'm glad it didn't happen. When I came up to talk to them, only about two of them gave me the time of day. The others obviously didn't care, and me going flying with them would have been something they did because they were supposed to, not because they were actually interested in helping out or doing it. I even tried to put myself out, walk over to them at the planes, at the lunch tables, etc. They looked through me like I wasn't there. Fine by me. See ya. Their formations looked good and I was glad to have them fly in and provide some activity for our day though.
The reason I couldn't fly with them is because MBros needed me to fly a guy to Georgia, either Friday or Saturday. The problem was I was supposed to fly with Red Star then go over to Terre Haute and fly with a four-ship of T-6s over there on Friday, then be back for our steak dinner. Saturday all day I was supposed to be in Terre Haute. So I chose to ditch Red Star and lose out on Terre Haute for Friday so that I could have a full uninterrupted day in the Haute Saturday, and that ended up being the exact right decision.
I took the 340 and flew the gentleman back to Macon, Georgia. Just like the last two times I went down there, I had a line of thunderstorms, two actually, somewhere in Tennessee and Kentucky, that was bad on the way down and worse on the way home, making me do a lot of planning, deviating, etc. I kept it smooth for him, and he even slept back there for awhile. I dropped him off, got gas in the plane, spun around and headed back home as fast as I could. When I landed at Kokomo, I taxied in past our hangar, and there were about 80 people sitting in the hangar waving at me as I went by. Ha. I hopped out and someone had saved me a plate of steak dinner with the fixings, so we sat and ate and had some wine and dessert and relaxed and had a really nice evening. We ended that with a camp fire in between the hangars, looking at the satellites and stars again. I didn't stay super late this time though, because I wanted to download some photos, and I wanted to get to bed because of what an early morning and a big day was coming on Saturday.
So Friday didn't go totally as planned, but in a way it was better. 1) I didn't fly with Red Star which I think was a good thing considering how rusty I was and a 12 ship formation is a lot and they weren't that in to me so wouldn't have been very patient or helpful. 2) I had a job and got paid for it while still otherwise basically on vacation. 3) I still got my formation card done anyway on Saturday and my steak dinner eaten on Friday so I still accomplished everything I needed to. The event on Friday did go pretty well though. People showed up, food was eaten, a good time was had by all. :)
Also out of order on these photos, but this is Friday:
The end of the day at Sunset, the Champ getting pushed away for the night.
Hangar steak dinner
Thunderstorms on the way home close by
Little pop up cells all over
Kokomo
Me and my bad attitude
Steak dinner
My sucker hole, or gap in between storms that I shot before it closed in.
They sent me directly over the top of Atlanta International both on the way there and the way home.
Thunderstorm cell on the way there
Red Stars taxiing in
Airplanes on the ramp for breakfast
A few shots of the formations
Breakfast
Sunrise at Kokomo
Steve being interviewed by somebody
People steak dinner
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