My first two people of the day canceled their flights. One had a migraine (THAT I was sorry for, and they're Sport Pilot so no medical to worry about), and the other had other things to do. I still had three other flights today. One with a new guy who I made super nervous. I was doing a check flight to see if he would be ready to solo, and he's someone else's student, and they wanted my input. So of course the poor guy is nervous. I also worked in the pattern with someone else. I was then picked up at Kokomo in a Toga and taken to Huntington to pick up a T-6 there to bring back to Kokomo for a couple weeks. My takeoff felt funny but I couldn't put my finger on it, it just wasn't my usual smooth takeoff. I'm flying along, and I get most of the way home before I realize that I can't see over the nose of the airplane in level flight. I reach down and stand up a bit on the floorboards and hit the lever, and my seat shoots way up. That thing had been down low, maybe about as low as it gets. No wonder my takeoff was sloppy, I couldn't really see over the nose, and I was just using peripheral to stay on the more narrow runway. I was amazed at how high up I felt after that. I could *see*. :D I felt like a dork though.
I got about 10 miles from home when I noticed a light in the cockpit I hadn't seen on before. I squint and look closer at it, and it's a "chip detector" light. I felt my adrenaline spike, because that's not a good thing. It means there is some kind of debris/metal detected that could mean an imminent engine failure. But when I pushed on the light, it got brighter than it was, so I couldn't tell if it was ON on, or just illuminated but not on, if you know what I mean. There wasn't a closer airport to land at, so I just kept going towards Kokomo. I tightened up all my seatbelts, locked my shoulder harness belt in case I had to do an off field landing, so I wouldn't end up in the panel, and started watching fields. There are lots of fields in central Indiana. I got to Kokomo and just did a straight in final for the runway, and I didn't mess with my power hardly at all until I was pulling it back to land. So now that's something for them to check out. Is it a legit light (which would be very bad for the owner) or not. Obviously I sure hope not. An engine overhaul right now would stink for him. If it IS legit, I'm grateful it held on long enough for me to land on a runway instead of a field. That would require so much more effort to get the plane out of. And there are a lot of spiders in crops fields. :)
So that was my adventure for the day. Sweating from heat, sweating some more from heat, sweating from wondering if my engine was going to take a dump, in a plane I'd rather not have to dead stick if I don't have to, and sweating from more heat/flying right afterwards, followed by waiting in line for 20 minutes to get a turtle pecan chocolate blizzard mini size. Kaylee isn't here, Steve is out to dinner with AE, and I'm just catching up things like this and my logbook. And then I need to study some more. There are five potential issues with the propeller on the Twin Beech and you need to know what each of them looks like, why it's bad, and what to do about it. I'm getting close on that. And I think I understand what worm gear is now too by the way. Ty Lingo explained it to me in a way I actually understood while I was complaining about it. lol I'm not feeling too bad about this. Still nervous about what will be asked of me or what I won't know, but...better.
Me with a hairnado
The T-6 in a hangar for now. Steve & Jon moved it to Nathan's hangar next.
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