Two Pilots & an LSW: Yawn

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Yawn

I could've slept in this morning, so when did I wake up? Six. Yep. I had a flight in the Champ at Glenndale at 8:30 am. We mostly worked on takeoffs and landings, but it was the most relaxing part of the day. :)

I landed with her, and fortunately decided to run through McDonald's on my way out to the airport. What I thought I was doing was being flown to WI to pick up a T-6 and provide training in it back to Kalamazoo, then go home. What actually happened was a lot more involved than that. I'll shorten it up for you.

I land at Glenndale, drive to McDonald's, drive to Kokomo, where a guy is waiting for me in a Cirrus. I get flown to East Troy, Wisconsin in the Cirrus to pick up a T-6, and meet my student there. They didn't have the plane ready, so we filled it up, towed it over there, and it hadn't been test flown since the annual, and the aileron and rudder trim tabs needed checked. So he got up front, I climbed in back, we took off, and everything looked great. The landing back in there wasn't great. It's a skinny runway, with a downslope then an upslope, and he forced the tail down, which caused us to launch and be crooked. I grabbed it and saved it but it got my attention.

We flew from there to Kalamazoo, stopping because I noticed hydraulic fluid seeping out of something on the floor. Not another hydraulic problem... (It didn't end up being anything big).

At Kalamazoo, the owner wanted to take a ride, and wanted me to take his buddy for a ride, so I did that. Then we filled up with gas and the student and I went back up and flew for awhile off of a 60' wide 2700' long runway. And then off the long runway with a direct crosswind of 19 knots. Then we went up to Grand Rapids and landed there, got gas, got his keys out of an airplane where he'd left them, and came back to Kalamazoo. Three more takeoffs and landings there, and a go-around, and we put the T-6 away, and the jet, and moved the Cirrus, and then flew the Cirrus back to Kokomo to drop me off. We landed after 8 pm, more than 12 hours after I started this day.

I'm tired.

I tried his helmet, the sound canceling quit working. I had a roaring in my ears for hours, and I can still hear it. On the last flight I wore my Bose in the T-6. I'll have to keep working on it. I want a helmet in there, but I need to be able to hear and protect my hearing...

I'm going to bed now. At least I don't have to get up early!