I was out there at 8:30 am to fly with the young lady I'm getting real close to soloing. We did my last few flights stuff. Extra go-arounds, balloon/bounce recovery using power, etc. I'd say one to two more flights and I may send her off. That'll be fun.
My T-6 guy was waiting on me when I got done, so we pulled out all the airplanes, and he and I went up in Checkertail. He wants to fly it from the back, so that makes it extra easy and relaxing for me, just riding around in the front while someone else does all the work. We flew for an hour, and then I fired up the Twin Beech about a dozen times. I lost track how many times, but considering how much you have to wobble pump and prime each engine every time to start it, I actually bruised my thumb by the time we were done. We're trying to fix the vacuum pump, ended up with a fuel pressure problem, fixed that, went back to work on the vacuum pump, and all in all it took in all seriousness 7 or 8 start ups. That's 15-17 primer strokes on the right engine, about 8-9 on the left engine, and wobbling up fuel pressure in between most each of the strokes. 7-8 times. That was a lot of work, man!
Steve and I ran into Greentown to deliver a sleeping bag to Meredith's family for her upcoming trip, and we stopped at Subway for lunch. Wore our masks inside like good people, even though we were more than 6' away from anyone else, took it off when we sat down. I refused to follow the directive to get a new cup if you wanted a refill though. What a pointless waste. It's not like we're licking the outside of our cups. They have lids. You peel off the lid, push the cup against the drink dispenser bar. Kind of hard to get the covid from this action. Besides, all the cups are stacked up in a stack for everyone who goes by to touch, grab, breathe on, etc. Gimme a break.
When we got back, I finished up the rest of the test runs on the Beech, and then hopped into the back seat of the C-172, with a large fellow who hadn't flown in years up front, with full fuel, three of us, on a very high density altitude day, and Jerry in the right seat. You can see that Jerry is one of the few people I trust to get in the back of an airplane with. :) We were on our way to Marion for me to pick up the T-6. I flew it back to Kokomo, got it situated and ready to go, topped off with fuel, etc., and then in about 20 minutes the owner was there and ready to go.
It was ten days short of being one year ago that I last flew that plane with the owner, and ended up in some hot water. I think we were both having some flashbacks to start with. He was nervous. I wasn't nervous but I was...alert. We talked, we took it slowly, I discussed expectations and what we were going to do, and we went out and just flew around a bit, ran through the landing procedures in the air first, came in and did one landing, full stop, taxi back, take off, leave the pattern and fly for a minute, and we spent a good amount of time just doing that. He did well. And we had a good time. We broke the bad juju. So the first time we ever flew the plane together, we had the hydraulic line burst, uncertain the gear was locked because he couldn't tell if the pins were in and I can't see from the back seat, hydraulic fluid all over, soaking my feet, making it so I couldn't get out of the airplane, no flap landing, and a bad time landing where we ended up in a bit of a wrestling match, and a very, v e r y close call to a cartwheel. The second time I flew the plane, I was bringing it from Huntington to Kokomo after its extended annual where it had a lot of things fixed that needed fixed. That's the flight where I got about 10 miles from home when the chip light came on. Which could mean your engine could fail at any second, debris, usually metal, detected. But that didn't happen, that ended up being a false alarm (thank goodness). I had a few uneventful flights after that, taking it to Marion and back by myself, flying it with Steve once to test out a right turning tendency after the annual. So this flight was the real test, back in the plane with the owner, who is a super nice guy, and I enjoy his company, and flying with him. And I'm very grateful it was an uneventful, pleasant, nothing went wrong flight, and that he did such a nice job with it after all this time.
That was the last flight of the day, and I was pretty beat. I stopped at Meijer with my sweaty, sticky self, to pick up some food, came home and had eggs for dinner, because I can, and because we had a lot of extra eggs from NOshkosh and we've been eating on them. Which is fine, I like eggs. lol
I guess I'm a little worried about Kaylee because I haven't heard from her, and when I texted her she didn't answer, and I know she had a bad day yesterday. But I'm hoping she's just busy with friends or settling in doing homework or whatever, but doing okay.
Checkertail--Army Air Corps
Two of Jon's granddaughters who came to work with him today.
Three of us red-headed ladies in the Twin Beech. They're more red than me. :)
A view you don't see often. Me in the back.
The guy in the front left? I soloed him in like 1997 and he became a CFI. (Hasn't flown for a decade).
The guy in the front left? I soloed him in like 1997 and he became a CFI. (Hasn't flown for a decade).
Navy, SNJ
Larry up front flying.
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