Snowmagedden

Not really, more like normal winter, but we have gotten at least 5" with more coming.  It's pretty, from sitting in my living room, not trying to go anywhere.

I woke up at 2 am, wide awake.  Just played on my phone for an hour or two until I could get sleepy again.  Woke up at 4 am with a headache, and had to take something for it.  Got up at 9 or so and felt pretty good.  Went to lunch with Steve and Nathan and Chuck, and then I had to do the one thing I wish I didn't have to do.

I was out of eggs, and we eat a lot of eggs these days.  I needed eggs.  So I had to go to the store.  The day of a winter storm moving in. It was a mess in there, but people have sort of become sheep, myself included.  We all stood there in giant lines, quietly and compliantly, waiting our turn.   My cashier was flustered, so I smile at her and asked if she was ready to go home yet.  She laughed and said "It's been like this all day".  I've been a cashier over holidays at K-Mart, Meijer and Walgreens.  I know what it's like.  I cracked a joke and made her smile, and then took my stuff out to the car.  The line inside, I couldn't get a good picture of it because it was too extensive, and I had to sneak this as it was.  But the people waiting to check out went from the front of the store to the back wall of the store, and down the aisles.  It was a zoo.  All because I really wanted eggs.  So while I was there I picked up freezer foods and TP too.  

Stopping at Panera next for some soup for Ann and a salad for myself for dinner.  When I delivered her food, she wasn't feeling too well.  Sinuses that drained down and made her stomach upset, so she spent the day resting in her chair.  

Somewhere around 3 pm, my own head started in again.  I tried magnesium, oxygen, all the things, pain killers, and it just kept building until I ended up having to take the other half of the pill I took at 4 am.  It had gone away, and then came back.  My eyes are still watering and the weather is still bad, so I'm half afraid to go to bed and wake up with it again.  

Kaylee stopped by the house to trade cars with me, and she says she is doing well, keeping up in school okay, enjoying her time with friends.  She was in good spirits. 

Our drains seem to have a problem.  When she was taking a big shower, our drains started gurgling and things stopped draining.  That is bad because it was ALL the drains, toilets, sinks, not just hers.  Steve says that probably means it's down the line, where we have to call someone in.  Fortunately later in the day when no water was being used, it cleared up enough we could flush toilets and run water in the sink again, which gives us a little time, since it's now Saturday right when we start getting a winter storm.  

And now it snows, and snows, and snows...

Eyes

I decided to break these into two different days since I had lots of pictures I liked from yesterday.  

I got about 4 hours of sleep last night, according to my fitbit, and most of it was "restless".  I believe that. By 8 am the sun was in the room and I couldn't sleep anyway, so I got up, but I've had a headache from it all day.  I don't do well on low sleep any more.  Nope.  

Ann has a lot of sinus drainage, so I went over this morning to check her temperature (so far so good) and check on her.  Then I went over to the tax place to sign for our 1099s for everyone's taxes.  I then had an eye doc appointment at the Wal-Mark vision place...my last set of contacts were blurry for distance, and bad enough I couldn't read road signs.  So I went to see about that, for a free reconsultation.  They've always actually done a good job for me until this round.  I got there just early enough to grab Ann some more supplies and run them out to my car before going back in.  He looked over everything, and said my prescription had changed a fair amount, and we tried new contacts.  And then my right eye started doing that fogging over thing.  He didn't believe me about it in the past, so I told him about it again and had him look for himself.  He looked at it and said "that's oily", and says it's coming from my fingers or my make-up.  I told him it always happens the first day I wear a brand new contact, and then never again.  So how can I not change anything the other 30 days or more that I wear the same contacts and they NEVER film over again, but they do it EVERY single time I put in a new contact.  He still doesn't believe me, and told me it has to be from my makeup or fingers.  Even though I put them in without makeup on in the morning sometimes, and washed my hands today before I put them in, and it never happens any other time even if I don't wash my hands or do have on makeup.  So all day today, because he'd gotten rid of my old ones and given me these new ones, I couldn't keep my eyes clear.  Normally I only do one eye at a time so I can halfway see.  Today both eyes were filming over.  It didn't help my headache.  And I don't care what he says, though it does annoy the crap out of me that he thinks I'm an idiot and doesn't believe me at all, but this is some kind of reaction.  So I drove to the airport barely able to see, cleaned them, flew 32L to Sheridan barely able to see, got flown home, cleaned them, drove home and cleaned them and tried to take a nap because I'm not in good shape, they got a little better, I cleaned them again and went on my last flight of the day, and they weren't totally fogged over but they were still murky.  Got home from that flight and took them out for good tonight.  Hopefully tomorrow now they'll be clear.  I wish somebody believed me and knew what I could do to fix it.  I've tried different solutions and different contact brands.  Don't think there's much else I can do. 

Anyway, that was my day, all wrapped around contact, headache, and lack of sleep problems.  I did get other things done.  Billing, sending in receipts for MBros, laundry, logbook update, banking transfers and deposits, you know, stuff.  And two flights.  :)

Steve was up flying in the RG when I was up flying in the 172 and the other 172 was up, and the Champ, and a transient that was being rude, and the Wild's Super Decathlon.  We were all using 14 except for the transient Cirrus that kept doing instrument approaches on 32, head on to all of us.  All the way down.  Doofus...Steve's voice on the radio was so annoyed.  lol 

Sunset and the runway at OKK

Parked for the night.

Virginia

This was a much more pleasant trip than the other one would have been.  Thanks to the sleet and fog and bad icing, D drove to Indy International and took an airline flight out to Virginia instead.  The bad news is that because of their low ceilings, he ended up stranded in Atlanta overnight and past noon the next day.  It would have taken me less than 2 hours to get him there from Kokomo first thing in the morning, and we could have gotten in where they weren't even allowed to try.  Gotta love General Aviation.  Poor D lost that gamble.  ;)  

So around 1 pm D texted me that I should start heading that way.  No early morning, no rush, nooo problem.  I had a 75 knot direct tailwind all the way there and made it in just over an hour and a half.  I went up to FL210 to exercise the plane and the pressurization system mostly, and because I felt like picking up that tailwind.  I listened to tunes, and flew in the clear blue all the way there.  When I arrived, it was gusty, windy, almost a direct crosswind up to almost 30 knots.  I was #2 to land behind a jet.  Tower asked the jet how the conditions were, and the jet said "Welllll, it's a little sporty in that last 300', wind shifted around a lot."  Tower asked if I copied that, and I was like "Yup."  But that's just fun, it's not scary, like bad ice or bad thunderstorms, it's just entertaining.  ;)  I went to the FBO there, Signature, and they parked me 1/2 mile away from the front door, like a red-headed-step-child.  Of course I had propellers and they like the jets that pay their bills the most, so they had to leave their ramp wide open in case anyone actually important came in.  I get that.  :D  I was very careful to be sure they put 100LL in my plane and not jet fuel, considering I was the only prop there.  Of course I saw like 3 planes the whole time I was there, but still.  D ended up being delayed repeatedly, but I didn't know that, so I sat in the FBO, didn't go do anything, or get dinner or anything, and finally I sent him a text, and he didn't get back to me.  Eventually he was ready to go around 8:45 pm, almost 5 hours after I thought we'd be leaving.  But that's okay, I needed the night flight anyway for a little currency.  

It was a beautiful clear evening, with no problems, other than that lovely tailwind I had on the way there became a gnarly headwind on the way home.  We came home at 12,000' and still had a 60 knot headwind.  Terrible.  D had left his car at Indy International and was wondering how he was going to get down there to get it.  I said "Why don't we just go into Indy tonight, you can pick up your truck, and I'll fly home from there?"  So we did.  I was waiting to see how many people asked me why we ended up diverting on our flight plan.  FlightAware set off alerts to anyone subscribed to it.  Funnily enough, the only person who asked or noticed was Glenn Antoine, someone I didn't even know who was tracking me around.  Lol  Anyway.  We landed at Indy around 11:30, and D got a ride over to his truck, while I got enough $7.25/gallon gas to not get charged a $100 landing fee, and then around 12:20 am took off to head for home.  Indy was deserted at midnight, for the record.  

When I landed at Kokomo, I could see it from like 30 miles away.  Such a perfectly clear night.  There was a huge moon out too, a "Wolf's Moon" someone said.  There was a cloud layer for awhile out east, and the moon shone off of that layer making it look like daylight.  I took a picture and you can't even tell it wasn't night hardly.  It was beautiful. 

I pulled in front of the hangar, and grabbed the remote control door opener I'd brought along with me, because it was 16° out and almost 1 in the morning.  Once the door was up, I remote started my car, threw the plane in the hangar, got in my warm car, and I was home by 1:30.  I couldn't go right to sleep so I downloaded all my pics, made it to bed after 2 sometime.

Cruising in the blue

Cockpit at FL210

75 kt tailwind showing

Virginia mountains

Out on the ramp far away, you can see the mountains over there on the horizon

I am standing by the front door of the FBO.  My plane is way off to the left at the edge of the photo.  :D

These next two photos are taken at almost midnight. You can see stars in there if you blow up the photo.  The moon was impressive.

Indy at night

Closer to Indy

Indy and the panel

Indy International is off the nose.  Spot the runway?

That ought to help

Okay, time to focus.  ;)

After I left Indy, so pretty

Kokomo off the nose.

Production

We haven't been able to do any flying.  I had the corporate trip to Virginia that was supposed to go yesterday, and I ended up with sleet, severe icing for hundreds of miles, so I had to cancel it, after staring at it the night before, getting up at 4:30 am and getting ready, and postpone it two hours at a time all day until noon, when he gave up and took an airline flight down.  I'm now supposed to go get him tomorrow afternoon, when hopefully the weather will be good enough, and just maybe I can actually accomplish something in aviation for once.  I'm looking forward to the trip, actually.  

Today was actually really productive.  I got my exercise in first, got all the laundry done including bedding (I'm trying out these new bamboo sheets that are supposed to be super soft, so we'll find out shortly here).  I deposited an SMA Support check, got the receipt mailed out, and the notification to the family whose child the donation was in honor of.  I called my bank and made changes to my IRA, went to the bank to finish it.  Paid the house bills.  Went to Panera and Culvers for soup and ice cream for Ann, and through CVS to pick up Steve's meds.  I got my email cleaned up and answered a bunch of questions, completed a few projects waiting in the wings there.  I called Wal-Mart eye clinic to get back in and talk to them about my contacts, which are fuzzy long distance.  New contacts that aren't working out properly.  I only didn't go back sooner because it's a pain to make an appointment and my up close vision part of it is fine.  So...got all that arranged too.  Steve and I went down to Breeze Inn and met up with about 10 others for dinner.  I also cleaned out my phone's voicemails.  I didn't know it was full, it didn't notify me, and usually it does.  It didn't notify me that people had called and left messages that filled it up, either.  Kind of odd.  Hopefully that is fixed now that I cleaned it out and rebooted.  That took awhile, deleting old voicemails, listening to each of them.  I have several from Kaylee when she was a lot younger that I can't get rid of.  Just...too cute.  I updated ForeFlight, my charts, and my iOS on the iPad too.  Forget what else I did, but as you can see, I was productive all day long.  It was nice.  Now tomorrow I've got an 8:30 am flight with a student, and then at some point that afternoon head to Virginia to pick up the MBros guy.  I could take someone with me down, but *I* need the flight currency for myself.  We'll see. 

No news from Kaylee, I think she's doing all right.  I assume.  :)

Weary

I really do find myself somewhat perpetually weary and annoyed right now.  I assume part of that is January.  The other part is the back and forth, back and forth, uncertainty, and one problem after the other.

I feel pressure to get the Cheyenne currency done.  We got weathered out when we were scheduled.  Then I've waited to get this Bonanza to California.  Except the weather won't let me do either the Cheyenne or the Bonanza.  The weather here, in the middle of the country, and out west, are all crappy.  So...no go there.  Fine.  I just put that on the back burner and wait till next week and see what I get. 

In the meantime, MBros called for the first time in months, and I'm supposed to drop off D in the morning in Virginia, come right back, and go back down Wednesday and pick him up.  It's freezing rain right now.  It's supposed to be freezing rain and fog in the morning.  He wanted to go tonight then but it's already started freezing rain tonight.  Our gravel driveway is slick already.  So I'll be up at 4:45 am just to tell him we can't go yet...most likely.  If we do get to go, it'll be low IFR here and there both, with icing along the route, so we'll have to go pretty low.  

So.  I'm staring at weather locally and stressing about the Cheyenne, staring at weather out west and stressing about the Bonanza, and staring at weather locally and in Virginia and stressing about tomorrow.  That's where you say "one at a time", and I quit thinking about anything but Virginia right now.  But sheesh, the other is in the back of my mind.  And I'm still having to stay in communication with everyone--buyer, seller, (bo) instructor (cheyenne), and passenger (340)--and keep them all updated on conditions, scheduling, etc.  It's exhausting.

Our cars have been on drugs too.  Kaylee's car had a simple problem with the door lock, and then she broke out a connection in the back that meant the door wouldn't shut all the way which killed her battery.  So we replace all that, get it back, twice, are driving her car to her to return it to her, and the battery light starts flashing again.  Some connection didn't get connected properly.  So we take it back out to Mark's.  My car has the "check engine" light on in it for about the 5th time.  Each time it's nothing important, but come on.  

Cathy left this morning after spending a couple days here with Ann.  I didn't really see her, but I waved from afar.  :) 

I got to go to the dentist today.  He had to work on the very last tooth way in the back of my mouth.  So I got a needle in the very back of my jaw, and some work, and I couldn't feel most of my face for hours.  He knows me so he doses me very well so I don't feel anything.  My appointment was at 1, and by 4:30 I still couldn't feel parts of my face.  But once that wore off, it started hurting.  Reminds me, I should go take some Tylenol.  So that makes me grumpy too.  I had to go to the dentist and it hurt.  At one point he asked me if I was okay.  I didn't say anything, because his hands were both all the way down my throat, but later I realized that I'd been gripping my hands in a death grip and he could probably see that.  Lol  I'm fine, just GET DONE already and get me out of here.

Next I went out to Kokomo, to drop off Kaylee's car at Mark's to get the battery thing looked at, and on to the airport to update the databases on the 340 for its upcoming "I hope this works out" trip and the "Might as well while we're already here" RG.  Didn't screw it up, so that's good.  

Over the weekend Steve tried to cancel the XM subscription on the Saratoga that crashed's radio.  He got nowhere, so I tried it, and I got nowhere.  I got sent from the phone to the website, from the website to the chat helper, from the chat helper to another phone number, from that phone number to an after hours texting chat, and from there they sent me another phone number.  I said "I've BEEN on three phone numbers, the website, the website chat, and now you (texting chat). Can't somebody just shut this damn thing off?"  He said "So sorry, it's an aviation one and I can't do that."  So this morning, with their offices back open, I girded myself and tried again.  I call at like 10 am.  Their recorded message said "We are experiencing longer than normal delays.  If you'd like to call back Tues-Thurs during our slower hours, you can, or sit here and wait until you die."  So I decided to sit and wait.  It wasn't but a few seconds and a human came on line.  I stuttered.  I said "I want to cancel this ID."  They said "Why?"  I said "It's in a plane, the plane crashed, the radio doesn't exist any more."  He said "I'm sorry to hear that.  Just a second."  Type type type "Okay, that's been removed. Would you like the credit back on your card or leave it on account?"  "My card please, and I'd like to leave the account open in case we add another radio later."  "No problem, your credit will be on your card in 3 days, you have a confirmation email shortly, anything else you need?"  Uh, no.  I hung up.  THREE MINUTES AND EIGHTEEN SECONDS from the time they answered the phone until the time I hung up, and it was over and done with.  I felt like I won a lottery or something.  So I decided to push my luck.

Next up I've been trying to get Ann's bank onto online bill pay.  Every time I try to register/enroll, it says there's been a problem, doesn't tell me what it is.  So I did the "chat" online there yesterday.  They said I need to talk to my bank.  So today I call my bank.  She says "It's a third party, and we can't see all the info, you'll need to talk to them to get set up if you're having a problem.  Chelsea says it'll have to be them."  I chat message the third party and get "Lisa", who says "I don't see an account in that name".  Me "I'm trying to enroll in it and it won't let me."  "Well, you'll have to talk to Chelsea at your local bank, we can't see anything here until the account is approved and registered locally."  I say "She said they can't see or do anything and I need you."  Lisa says "Chelsea may need to contact our customer support help line."  Me: "Isn't that what I'm doing?  Can't you help me?"  "No, not until it's approved locally."  So I put another call back into Chelsea and let her know what they said.  How tough can this be?  Let me tell you how tough this can be...

So I've had two phone call interactions, a trip to the dentist, car swapping due to maintenance problems, airplane maintenance problems (that I didn't even go into), and a bunch of aviation stuff where I'm spinning my wheels and getting nowhere.  And it's sleeting right now.  And I have to go to bed early and get up terribly early, like 5 am.  And I've gained like 8 pounds over the last two months.  And I'm grumpy so I feel like eating my feelings.  Grr. 

Ladies

Kaylee turns 20 years old today!  No more teenager.  She drove over to Fairmount with three friends to eat dinner with me and Steve at Grains and Grill.  Fillet, green beans, all sorts of good stuff, ending with a pecan dessert that she and I split.  Her friends are funny and nice, and we had a good evening.

The rest of the day I was non-stop busy.

Early this morning I was out at Kokomo doing tower controlled field takeoffs and landings with a student scared to death to do it.  So we were over there quite awhile practicing before I could get out and let her do it solo.  :)  We got back, and a friend flew in from Michigan, and we all ran out to lunch.  But I was tight on time, so I had to leave lunch early, get back to the airport, and sign off a young lady on her last solo cross-country.  She left and another young lady came in to meet with us for the first time, wanting to learn how to fly.  We talked until my last student came, a young lady transitioning to the 172 from the Champ and trying to get ready to solo the 172 so she can do her solo cross countries and progress towards her certificate.  We got done at 5, I got gas in the plane, ran home to change clothes, and Steve and I left to go eat dinner with Kaylee.  There was almost no sitting around today, it was go go go.

And I thought it was odd that we were all women up there flying today.  I don't chase after female students, that's just who I happened to have.  Thought that was kinda wild.  Lots of estrogen out there today.  :)

Sunset tonight.  I don't have any birthday pics of Kaylee this time.  She has several envelopes and a package from Grandma Chiles to open when she gets back to her dorm.  :)

Glow

It was back to a normal day.  I had a student try to go on a solo cross country, and I had to cancel her because of the winds.  It was a good thing, too, because the winds got up over 32 knots later.  A bit rich for a student's blood.  I then flew with one of Steve's guys, who has been struggling with landings.  Unfortunately we had a bit of a gusty crosswind today though, so that didn't help him a whole lot, other than getting back up in the air after a bad day last time.  After lunch I went to the store to pick up a few supplies for Ann, and dropped them off, before my 3 pm guy canceled for those 30+ knot winds.  Didn't blame him.  The girl that had to cancel this morning asked if we could do her last night flight tonight, and I could, so I said sure.  We still had 25 knot winds when we started, and 20 when we ended, and the winds aloft were strong too, but we at least got her last night done.  She's got one solo cross country and her tower controlled field Takeoffs and landings to do, and then we're into checkride prep.  She's got her written done, so...this can move quickly if we can get good enough weather to finish these solo things.  

Cathy is here visiting, to stay with Ann a couple days.  That'll be great.  :)

Photos from tonight's flight...

Whiplash

Round Three and Four.

This was a long day.  This morning, Craig had the plane ready to go by 11 am.  I had enough time to get to Iowa, get fuel, and get to Nebraska before dark.  That was the plan.  I had everything set up.   I loaded up my GDL, my bags, fired it up, run-up, everything was good.  I open my IFR flight plan, I'm rolling down the runway, rotating, and I notice out of the corner of my eye that my three in the green gear down lights have gone out.  That's weird.  I pull the gear up, and the "In transit" light doesn't go out, ever.  Hmm.  I put the gear back down, and I do not get three in the green.  Hmm.  I pull the gear back up, and call Grissom, and cancel my flight plan for the 2nd time in two days, and they come back with "Sorry for your luck".  They remembered me from yesterday's aborted flight.  I climbed on up, put the autopilot on, pulled out the POH, read up on the procedures, put the gear back down, and this time I got three in the green--AND the "in transit" light. I made sure the emergency gear extension was free and down.  When I pulled the throttle back I didn't get a gear warning horn, so that seemed positive.  I texted Steve from the air to see if there was anything else I might be missing, and we agreed I should just come on in for a landing, which I did gingerly, ready to kill it if the gear started collapsing under me.  I knew it came down, I heard it move down, but I don't know that it was locked with that "in transit" light still on.  When I rolled out smoothly, I let out a puff of relief.  Parked it in front of the maintenance hangar, told him what happened.

Craig and Jon put it up on jacks, and found that the gear operated just fine, it was a switch issue, as suspected but not known for sure until then.  They hunted down the gremlin, fixed it, put the gear up and down 8 or 9 times.  The 3 in the green came on every time, and now the "in transit" light went off when it was done transitioning.  I took it around the patch once to make sure it was working.  It was.  Everything looked and sounded good.  So I landed, and topped the plane back off with fuel, from all these aborted flights.  The right tip was also down to 3/4, which it shouldn't have been, because I hadn't burned out of that one.  I figured they must not have filled it up properly.

I load up all my stuff.  Now I'm not going to be able to make Nebraska by dark for sure, but I can make Iowa, and I'm going to stop in Council Bluffs and spend the night there.  Perfect, right?  I file IFR, open it on the ground, take off on 23, and right as I am pulling my gear up, suddenly the plane is shaking and running like crap.  For a second I thought the gear was grinding and having a problem, but it wasn't the gear, it was the engine.  I glanced down at the engine monitor which showed Cylinder #5 was dead.  *sigh*.  I called up Grissom and said "I'm sorry to do this, but I'm going to have to cancel IFR again."  He asked if I wanted to keep it on standby for later, and I said "No, I'm done for today."  The plane is running like crap, shaking, backfiring, stumbling, and now the temps are climbing rapidly on the #5 cylinder.  I keep it tight in the pattern, and as I turn base, I look out the right wing behind me for traffic, and I see fuel *pouring* out of the right tip tank.  Streaming, high rate of flow.  The cap was on and proper.  Well then.  I turn final, land, park it in front of the maintenance hangar, chock it, unload all my stuff, leave a text for Craig, and march back to my own hangar, where I spend an hour telling everyone what happened, detailing it, contacting Stephanie and the owner and the mechanic and the sales guy and some friends who were watching me on flightaware and freaked out when it said I dropped altitude and airspeed in a hurry.

Craig informs me it was a plugged fuel injector nozzle on the #5, which is now cleaned up, and that he's fixed the sealing issue on the right tip tank.  That explained two things.  1) Why I got so much water on our first sump of the right tip tank, and 2) Why it was down to 3/4 tank when I hadn't used any fuel out of that tank.  That had to have happened on the other flights too, but I was too focused on everything else going wrong on every other flight right after I took off that I didn't happen to turn my head far enough back and to the right to see the fuel coming out of the tip behind me.  

He says it'll be ready tomorrow, most likely.  I told the owner that I'm busy through this weekend and would have to revisit this next week.  Kaylee's birthday is Saturday and we are doing a dinner.  Weather is moving into California on Friday.  I'll be rushed. I have students.  I've spent a week of my life focused on this with my suitcase always ready to go. I'm tired, annoyed, and done for a few days.

I am guessing that this plane sat for too long.  The last time it was on a known IFR flight was 2018.  These planes are sold to places like this when the owner runs too low on money to fly them around...or maintain them, OR, when the owner gets older and doesn't fly enough so they sit for a long time.  This one seems to have been maintained well, lots of expensive add-ons and such.  So I'm betting it sat.  And planes don't like to sit.  Everything that has glitched has been something common for sitting.  Seals, lights, contacts, etc.  None of them have been life-threatening, none of them have been accident-causing, but you don't know that at the time, until you get down and it gets looked over.  The AI would only have been a problem at night or IFR.  The alternator system was working fine--it was a light switch/glitch.  The gear was working fine, it was a light/switch glitch.  The engine stumbling wasn't a failing, seizing engine, it was a blocked fuel nozzle, which has happened to me in the 340 before too.  Gets your attention but it's fine.  The fuel streaming out costs money, but it was a 15 gallon tip, the engine isn't running off of it, it was fine.   It was all fine.  But every time I took off, a new failure happened, and it's not exactly relaxing.  I guess it's good for making sure you're current on your emergency procedures. (Eyeroll emoji).

The most exhausting part of all this is the whiplash.  I'm going!  I'm not going.  Oh, it's fixed, I'm going.  Wait, something else is wrong, I'm definitely not going.  Oh, it was nothing, I'm going.  Over. And over.  And over.  And now it's late so I can't make this fuel stop and now I have to pre-plan for tomorrow's winds and now I have to do this place instead and I have to move the fuel stops, and now I'm going to be early tomorrow so I'll have time to do this, and now I'm not going at all.  Good grief.  I'm flexible and I'm used to uncertainty in aviation life, but this is R I D I C U L O U S.  

One thing I felt pretty good about, even though I was pretty annoyed by all of this.  It all happened at home.  I'm here, on my couch, in comfy pants, eating lunch with friends, in between all of these happenings, not stuck at an airport in Nowhere Wyoming, with no mechanic, one clean set of clothes, and hoping to get a hotel room.  And this is a lot of things to have happen, all right around takeoff.  Think about it.

1) Get to the ramp, AI quits, taxi back.
2) Take off, level off, alternator out light kicks on, 2 miles from the airport, troubleshoot come back.
3) Take off, gear up, gear lights glitch.  Wander around a minute, troubleshoot, come back.
4) Take off, gear up, engine sounds and feels bad.  Swing around the pattern, spot fuel leak, come back.

Any of those could have happened anywhere at any time, over the mountains, in the middle of nowhere, anywhere. I could have been taking off out of Nowhere, Nevada and had it start running like crap as I am looking at a mountain.  But they happened here, and now.  And for that, I'll thank the Good Lord and whatever number of guardian angels have been assigned to me that I've worn out by now.  ;)

So, now I'm going to bed.  And I'm not going to California tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.  Will look at weather then and see.  For now, signing off and going to sleep in comfort and care. 

By the way.  When Bill Clinton was inaugurated the first time, I was on my initial CFI checkride.  Today was another inauguration.  Another long, tiring, stressful day, but I didn't get a "congratulations" out of it afterwards this time.  lol

Gear down, no lights

Gear down, ALL lights

After I parked it the first time this morning.

The manuals Craig had out looking for the gremlin

The #5 after the temp started climbing. The #2 isn't dead, photos just don't always capture all of a digital display.

Tuesday, Round Two

Man, what a cluster.

I woke up at 6 am, because, why not.  ;)  I was supposed to hear about the plane by 9 am.  I hadn't, so I took a shower, got ready, and headed out to the airport.  On the way there, I heard that the plane wasn't ready, they'd had to order a part, and it wasn't even in yet.  There went my idea of getting out in the morning.  I ate lunch with Steve, and at lunch Craig (mechanic) said the plane would be ready in 45 minutes.  At this point, I could get past my first original fuel stop but not get all the way to my second, without being in the dark in the mountains for a couple hours.  So I reconfigured, and found another place to stop, in Nebraska, where I could at dark if I left by 2:30 pm.  I called my first fuel stop, because I'd be arriving right when they closed.  Made sure I could get in and get fuel and use a restroom even if they were closed. Yes.  Cool.  Called my second fuel stop, because I'd be arriving right as they were closing.  They agreed to stay a little later if I was late.  They let me know about a shuttle to a nearby hotel.  There were restaurants within walking distance.  I figured all that out.

I get to the airport, and the plane is mostly ready.  I sump the tanks again, and they're fine.  I can't find the keys.  Texted and finally got them.   I check the oil and it's at 8 quarts.  I bump it up to 10 because, long trip.  There was no oil in the plane so I stole 4 quarts from Gumby.  He'd taken his ADS-B out of the plane for some reason, so I tried to go get one from the 340 and it was all locked up and now I was running late.  At this point I was going to get there after the second place closed, but I could call when I got to the first place and ask them to wait.  I launch, pick up my IFR in the air so I could get going.  Get leveled off at 4000'.  And the alternator out light comes on.  I check the amps, and they're showing a slight charge, so it seems to be working.  Recycled it.  No go.  Turned on the standby alternator.  No go.  Turned off the main and only had the standby on.  No go.  The light that was supposed to come on when only the standby alternators is on, did not come on.  I told Grissom I was canceling IFR and returning home, turned around and re-landed. 

Attempt #1, got to the run-up area before having to abort because of the failed AI.  Attempt #2, got leveled off at 4000' before having to abort because of potential failed alternator.  The mechanic says the alternator is working and something is wrong with the light.  He couldn't find anything this afternoon, and is going to try to troubleshoot tomorrow morning a little more.  If he can't find it, I'm going to leave anyway. He says the alternator is working, and I have an amp meter, and as long as it shows it's charging, I'll know it's still working.  I'm going to stick with daytime only, and basically VMC. 

But now when I got home tonight, I had to call back my second fuel stop and tell them I wasn't coming after all.  I am trying to re-plan for tomorrow.  If I can get out of her in the morning, my first fuel stop is no problem.  My second is.  If I go in there, I'm going to have 35 knot wind gusts.  There are three 7500' tall mountains within 3 miles of the airport on three sides.  That's a lot.  If I go on to the next good fuel stop instead, I'm at 4 hours and 40 minutes of flight time, stretching my fuel.  I'll still have an hour reserve.  I'll only have 18 knot winds and the mountains won't bother me there.  But that's a really long flight leg, and I'll be reaching dark.  I have super strong winds aloft tomorrow. The nastiness in the air that was in California has moved east to meet me.  But it'll be nice in California.  So I'm going to have to play tomorrow by ear.  What time can I get out of Kokomo.  Will everything stay running.  My first fuel stop should be uneventful.  And then it gets more interesting.  Which airport will I be able to end up at, can I get a hotel room, because I can't do it ahead of time, etc.  Timing is everything, and we'll see how it goes.  Hopefully Attempt #3 will be the charm.  

And people think big trips are an adventure.  :p

Monday Stuff

It was more a planning day.  I couldn't get hold of the mechanic or sales guy so I didn't know if the plane was ready or not.  But when I talked to the client, he said that if we had to wait until tomorrow or Wednesday, he and his wife were going to airline home instead.  So they did, today, and I can take the plane out by myself when the weather permits.  I'm happier with that.  I'll go the north route, which is 1.5 hours faster, and try to get out there while there is still some sort of daylight left to be able to see where the mountains are as I cross them and come in to land at fuel stops.  If I leave at like 5 am, I may be able to get out there right at sunset their time.  Or if I left tomorrow afternoon, and stopped halfway and spent the night, then could go in Wednesday morning.  There's a nasty wind event happening out there right now, Monday and Tuesday, and I don't want to play with that.  Moderate to severe turbulence, low level wind shear, badly gusty winds at the surface, all around things you don't want to play with over the mountains.  So I wait for a better day, wisely.

Other than that it was a typical day.  Laundry, Pick up the mail, including a big blown-up poster of me and JP in the Twin Beech from Greg, which was cool.  Kaylee came home to pick up her Explorer that she mistakenly thought was done, but wasn't, so I got to see her for a few minutes, we drove out to the airport, picked up her car, took it to Mark's, and then she drove me home before she headed back to school. I stopped at Glenndale to pick up the latest round of package deliveries.  Had lunch with Dale and Ty and Chuck and Steve.  Visited Ann twice.  And spent a huge chunk of my day looking at weather and trying to plan fuel stops, timing, icing, winds, for flying low across the entire country, mostly VFR, one segment at a time.  It's so much work! We ordered in a pizza for dinner, are watching Longmire because nothing else is on TV, and I'm trying to relax.

And that's Monday.

Weekend

I don't really have anything to say.  I feel out of sorts, tired, grumpy and morose.  I didn't end up going to Colorado either (if you knew I was possibly doing that this weekend after the California one was delayed).  Weather was still sketchy so she ended up driving.  The part comes in Monday sometime for the Bonanza, they'll put it in whenever it gets here, and then the plan was to try to leave Tuesday.  Except the winds look terrible out west on Tuesday so we may have to delay until Wednesday, at which point I hope the weather will cooperate around the rest of the country.  I haven't even rescheduled the Cheyenne currency yet.  One thing at a time.

Nowhere

Well, I'm alive and well in...Kokomo.

They told me they'd be at the airport at 9 am, so I was at the airport at 9 am. They rolled in casually at 10:30. It's a 14 hour flight, plus fuel stops, and we have stuff to do. The weather is good enough, barely, but the longer we wait, the less good it is getting. I'll have to be IFR (or be able to get on top of it maybe) in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and hopefully be able to clear all of that to get to our first fuel stop which is in the clear, so that we don't have to shoot an approach in freezing fog to get gas. After that, it's all severe clear the rest of the way, but then we get wind. Like a lot of it. Oklahoma, Texas, etc. had winds as high as 45 knots. Most places were at least 35. LLWS. Moderate turbulence. But she's a flight attendant and he's not bothered and the only time it'll be a factor is when we cross the mountains and when we have to come in to land on a fuel stop. He said "How comfortable are you with crosswinds?"  Valid question.  After that, it was still low IFR at the destination, but it was SUPPOSED to clear up, so we'd just have to keep an eye on it. So we have a plan, but the longer this is taking, 1) later start in the day, less daylight hours, 2) the low pressure system is rolling down and widening out, taking the ceilings down and ice up with it. Now we have to plan to divert to Tennessee rather than heading more west, to get out of the ice. Fine. Add another 30 minutes to the trip.

I say "If we're doing this today, we need to get going, folks." She goes to Subway without saying anything now that it's 11:20 am, and picks up sandwiches for the two of them. Says she didn't think I'd need one because I had mentioned I'd had breakfast and they hadn't. Yes, I had breakfast at 8:30. It's now 11:30 and we're trying to launch on a 3.5 hour long leg. Maybe I could use a sammich too. So I go do that.

Snow squalls have moved into Kokomo now, I get back, he's topped off the plane, he's sumping the mains, I'm sumping the tip tanks, and I got nothing but water out of the right. A lot of water. I had to sump about a dozen times to get clear samples. That's always encouraging, especially since they just put fuel in there. How much water has been stirred around and hasn't even settled down yet?? I don't normally bother sumping immediately after a fill-up, but I hadn't done it before this time, so...thank God I did. Transfer a giant slug of water from the tip into the main over the mountains at night, that would be great.

We fire up, taxi out, run up, set instruments, and the AI breaks, right there. Boom. It was working fine yesterday.

And this is another Thank God. I cannot tell you how grateful I am that that thing busted on my ramp at Kokomo and not while I'm halfway to nowhere. Or in IMC, or in the dark over nowhere. It's the only AI in the plane, no back-up. So that would have been great fun, right seat partial panel since the left seat guy is brand new instrument pilot, hadn't actually been in the clouds, and was waaaay behind the Bo. I'm out. We turned around and taxiied it back and pulled up to the sales place, and they started working on the problem, and here I am at home, warm and safe and sound.

They're getting a new AI shipped in tomorrow, and we leave for Attempt #2 first thing Sunday morning. Hopefully much earlier.  I feel much better about starting off Sunday morning than I did starting late today. It was all on the edge of doable and good experience, vs sketchy. Com 1 not working, fine, down to 1 radio and a hand held. Right main fuel tank only reads 1/2 full when it's full? Well, okay, that's what visual checking and a stopwatch are for, and I hope it continues to read down to zero once it gets below half. Tons of water in the fuel? Fine, got rid of it, will let it settle now and check it again tomorrow. AI failed? Annnnd, we're done.

It's been a long, tiring, frustrating day, TWO days, because it's been "hurry up and wait".  First on the Cheyenne guy, then on these folks, and getting everything set up and ready to go, and one thing after the other until it's 2 pm and we find out for sure we're not able to leave right now.  I was out at the airport until after 5.   A friend needed me to go to Colorado with him because he's not feeling well, and I couldn't, because this got pushed back.  So I arranged for another pilot to go, though we both would prefer if it was me.  It's been one thing after the other, I'm skipping all the details because I'm tired of thinking about it. 

Except now I actually feel pretty good.  Tired, because I haven't slept well, because my brain is spinning on all this when I try to go to sleep, routes and weather and options and problems and trying to solve things you can't solve right then but need to figure out anyway, but glad that things happened the way they did.  I feel like I got a little protection today.  That instrument failing right before we were supposed to take off was just...perfect. Thank goodness.

Mom, this one is for you.  The place I got your Christmas t-shirt?  "We are not descended from fearful men"?  They sent out this email.  Take a look at this.

We are sorry for those of you who experienced issues with the website over the last 24 hours. It was temporarily disabled. Given the state of the world, and the new censorship policies, our website was found to have content that went against the policy guidelines for our hosting server. We had to submit our website for review and it has just NOW come back online!

We also regret to tell you that some popular products will no longer be available (you can probably guess which ones those are). We had to give a written statement that we will not re-post these items for sale in exchange for access to the backend of our OWN website. Our gut reaction was to fight, but the reality is that we are no more protected than our own president of the United States. Our business (and livelihood of our employees) relies on Big Tech, and we must play by the rules if we wish to keep the doors open. We are angry! We feel that our rights have been violated and it makes the term “Big Brother is Watching” hit closer and closer to home. Very scary/sad/frustrating and flat out WRONG!

All this being said, we feel blessed to have our site back and be able to continue business as usual.  We have been able to keep most designs, lost some for good, and have appealed others we hope to get back.  With this step back we now plan to LEAP ahead.  We have a huge product launch this spring and are now more motivated than ever. 💪  Thank you for your support

So a place selling pro 2nd Amendment, pro-military, pro-police, pro-conservative t-shirts and hats and mugs were shut down and had to have their content gone through and anything someone could find offensive, removed, before they could open back up.  Mmmm hmm.  Don't have much more to say to that.  Well, I Do, but I'm too tired and I need to go check on Ann.  

Flex and Flux

Last night we were looking at the weather, and it looked pretty crappy for this morning.  So he said "I'll call you first thing in the morning and we'll see."  I got about 5 hours of sleep, tossing around about it.  I got up at 7 am, and waited.  Tried to reach him to no avail.  Paced around the house, finally I got hold of him around 11 am.  He said "sorry, I got caught up at work".  So, we are going to have to reschedule.  I can't say I'm sorry, I really didn't feel ready.  Steve laughed at me, says "You don't fail these, it's a flight review".  He's not wrong, but I didn't feel in the game, and I don't like to be sloppy or embarrass myself.  The flying I'd have been mostly fine since I've had the one trip in 5 months.  The oral...eh.  And I spent all morning pacing and wondering and waiting and ramped up and worried and stressed out, so that when he said to reschedule, I was ready to reschedule too.

Now it's about working on this flight to California.  Poor ceilings tomorrow, but if I can stay out of the icing and go IFR until I get to Missouri, it might get better after that as far as ceilings go.  Then comes the wind.  Up to 40 knot winds on the surface in Oklahoma.  Wind shear up at altitude, low level wind shear over a lot of the country, moderate turbulence.  It'll take us forever heading west into that wind, and I don't know how they feel about turbulence and high winds that hard for that long.  And you don't want to cross the mountains with high winds.  We'll have to see what we get and how it goes.  First step-getting out of Indiana without ice.  Tomorrow morning around 9 we start the process of seeing how this goes.  Wish me luck.

Ramping Up

Tonight I had one flight, a night flight, and did the usual no lights stuff, had a good time, on a finally relatively clear evening.  The weather held out and it was really pretty, a nice break for a bit.

Earlier in the day, I remembered that I was supposed to get a Covid test before my California trip.  So I made the appointment at CVS, and luckily they had an opening today.  Drove up through the drive through and swabbed my own nose with a big q-tip and put it into a box right next to the building.  Well, sealed in plastic and stuff of course.  ;)  They gave me wipes to clean off the box lid before and after I deposited my sample.  They smelled like bad tequila.  I mean, they smelled so strongly of a spilled old margarita that I gagged a little.  Terrible.  I'm guessing pretty darned effective, too.  Those suckers didn't smell like fu fu vanilla and flowers or something, those things got down to the business of killing...everything.   I'm supposed to get my results 2-3 days.  Hopefully 2 since I'm supposed to be leaving in 3. 

The Cheyenne recurrent training is now scheduled for Thursday all day.  I don't feel ready.

Friday I'm supposed to leave for California in the Bonanza with the couple.  The weather isn't looking great for the whole weekend.  They're asking again if I'll charge them the whole time we're waiting on the ground somewhere else.  The answer is yes, nor is that unreasonable, when I can't be home working.  I've got planning and things to do for Friday's trip, but with Thursday's Cheyenne currency coming up, I've got studying to do for that, and I won't have time or mental energy on Thursday to do anything else.  So I'm feeling a little tense about the whole thing.  

One thing at a time.

Kaylee said her first two days of classes went fine.  She's still working on getting her room set up, but she sent me this video showing us around what she has up so far.  One class is the history of social welfare, she has world lit, and "intergroup relations" whatever that is.  lol  She said there is a lot of politics in the classes, that can get a little weary to her.  When I said something about hoping they're not indoctrinating, she said the profs are never pushy about a specific agenda, they just have them read articles from different perspectives and have discussions, which can get involved sometimes, but that they also always include the Bible in the conversation in the end.  It's good to have discussions from both sides of something.  

Well, it's midnight, and I should try to get some sleep.  I've been having trouble with that lately, awake until 2 or later.  I need to break that one soon...

Kokomo off the nose

And the city under the wing

Final for Runway 23

Kaylee's room in its early stages.  :)

Grey

Kaylee is settling in just fine.  She got an inexpensive little table to put in the front half of her room, on a little rug, with a couple of chairs from the university, and some string lights underneath, and she says it's a cozy space and her friends will enjoy eating, hanging out, etc. there, hopefully.  Today was her first day of class, but I haven't heard yet how it went.   Usually when we don't hear from her it's because she's been doing well.  :)

I started studying the Cheyenne POH, until my brain leaked out my ears and I was just looking at words jumbled on a page that didn't make sense.  I'm about 1" into the 5" thick POH.  I haven't heard from the guy either, he was supposed to call Sunday to set up a time to do it.  I suppose I'll have to call him again.

Our weather isn't looking great for the Friday flight to California.  Snow and rain mix is no good.  But...we'll have to see, it's awful early in the week to have any accuracy on Friday's weather.

Today's weather was supposed to be fine, but instead of getting better, it got worse, canceling the guy's trip today.  Tomorrow's weather was supposed to be beautiful but now the 'worse' that happened this afternoon looks like it's going to stick around until tomorrow afternoon, probably killing off my poor student's solo cross country that she's been trying to get in for a month.   Today's worsening weather probably contributed to me waking up feeling like I had a band across my head, progressing into the right side of my head blocking up, progressing into a good old fashioned headache.  At least I didn't "have" to fly today.

I went to CVS and got some stuff for Ann, and to the bank for Steve, and other than that, I have to admit I haven't done a whole lot today.  I didn't study today at all.  Oh, I did call the bank and get something fixed there, and paid some of Ann's bills too.  And cleaned up the kitchen, which is a lot easier without one of us here who likes to leave dried up bowls of oatmeal around.  ;)  

Yesterday we brought the treadmill into Kaylee's room, and it fits in there pretty well.  It's up against the window, and when it's folded up it's out of the way, and when it's not folded up you still have plenty of room to get around it to get to closets and stuff.  We decluttered a few things, and got the rest of the Christmas lights put away too, except for Ann's, because she likes to look at them.   We're going to redo Kaylee's room into more of a guest room, and my treadmill room, repaint the walls, etc.  I feel like I said that already. 

Treadmill down

Treadmill up

Going to watch a little Longmire and then go to bed.  See what fresh 'fun' awaits us tomorrow.