Travels

I didn't have anyone on the schedule somehow for today, which worked out well in the end.  The winds kicked up over 30 knots, it was a gusty one.  First thing this morning, I had Greg O. take 32L to Muncie, and Jerry take KS to Muncie, and I pulled out the Aerostar and picked them both up in Muncie.  Then I flew Greg back to Sheridan, and Jerry back to Kokomo.  With the 30 knot winds at a 70 degree crosswind at Sheridan's 50' runway,  Nathan texted, and we were heading to Illinois to pick up Jamie from school in Illinois.  Good timing, I landed, and about 30 minutes later we launched.  Got down to Carbondale, picked up Jamie, hit the bathroom, grabbed a Mt. Dew and Snickers for lunch, and came on back.  We were home by 1:30 pm. I ran to McDonald's to get a chicken sandwich and wait for the 172s to be done at Muncie so I could go get them.  Steve texted me that they weren't going to be done today after all, so I came on home.

Ann had gotten dizzy and lightheaded today, so I stopped over there a couple of times to check on her. 

Then Steve and I went down to Breeze Inn for dinner with the pilot group, had a nice grilled chicken sandwich and good company.

On to Thursday.

Sunrise Aerostar flight

Mr. Bones chilling out with some cool airplanes behind him. ;)

Check out this license plate.  :D

Out Like a Lion

With 30+ knot winds today, there wasn't any flying over here.  

I called for an eye appointment, realizing I'm on my 2nd month on the same pair of contacts. I hadn't realized so much time had gone by, but it's time for new ones and I don't have new ones, because I don't think the doc did a good job with it last time, and I don't want to go back to him because of his attitude towards me last time.  So I'm on to a new place, but they didn't have any openings until the end of April. So I'll be wearing an old pair of contacts for a month first, as in an old prescription, not these same old ones that are too old to keep wearing.  

The owner of the Bo sent in his payment last night, with a note something along the lines of "For her valor in going above and beyond to try to get Alfred (the plane) home, many thanks".  It wasn't worth the money, but it made me smile anyway.  I do hope he gets it the rest of the way home and is able to check out in and fly it safely.

Normal duties of life today, nothing exciting. 

Kentucky Sunshine

Sounds like a bourbon, but I mean it literally.

When I got in my car this morning with just enough time to arrive 5 minutes before we were supposed to leave Frankfort (a 45 minute drive away), I saw my gas gauge on the last notch before the E.  Not sure if that's 1/8 or 1/16th without looking again.  I didn't have time to stop and still be on time, and the Buick usually doesn't go through gas very fast, so I went for it.  I saw it go down, then hit the line just before the E, then when I pulled into the airport, my gas light came on. I don't know what that means in this car, how much time that means I have.   I noted the closest gas station to the airport was less than a mile away, and shut down.

We departed from Frankfort close to on time, and headed to Evansville. Dropped a guy off who went to look at a project, got gas, and headed on to Louisville, KY.  Severe clear skies, easy flights.  At Louisville we went to a McAlister's Deli for a quick sandwich, then got more gas, and headed home.  Nothing difficult, nothing exciting, nothing broke, and it was a perfectly lovely flight.  :)

When I got back, I got in my car, drove to that gas station staring at my gauges, and put in 17.4 gallons.  I thought it only held 17 gallons.  Maybe it was 17.5.  If it was 18, I am golden.  ;)  

I picked up a shake for me and Ann, and medicine for Steve and Ann, and now I'm home and relaxing and catching up my logbook and watching a TV show Steve wouldn't like before he gets home.  It's all good!

The "other" 340, on the ramp in Kentucky

Nothing special, just blue sky.  Which is perfectly lovely.

Oklahoma Adventure

I'm on track from my last checklist.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early before the sun, and driving to Sheridan in the beige Jeep, which was almost out of gas. I was leaving my car for Ann and Cathy to drive around in if they wanted to.  Cathy and Lon are up here visiting his mom, so they stopped by here too for a couple days. 

The sunrise was spectacular. Mostly I was watching it in my rearview mirror, but finally I got to turn towards the airport and get a better view.  They are hopeful things, sunrises. Beautiful and promising, versus beautiful and melancholy like sunsets.

So this Twin Comanche is older, didn't have a working DG as we found out, but did have a G430W, and we had our iPads, and we were VFR only anyway.  I had set up the portable intercom since it didn't have an intercom installed, and the cords weren't long enough to either rest on the floor or the dash, so I had the intercom box/bag sitting on my lap the whole flight.  lol  We were 20 minutes into the flight when he said "This is the most this airplane's flown in years.  It sat for the last 5 years".  I just groaned.  Like...Nooooo. But I'll tell you what, the plane did a great job, it flew well, it ran well, and nothing broke.  We had pretty strong headwinds, so it took longer than hoped, but about 3 hours to the first destination, which was Ft. Leonard Wood, MO.  It's a joint use military/civilian base, and the restricted area right at the field was hot when we landed.  When we got out of the plane we could hear live fire going off, bombing noises, big weaponry.  Kind of fun, actually.  

We topped off, and headed for Oklahoma City.  Another 2 hours and 45 minutes uneventful minutes later, we made it to OKC. They were busy, and we had a lot of big airliners going in and out and around.  He'd never flown into a busy airfield before, so he found that pretty exciting.  And once we were there, my part of the job was done.  Plane was delivered, pilot was delivered, and now I just had to get home.  That was the least eventful ferry trip of a plane I didn't know and guy I didn't know I may have ever had. At least recently, for sure.  Thank heavens!!  I'd had enough adventure with old airplanes for awhile.

By now we'd left so early that it was only 12:30-ish. The new owner went on home, and I was in the airline terminal (wearing a mask) from then until I pulled back up to my front door at 1:20 am.  I hate masks. I know I haven't said that before.  ;)

The owner got me first class tickets home.  That's actually the first time I've flown first class.  The leg from Oklahoma to Dallas (wrong way to get home, but hey), was on a 737, and I was one of only 2 people in the entire first class.  I had the place to myself, with big fat cushy seats, wifi, free drinks, and two windows.  It was lovely.  It was over too fast.  We landed in Dallas, and that place is *huge*.  I had a 3 hour layover.  It took a good 45 minutes just to get to my next gate, because unlike Atlanta, they don't have any way to get there except your feet.  We landed at D gate and I had to walk to B-12, and it was miles. It seriously was.  Just the first half of the B gates took forever.  I wasn't hungry yet, but I stopped and got some coffee and some pretzel bites.  It's a good thing, because shortly thereafter everything shut down completely. I don't know why they shut down so early when they run flights all night long. But they always do, even at the major airports.  And the airlines aren't serving food and drink anymore (except drinks in first class), so you'd better prepare ahead of time. I was in good shape though.

My second flight home was on a smaller plane. I had the left row seat to myself in first class, and two windows. Also nice.  But I never did get the wifi to work on this long leg of the flight, and they didn't have any place to plug in and charge anything. Fortunately I'd already charged up my stuff while I was waiting on the ground in Dallas, and also fortunately I'm still a book worm too, so I read a novel on this leg of the flight.  It's all good.

There was weather moving into Indy, I saw it coming while on the ground in Dallas.  Well, it got there the same time we did.  As we came in to land, the flight attendant made an announcement and you could hear some nerves in her voice. She said it was going to be very bumpy, and everyone needed to stay strapped in. It was, all right. We started getting tossed around, and I could see lightning for awhile.  Soon I saw a big lightning bolt go from cloud to ground just a few miles away. Indy got hammered with hail, too, though I didn't hear any hit the plane. Ice formed on my window at the bottom.  Two people behind me started crying.  Somebody hit the call button and the FA made an announcement that they needed to stay seated unless this was an emergency.  We got close-ish to the ground, and suddenly I felt the plane dropping, and then the nose came up, and then a bunch of power went in, and then I puckered up.  We did a go-around, and came back around, more tossing and crying in the back.  When we finally touched down, and slowed down, a lot of people started loudly clapping for the pilots. Usually that's kind of a joke, some pilots make fun of that, but I bet these guys might have appreciated it, because I know they worked their butts off on this one.  I still hate being in the back for the record. When we pulled up, they made us stop on the ramp for awhile because the weather was too bad to let us hook up and unload.  When it passed, we finally got to deplane.  I wanted to say something to them when we left, but they stayed in the cockpit with their door shut.  Maybe debriefing. Maybe they didn't want to deal with people. Maybe they had soiled themselves.  ;) But they worked hard for that one, that's for sure.

I called for an Uber, and it arrived within 5 minutes. This time it was a five-star driver, and I was her last fare of the night, all the way up to Kokomo. We got here around 1:20 am, and Steve was still up waiting for me, and we watched a Sylvester Stallone/Arnold Sch. movie until 3 am before finally being ready to crash and go to sleep.  So...I'm home, and all is well.  Today I rest.  Tomorrow I work.

While I was writing this, Kaylee called. Her friend's car broke down at 26 and 31 on the way back from Crawfordsville. So Steve drove out to pick them up and drive them back to school while the friend called for a tow truck.  I was just glad it wasn't the Explorer. :)

Sunrise in my rearview mirror

Indiana farm at Sunrise

So pretty

Flew over St. Louis again.

Here she is.

It bothers me to no end that I cut off the left wingtip.

The panel

HAhahahahahaha *snort*  hahahahaha  *breathe*  HA

Wider view of the panel. Can you see how big the fellow in the left seat is? Look at our legs. You know I'm not small, but I look tiny next to him.  :)

My first trip in First Class, alone up there. Kinda nice.

Two windows for one girl

We are the blue dot over IND, in the middle of the red storm, just after we touched down. Nice thing about being Part 91 flying? I coulda easily just gone somewhere else and not had 150 people mad at me instead of basically HAVING to land in the middle of that.  ;)

Nowhere Fast

I was supposed to leave this morning at 7:15 am to get to Sheridan by 8 am to leave for Oklahoma with a man named Canaan who just bought the Twin Comanche.  Instead, I woke up at 5 am and never got back to sleep, and the clouds had rolled in and didn't roll out.  So I was packed, and ready to go, and waiting on the weather.  Then I thought we weren't going until tomorrow, so I put on my glasses and comfy pants and unpacked.  Then he said he'd been up flying with the owner and when did I want to go.  So I repacked and said I could be there in 45 minutes, but the weather was still pretty low for the first half of the trip and now we'd be coming in at dark.  So he said "let's wait until 7:30 tomorrow morning".  So I unpacked again, and now I have to get up at 6 am, fly to Oklahoma, get on an airliner, and get back in Indy at midnight again, for a 1 am trip home.

This day was spent doing my "favorite" things.  Sitting, staring at weather, packing and unpacking, not being sure where I'm going or what I'm doing or when all day.  I did laundry and dishes too, with some nervous energy.  

Early bed time, and early rise time, and on to the next day.

Saturday to Oklahoma.

Sunday to rest.

Monday to Evansville and Louisville.

Tuesday students.

Check.

Checked Off the List

First thing this morning, I went out to the airport, and Steve went out early and pulled out all the planes for me, and I got to run up and test fly the T-6.  It had been close to 4 months since I'd flown it, and it's funny, it felt I was sitting lower with less forward visibility than I remembered.  But I've mostly been flying nosedraggers for months, so I got used to seeing again.  For shame.  :D  My first landing I leveled off at what I thought looked good, waited for it to sink so I could pull into a flare, and the mains touched down on an unexpected but nice enough wheel landing.  Oops.  lol  So I went around and did another one just to get the sight picture back for 3-points.  The second one was good, even if I didn't have weight in the baggage compartment which meant I ran out of nose up elevator and had to yank on it a bit to flare.  I flew by Glenndale, and Ron texted me "Thank you. It was nice to hear a real airplane's noise out here again."

As soon as I landed, I had to desert Steve and leave him to put everything away, while I came home and took Ann to her second Covid shot.  We were in and out in no time, plus the 15 minute "time out room" wait to make sure she was okay.  We're hoping for no side effects like the first time.  Wish they wouldn't have talked so much about the side effects this time.

When we left there, I took her to Culvers, she got an ice cream treat, I got a burger, and then went over to Panera, where I picked her up some more soup, and me a salad for dinner.  Back home again, Steve texted me and asked about lunch, I said I'd eaten, it ended up that he could use the company, so I went and met him and Chuck and another there at Grindestone's, and just had a drink and a dessert.  Nice enough way to spend the morning.

The rest of this day I've been trying to plan, check weather, learn about this airplane I'm going in tomorrow, etc. We are having nasty winds tonight and early tomorrow morning, and will still have very high winds tomorrow morning.  He went ahead and bought my airline ticket home, leaving from Ok City at 3:40 pm. So I have to be there by about 2 pm to check in.  It's going to take us at least 5 hours to get there from here, 4+ hours in the air and one fuel stop in Ft. Leonard Wood, MO.  If we're not off the ground by shortly after 9 am, I am likely to miss the flight, which as it was got into Ft. Wayne at 10:30 pm.  But the weather for tomorrow morning early isn't very good.  Very high winds, IFR until probably 10 am or so.  The plane doesn't have an autopilot, which increases his work load.  Which increases MY workload, because I don't know him.  Maybe he's super instrument current, I don't know.  So...we'll have to see what we get.  If I have to come back Saturday instead, I'm fine with that.  Whatever it takes.  And then I think maybe I won't do any more favors for awhile.  The Bonanza was kind of a favor to the aircraft sales guy, and this Twinkie was a direct ask from a friend down at the grass strip by Indy. After this, I think I'm going to have to say no for awhile.  Meanwhile, because I'm busy, Steve is going on an MBros trip with D on my behalf tomorrow too.  Should be good and windy and IFR for them, too.  And so it goes.

I am supposed to be in Sheridan at 8 am, which is a 45 minute drive away, so that means an early morning for me.  I'll try to get to bed earlier tonight and get some sleep.  :)  In the meantime, I'm charging up my phone, my iPad and my laptop, because they said with these 50-60 mph winds we're having overnight, there will probably be a lot of power outages.  We don't usually get it here for very long, as we're close to a sub-station, but...just in case, I want everything fully charged and ready to go.

Such a nice view.  ;)

Not Much

It was windy today, and flying was off the table.  My poor student had to reschedule her checkride and she's not pleased about it.

One of our students tested positive for Covid.  He was with Jerry, who is 84, but Jerry's been vaccinated.  He's staying home for two days and doing a test afterwards to be sure, per his doctor's recommendation, and then if he's all clear, he's good to come back out and play.  In the last year, that's actually the first time that's happened. We've had students test positive, but not when they'd been around anyone in the "window".  Haven't had any instructors be positive so far.  Haven't had anyone actually get terribly ill even if they were positive, either.  Good things.  Ann's 2nd shot is tomorrow, so I'll be taking her in for that. 

I slept in today, and slept all night, and it's the first solid night's sleep I've had in days, and it was NICE.  I felt almost back to normal most of today.  These all-nighters, I'm too old for that.  ;)

I've learned this Twin Comanche doesn't have an autopilot, so I hope the new owner is good at hand flying, and doesn't expect me to hand fly it for him the whole way to Oklahoma like the last guy wanted me to do for him in the Mooney to Missouri.  ;)  It also doesn't have an intercom, so I need to see if I can find one, or if Steve can find one for me.  It has a Garmin 430W, so it has navigation at least.  Though these days, with iPads, it doesn't matter a whole lot unless one has to shoot an approach, and I hope not to do that in this plane.  They also said it has a weird shut down procedure, that I've never heard of.  You pull the mixtures to idle, then have to hit a button, then close the throttles, and it has a placard for it.  I don't have a clue what that's about.  Weird.

Not much else going on today.  

Back to Iowa

Steve and I went back to Iowa this morning to pick up Terry & Niesha. Their daughter's team lost on the first round of the Final Four, so they weren't there through Wednesday, which actually worked out really well for my schedule.  I had students scheduled from 2-7:30 pm, and I could go get them this morning and be back in time for my students.  Perfect.

It was windy and rainy all the way there.  I did the ILS 13 into there, with a 23-ish knot gusting direct crosswind. When I broke out of the clouds I didn't see the airport for a few seconds because our crab angle into the wind was enough that the runway was off to the right even though I was dead centered on the needles.  Good times.  :)

We picked them up, turned around and came home.  The clouds were coming down, but not low enough to require an approach yet.  I landed right at 2, just in time for my student, who...canceled because she felt nauseated and dizzy.  Good reason to not go flying!  Then my 4:30 student, she had a checkride scheduled for tomorrow.  But tomorrow's weather is calling for high winds, rain, the crap that I flew through on the way to and in Iowa, in fact.  Not a checkride day.  So we didn't meet up to sign endorsements.  Instead, I came home and tried to dig out from behind from being gone.

I took photos of my receipts and sent them to Steve to send out in billing for the 340, and did the same for the Bonanza trip. I sent in a receipt for MBros for that trip yesterday.  Picked up meds for Ann.  Unpacked my bag, cleaned up the kitchen, found that those stupid little ants are back and ruined a couple donuts we had left in a box on the counter.  Cleaned out my email, and started arranging for my upcoming week.  Friday I'm flying a Twin Comanche to Oklahoma with its new owner, who will then send me back home via American/United Airlines out of...Tulsa.  Ha. Kind of funny.  Monday I'm flying in the new 340 for nearby business trips in Louisville, KY and Evansville, IN with the new owner who is looking forward to flying his new plane again for only the second time.  I've got a flight review to do in a taildragger from Indy, a Pacer, and of course the Cheyenne currency.  I feel better about that today than I did last week, since these last two flights.  :)

Anyway, I did several other mundane things, organizational things, paperwork things, none of which you care about, so I'll wind it up here with a photo and a video from the Cheyenne trip today.

A little drippy today. And gusty. 

A little timelapse video of poofing into the clouds, through the clouds, then below the clouds back at Kokomo.

Same Day Part II

So far I've been up all day and night after 3 hours sleep, and a nap in the plane, sort of, since we all know I can't sleep in planes.  

It's Monday morning now, and I have made it back to Kokomo around 10:30 am.  I take a much needed shower, put my contacts back in, get dressed, stop at Subway and pick up two sandwiches, and drive out to Kokomo, where the guys are topping off the Cheyenne.  I am flying a set of parents to watch their daughter who is playing in the Final Four basketball series for women, to Sioux City, Iowa.  That's farther away than expected, actually.  Because of my very long day and very little sleep, even though I was currently feeling fine, I took Steve along as a safety back-up.  The trip up we hit some rain and turbulence, but nothing too bad.  And I felt fine.  It was extra nice having so much more power and utility and capability.  I went from that Bo to that Cheyenne and it's a world of difference.  lol

The trip home, once I got on top at 31,000', and the sun hit in, I did get sleepy.  Fine, but sleepy.  Steve did the landing back at Kokomo for the practice of it, and while we waited for fuel, I dozed off on the couch. Like all the way out fell asleep on the couch at the hangar.  lol  He woke me up when he got the Cheyenne put away, and then we went out to dinner at Grindstone's, because we were both hungry.  I was almost too tired for it, but I wanted food.  I'm trying to stay awake so I go to bed at a normal hour and catch up.  Now it's almost midnight and I've caught that second wind thing.  So I'm doing this, and then I'm going to try to get some sleep tonight, I HOPE.  I could use a big hard sleep.  Tomorrow I go back to Sioux City to pick them up (their girl's team just lost the game so isn't moving on), and I don't have to leave here until like 10 am.  Awesome.  ;)

Two students tomorrow including a checkride prep girl whose ride is Wednesday.  Eek.

FL310

The two of us alone in an airplane just doesn't happen all that often, really.

Blue skies, smiling at me

The Journey

I'm not sure I have the energy for this whole story!  Ha.

So, the pizza arrived around 10:45 pm, it was cold and greasy and had messed up the box.  I ate one piece, and left the rest for the cleaning crew, so I could get to bed and try to sleep.  Which I did not do.  Even with the melatonin, I fell asleep but woke up about three hours later, and could not sleep, in part because I knew I had a super long day coming up and I needed to sleep.  Finally around 5, 5:30 am, I gave up, got up, took my shower.  Still no food at that hotel, so no breakfast. I grabbed the shuttle out to the airport while it was still dark, and preflighted, and got everything ready, and when the sun cracked the horizon, I fired up and took off for Amarillo, Texas.  I'll be honest, I was a little tense on this flight.  Kaylee had called me, upset, because she'd had a nightmare that I'd died in a plane crash.  Well, THAT'S great.  In part it's because of her friend who just lost her mom to a murder/suicide.  Kaylee said it made her think about losing me and she couldn't handle that. But it was nice to have that in the back of your mind when you're flying an airplane that has broken more than one thing on you already, over the mountains.  But before I got to the mountains, I got to Amarillo.  Amarillo by morning, to be precise.  I couldn't get that song out of my head.  :)  There was a big highway that went most of the way on my route, and the ground was flat and wide open.  So I got a little less tense as time went by because I had a lot of options.  I learned on this leg that the fuel had transferred out of the left tip tank but not the right, so I had a fuel imbalance, which was noticeable on landing (of course). I couldn't see into the tip tanks at all, and the fuel gauges aren't accurate, so I didn't know for sure what either tank was doing. When I landed in Amarillo, I checked the tanks and had them fill up the one that had transferred, even though it was extra weight I didn't need to climb high and I couldn't drain it out, but it was better to do that then have the imbalance.  

My Amarillo stop was a quick one. There was a crowd of people in there and not a mask in sight.  The signs were on the doors, but everybody in there was not having it.  One guy walked in wearing one and looked around and said "I guess not, huh?" and took his mask off and everybody there laughed.  I got gas, turned around, and launched again.  There wasn't any food there, I hadn't eaten yet, but it was still fairly early and I wanted to keep plowing through.

Next stop was "Double Eagle" in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Cool airport, I went over a series of mountains to get there.  You could see right where the terrain suddenly got less friendly, but there was still a road available through the mountains here and there.  This was an uneventful stop too.  I got gas, paid the bill, and launched again. The more I kept moving, the better my chances of getting the plane to CA before dark, and be able to get my flight home.  

The winds had picked up quite a bit.  I had a decent headwind, and it was getting rough, both in the air, and the terrain under me, and I had to go up to 12,000' to clear it.  The airplane was on the struggle bus to get to 12,000', especially with the high density altitude to start with.  I think this airport had a 6000' field elevation, which is pretty good.  I leaned it out pretty far for takeoff, something we don't have to do a lot of here in Indiana.  

Because of the strong headwinds that had kicked up, I had to change up my fuel stops.  I had planned on about 3 hour legs, but I only have 4 hours fuel available because I can't use the tip tank fuel, so I have to stop every three hours.  So I had to shorten up my legs. I had originally picked out all big, Class C airports to go to, where I knew they were open 24 hours and had services, maintenance, etc. on field. Just in case.  Well, my next to last stop was in Bullhead City, Arizona. It was a tower controlled field and had a Signature Flight Support, which is a nationwide major FBO chain. A good guess that they'd have services.  ATC dropped me on top of the airport at 12,000', and I had to circle around to get down.  The winds were gusting to 28 knots, and the airport was surrounded by mountains, so the wind flow was interesting.  I had the gear transit light come on again.  I verified that the gear was down as best I could. Throttle back didn't produce the horn, I could hear it come down, I had the three in the green, and the emergency gear extension didn't move.  So I still landed as softly as possible because, well, that would suck.  Whew. All was well, so it was probably just the same electrical problem they had earlier.  Not too big a deal.  I taxi off, and am slowly taxiing up to the ramp to figure out where to park, and my plane suddenly lurches left, stops hard, like I ran into something.  

Now up to this point, I'd not eaten, I'd not slept well, I was dehydrated, I was forming a headache, and I noticed my eyes were getting a little blurry on the frequency changes and reading the numbers.  I only had one 3-hour leg left, and plenty of daylight, so I was going to work harder to find some food and drink at this stop.  (Last stop they had a restaurant...which was closed for Covid).  Anyway, I suddenly worried that me starting to fatigue had caused me to run into something I didn't see.  I shut that plane down and got out of it so fast that I almost fell out of it, looking in front of the plane, at the wheels, etc.  I was so relieved to not see a thing. Then I realized that it meant something broke. The plane wasn't moving. It wasn't a locked brake, it was worse than that.  They tried to tow me out of the way, and they couldn't roll the plane at all.  So they had to jack it up and haul it away.  

I spent the next several hours texting and calling a *bunch* of people. The owner, The seller. Steve. Nathan. John R. Dustin. The FBO. A nearby hotel.  Back and forth and back and forth.  There was a MBros flight Monday I was supposed to take and now I was stranded. How did I get home. I couldn't make it to CA to get to my flight he already bought. He wanted me to stay in case they could get it fixed and I could still get it to him by dark.  They didn't have a mechanic on field, the one they used rage quit and when they called him said he was never coming back to this airport again because he's in a peeing match with management. They asked him who could help a stranded pilot and he said "Nope" and hung up on them.  Well...nice.  I have a room, I don't have a room, I don't have a rental car. I don't have a way to get anywhere. Calls and texts.  And I still haven't eaten anything but peanut M&Ms and water.  My head hurts. I'd been at 12,000' for several hours and that didn't help either. 

The owner called airports all around looking for a mechanic, and found one nearby who agreed to come by and look at it. He had no tools, he just agreed to look at it.  He said it was frozen wheel bearings, or destroyed wheel bearings. Even showed me where the metal particles were.  That answered the question and took me out of limbo, because up till now I was surrounded by non-stop texting and calling on all the irons I had in the fire all at the same time.  Now I just needed to find a way home.  Vegas was the closest airport, almost 60 miles away, but they had no rental cars, the lady said no Uber. Dustin had someone who could maybe come get me but he wasn't answering. A friend John was too far away to get me in his plane.  The owner had already bought a flight out of CA for tonight, and he was trying to maneuver to get me out of Vegas. He did his part, but I was still trying to get there.  Finally I tried Uber anyway, and a guy said he'd do it. For $250.  Ack!!  But I had no choice.  I took the Uber. Grabbed my suitcase, took everything out of that airplane, left the keys in it in a pocket, and walked away.  I don't plan on flying it again.  I'm done, as of Bullhead City.

Had that wheel frozen up like that when I touched down 3 minutes earlier, it would have been a much more serious problem.  It was a hard jolt just taxiing very slowly.  At 90 mph?  They're going to replace that wheel. What about the other wheel?  What else sat too long and corroded and is about to be a problem too?  The other stuff that happened wasn't major, other than the corrosion in the fuel distributor that could have hit more than one cylinder at a time and didn't, but it was all fixed.  But then the gear light again, still nothing, but still.  And then this.  It was my final straw.  I'm done. I was tense going over terrain, I was tense just flying it around. And just when I'm relaxing because I only have one leg left to fly, I come one touchdown or two to three minutes away from having a likely aircraft damaging incident.  The airplane's name is Alfred, and Alfred and I are going our separate ways for good.

The Uber driver, when he showed up, I was hunting for my mask and he said "We have a 90 minute drive.  If you don't mind, I'd really rather not deal with the mask. I don't have Covid. Do you?"  I said "Not that I know of, but I haven't been tested lately to be fair."  He said "I'm willing to risk it if you are."  Yes, I am.  We strike up a conversation, and we have a lot in common. I knew I'd like him when he started playing 80s music.  ;)  He's a year older than me. We were talking the whole way, but now my head was killing me.  He asked if I was allergic to Excedrin. I said no, and he had some, but I didn't have anything to take them with.  He had a water bottle he'd been drinking out of.  I was desperate, so I did it, and said "Now if either of us has Covid the other is probably hosed, you know."  He said he didn't care.  About 30 minutes later he found an area and asked if I wanted to pull off and get food.  YES.  So we stopped, went inside, I got food and drink, and with the Excedrin, that really helped.  By the time we got to Vegas, I knew a lot of his life story, we'd laughed, we talked manual vehicles, his upcoming job interview, even politics, and we agreed on most of that, too.  When I got out of the car at the airport in Vegas, he got out too, and came around and gave me a goodbye hug. And I let him.  We genuinely hit it off and had a good time, which for a tired, stressed out introvert with a pounding headache from no food, dehydration, no sleep, stress, and bright sun in my eyes for hours, was really impressive.  :D  So I tipped him a fairly gross amount even though the ride was so costly, and wished him well. 

There was nowhere to try to sleep in the Vegas airport.  No comfy seats, no head rests. You know they do that on purpose to dissuade homeless people.  Loud machines clanging and banging, music, tram going by, the gambling machines in there, and announcements every few minutes about how the federal government mandates mask wearing.  They were serious about it there, so I had a mask on from the time I got to that airport around 5 or 6 pm, the whole time we boarded, the entire 3 + hour flight to Atlanta, the 2 hour layover in Atlanta, the flight home, the airport journey there.  I wore it from 5-6 pm through to about 9:30 am, straight.  And I hated it so much that on the one flight I turned my head to the window and pulled it off my nose and hoped I didn't get yelled at.  "Even if you have been fully vaccinated, and/or had a recent negative test, you must wear your mask".  Ugh.

I tried to sleep on the plane.  I was so tired that I think I did manage to doze off here and there, but you know I can't really sleep in planes.  So...to sum up, I'd gotten about 3 hours the night before, and now a cat nap or so in an airplane on the way to Atlanta.  Once I got to Atlanta I ate breakfast, eggs and bacon, and watched "Castle Rock" on the monitor for the 1 hour flight.  Chuck came and got me down in Indy, and brought me chocolate donut minis and a Diet Mt. Dew. That's what friends are for.  ;)

It was a long day, a long flight and the day merged into Monday, which I'll write about next.

The Mooney on the way to Springfield

The next two are me in the Bonanza on the way to Tulsa, trying to beat the sun.

The first moment the terrain changed and went from flat to starting to be not flat.

It is kind of pretty though

Hello, bigger boys.

These next two are Albuquerque, New Mexico.  You have to come over these pretty tall ranges and drop down in the valley to land.  

There's the city built up on the back (or front?) side of the mountains

Alfred the Bonanza on the ramp at "Double Eagle".

Now we're moving into more interesting and colorful terrain.

Arizona

This doesn't look like much, but when you're coming up on it, at 12,000', and it doesn't look like you're going to clear it, it gets your attention.  Also, see the big road down there?  I did.  ;)

I cleared them all right, just as planned.  The clouds you see forming? Turbulence.

My last airport photo in this plane. Welcome to Bullhead City, Arizona.

On downwind you have to be careful not to get too close to the hills. My last photo taken in Alfred.

Here I am in an airliner taking off out of Vegas.  ;)

Vegas, baby.

What. It's pretty.

Airline wing, morning on the way to Indy.

Next Round

I’m sitting in a hotel in Tulsa, OK, at the main airport.  I’ve been to this airport several times, for MBros, and for T-6 flying, picking one up and ferrying it somewhere from here.  

The morning started with our C-45 ground school. We got there at 8:30, moved out the 340, and. had groundschool from 9 until 3 pm. Bruce did the first part, I did the C-45 stuff mostly, asking JP and Nathan for help now and then.  I think it went pretty well best I can tell.

I then hopped in a Mooney to be given a ride to Springfield, MO.  It took us over three hours, with a decent headwind, and the plane didn’t have a working fuel gauge or an autopilot, but it has a nice glass panel otherwise, and the Johnson bar gear.  So after an hour he asked me to fly it, because he got tired.  So I flew for an hour and a half or more, until there was 30 minutes left, and told him he could take the rest of it.  

We landed in Springfield, and the Bo was there on the ramp. I took off the tie downs, and did a thorough preflight, slowly, sumped all the tanks, looked into and around everything.  It had gas, it had oil. My plan was to test fly it tonight, get a room at the same hotel in Springfield, eat dinner downstairs at the restaurant, get up early, and head to California.  That’s not how this went.

I went inside to get the keys and they couldn’t find them.  Melvin had said he’d left them with the FBO people. They didn’t have them after much searching, so they called him. He had a guy run them over to me, as he’d kept them.  Meanwhile, the front desk lady lets me know that there are no rooms in Springfield. Two other pilots were looking for rooms and she found one for $279/night, and it was gone before she could book it for them. Something about basketball. Sheesh.  Not a room in the whole blasted city.  Well, Tulsa, OK is only 45 minutes away, and sunset was about 45 minutes away.  So I took off, and did a lap or two over the airfield to make sure that everything was running and looking good, after a long start-up and long run-up.  All looked well.  So I picked up my IFR to Tulsa.  I was hand flying, and they gave me a full route clearance, including an intersection, and an arrival procedure.  I remembered it well enough to read it back then had to hunt down what it could be.  The plane ran fine. No complaints, and I had a highway to follow for a good portion of it, which was nice.

I touched down right as the sun had sank below the horizon, and I still had daylight. On my way in, I pulled up Tulsa, and they were NOTAMd that the FBOs were all closed at certain hours every day for two months. I couldn’t figure out if it was zulu or local time, and I thought :O  Fortunately they’re closed in the middle of the night, so they were there now and there when I leave in the morning, hopefully.

They top me off with gas, and they DO have hotel rooms in Tulsa. So I get a room with the Hilton on the field. A shuttle comes and picks me up. And that’s the last thing that goes right. The hotel is under construction. There is no restaurant. There is no restaurant I can walk to close by. There are no drinks or snacks available. I ask the front desk who gives me a sheet of paper with numbers of restaurants, most of which don’t deliver to the hotel. No Walgreens or CVS nearby. So I call Pizza Hut, and they send me to their call center, because they don’t deliver here, the one on the paper the guy gave me.  The call center says “Sure, we can deliver there”. I order, hang up, a few minutes later see a text that my card thinks it’s fraud and declined the charge and “Is this fraud”.  I say no, it’s not fraud, it says Your card is good to go, use as needed. I have to call the Pizza Hut back and be transferred back to the call center to explain to them my card was declined. They try it again.  Still declined.  I tell them I’ll pay cash.  She says okay. It’s now 10:14 pm this time, 11:15 pm Kokomo time, I have eaten once slice of cheese pizza and two small donuts all day. I haven’t had enough to drink, I haven’t had enough to eat, and I can’t get my hands on it.  I took the ice bucket and filled it with ice and have been eating ice chips for the last hour plus in order to get a drink.  I asked Pizza Hut for water, and they said no. I asked for Diet Coke, they only do Pepsi products. I ask for Diet Mt. Dew, they only have straight, which would be great at 9 (at the time) pm.  

The whole thing is really aggravating.  I’m hangry, I’m thirsty, I’m waiting on a pizza that they said would be an hour and it’s been an hour and 20 minutes, I have only ice chips and Diet Pepsi which I don’t need at this time of night before a day full of intense flying starting early, IF I get this food. Craziness and crankiness.  

My flight home will start at 11 pm out of California. I will have a 2 hour layover in Detroit, and then I get into Indy around 9:45 am on Monday.  That should be fun.  But first I have to clear the mountains and get the plane delivered, where he’s not sure it’ll fit in his hangar when it gets here, and I’ll do it with inop wing tip fuel tanks limiting my range and fuel gauges that read half full when full and hopefully go “down” when they’re supposed to.  But the engine sounded good, so there’s that,.

So that’s my I’m tired and hungry and grumpy line. If they don’t get here soon I’m going to need to go to bed hungry so I can get up early and be hungry.  No breakfast downstairs, nope...

Wind Up

It was windy today, but two of my three people went anyway. The first was cross country to Goshen, the second canceled because he's trying to learn to land and he didn't feel a gusty crosswindy day would be productive for him, and the third is checkride prep and she wanted to go anyway.  So that worked out pretty well for today.  I also got to Glenndale for lunch today. It was Tom's 74th birthday, so they all sang and had cake and stuff.  I didn't mention my birthday was last week and nobody sang, because I don't want them all to sing right now.  I'll wait for 50.  ;)

Everyone at Eastern is reeling from Keyton's parents' deaths.  Apparently her mom had a restraining order out on her dad.  The dad was at the house with her, and "someone" called police to do a "welfare check", so obviously someone knew something was wrong.  They're not publicly calling it a murder suicide yet last I saw, but...it is.  I don't know by what method.  But Keyton was posting about her mom on FB.  Kaylee's pretty upset, and Eastern has canceled their Spring Choral Concert because the kids are too upset.  Keyton is in Encore. I cannot imagine having to live life with this on your shoulders.  How dare he do that to his children.  Not just his wife, but his children.  :(

I've looked through the slides for the CAF groundschool.  There's a lot I can't explain well, but that's what Nathan and JP are for.  I'm going to start it off and do some of the basics, and then turn it over to them for some of the rest.  So much maintenance and systems stuff in there.  :p

So my schedule is pretty tight for tomorrow.  I'll get out there at like 8:30 am so I can set up my laptop with the PowerPoint presentation.  And have a donut and coffee.  The groundschool has to go until at least 3 pm.  After that's over, I have to grab my suitcase from my car and take a Mooney ride over to Springfield, MO.  I'm hoping to get over there before dark, so I can take up the Bonanza on a test flight locally and make sure everything on it is good to go.  I'll land, get to a hotel, spend the night, and get up as early as I can stand.  Once I'm up and back at the airport, I'm going to leave Sunday as early as possible and get as far west as possible before dark.  Spend the night somewhere, who knows where, (and I can't even pack any weapons with me, man I hate airlines), finish the journey on Monday, hopefully, and get back to Indy by Monday, hopefully.  Then I have a checkride prep flight on Tuesday, with a student whose checkride is Wednesday.  So I need to be back.  So I need all of this to go according to plan for once.

I am packed for the trip. I think I'm ready to go.  I've gotten my dzus tool and other things out of my purse, I've got all my charging cords for plane and car/hotel, I've got my melatonin so hopefully I can sleep at night in the hotel, I've got two clean and fresh masks for Kalifornia, I've got a couple changes of clothes just in case, I've even got my old earbuds that you can plug into the airliners to watch movies on the way home (the new connectors from lightning to c-connectors don't work on airlines, just the old plugs, so I saved a pair of those in Bose).  I've got one small bag and my purse, and some snacks, and hopefully it's all enough to get me there in the Bo, get me home on the airliner, with everything I need.

Say a prayer for safety for the trip, first, and secondarily, that the thing gets delivered and I get out of there in a timely manner.  But first...safely.  :)

Ongoing

It's a nasty day around here.  Winds up around 30 knots, rain blowing sideways, streets flooding, our trash can even knocked over and started rolling down our driveway.  No power outages at least, but yuck.  My afternoon flight texted me and said "I don't even need to check Navmonster to know we're not going flying today!"  Ha.  True.

Steve and I went to lunch with AE, Chuck, Kevin & Nathan.  When I got home, I was kind of done for the day, so I took my contacts back out, and when I realized I was low on a couple things, I decided to spend $9.95 on my own delivery.  I placed the order just before 3 pm, and had it at my door just before 4 pm.  I ate a bagel for a snack and Steve said "Did you just have a bagel delivered"?  Sort of, I mean, I had groceries delivered and bagels and cream cheese were in there, but I didn't have a warm fresh prepared bagel delivered by itself to my door, no.  Not that I'm opposed to that if circumstances dictated.  ;)

We had a contractor come over today who checked out the falling ceiling in Ann's bedroom, and says he can fix it without replacing the whole ceiling, so that project will be started soon.

The T-6 will be ready for a test run on Sunday, but if the weather is good enough, I'll be trying yet again to head out to Missouri to finish the Bonanza trip.  Either Saturday afternoon after my groundschool, or first thing Sunday morning, depending on weather and pilot schedule.  I'm too busy to stare at the weather across the country the next few days, especially Saturday when I'll be in a hangar doing BOB groundschool for 6-7 hours, and when I'll most need to know what's happening.  So the owner will be checking out the weather for me, and we'll see if we can go or no go then.  I hope it's "go".  Have I mentioned that I'd like to see this job complete now?  Especially so I can move on and get my Cheyenne currency done, so I can move on and write this article I need to write.

Kaylee just texted me to tell me that a friend of hers from Eastern, who was in Encore, named Keyton, she did a trio with Kaylee and Caitlyn for ISSMA...today this poor girl's father murdered her mother, and then killed himself.   Keyton just had dinner 20 hours ago with her mom and posted it on Facebook, and now her parents are both gone, and in a most horrible way.  Her cover photo for Facebook was of her and her mom before any of this happened, they appear to be close on posts and such.  What a horrible thing.  I'm so sorry for that poor girl, whose life is never going to be truly okay again.  That's just devastating.  I want to ask "why", but there's no good answer for that.  I do wish if someone wanted to kill themself, they'd just kill themselves, and not take other people with them.  What a tragedy all around, for everyone...

Not a good note to end on, but that's all I've got at the moment.  Time to listen to it rain some more, figure out dinner, look over my C-45 ground stuff, see what else I can accomplish today. 

I I I

This whole thing is all about "I".

I need to go fly something, and I need a flying photo.  It was foggy this morning again, and my RG guy canceled, and I haven't felt very social today.  I didn't go to lunch or to dinner with "the gang".  But I did still have a productive day.

I talked to the 340 Ethan, and he said he had a trip to Vegas in June, an overnighter.  He invited Steve to go along too, but we both can't be gone overnight at the same time, as someone needs to be here with Ann, so that probably won't work.  But weather and everything else permitting, sounds like I'll have a trip to Vegas in June.  He also told me that his insurance company won't approve me to do his initial 340 training.  I rolled my eyes.  He said the guy doing it just has a powerpoint--like I do.  Does that guy have 12,000 hours and over 1600 in a C-340 like me?  Because the last three guys I've had doing my recurrent training in various airplanes have had less time than I do both total and in the plane.  So what are they hesitant on?  Just because they don't know me, but c'mon, how about some common sense?

 

I contacted the Wisconsin Wing of the CAF, and got "in" on their T-6 groundschool, coming mid-April.  That'll be the last one I need for the CAF.  A month worth of Saturdays.  I also contacted Headquarters of the CAF and asked for a waiver on one of their policies.  I'm out of legal currency for them on the PT-26 because it's been down for maintenance for a year and a half, and I haven't flown it for almost two.  They require a check pilot to come and check me out in it, which is so unnecessary for this airplane.  So I formally requested a waiver, said I had done the groundschool and the CRM, that I was still CAF current in the C-45 and could that "trickle down" to a lesser tailwheel, to let me get myself current and then do everyone else's currency flights.  I said I wasn't PT current per the CAF, but I was flying current with 620 hours in the last 12 months, 250 of those in tailwheel so tailwheel current and proficient, a bunch of different tailwheels.  I said I felt safe and comfortable in a PT but I would honor whatever HQ needed me to do.  They wrote back within a few hours and said I had a waiver through mid-April to go ahead and fly the plane myself without another check pilot having to fly in for it.  So that was good.

I sent out info on our Poker Run coming up this Spring.  Last year we ran out of food within the first 30 minutes of the Poker Run because everyone was still wanting to go fly with the pandemic stuff just starting lock downs.  I hope it's a good weather day and everyone that is safe to come out does so and has a good time.  :)

Got my hours added up for insurance on Gumby.  That took a whole 30 seconds thanks to MyFlightBook.  ;) 

I talked to the guys doing the article on BOB, with photos, they want me to write my story, and I haven't done it, I haven't had the mental capacity to do it yet, so I reached out to them and asked when it was too late, etc., and they said no rush, they'd work it in whenever we were done.  So pressure is off there, but I still want to get it done soon.  After the CAF C-45 groundschool is done, and after the Cheyenne currency, and after I Get to the Bo to California, THEN I'll sit down and write that.

Cousin Jeff is here, having a difficult time.  Steve's been spending time with him.

Next thing to stress over--BOB's groundschool I'm supposed to be in charge of.  I really need to look that over.  Tomorrow.

For now I need to get some sleep...

New Days

Sure enough, we woke up to fog this morning, and the low IFR hung around all day.  It was okay the rest of the way once I got to Springfield, but *super* windy out west, low level wind shear, and Wednesday is supposed to be icky in between, so we shall see.  If it's nice, I'm going to be mad, because if I'd have just gotten out of here I could have gotten this job done.  So I hope it's not nice, frankly.

I sent in all the information the producer asked for as far as the commercial segment goes, and as far as the head shots, I sent one flying in an airplane with a headset and sunglasses and no smile, one flying in an airplane with a big smile, one standing outside with no sunglasses or anything on, and one from inside the house with a kind of smile.  She said the director just wanted to "get an idea of what you look like" and to send as many as I wanted.  So I told her (it was a her not a him like I said yesterday) that here are a few photos, no filters or Photoshop, but obviously no under-the-chin or harsh light ones either.  Lol  She got back to me and said "Those photos ROCK! I've sent them on to the director and the executive producer, and someone from the team will contact you should they want additional information or to get to know you better.  Good luck with the casting process."  I know the Chicago area has female pilots a lot younger and...better suited...for TV, and I sort of doubt I'm what they're looking for, but they contacted me first, so hey, whatever happens, right?  lol

I spent a fair amount of today rearranging from yesterday.  Got ONE of my flights I'd canceled rescheduled, the rest are gone.  At least I have one tomorrow if we're not fogged over again in the morning, which we may be. But that's an act of nature, and so be it.  :)

The days have still been productive though.  I got Ann some soup and some groceries, got my car washed, did the producer thing, checked the PO Box for money, rearranged my schedule a bit more, talked with a few folks, got me, JP and Nathan on the same text chat about the C-45 groundschool we're supposed to be doing in a few days, and tonight we have a CAF meeting via Zoom that we're going to be 'attending' here in about 30 minutes.

On to Hump Day already.  Lordy I need to look over the C-45 stuff...before Saturday...

I'm back to add: A friend I told about the commercial said, as to the "narrative" of "pilot recovered and back in the skies", he said "Recovered from WHAT?" And you know, that made me laugh out loud, because they didn't say, so it's probably something like:

"Here's our pilot, a middle-aged lady with HPV leading to anal cancer, recovered thanks to our facilities, and back in the skies!"

I could be the face of some weird medical condition! Haha!

More Changes

This morning the weather showed a change for tomorrow.  Now Kokomo was looking like IFR, even LOW IFR, Tuesday morning.  That's a problem, because I don't want to fly out of Kokomo with a single engine aircraft sales airplane I don't know, set up in a way I don't know, with a low time pilot I don't know left seat, with temps around 35, and ceilings 200-500' overcast.  Just...no.  But if I wait till it clears up in the afternoon, now I'm running into another problem--Wednesday is looking sketchy across part of the southwest.  So I have to get far enough away on Tuesday to beat the weather on Wednesday.  So I texted the owner to see about airlining out tonight, so I'd be there first thing in the morning.  He didn't see my messages for 4 hours, by which time I had an hour to get ready to leave for Indy to get the airline.  So I'm not sure if I am leaving for two days in an hour, or if I'm standing down, or what's going on.  Finally he gets back to me and said "let's just wait", which is both fine and frustrating.  I really want to get this plane out there and be done with the thing.  Over the period of me trying to get this thing out there, I have canceled students probably 10 times.  I have canceled two 340 flights.  Just for this round I told Ethan (340) I couldn't fly Wednesday, Eric (RG) I couldn't fly Wednesday, Morgan (checkride prep) I couldn't fly Tuesday, blocked myself off from the schedule so nobody else could schedule me, told Larry that I couldn't take the Twin Comanche and new guy to Oklahoma until I got back, Dustin (MBros) asked if I could do a trip Thursday and I said I didn't know if I'd be back in time.  I have put off my Cheyenne currency.  Now my California trip is off.  Ethan hasn't gotten back to me about the 340, Dustin let me know they weren't going Thursday now, I haven't heard that the Twin Comanche guy is even still in play now, etc.  So all that is missed income.  And this is ONE time I've had missed income, let alone the days I spent working on this, the days I spent in a hotel in Missouri, the days I blocked myself off to try to come out and kept having maintenance problems.  And I can't charge for all of it.  And I'm still not done.  I'm still going to have to take at least two more days to actually get it done and get back.  And the Cheyenne currency is so far out of date we can't really fly the plane until I do it.  The rest of this week has crappy weather so now I have to look at next week...when I'm also looking for good weather to take this stupid plane back to California.  Could I dump the plane and the owner and the sales guy and just say I'm out?  Sure.  But it would be a jerk move on my part and would damage my relationship with Tim. I'm just complaining, not looking for a solution, because the solution is to finish the job.  Before I die of old age hopefully.

When I was talking to Tim this morning, he said his pilot was nervous about the conditions for tomorrow morning, and that he (Tim) had said "Don't worry, you'll have Laura with you, you'll be fine."  As much as I appreciate the confidence, let me repeat--a probably slightly rough sales aircraft I don't know, with a panel set up I don't know, with a nervous low time pilot I don't know, in fog, low IFR, low temps and potential ice.  No thank you.

So like I said, I spent my morning working it all out, checking weather, canceling, scheduling, calling, working.  I spent my lunch and early afternoon waiting to see what was going to happen.  Then I spent my late afternoon trying to put everything back, relatively unsuccessfully.  Frustrating.

I wrote a letter of recommendation for someone towards a scholarship today, which took a little time, but I thought it turned out well and I hope she likes it and that it helps her get the scholarship funding she needs for the next step.

I was contacted today by a lady from the Women in Aviation International group in the Purdue area asking if I'd be willing to be a guest speaker.  She said they'd like me to talk about my career and aviation, that it's seemed interesting and inspiring, that they'd like an overview of who I am, what I do, how I got here, and any advice or cool stories I want to share.  I told her I'd get back to her, because their next meeting is 3/24, and I'm not mentally prepared for this yet, I'm already swamped, and I have a girl on a checkride that day too that I need to focus on.

Today I also got an email from a producer working with a production company based in Chicago.  They're working on a commercial campaign for a network of hospitals operating out of Dayton.  He's doing a casting call for female pilots in the Chicago area, and was pointed at me.  He said "one of the 30 second spots is focused on a female pilot.  The narrative of the commercial focuses on how our pilot has 'recuperated' and is now back up and flying.  There is a budget to cover all expenses. The filming will take a 10-12 hour day and include compensation at industry standard rates.  Filming would take place in the Chicago area at the end of March or beginning of April."  Then he asked me to send in a bunch of info.  Name, age, contact info, currency and recency in flying, and in what airplanes, and he wanted a head shot too.  I was like...uh...on the head shot.  I don't exactly have a headshot.  Fortunately at the end he said "You can just use your cell phone to take a photo", so it sounds like they're not looking for a professional thing.  But now I don't know what photo to send in.  I mean...you want to look good but I also don't want to send the head shot and then show up and have them be like...dude...yikes...no...  So anyway, I thought that was interesting.  I've sent in most of the information they requested and asked if they wanted an airplane head shot with headset and such or just a normal straight on picture. We shall see.

Kaylee called me tonight. She's doing great, has a test tomorrow she was procrastinating on studying more for, so she called me to tell me about how they were in class, and one girl went to the bathroom, and the professor got up and told everyone she was leaving the class for some reason having to do with disability, and they were going to have a new professor, and just left.  The new professor was talking and teaching when the girl came back from the bathroom, and was completely baffled about what was going on and where her teacher was and what class she was in.  Kaylee said it was the weirdest and funniest thing, especially the student's reaction.

Guess I'll go to bed here, and see what I can get done tomorrow.  It was actually another really productive day above and beyond what I mentioned above, it just wasn't interesting enough to spell it all out again.  Like that we went and got our taxes that finished being prepared today, signed 'em, etc.  Or talked to people on the phone.  Or that I read and provided feedback to someone's novel that they're working on.  And put my suitcase back that I was supposed to pack for a trip to California that hasn't happened yet.  ;)