*Sigh*

The instructor told me he'd meet me at 10 am at the Kokomo FBO.  I went to bed at midnight and fell right asleep, good and solid.  At 2:30 am I woke up like an alarm had gone off, and I was wide awake. I was SO awake I looked at my watch to see if it was time to get up.  I about lost it when I saw it was 2:30. I never really got back to sleep. I wasn't actually stressed out, either, believe it or not, I was just...awake.  I felt pretty crappy by the time I got up at 8.  My head was starting to hurt, too, which is great, just what I need, and it's partly from the lack of sleep, and partly from the weather/sinuses.  I get out there, and now I'm getting nervous, and at 10 am I start waiting for him.  By 10:30, I figure he forgot we were on a different time zone and he'd be there at 11.  At 11 am the winds kicked up, way up, and went from 25 and bumped up to 35 knots, at a crosswind to the runway. A 172 went up and came right back down after one lap and said it was constant moderate turbulence and nasty windy.  I texted the guy, and he hadn't even left Peoria yet. I found that...rude.  He should have called or texted if he was going to be later than 10.  It would have been after noon before he finally showed, without a word.  That's just not cool.  We decided to postpone until Monday.  Of course Monday the weather is calling for 80% chance of rain.  I'm never going to get this over with.

My head went downhill fast from there.  I went to lunch, and barely made it through lunch.  Came home and took medicine and crashed on the couch basically for the rest of the day.  Great day.  (insert eyeroll here).

Drip

Let's see, in today's updates while it was 300' overcast and icky outside...

I made a doctor appointment for Kaylee, and she's already freaking out about getting her blood drawn.  She's like "Can they check and see if I carry the SMA gene too while they're in there? I mean, they get one chance here and I'm not going back!!"  Lol  I told her that's a special lab test done elsewhere, but I wish they would or could do it.  She wants to know.  I'd be interested in knowing too.  Obviously doesn't matter until you go to have kids, but she's 20, so...it's not necessarily that far off.

I heard back from NATA, who let me know that because I've never attended one of their official clinics, and my checkride wasn't done with an official NATA check pilot, that I'll have to come to one of their clinics and do another checkride to get one of their cards.  Now, in reality I don't need a NATA card for formation flying.  I have a card.  What I need it for is so they have one less reason to say "no" to me flying with them at Oshkosh.  So basically he told me to come to their Iowa clinic ahead of time and a "ride" could be arranged.  I'm planning on going anyway, as it's the only way I'll have a chance to fly at OSH. But my checkride was with 4 T-6s and 4 NATA members, so...seems like it should be a no-brainer for them.  A bit of a set-back for round one, but arguing about it with them won't get me anywhere on this one.  I'll just have to take another checkride.  So be it.

Cheyenne recurrency guy is coming tomorrow. He got stuck in Florida then Chicago, gets home late tonight, and tomorrow morning has to come here.  We'll have 20-30 knot winds tomorrow, but same for Saturday, and I really need to get this done, so we're just going to do it.  He's about 15 years old than I am, so not too old.  ;)  He also has 1500 hours in Cheyenne IIs, but has only flown a Cheyenne 400LS once.  I think we'll get along fine, I just want this over with and to go well.

Rainy Wednesday

It was dreary and rainy and cloudy today.  No flying, so I studied the Cheyenne POH which is about 6" thick of small print.  I didn't get through all of it, but I'm trying to hit the important things that I'll look stupid if I don't know.  I really wish my brain worked on mechanical things better than it does.

We went down to Breeze-Inn tonight for dinner with pilot friends, and had a nice evening out.

There's nothing to watch on TV but a Presidential address, so we're watching a movie called "Nobody", and enjoying it quite a bit, actually.  I like go git 'em movies.

The Bonanza I tried to transport to California and broke down in Bullhead City--he got it back the rest of the way home today.  When he landed, a group of people were there waiting with balloons and signs.  They arrived safely and uneventfully.  He said the biggest problem was that mice had gotten in and chewed through snacks we'd left in a box in the back seat, and chewed a hole through the back panel under the hat rack, and left poop and rice krispies over the back seat.  Whoops.  lol  I just hope that's all they chewed through in there.  :o  These are the photos he sent me. I just thought that was kind of cool.  The end of the journey.

I'm going to look into flying the T-6 at Oshkosh this year, in the formation.  To do that, I'm going to have to go to the formation clinic in Iowa ahead of time.  Then there's no guarantees, as they may force me to have someone in my back seat at OSH for the first time, and that means I have to get someone to do it and not fly themselves, which is tricky if you're not one of the cool kids.  But I'm going to try.  I started by emailing NATA and telling them I'd like to turn my formation card from JLFA into a NATA formation card.  When Jordan Brown did his formation card out in California, he did it in Katanas, a small underpowered warbird, and NATA gave him a card no problem.  I did my formation card with 4 T-6s, with all NATA members. There is no good reason they shouldn't grant me the same thing.  Other than I'm not known in their circles well yet.  I show up every year to their Oshkosh meeting, sit quietly, say hi to the few people I know, and leave.  But I'm still going to be annoyed if they won't do it for me without another checkride.  I have more years flying, more hours flying, more experience flying, more T-6 flying, than Jordan.  If they do it for him and not me, well, that's some bullcrap.  So I'm starting that process.  It'll be expensive. Flying to Iowa in it, flying missions there, flying back, flying up to Oshkosh, flying there, that's a lot of gas.  But I may have a limited time to be able to do it.  The T-6 may not be around forever. So...we think it's time to push and try to do it, just in case, so I don't run out of time and opportunity.

It's funny, I've never really felt like I was anything but a newbie, like I was lesser than a lot of those guys.  But I'm not.  How many of them have 12,000 hours in all sorts of different planes from little taildraggers off of grass strips to turboprops at FL410 into Atlanta or whatever, and everything in between. How many of them are CFI/CFII/MEI, warbird instructors who teach people in various warbirds, not just fly to pancake breakfasts and fly-bys? I'm not saying I'm God's Gift to aviation, but I'm not a joke, or a wanna-be, either.  I've been flying a T-6 (13 of them actually) for 13 years, for 650 hours. They let Trey fly with them as a 250 hour, almost all in C-172s, brand new Commercial pilot.  So, at the moment anyway, I feel done with secretly feeling a little inferior.  Every dude I know who starts out, seems to have no problem feeling like he deserves to be there. Pushes his way in and just goes for it.  I've never been a "push my way in" person, and I don't think I regret that. It's just not me.  But I think I've proved myself by still being here. Now I'll have to prove myself with them in the plane. I've been doing it one at a time over years, but now it's time to do it there, at their house, and hope I can get them to give me the time of day this time.  The biggest thing I have to do is stop trying to be perfect all the time. You can't be. They aren't. So just because I'm not, doesn't mean I shouldn't do things.  There's my own little pep talk for the day.  ;)

Nothing Much

Not much going on today.  It was too windy for my one student. So I did secretarial stuff.  I talked to the Cheyenne guy and moved my currency training to Friday, because the weather tomorrow and Thursday looks like crap.  I scheduled PT-26 training with Nick and Dennis for next week.  I got some groceries for Ann, and answered several emails.  We had a couple folks come over and clean the deck and weed Ann's garden, and they did great.  I put off transporting Larry's T-6 to Metro until next week, and everyone agreed.  Caught up my logbook (I'm about 46 hours away from breaking 12,000 hours, which should take a month or less.)  I got another hotel room, one of the last in the area, for the TBM Avenger Gathering event in Illinois next month, this one for my helpers.  I did the dishes and the laundry and straightened up some paperwork.  So...productive, even if not aviating.

Haven't heard from Kaylee today, she was good yesterday, wearing my fuzzy sweatshirt around.  Steve was busy doing Steve things, outside in the yard, returning phone calls, all that good stuff.

One of my long-time SMA kids passed away yesterday.  Her name is Hannah Price, and she was a severe Type 1, and one of the sweetest, most kind young ladies you'll ever have met.  She was a Christian, and was truly a gentle soul. I've known her most of her life, and kept up with her on Facebook.  She was fine, on a group chat with friends one minute, and went completely unresponsive the next.  She had sepsis, apparently, and they couldn't stop it, couldn't save her.  Just boom, she's gone.  The community is wounded, as she and her parents, a nurse and a respiratory therapist, were the founding members of the Amino Acid diet and respiratory protocol that has saved and extended the lives of thousands of children over the years.  That's one little girl who made a difference in this world even though she couldn't move a muscle.  I am...saddened.

Tomorrow I was supposed to do the Cheyenne thing, which isn't happening now, so I have nothing else on the schedule.  I'll see what other productive things I can do. Maybe actually study for the Cheyenne thing, like I need to.  ;)

Ohio

It was the day to fly the 340 to Ohio for its annual.  I was supposed to sign off a girl for solo cross country, but it was too windy, so I had her come with me in the 340, and she flew us to Ohio. It was her first time in something that size and with that speed, and she got a big charge out of it.  :)  Her dad is a pilot too and he's never been in a twin, so she's rubbing it in her face. Spencer came and got us in the 172RG, and flew us home.  

Our tree survived the snow and freeze, and is blooming beautifully right now.

I feel like there's something I was supposed to talk about and I can't remember what it was.  I'll edit later if I figure it out.

More pictures of our flowering tree

Ana in the 340

The 340 panel

These Snapchat photos are fun. What you'd look like if you could walk around wearing a filter. No lines, no wrinkles, no spots, just smooth and pretty and young.  Fake news, man, fake news.

Cowgirl version too?  HAhaha

Weekend Update

It's just been a couple days, but it was action packed.

Friday I had an eye doctor appointment. Back to the 20/20 place I used to go to, after the Wal-Mart eye doctor was condescending, impatient, rude, and curt with me.  Don't need that.  So I went to this guy, who was good, and the bad thing was I got a new pair of contacts. What's bad about that is that new contacts fuzz over on me and cause me vision problems, and it did it all day.  A problem when I have a flight that afternoon.  I had one good eye, at least for awhile, and kept my glasses with me just in case I needed to take out the contacts to fly.  

So that afternoon I packed up the 340 with Terry and his two daughters.  We flew to Atlanta on a perfectly nice day, landed, and I had a rental car and hotel room waiting for me.  It was about a 45 minute drive to the hotel. I later figured out that was because the area the airport was in was not the best, and they were getting us a little further away.  I ended up just going to Chick-fil-A for dinner, because it sounded good and I was tired.  I read a book, then went down to the pool. It was an indoor/outdoor, heated, lit pool. I didn't have a swim suit, but it looked nice.  So I dressed as best I could and went down to the pool for a good 45 minutes, got in the water, read, relaxed. When it was time, it was a cold ride back up to my room. I ended up on the elevator, barefoot, wet feet, no make-up, glasses, and I'm sharing the elevator with a guy 20 years younger than me, smirking at me.  Eh, it's okay, I'll never see him again, right?

Except at breakfast the next morning downstairs.  At least this time I was dressed normally, with shoes and make up and everything.  ;)

I didn't actually do a lot on Saturday, because I didn't know when the funeral would be over, when we would be leaving, and the weather was just rounds of sketchy, one after the other.  As of 8 am, a bunch of rain was moving through, but it was only rain. A lot of it, and heavy bunches of it, but just rain.  So I let it go.  Around noon I headed for the airport, 45 minutes away, topped off the 340, and stared at the weather. A round of storms moved through, but mostly missed us. Then they said another round was going to fire up between 6-8 pm. So I texted the folks and asked if they knew what they were looking at for timing. They asked about spending the night, I said I'd rather not unless they needed the extra time.

See, Sunday morning at 9 am I was supposed to be in Ohio in the T-6 to photograph three C-47s dropping paratroopers, and it was a paid photo gig, and cool to boot, and a photographer was relying on me.  So they said they'd let me know.  Now I'm watching the weather start to build again, and here it comes.  One cell aimed right at us was nasty, so I asked them to pull the 340 into a hangar.  The cell that went by dropped hail on the airport next to us, just a couple miles away, so it was a good call, even though it cost us $60. 

When the family showed up, it was DECISION time.  The cells were blowing up, all the way up into Tennessee and Kentucky, and aiming right for us at Atlanta.  If we waited any longer, we'd be stuck there for hours.  If we took off a little too late, the weather was getting really close.  They all got ready, I had them pull the plane back out, we loaded up, and as I was taxiing out, one big cell was just a couple miles from the runway, and a giant bolt of lightning shot down right in front of us.  I got my clearance, tower got me out of there, I turned the opposite way, and immediately outran that particular cell.  They climbed us up through the layers, and even though I was clear of the cells, there was enough convection/activity that it was rough going for a few minutes there. At one point I had pushed the nose down, the plane was caught in an updraft strong enough the vertical speed indicator pegged out, and the stall horn chirped even with the nose down.  I was glad to break through that layer, and then I had to deviate to the right a good ways to get around the cells building up over there and headed our way.  It was no problem, there was tons of room to avoid them.  But looking at the radar, it was indicating hail, and even rotation/tornadic activity, and tops over 45,000'.  Even the Cheyenne couldn't have gotten over it.  Once we cleared that area, I was back to just clouds and rain, and even that wasn't bad, just a little murky.  

I shot the RNAV 5 back into Kokomo, wasn't even low, and when I parked it, I got the T-6 all ready for the next morning's flight.  I added oil, got the back seat ready, all that good stuff.  When I got home around 9 pm, I knew I'd have to be up around 5:45 am.  And then I watched the fog roll in. There was no fog forecast. But it came, and it covered most of the state. If I'd have waited to get out of Atlanta until the storms blew past, I'd have ended up halfway home when everything went below minimums back home.  So.  It was a darned good thing I got out when I did. The timing was about as close as it could get. 

So this morning when the alarm went off, I was dead asleep.  I was tired. I checked the weather, and guess what?  Still foggy and IFR here, there, and everywhere in between.  I got ready anyway, waiting for it to burn off.  Right as I needed to walk out the door, the photographer called me and called it off.  By now I was up, showered, had makeup and hair done, had had a cup of coffee.  I still went back to bed and passed out for another two hours.  It felt So GOOD.  Caffeine can't keep me awake.  But I can't sleep like a normal person at night half the time.  Brother.  

So this afternoon I met with Kaylee at Eastern, and we went to the Spring Concert. The school had blocked off certain seats and rows for "social distancing", and required masks inside. I took mine off as soon as the lights went down. The kids all had to sing under clear masks.  We enjoyed the concert though.  Ran into several other alumni, and honestly it felt like home. I spent SO much time in that PAC that it's like old home week every time I go back, every time I see Mrs. E, even though I don't know any of the kids performing any more.  Well, almost none of them. I knew about 3 who are seniors this year.  

Kaylee informed me that she was supposed to go to an outdoor gender reveal party afterwards, and she was in a thin t-shirt under her coat, and she was afraid she was going to freeze. So she asked for my fuzzy sweater. But I didn't have anything on underneath it.  So after the concert, I went into the bathroom, literally took the shirt off my back, and put my coat on, and walked around topless in the school, giving Kaylee my sweater.  I ran through Culver's like that too.  Felt so wrong.  ;)  She said that it kept her warm, and that it was a girl.  So...that was weird.  The things you do for your kids, even when they're full grown.  ;)

Ann is back at her house now, seems to be doing okay. Her room is freshly painted, and everything looks good!  She's having trouble with her heart I think, it makes her feel weak fast.  I brought her an Oreo concrete mixer, a little treat.  I think she's glad to be back in her own bed.

An overview of the first half of the route.

See that big hot pink, red cell right by that airport in the bottom left? That's the storm right on my tail as I took off.

Lots of things chasing us. Or trying to beat us.

Me contemplating getting in the pool

It was nice and warm. IN the water.

Atlanta was overcast and nasty

The blackness is the weather to my left. Looks deceptive.

Once I was past it, everything cleared up beautifully for awhile

Just pretty shots

This is a video of time lapse. I have the one I posted on FB too, but it's too big for FB.  So you can watch this one instead, which I didn't post elsewhere.

Well Then

Kaylee did not end up having a good day yesterday.  She got a 70% on a quiz.  Then she was trying to do a presentation with a partner, and somehow half their slides got deleted off their device.  She was trying to wing it, and the teacher stopped her and told her it would hurt her grade and they could do it again another day.  She was wondering why, if she was able to wing it, why it would hurt her grade, but *fine*, she says.  She went to get her vaccination, which she said went like this.  "I kicked the nursing student who gave me the shot.  And I had to have three people to get it accomplished.  Then I nearly passed out.  It was embarrassing.  Emily was holding me in the chair because I was pushing it back so far that if she wasn't there I would've fallen over, and one of the head nurses came over after I kicked the nurse and held my hand and arm and distracted me, then when I almost passed out, another nursing student came and got me water and cracker and an ice pack.  What a mess."  Ha.  She's studying for finals, which is stressing her out, so she scheduled her first ever Swedish Massage, which she said she loved...all the way up to the point where they took off her underwear and massaged her rear end.  And she's like.  :o  Then she gets back to her dorm, and her boyfriend comes over, and ends up telling her that he thinks he's putting more into the relationship than she is, that he wants more, and that he thinks that it wouldn't be fair to either of them to keep going on.  So she got dumped, too, to end this magnificent day.  ;)  I have to tell you, I was actually really impressed by both her and Logan.  Him, for coming to her in person, not texting or calling or ghosting like most kids do these days.  Telling her what he needed and being up front about it, and being aware that there was an imbalance in the relationship.  Her, for handling it more maturely than I did, agreeing that he's right, he does put more into it than she does, that she doesn't feel she has the energy to deal with school and friendships and her own well being and a relationship all as well as she would like to, and not flipping out on him or promising to do better but not following up, etc.  She sure handled her first break up better than I did.  So far at least.  She's sad, she likes him, he's a good guy, she doesn't really want to see him dating someone else, but she knows he's ready to be all in with someone, and she doesn't think she can be that person right now.  So...good for both of them.  Even if it does make for a sucky day.

Steve's not done next door, but it's getting closer.  I took Ann's curtains in to the cleaner while we're at it.  Might as well.  

I flew the Cherokee 180 for 2.5 hours today, up at 3500', just listening to the radio for awhile, flew over Kaylee's university, texted her a hello, and listened to tunes.  The thing is, I opened my headset bag, and it's my bag, with my stuff in it, batteries, hair scrunchy, etc., except the headset in there isn't my headset.  It's a newer Bose with bluetooth.  I couldn't explain this.  But I hooked up my phone, called Kaylee from the air to check in on her (she's doing okay today best I could tell), and listened to music off my phone through the headset today.  Steve figured out I probably stole them from the 340 I moved to Ohio for annual last Monday somehow.  But that plane is in Ohio for 3 weeks, so I have a new pair of Bose to use until we go get it back.  ;)  Which led us to realize I need to get OUR 340 to Ohio for annual on...Monday.  Different place, but close by.  

Then tonight I had a night flight with a guy, and did the usual routine.  He had fun, and loved it.  He wasn't so sure of the 'full electrical failure" mode, said "you're not going to let us die, right?"  Right.  He did a good job with it though!  Most people do better than they think they're going to.  :)  I got home at 11:50 pm.  It doesn't even get dark till after 9, and we didn't get started until almost 10.  That's the bad thing about night flights in the Spring/Summer.   I have one more to do with him, a cross-country.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to take some folks in the 340 to the Atlanta area, and spend the night, be there all day Saturday for a funeral, and bring them home in the evening.  Saturday's weather looks bad in Atlanta, of course, but we'll see.  

Kaylee's school. She's in the building with the white roof in the center right of the photo when I took it.

Cherokee 180 panel

Schitzo

I woke up this morning to a bunch of snow.  Then it melted. The sun shone. Then it snowed again. Then it rained. Then it snowed. Then it rained. Then it snowed.  You get the idea. Mother Nature needs meds today.

No flying. I scheduled my Cheyenne currency for next Wednesday. I started setting up a hotel for the TBM Avenger fly-in in May (need to finish that, and a car).  

Kaylee got her first Covid shot today. She kicked the student nurse who was giving it to her, and it took three people to get the job done apparently, but she got it done. Not sure how she'll go back for #2. That's why she wanted Johnson & Johnson, because it's just one shot, but they quit doing that one at her school, they're doing Moderna, so that's what she did today.  Poor needle phobic kid. 

I took a bunch of photos of our tree this morning because it just looked pretty and I was trying to get the right angle to show off how it actually looked up close and far away. Not sure I succeeded, but I'll post them all here anyway.

Steve is next door trying to finish up repairing and painting Ann's closets and room here as of 9 pm.  We're hoping to move furniture in tonight or tomorrow and maybe see about her being able to head back to her own stuff and bed.

Our backyard

Flowers and snow

I like this one

When I left the house this morning.

When I got back this afternoon

And the snow is mostly gone. I think the blossoms will even survive.  :)

Snow Again

It was 70 degrees the other day, and it was 30 degrees yesterday.  The snow started moving in around lunchtime, and it kept snowing all day and into the evening.  We accumulated at least 3" of snow by the end. 

So, no flying.  Steve and I drove down to Metro Airport and had a CAF meeting inside the hangar there with a heater on.  It was loud so we'd turn off the heater until we got too cold, then turn it back on for awhile to take the edge off.  We had pizza and other food, and went over a lot of material.  When we got out of the meeting, the snow was still coming down pretty hard, and it was a sloppy drive home.  I got an alert from Duke that we lost power at the house, so I called Ann, and she said yep, sure enough, power was out.  She was doing okay though.  An hour later it came back on, just as we were getting home.  I got to reset all the kitchen clocks again, but other than that, no harm no foul.  Although I do wonder why on earth we lose power so easily in Kokomo these days.  I mean, so it snowed. So what?! 

These are just some snow pics.  Because why not.

When it first started at Kokomo

Our flowering pear tree

In the grass, before it got buried.

Half of them were behind me, half over here.

Leaving the meeting

Yuck

Night shots of the frozen flowers on the tree

Looks more like December.