Steve stayed home until late so he could take care of his mom's morning, and then he was out there around 11 or so. The weather held out, the clinic went great. I was exhausted though thanks to the night of sleep I didn't get. I acted as safety pilot right seat for one guy, which is a little stressful, and he did a GOOD job. It would be extra stressful if they're brand new and not so good. You're so close to the other airplanes, you have a split second to decide whether or not to intervene. I guess like landings, only higher up in the air. ;)
The guys got BOB ready, so we pulled it out and Nathan and I climbed in to do the first test run. Started the right engine first, and smoke came pouring into the cockpit from behind the dash. He said "Kill it!" so I did, asap. It was just the hot air cabin air vents that had been left on from the winter that were directing engine heat behind the panel, and the engine was smoky like any radial. So...it was nothing. lol I started them both up, and then we did a taxi test. The brakes had felt firm sitting there, but they weren't firm, they didn't hold past 1400-1500 RPM. I couldn't do a real run-up because I couldn't hold the brakes. But the runup I did went all right, minus the left engine wouldn't feather. The feather button didn't work. So, that's a problem, like a legit one. Brakes and left engine feather. Everything else looked and sounded good. It felt good to be in it again, but it barely feels under control with those brakes like that. Here I was looking forward to good ones. :p
Saturday afternoon we had two Graduation Open Houses we wanted to go to, for Cameron and Morgan, two kids who work for us. Cameron's started at 3, so we drove to where we thought it was. There was a graduation party sign, we pulled in, and everyone coming out of the door was dressed in formal wear, and mostly black and red. Like FANCY formal wear. Now we're used to being under-dressed in jeans and t-shirts after being out at the airport all day. We don't care. We've gone to fancy, expensive restaurants that way. Don't care. Today we hesitated, sat there and watched the people going in and out, and we're like...Okay, I found my line. I care. Something is wrong here. We could not bring ourselves to go in there and hunt down Cameron dressed as we were, with everyone coming out of there looking like they were at a prom or an evening wedding. So we booked out of there, and we ran. We got back to the airport, where I learned that we were at the wrong place. So we turned around and headed back to the correct place, and as we pulled in, someone got out of a car wearing jeans and a nice shirt, and we went..."okay. NOW we're good". :D
The second open house was harder. Morgan's was up north of Peru, like 40 minutes away, and it was during the evening hours when the Bo guys were still there, finishing up. And we needed to run home to do Ann's evening stuff. So we just weren't going to make it. Felt bad, felt guilty, but I texted her and let her know, and apologized. I felt guilty until today, when she came out, and said that she'd been swamped with people and gotten overwhelmed at it. Then I didn't feel so bad. I gave her the card and the check, and felt that was mission accomplished.
While Steve ordered pizza, I went home for Ann, and when I got back out there, I wanted some air of my own. So I pulled out the Champ. Steve said "Where are you going?" I said "Out!" Then Glenn, the head of the formation clinic, said he wanted to go. I didn't really want company, but I do like him, so I invited him along, and off we went. He was more in an aggressive mood and I was more in a pensive mood, but he mentioned I could do "whatever I wanted", and how he liked wingovers and spins and such. We went over to Glenndale, I showed him the grass strip, did a few takeoffs and landings, came back, went up higher, spun it, then did some takeoffs and landings at Kokomo, including a couple one-wheel landings. It wasn't a perfect flight which bugged me, but it wasn't bad for the most part. He said he had fun, and mostly I was just glad to get up on a pretty evening as the sun was starting to go down.
We were out at the hangars with everyone until pretty late, 9:30 or so. Got back, did the last Ann med and shut things down, and it was time to crash. I took a sleeping pill this time so I could stay asleep, and apparently it worked because Steve said I was out hard. I still woke up pretty early, but at least not 5:15. :p This time he went out early to open up and I stayed home to take care of Ann's morning stuff.
It was another beautiful day, and they flew all the way up until around 2 pm or so, before everyone broke off and sat around and talked, cleaned up a bit, and then headed for home. We stopped at the house long enough for Steve to mow the lawn, me to try to nap (unsuccessfully) and us to change shirts to something nicer, and then we went down to Zionsville for the last Open House we had of the year, for Ana. We were there until almost 8 pm. Got home around 9 again, in time to do the last thing next door, and then we both had a bunch of stuff to catch up on. Including this blog. ;) I had quite a few emails to answer.
One email was from the deaf student I'd had, who wants to become a Sport Pilot CFI. I'd told her I couldn't do it, and she was on her way to Florida to do it there. She contacted me on Friday that it hadn't worked out and she was coming back to Indiana and our website said we offered light sport training and she just knew I'd be great at it and who could I recommend from our flight school to do it. I wrote her back that we aren't set up for and do not offer Light Sport CFI training, which is true, and which I'd also told another guy who asked about it. I don't have the time to create a new program for this, with two people for the "demand", in all the years light sport has been around. I don't do CFIs, Steve does, but he wouldn't care to do the tailwheel sport pilot cfi stuff. None of us knows what that entails, who to use as an examiner, how to prep someone, none of it! And we don't have time to create it from scratch. So I let her know she'd have to look elsewhere, which will upset her, but I. Can't. And not just I can't, I don't want to. Like really, truly do not. So I'm waiting for her to come back and try to argue with me some more, because she's very pushy and persistent, which she has probably needed to be, but it's not going to work with me.
Kaylee drove off to Ohio Saturday morning pretty early, and arrived in time with her friend Ava in a separate car going together. Almost in formation. ;) She texted me that she arrived, and then she texted me that she was worried she was going to struggle with this, because she already missed her friends back home, and really didn't like moving around a lot, moving again, ad was feeling weird and unhappy. I texted her back that it's normal and okay to feel a little weird when you're new and just starting out somewhere new doing something new, to give herself time to settle in, etc. She didn't get back to me until the next day, then it was just a quick "love you". I haven't heard from her since, which I'm guessing means she's busy, which probably isn't a bad thing. Idle hands and all that. Busy usually keeps your mind off of stuff. So hopefully she's doing better on Day 2 or 3 here with a little time to start getting into a routine and know what she's supposed to do.
The head of the formation clinic brought us a bottle of Woodford Reserve bourbon, which Steve and I cracked open tonight. Good stuff. And hopefully won't give me a headache...
Okay, all caught up, I'll let you know more when I know more, of course, about Kaylee, or Ann, or whatever may come.
Two of the guys on their way home from the clinic took this
Just a bunch of boring pics of planes on a ramp
Some of the folks going over ground stuff
Isabel with pink hair, Morgan with blondish hair, going on a two-ship with the two guys. Don't know the other lady, she's from Ohio
I took this as a safety pilot, as we were coming in to land. He had it down pretty well by then.
Sweaty messy me, and Nathan, in BOB.
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