Two Pilots & an LSW: Well, That Was A Day!

Steve was up around 5 something a.m., and I was up at 6. He was out the door and headed to AE's place, so they could drive the trailer down to Metro (Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport, to be precise) together. I was out at Kokomo by 7:15 so I could help Spencer drag all the airplanes out and get ready to fly down. He tugged out the T-6 next, as it would be the first one I took down, and I got in the baggage compartment to stow my purse. As I was about done in there, my elbow knocked the latch, and the baggage door came crashing down--right on the bridge of my nose. It's sharp, heavy metal. I saw stars for a second, heard the cracking noise, but not THE cracking noise (I don't think), tasted something funny, and I was bent double with my nose running, my eyes running, and a bloody top of my nose. I thought...if I have a broken nose it's going to be pretty rough considering they can't do most anything without me there today. Spencer asked if I was okay and I told him the baggage door hit my face and I thought so. Then I turned around and walked off in order to try to 1) not be stared at while in pain and 2) assess. Soon I could feel it again, as it hit so hard my nose was numb for a few moments. And then I figured it was okay, just bloody and sore. I can deal with that.

First up I flew the T-6 to Metro, and I did it with Spencer in the 172RG. So he took off, I took off right behind him, joined up on him, and we flew formation to Metro. Normally I would be Lead as the one with experience, but with him in a high wing, if I was in Lead, he'd have had trouble seeing me very well, so I just had him fly us to Metro and I wandered around him, sometimes close, sometimes far away, sometimes left, sometimes right, sometimes behind. It's nice just messing around in a relaxed fashion. ;)

When we landed at Metro, I parked the T-6, and hopped in the RG with Spencer, who took me to Kokomo, where I met up with Nathan, and Nathan and I took BOB back to Metro. We parked that one, and I had just gotten out when we decided to do (name redacted's) annual currency flight in the PT-26. He needed one to maybe do rides that day, and for general purposes. So I got in the back of the PT. His first landing at Mt. Comfort he came down final at 110 mph. The airplane doesn't go that fast in straight and level cruise at cruise power settings. I suggested he use flaps, he said he was uncomfortable with flaps in this airplane, I told him nobody else had a problem with it, he tried one notch and got us slowed down to 80 mph on the next round or two, which was better. Last landing at Metro was almost a direct crosswind, but light enough that when he put the ailerons the wrong way, it didn't start to do too much at first, then when it did, I told him "it's a right crosswind. Right aileron" before it got unpleasant. I suggested that Nick be the ones to do the PT rides with paying customers for today while he goes up and gets a little more time and gets more comfortable and proficient.

Then the T-6 rides started, and I had three in a pretty close row. One was a CAF member from California who had moved to Ohio and drove over here to see the Indiana Wing. He went on his ride, talked about how he had about 1000 hours back in the 70s, told everyone he knew how to do everything, and had flown in T-6s and P-51s and such. When I gave him the stick on the T-6, he gained over 2000' in altitude, unable to hold straight and level anywhere close, but he did have a good time. He laughed when I yanked it around a little, even though I told him we weren't doing full aerobatics and I couldn't compare with what he'd experienced with aerobatics in a Mustang. Then he came under our trailer, took a seat, and stayed there in our encampment for the next 2 hours or so, and mostly small talked. Another of my riders was a 15 year old kid getting ready to turn 16 and solo in a 172. He was super excited, and he and I had a great time in the plane. :)

A 4th T-6 rider came up, but it was too close to the time of my fly-over, so I sent him to the PT, and he was the 6th rider for the PT for the day. So the PT-26 didn't do too bad. BOB only had one ride, and only sold one seat on that one ride. So BOB did not break even, not even close, for coming down there, giving one ride, and going home. JP did that one ride.

Then came time for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway fly-over, with three T-6s, for the Pennzoil 150 NASCAR race. We had our briefing at 2:45 pm, me, Tom M, and JP, and then engines started at 3:15. The flyover didn't happen until 4:02, so we were up circling around for 45 minutes, in between huge tower antennas off to our left and right. I was listening to the Pagoda on one frequency, and Indy Approach on the other, and when the time came, the guy at the Racetrack was sing-talking the National Anthem to us, which made me smile. I think the flyover itself went well, we hit TOT (Time on Target) dead on, and they said on the radio that we were spot on and looked perfect. So...cool. :) Next we did a smoke-on pass down the reservoir down there, then recovered and came on in for a landing.

That was a long, concentrating flight, on a hot day without any water and minimal food. Next up JP needed his annual currency check flight for the Twin Beech for the CAF. So we went up and did that. As we took off, a guy got a flat tire on the taxiway by the runway. He wasn't officially clear the hold short line, but he wasn't on the runway, either, so we left. Then people decided to wait until he was towed off to use the runway, so we went to Mt. Comfort to do our takeoffs and landings, after doing some air work. We shut the left engine down all the way to full feather, and it did great. Even started back up okay. ;) Our first landing got interesting, and we visited the side of the runway. Keep in mind that the C-45 had one set of brakes--whoever pushes hardest wins. So I let it go for awhile, then when we got too close, I stomped the right brake, hard, and one way or the other we stayed on the runway. My heart rate... We went back into Metro, and on with the day.

But now I was about to be late for dinner, and that's no good.

Nathan and I loaded up in BOB, and I flew us back to Kokomo, jumped out, Nathan and Jon put it away, Spencer took me back in the RG to Metro, and I hopped in the T-6, flew it back to Kokomo, hopped out, Jon pushed it away, and I got in the car and raced to Marble the Steakhouse, where AE, Steve and Nathan were already drinking wine and eating appetizers. About 20 minutes later, Jon and Spencer joined us, and we all had good steak, an excellent Malbec, and enough food to finally fill me up.

We went to bed like at 10:30 around here, wiped out.

Today is Sunday, and I wanted to sleep in, but I woke up at 2 am, probably thanks to the early bed time and the wine, then 5 am, then I got up at 8 am, dehydrated and still exhausted. Caffeine and water and gatoraide and eggs later, oh, and Motrin, and I was starting to feel human, just tired. I did Sunday stuff, laundry and dishes and catching up my logbook and that kind of stuff. Watched some TV with Kaylee. Steve worked on outside projects as usual, and a few smaller inside ones. And so goes the weekend, and here comes Monday.

So to recap Saturday. I flew four different airplanes, 12 different/separate flights, 15 landings, with 7 different people. Three taildragger warbirds, one televised formation fly-over of the Indy Motor Speedway, two warbird check flights, and a lot of repositioning. lol It was a good way to spend a nice Saturday, even if I did about break my nose and dehydrate about halfway through the day.