Two Pilots & an LSW: Marion Fly-In

There were some big crowds today for the Marion Fly-in. I got out to Kokomo around 7:30 so I could get everything ready to go before Nathan got there. Steve ran over the tow bar with the tug when AE moved it without him knowing it, and broke the castoring wheel, but it still worked at least. AE and Steve drove over to Marion, and Nathan got to Kokomo just before 8, climbed in, and we headed over. We had our pancake breakfast, and then I started in on rides. I did 3 or 4, and then I needed gas, and then I had several more to do, but weather started moving in. I got in 5 or 6 rides today, had two more to do that I had to reimburse because the weather moving into Kokomo and then Marion wasn't great. So Nathan climbed back in, and I took off for Kokomo. We got about halfway back, and the visibility went downhill, the clouds lowered, and it started raining on me. I made a beeline for the runway and did a basically straight in for Runway 23, a nice short 3-point landing, and was off at the first taxiway there. Spencer had beaten us back and opened the hangar door, and I just taxied right under the door to protect the avionics. We got that pulled inside, and then Spencer drove me back to Marion, where I needed to bring BOB back next. But now I had a problem. It was IFR, or it was IFR at Kokomo and marginal at Marion, or Marginal at Kokomo and IFR at Marion. I just needed 15 minutes of at least 1000' ceilings and 3 miles visibility along the whole 15 minutes of flight time, and we just weren't getting it. Finally I got it. Steve came with me, and I launched in BOB in light rain. Got back to Kokomo with clouds moving back in around 800' scattered, but I beat it. Made another bee-line for Runway 23, didn't do quite as nice of a landing as before, but I've had worse. lol Put it away, and the flight plan was closed. Everything and everyone was home safe. So we hit Outback for dinner. Me, AE, Spencer, Jon, Steve. Nathan decided not to go.

Kaylee stopped at Marion to see us, and came up and hugged me, and some people got a picture of that, which was sweet. One of my riders was a young lady thinking about learning to fly, and she had a great time. My first three riders were deaf as posts and we couldn't talk at all. That's not as much fun, plus I don't know what they're thinking, or what they want to do or not do in the plane. Then I had a kid working on his Commercial, and I put the time in his logbook, and he liked that. We ran into all sorts of friends. Larry Jacobe and Bill Finney and Wayne and Danny N. and his friend Matt (who introduced me to his wife and told her I was probably the best pilot he knew, which is flattering! Especially since his buddy is an airline pilot now. ;)) We met and talked to and had a good time with lots of folks, and then I stayed busy on rides, and that was all good.

The New Standard biplane fellow who I won't name here so it doesn't come up in a search was very nice to me over the radio the whole time. As in, extra, I'm trying to make up for being a real jerk to you, nice. Too nice. It won't work. He showed me who he is, and I'm gonna believe him the first time. I don't need a second chance on this one. But he let me out on final, warned me about traffic, let me come in to land, and kept calling me by name on the radio instead of N#. When I was leaving, we got close to each other, me going out, him coming in, didn't see each other. I had called departing the area to the west, I hadn't heard him call in but he might have. Anyway, I saw him and diverted. He said "Sorry Laura". It wasn't really his fault, we were both headed at each other. So I said "Sorry about that", and that was the end of it. But he was rude and mean and snappy and said something very hurtful at the BBQ Bash where he gave rides. So maybe he just wants to get along, or maybe he's sucking up for whatever reason, but...I'll be polite, but I'm done. And when I'm done, I'm done.

I do have some bad news. Grace Aldridge, who grew up with Kaylee, her dad Greg was Steve's first flight instructor and long time friend, and mom Michaele invited me to a mom's online group, to a local play group, we did gymnastics and dance and such together, Greg's a pilot, Michaele got her certificate. They lived at Glenndale for years. Grace has a severe eating disorder, which has escalated into other problems too, and Noah is Autistic. So they just have a rough go of it anyway. Grace went to a Christian retreat weekend, and Michaele asked a bunch of us to send encouraging notes to Grace. I almost didn't do it, but I did, because I felt like if someone was asking me for that, they really needed it, so I did it. Come to find out, most of the people she asked didn't do it, so I was REALLY glad I did. How hard would that be to ask for something for your daughter and have nobody do it, you know? Anyway, when Grace got back from her retreat, she came down with Covid. Both her parents came down with it pretty fast after that, and Noah quarantined in his room with his grandmother bringing him food for 2 weeks. Grace got better pretty fast. Noah never caught it, and after two weeks of quarantine moved in with his grandma. Greg and Michaele ended up in the hospital. Greg was released after 4 days. Michaele has been in there for two weeks now. She is currently on a ventilator, on a feeding tube, and in a medically induced coma to try to let her body rest. They don't give her good odds of survival. I don't know if they were vaccinated or not. Michaele's mom died when she was young of breast cancer, and it affected her her whole life. If she dies, Grace will lose her mom young too, and can you imagine living with being the one who brought Covid home, intentionally or not, and your mom dying from it? Ouch. But worst of all, Michaele was the one who sacrificed everything to stay home with the kids and deal with all their various medical issues. Greg works out of town most of the time, is gone most of the time, and works his butt off to pay for all the medical things both kids need. Neither kid can hold a job, neither have much hope of being independent or living outside their parents' home for any forseeable future, neither have any real aspirations or goals, both have a lot of expenses, and Michaele did everything around there. Grace has severe issues even as far as suicidal attempts and tendencies, calling the authorities, refusing meds, they have to lock up all their utensils and cleaning supplies and...scissors...and everything. I truly don't know what that family will do if M doesn't recover. And it's weird to think of her not making it. We are birthday buddies. She's one year older, with a birthday of March 11. We're not close, but we're friends, and we've known each other for 25 years. I really hope she can come out of it and recover. Her family needs her, badly. It bothered Steve enough that she's my age that he asked if I'd reconsider getting the vaccine. She also is morbidly obese now and whatever other health issues may have arisen from that, but I do have poor lung function and always have had, which isn't great for this disease. Of course the latest variant they think is vaccine resistant anyway, so I still don't know if it matters, but...if he's concerned enough to ask me to do it, I'll reconsider. I'm not anti-vaccine. I'm not even anti-this-vaccine. So him asking me to will probably be enough to have me do it. I think Pfizer, but I'll have to pick a time when I have a couple days off in case of a reaction to the shot, which isn't tomorrow, that's for sure. ;)

So that's that.

And these are from today. A little out of order but I'm too tired to fix it.