Two Pilots & an LSW: Monday Tuesday

My cousin Kevin in the hospital in Kansas with Covid has been on a vent for awhile, and they are struggling to keep his CO2 levels down. The family just signed a DNR in that if he doesn't begin to show improvement, they will not do any additional life-saving efforts, and have designated him as an organ donor. There have been others who have been this sick who did recover, but I know the odds aren't in his favor. Hoping for the best for him and his family.

Monday was a busy but relatively entertaining day. I started the morning doing a spin endorsement in the Champ. She wasn't real thrilled about spins, was actually sort of terrified. She doesn't even like steep turns. We spent over an hour on the ground discussing how it worked, what spins are, how students will get you into trouble, how to recognize it, stop it before it gets that far, recover from it if it does get that far, etc. So we started off with just flying, then did some turns, then some steep turns, then a power off stall, then a power on stall, then an uncoordinated power on stall, then a full on spin entry. That was shocking enough we did about 3 of them just to get it down. Then I moved into a full-on spin, and as we were going around, she pipes up with "NOPE, I don't like this." But she kept her cool and recovered appropriately and did fine. You don't have to like them, you just have to be able to get out of them. So that was how the morning started. I actually like spins when I'm doing them on purpose in an airplane I'm not worried about. :D

We went to Miller's (Mennonite store) for lunch, and then went back up in the 172RG and did a complex endorsement. She already flies a Dakota 235, a HP airplane, so she already knows how the prop works and all that good stuff. So I told her my complex procedures, and we went out and flew for almost 2 hours, did instrument approaches and normal patterns, etc., and I never got her to forget the gear or other procedures. So I signed that off too. I had enough time to go get some dinner, and then come back and I had a night cross country flight in a 172 with another student. It was beautiful out there, just gorgeous, smooth, great sunset. I didn't get home until like 10:30 pm.

This morning I was up relatively early to go fly with young Bryce, who is someone else's student and is having a bit of a struggle catching on. I went backwards and started over and taught him how to stop, how to taxi, how to speed taxi down the runway, how to climb out and hold an airspeed. Just...basics. I think he made some progress. He's not an easy one, but he's eager and he's trying, and I think I can help him.

Next up I drove down to Indy Metro, to do a checkout with Nick in the PT-26. This time he was in the back seat, and doing his instructor checkout. He did great. We did all the air work, and his first landing from the back seat ever was an engine out landing onto Sheridan's Runway 23 which is only 50' wide. That's a challenge on top of a challenge, and he did well with it. He had been practicing in the plane. We flew for over and hour, and I was good with him. I'd expected it to take longer, for me to have to work with him, but that didn't end up being the case. So when we got back, we started in on paperwork. I was going to leave and not stay for the meeting just because I didn't want to hang out for 3 hours before the meeting started, but it took us so long to get through the paperwork, people were already arriving for the meeting by the time we were done! So I stayed for that, too. As far as the paperwork goes, the CAF has been "yes" and "no" both about letting me sign off another instructor in the PT. So I just sent the paperwork through and will see if they say yes or no. If yes, great, Nick is "in" and I have a backup for the PT. If they say no, they're gonna have to tell me what I need to do to be approved to do that, and if they won't, then who to send over here to do it. It's dumb. It's a PT. They should let me approve instructors.

The meeting was uneventful, other than we had a pretty sunset outside the hangar to go with it. I drove home after dark again, which is easy now that the sun goes down BEFORE 7 pm. Ugh.

Steve took Ann to the dentist today. She did have one molar up top that was sharp and hurting her, and he filed that. She has periodontal gum disease on her lower gums that needs to get better. But the bad one is...she has a partial. I didn't really know that. She's supposed to be taking it out and cleaning it, taking it out at night and not sleeping in it, etc. I don't know how long it's been since she took it out, but I'm guessing months and months, because we didn't know. So part of this fun dementia is that she just...quit taking care of her partial. Fortunately now we know, and now we have one more thing to try to remind her to do before she goes to bed at night.

As I said before, we fired the first home health person for ghosting us, the second popped positive for Covid. So the third here came Monday for the first time, and it went well. She came again this morning to wash Ann's hair, which Ann didn't like ahead of time, but Steve made her do it. That went well too. So it looks like she'll be a back up for the other lady and we'll have two who can help out with nursing and personal care needs. So that's good.

Nothing on Kaylee right now, she's in classes and doing her thing.

Starting with today in the PT and the CAF hangar, and then on to yesterday's sunset flight. I didn't take any photos of the spinning this time, she was too tense and I needed to stay focused on the controls. Always wise, right? ;)