I had a funeral fly-over this morning for our mechanic Eric's dad up at Huntington. I woke up to fog. It was *supposed* to burn off but you know how fog is. I was supposed to meet up with Tom in the P-51 at Kokomo just before 11. By 10:20 am it was clear that Indy was going to stay socked in, and he texted his regrets. I pulled the T-6 out and waited. At 10:55 am the weather was going up to about 800' and 7 miles at Kokomo, which I could do decent Class G airspace in, but Huntington was still low. At 11:10 Huntington went up to 800' and 5 miles, and Jon T (who knew Eric's dad) and I got in the T-6, I texted Eric, and we launched and I went as fast as I could. Huntington is only 30 miles away, not far. I stayed about 700' above the ground and clear of clouds with decent visibility, and got about 10-15 miles away, when Eric texted me that it had gone back down over there and was starting to rain. So Jon and I turned around and went back to Kokomo. We tried our best. I sent Eric a photo of us in the air and a selfie of us and let him know we were thinking of him and his family.
I landed back at Kokomo, and Steve stopped in with Wendy's, before Nathan got there, and the three of us plus Spencer went in the Aerostar over to the Philly area to pick up the Cheyenne. It was about 3.5 hours round trip. Steve and Nathan came back in the Cheyenne, while Spencer and I went home in Gumby. We left 30 minutes before they did, and they were on the runway when we entered downwind. So they still beat us, but barely. ;) I did the flying on the way out, and let Spencer fly us home. We all heard each other on Ft. Wayne's frequency, so that was fun.
As soon as we touched down at Kokomo, Spencer and I shoved Gumby away, and then I hopped back in the T-6 and took off to get it to Huntington. Spencer took off behind me in the RG, picked me up and brought me back to Kokomo. It was a pretty evening and I told him he should take the Champ up, but he said he'd had enough flying. I hadn't, I'd have done it if I didn't need to get home. So I thought that was funny. Wimp. ;)
On the way out, the Indiana State Police have set up cones for a drive course they're doing. I thought they'd left, so I took my Buick around the first corner and started accelerating. Then I looked up and saw two police officers sitting in their cars on the other side of the fence. I bugged out of there as fast as I could and drove off. Oops. And ha.
I decided to stop at Popeye's for chicken now that they're open. The line was out to the road, but I wasn't in a hurry, so I got in it anyway. Got a chicken sammich and some fried chicken and biscuits. I felt like I was down south as the lady taking our orders kept calling everyone "honey" and "sweetie". I ordered unsweet tea and got SUPER sweet tea, so I still felt like I was down south. :) It took 50 minutes to get through the line, and they were out of blackberry cheesecake pies, but what I had was good!
I didn't take any photos today in the Aerostar, just the T-6...it was all mostly last minute and unexpected today, but it took all day to do, we got a few things done, and it was worthwhile.
The view out the wing on the way up to the cemetery
Wiped out looking me, and Jon.
Clearer skies
Just a few photos of the T-6 in the afternoon sun.
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