Work

I was up early, and Spencer met me out at Kokomo to help me pull the Aerostar out. We don't have a tug, and it's too heavy for one person to pull out by themselves with the giant tow bar.  I flew to Lebanon, Tennessee, and met up with three CAF guys down there.

We did a little over an hour of ground work, while the ceilings took their time lifting (I had to shoot an RNAV to get in).  Then one guy got in the back seat to do his first takeoffs and landings from the back.  By the time we were done, the clouds had lifted enough. I took up Guy #2, and he was a front seat checkout.  Landed with him, ate a late lunch.  Went up with Guy #3. This guy was super sharp, he had everything nailed right out of the gate.  We landed, did the paperwork for them for the CAF so they could get their letters of approval to be PIC of the airplane.  Talked, answered questions, filled up the Aerostar, which they paid for, they admired the plane, and then I took off and headed home.  I got home right at sunset.  About 6.5 hours of flight time today.  It kept me busy.  I'm tired.  

When I was landing, I realized that there was nobody out at Kokomo to help me push the Aerostar back in. The line guys had gone home, all our workers had gone home, nobody was out there.  You can't turn it around lined up perfectly, so you have to maneuver it around.  I hooked up the tow bar and tried to push. Nothing.  The airplane is heavy.  So I turned the wheel with the tow bar, then went out on a wing where I'd have more leverage, and shoved as hard as I could.  I got it rolling a little, and ran for the tow bar to try to control it and get it lined up.  It stopped.  I pushed again on the other wing, ran for the tow bar.  It stopped before it got into the hangar, and I almost popped a blood vessel getting it in.  There's not a ton of wiggle room on being straight in there before a wingtip gets close to the hangar door.  When I finally got it in, I wasn't straight, and I was about a foot too far to the right, but I got it in.  My heart was pounding, my lungs were tight and I kept coughing for the next hour. I swear I have athletic asthma or whatever they call it.  My muscles are sore.  I was definitely out of gas. But I pushed an approximately 5000 lb airplane in by hand by myself, which means I ain't too old yet.

Tomorrow I've got a guy here bright and early from Wisconsin to do T-6 training, blocked off all day to do that, for as much as he needs.  

Sun dog over there

On top of the cloud deck on the way to TN

What it looks like from the back seat of the PT-19 in a turn

What I looked like hunched down and trying to stay out of the wind mostly unsuccessfully. 

The PT-19

Sunset on the way home

Heading down into the clouds

Descending into the clouds at sunset.