Got it Done

It was truly frigid this morning, a windchill of 21°, regular temp of 27°.  The poor little Champ was not thrilled with those temps, and neither was I.  I told Cameron to keep the blanket and heater on until we were ready to pull it out, hop in, and GO.  I pulled the prop through a good 8 times before I even had him prime it a bunch, and it took three tries to get it to start and stay running.  Then we went to taxi, and the brakes had frozen solid on.  So I took the controls, worked the rudders and brakes, went in a big circle when one brake broke free and the other didn't, and finally got them both freed up.  Even the plane didn't want to go when it was that cold.  :D  I could see my breath, big time.  I wore Smart Wool socks, warm gloves, and a long coat to protect most of my body heat, so I wasn't TOO bad, but it really is drafty and cold back there.  

So Cameron and I went up and flew for a few minutes, then came in for some takeoffs and landings.  Started off with three point, did a few wheel landings, and when he did a couple of those really well, I taught him how to do the one wheel landing.  He was not comfortable getting the one wing down, so I demonstrated it, and he leaned the opposite way, which is funny.  But then he did the next two, not very far over, but he did it.  He had fun.  We had to watch advancing the throttle very quickly or the engine would quit because it's COLD out there, and it was 7:30 in the morning when we got out there, which is ridiculous, but we did have fun.  :)

After him I had Isabel for checkride prep in the 172, which has a decent heater.  Not fierce, but decent. Isabel did a good job with her flight too, which is always also fun.  But by the end of our flight, I could see weather moving in. The sky off to the west was darker and greyer.  

Sure enough, next up Ethan came in his Cherokee 6 to pick me up at Kokomo and take us to Ohio to pick up his 340, which was there to get the heater fixed, ironically.  The clouds were rolling in, and we got on top of them at 5500' and cruised over, finding a hole to get back down.  When I preflighted the plane in the hangar, I popped open the aux tank fuel cap, and got a geyser of fuel all over my glove, coat, arm, sweatshirt, and ALL over his floor.  I got the cap back on after making a giant mess, and I apologized.  I was soaked in 100LL. It's a good thing I like the smell of AvGas because I lived with it for awhile.  lol

I took off behind Ethan, and we were over by Kokomo when Ethan came on frequency and said he had an alternator problem and was going to land at Kokomo to check it out with our guys.  A bit later, with no good answers and an alternator that seemed to be working okay now, I flew the 340 back to Frankfort in the midst of a bunch of snow showers, poor visibility, and icy mist.  It was saying it was VFR but for a minute there it was not.  I delivered the plane, and Ethan flew me back to Kokomo.  By then the line had moved past and we had better visibility getting back in.  I went to Wendy's and brought us both some food now that it was 3 pm and I hadn't eaten all day.  

I was supposed to taxi the Aerostar around some more, maybe fly it around, but it was grey, and butt cold out there today, and spitting "unknown precip", and I lost my mojo for it.  Tomorrow and Wednesday both are supposed to be nice.  I'll do it then.  ;)

When I got home, the first thing I did was launder my coat, sweatshirt and gloves, to try to get the fuel and fuel smell out of them.  Hopefully it worked, I can't tell right now.  Not that I've lost my ability to smell ala Covid, but when I sniff them I may still be imaginary smelling a hint of it that maybe nobody else could smell.  I'll try again tomorrow.

These are Champ Sunrise and landing photos, and one of the 340 coming home with snow on the ground before I got snowed on in the air.  :p

Bleh.  Go back to the top and look at those instead.  ;)