Yesterday I was up at 5 am, and went in the 340 to Roanoke, Virginia, with Dustin. Beautiful sunrise on the way there, and Roanoke is in a bowl surrounded by mountains. Very pretty. Dustin said "I know I should be descending to land, but the ground is like right there." Lol It was a cool view, actually. I took the courtesy car into town for brunch, and ended up at a Waffle House, because I wanted breakfast. It was a typical Waffle House, small, greasy, but the workers inside were all super happy and cheerful, they were joking with each other and with the customers, they were bubbly and laughing and fast on the service, and you could tell they genuinely liked each other and what they were doing. I tipped my waitress like 80% of my bill, because the bill is tiny at that place so you know they can't make much, and yet they were truly bright spots in the day.
We were supposed to head back 3-4 pm, which would get me back at 5:30-6 pm, so I set up to do a guy's night cross country in the 172. Then Dustin ended up being late, so we didn't end up leaving until 5:15 pm, which meant I didn't get home until 7:30 pm. It had already been dark for 2 hours, and my guy had been waiting. We flew to Crawfordsville and back, took about 1.8 hours, and I got home around 10 pm. So a 15 hour day, basically.
I slept in, woke up this morning with a headache, of course. Fortunately I didn't have a flight until 2:30 pm, when I did a pre-solo check flight with a kid. We did three takeoffs and landings, moved to the crosswind runway, did two more there and a go-around. I think he's probably pretty close to solo, on the right day. So that's always fun news to give someone.
Tonight Steve and I went down to Breeze Inn to meet up with pilots for dinner. A nice couple of hours away. And then Kaylee called and texted and she was having issues. She's got two weeks to go and finals to get through and she's struggling with a few things.
Michaele, who passed away of Covid, her daughter Grace, Kaylee's age, had her 21st birthday party yesterday. She posted about what a great time it was, lots of pictures of her smiling and with family/friends. Today she's in the hospital after a suicide attempt. Her family says physically she's fine and she's not currently in any danger, so whatever attempt she made wasn't...strong. She first posted on Facebook, "Goodbye". Cry for help, attention, etc. It was Michaele's biggest fear, that one day Grace would follow through on her threats to self-harm. She would hide the chemicals and the sharp objects and not leave her alone. I don't know how Greg is doing this, alone with a mildly autistic son, and Grace, and he has to work, and she has several mental health issues, and suicidal, and...my heart just goes out to him, to that whole family.
Tough couple of days out there.
My morning coffee on the way to the airport at o-dark-thirty
I parked my car in the grass and ran to the end of the runway to get this photo.
Spectacular sunrise
Check out that groundspeed and the tailwinds.
Coming around to land in the mountains
Look at the location of these old rides? :)
The airport is in a bowl surrounded by mountains
On takeoff, there's a mountain there. First direction was "turn right heading 250". Was a legit idea.
Takeoff
River of lights
Stars over the city.
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