Trips

I didn't have a lot going on today--worked on a few projects at home, and had a flight at 2 pm with a pre-solo student.  We flew an hour and a half and worked on takeoffs and landings, and he was better when he left than when he got there, so that was good progress.

Tomorrow I fly to Marcos Island, FL and drop off Ethan and his family.  That's six of us on his plane, and fuel. So he told me we'd be 100 lbs overgross if we just filled up completely with fuel, but we could get all the way down there non-stop, and what do I think of that.  So I ran through it.  If it's true that it's just 100 lbs overgross, that means that we'd be approximately 17 gallons of fuel overgross, which we would burn off in about 20 minutes.  So as long as nothing goes wrong in that first 20 minutes of the trip, everything would be fine.  Then I said, but if something happens on takeoff, or in the first 20 minutes of that trip, we ARE going to be coming down.  With your entire family on board.  Odds are in our favor that won't happen, but we can make the odds be zero of that happening by taking less fuel and having to stop for gas on the way.   Last and possibly least, if it DID go wrong, and we survived the off-field landing, now both he and I have to explain to the FAA, the NSTB, and the entire internet world who looks at every accident now, why we took off knowing we were overgross.  So...yeah.  End result?  We're stopping for fuel and loading the plane appropriately.  ;)

I'm dropping him off, then I have to fly all the way home, and with the headwinds, I still have to stop for gas on the way home, too.  I'll get home late, and then Sunday I drive to Frankfort, pick up his plane, fly it to Ohio, and fly his Cherokee back from Ohio.  Monday I fly the Aerostar to Illinois and get Spencer to pick me up in the RG. Tuesday or Wednesday I go back to Ohio to pick up the 340 and bring it to Frankfort. Saturday I go all the way back down to Marco Island and pick the family back up. Fly all the way back home, and drive from there.  Each of the trips to Marco Island are about 9 hours of flight time plus ground time at fuel stops plus two hours of driving.  Looooong day. So these couple of slower days, I don't mind too much, because I know what's coming...