Two Pilots & an LSW: TBM Avenger Gathering

Well, I'm home!

By the time I would get back to the hotel at night, I was so exhausted I'd just fall in bed, stare at my phone to try to catch up a bit, and fall asleep quickly.

I'd say it was a successful weekend event even though it wasn't a fully successful weekend event.

Thursday morning I was up early and out at the airport, waiting for the fog to lift. It was foggy at Kokomo and foggy in Terre Haute. Finally around 10 am, when I was supposed to be there, it sort of started clearing up, and I took off, got on top of the cloud deck, and winged my way to the HUF. When I got there, I was supposed to fly the C-47 with Jordan. It had cleared up in Terre Haute faster than Kokomo, so he was already up flying with Elliot. They landed, left it running, and after I landed, I hopped in and joined them on the flight while Elliot practiced. When he finished up, we were out of time and needed to head to Peru, IL for the Avenger Field TBM Gathering, which was good. I hopped in the T-6, JP hopped in his T-6, Jordan took the C-47, and Ray took the C-45, and we went off as a four-ship formation to Peru. Then Thursday night at 8 pm, at sunset, Greg Moorehead went up in the back seat of Lead, Tim G, I was #2, JP was #3, and some guy named Mike or Matt was #4. It was a beautiful evening, my first time doing formation work since last August, so I had some rust to knock off. I had a guy in my back seat, and he took video, and enjoyed that ride, even though it got really, really rough below 800'. Like heavy chop and turbulence.

Friday was supposed to rain all day, and didn't. Jon and Spencer arrived on Friday, and I got to fly in the airshow in a 3-ship formation with the 4th as a "stinger". The stinger is an experienced T-6 pilot who just doesn't have a FAST card, so HE got to be tail-end Charlie, which amused me. Except he was also a bit of a cocky jerk. But the winds on Friday were brutal. Super gusty, wind shear, Sigmet for turbulence, swappy, and gusting up over 30 knots at times, at a crosswind from 30-50 degrees, moving around. That flight was rough, and I was not in position several times, which really irritated the snot out of me. I couldn't stay with Lead. And at one point, we hit wind shear and Lead dropped way down and #3 and I shot way up high. Like WAY up high. Boom. It was just...not the best. After the show we had a rider in the T-6 who wanted to go. I didn't want to. The winds, the turbulence, and making repeated takeoffs and landings in that seemed pretty unnecessary. But this world is a little different than even the corporate world where you hate to say 'no', because now you have other pilots, and THEY'RE getting the job done, so if you don't, then you're the weakest link. Can't have that. But after that show flight, while my landing was quite nice, thankfully, doing multiples of them in a row seemed like a bad plan. So I told them no, I was standing down on the ride. After I did that, the TBM guys said they didn't think it was a good idea to do the TBM rides either and that one guy already threw up. Jordan said he wouldn't want to be doing rides in the T-6 in this. Suddenly everyone else decided it was a good idea to stand down too. We all hate to be the one that says "You all are okay with this but I'm not". I can do it too. Did do it. But that doesn't mean it's a good idea to keep pushing it. In fact, I hate being the person to stand down more than about anybody, because I still feel like I have something to prove to some of those people. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. And that happened twice this weekend, when I said no to something that nobody else was standing up to, and then once I did, so did they. Since when am *I* the voice of reason? ;)

We told my rider to come back Saturday. Saturday it rained like crazy, and the show was canceled. Jordan and Ray and JP all left and ran for home, because they could all take their planes IFR. I can not, so I stayed behind with Jon and Spencer, and we ate food and hung out. For awhile we went back to the hotel, and then I got the urge to be back there, but I was too late, and a 3-ship of T-6s were already up flying around. So I took Spencer and Jon both up for quick flights, did some fly-bys, and Brad said "The price of free gas is you have to do a pass over the top of the hangar, about 6" up." So I blew over his hangar, higher than 6" but low enough that I had to maneuver around a crane.

We had incredible food, a beautiful sunset that evening, and I enjoyed talking to and hanging out with several people. Also ran into someone we don't like, who was always hanging around. Moocher, not a volunteer, didn't fly anything in, just hung out in the pilot hangar eating and drinking for free and mooching. Well, for your drama of the week, he asked me to do T-6 stuff with him. I mentioned that to the wife of one of the pilots, who then went up to him and said "Nobody who knows you will ever do a T-6 checkout for you because you're not a good person". Well, this moocher's wife unfriended me, this other lady, her husband, and Jordan, all of us, on FB, even though we didn't say that. She's not wrong though, I never have liked him. This is the guy who turns in people to the FAA. The guy who agreed to work for a friend and got a free type rating on a jet and then ditched the guy and the job within a month or two for a better offer now that he had a type rating. The guy who threw Doug under the bus with the CAF on a flight. THAT guy. So, while normally I'd feel weird and bad about the whole thing, the truth is, I DON'T like the guy, I didn't plan on flying with him anyway, and, well, this other lady just said what most of us were thinking anyway. But still, I'm not a fan of drama. I like even keels and lack of controversy when possible. Unless I'm in a bad mood, I guess. ;)

Sunday morning was getting breezy but sunny thankfully, but everyone had gone home but me, really. I waited around to do that one ride with the young lady who wanted to go Friday and I canceled for wind and turbulence, wanted to go Saturday and got canceled for rain, so I took her today. When we'd hit a little bump, she'd gasp. She absolutely would have hated Friday's weather. Instead, today, she had a blast, and an hour later her mom texted me that she wouldn't stop smiling and talking about it. That was a win/win, and what it's all about.

I took off, with Spencer and Jon in the RG, and we flew formation back to Kokomo. I followed them for awhile, then I had him follow me and get some practice in. When we landed, we rearranged all the planes, since I'd have a MBros trip before the T-6 would be going out again. I had woken up at 2 am in the hotel and never got back to sleep, so I was exhausted by this time. When I got home, my eyes were burning and I couldn't stay awake for anything, and I passed out on the couch with Steve and Kaylee and the cat and everything all around, and I slept for awhile, too! A couple hours I think! SO now it's midnight and everyone else is asleep, and me...not so much. ;)

It's good to be home. The event was successful in that I got to do some networking and talking and flying too, and they paid for all my gas except the gas to get home and the one rider I took. My car was free. My hotel was twice what it was supposed to be, but at least Jon & Spencer's room was only $89/night. Not bad.

Here are some photos from the event. I'll keep them all smaller.

Kaylee has to get up at 6:45 am to work, bummer for her, and I don't. ;)