Home

I am home.

This morning Morgan went with me, and Cameron and Jamie went with Glenn in BOB, and we took off together from Oshkosh.  He led and I followed, and when we got to the Chicago skyline, we took some photos of the T-6, then turned around and I led and Morgan took some photos of the C-45 with the skyline. They turned out really well, too!

When we landed at Kokomo, I topped off the T-6, the C-45, and then pulled out the Aerostar and topped it off too for my trip tomorrow. Then me and Cameron put all the planes away, and it was time to come home home.

Kaylee was just leaving for Dayton for work until Wednesday, so I made her late and we hugged and caught up a little bit. I came right home so I could see her before she left, but now I needed food since I hadn't had any all day and it was 3 pm.  I went back out to Cone Palace and got a burger and some fried mushrooms and a blizzard, and it hit the spot. But not as much as coming back home and getting in the shower. I walked out of all my clothes, threw them in the washing machine, and stood in the shower for a long time getting the tangles out of my hair. Even though I'll have to take another one in the morning or have messy hair, I needed that one bad for psychological reasons if nothing else.  When Kaylee hugged me she said "You smell like Oshkosh. Smoky camp fire, dust, airplanes, and musty."  Yep. But not right now I don't. Right now I smell marvelous, thank you very much. ;)

Steve is still at Oshkosh for tonight and will be coming home with AE tomorrow. He'll actually get here before I get back tomorrow, as I'll leave at 7 am for a trip to Nebraska, and not get back till late. So I got my laundry that was with me caught up and washed, the kitchen picked up (Kaylee left it in pretty good shape), my bags unpacked, got my shower, went to the PO Box and got all the mail and sorted through that, caught up on email and house bills and a couple of appointments, and basically spent the afternoon sitting in peace and quiet and getting stuff caught up as much as possible.  I also downloaded 400 photos, and caught up my logbook as best I can. I feel like I'm missing some logbook stuff but I'm close. 

I don't have time to stop and think much though, as I have to be up at 6 am for the trip to Nebraska. Here's hoping for decent weather! Some things say IFR and thunderstorms, some say Marginal VFR and occasional rain. We'll hope for #2.  And boy do I have some pictures to go through...

Furries

We have a group of furries camping across the street from us. I keep trying to get a picture of them, but they often only have either the heads or the bodies on, not the full thing, and it’s hard to catch them. It’s officially one of the odder things I’ve seen at Oshkosh.

I kind of crashed today. The weather is gorgeous and there’s a lot going on, but I’m really tired today. I spent three weeks on the Air Power History Tour where there were a lot of people and activities. Did the Dubuque clinic where there were a lot of people and activities. Then Oshkosh where there are a ton of people and activities. It’s been non-stop for a month, mostly not even in my own bed, and a LOT of people. I kind of hit a wall today. I spent some time in my trailer this afternoon and I’m still not ready to be out in public. I’m going to try to go to the night airshow with the kids here, Morgan and Cameron and maybe Spencer, because we didn’t see it from a normal vantage point on Wednesday and it’s pretty awesome with the music and stuff.

In the morning, I’m going to fly home in the T-6 with Cameron, Morgan will go in BOB with Glenn, and Jamie, Spencer will drive home alone, Allen will go home with Nathan, Steve will stay here with AE and Greg O to help tear down the campsite then will come home on Monday.

Monday I have a trip to Nebraska all day, and I’m waiting to hear on my Cheyenne checkout which was supposed to be the first week after Oshkosh but no date is set yet.

Probably about it for now. Leftover night to clean out our leftovers before packing up to go home, and I’m ready to go home. :)

Airshow, Round Two

Well, that was cool.

I flew BOB in the airshow this afternoon. Originally I was looking to be with 3 C-47s and me, but then a Bamboo Bomber wanted to go, and he couldn’t be on his own, so they put me with him, even though the odds were 50/50 he was going to fly today…at which point I’D be on my own instead of with a 4 ship of C-47s/me. But he did make it up, so we alternated paths.

This was the first time I taxied all the way past the crowd line to Runway 36, past a mile and a half of crowds and crowds of thousands and thousands of people. It was a really cool sight, and I wish I could have taken photos that captured it. I’ve never seen anything like that up close like that. Then you take off in front of the whole crowd, and I did circles around the crowd line and the camp ground. I wasn’t in formation, so I took some snapshots that I’ll share later. Man it was cool. It was relaxed, it was fun. It was an awesome view.  It takes so much less of a skillset than the T-6 mass formation fly-overs, but it’s way more fun.  Then I get to land, with a direct crosswind, in front of the entire crowd, which goes well, and then they blow pyrotechnics off the side of the runway in front of me, which was just stupid cool to see up close. I taxied down the whole runway with my tail up to get to the end, and I’ll tell you what, if I’m going to do more Oshkosh flying, that’s the way to go. The formation stuff is exhausting and stressful and photos always show someone out of position and you don’t see a thing but the side of the airplane you are flying off of. This. Was. Fun.  I loved it.

Then we had steak night, with about 50 people. The food was great, but I’m peopled out. I’ve dealt with three aggressive women in a row, and Jamie, and I’m just tired.  I need to get through the rest of tonight, then I should be able to breathe again…

But today? Today was cool, in case I didn’t mention that.

Hump Day

Oshkosh goes a lot faster when you miss the first three days for a formation clinic!  It’s already Thursday today, which means just a few days left.

Yesterday I woke up early and did a Dawn Patrol T-6 flight. There were 8 of us, so we started off as an 8-ship and then split up into two 4-ships. Spencer rode in my backseat, which made the other two kids here a little sad, but I can only take one and he helped me with the radios and cover and lots of stuff. We walked around a lot, I ended up with like 15,000 steps, and then we went to dinner at “the Mineshaft”, and then had a special hangar on the NE side to sit in a comfy chair and watch the night airshow. It was a different viewpoint, and Aeroshell flew right over our heads, which is cool. But we didn’t have the head on view, or the announcer, or the music, so it lost a lot from there. Coming back in with the car was fine until we hit the campground, and then it was chaos until we got back to our area. Worth it and different.

This morning I took Spencer, Morgan, Cameron and Glenn and went to the T-6 forum. It was all maintenance. They were supposed to do some operating stuff too, but ended up with only maintenance stuff the whole time. Doesn’t do me a lot of good, but hey…

Tomorrow I should fly BOB in the airshow. It occurred to me that if I do, I’ll have flown the PT-26 in the big airshow in the Liasons/Observers section, the T-6 in the mass formation section for trainers, and now the C-45 in the Bombers/Transport section.  You know what’s left (besides jets?). Fighters. ;)

Then we walked down and separated, Cameron with his parents, Spencer on his own, and Morgan and I went down to Vintage and ate lunch, met Steve there, we walked to ultralights, then all the way back to camp. Long hiking already!

Tonight is supposed to be the Gunfighter party. I’m getting nervous and not sure what to wear, how to get there, where it is, or how to act. Parties. Bleh. ;)

Airshow Day

I actually slept in this morning, and it was nice. :) 

We had our breakfast of bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, and chocolate chip pancakes. I ate plenty, because I knew I might have trouble getting lunch.

At high noon was the first main warbird airshow briefing. There were 140 chairs in there, and most of them were full, and there was a group of people standing by the back wall. I was the only woman in there. Kind of interesting. I didn’t notice until the end, and then I looked around to see, and counted the chairs, and found that just of note, I guess. 

We did the main warbird airshow briefing. Then we divided up and did the mass T-6 formation briefing. Then we divided up and did our four-ship formation briefing. By then we were supposed to start engines at 2:25 and it was almost 2. There was a line at the food tent, but I hadn’t eaten since my breakfast. I didn’t want anything heavy, but the only place was Italian. They mostly had pasta, but I found a cheese, cracker and salami snack pack, and that hit the spot, gave me a little protein, and wasn’t super heavy in my stomach. I ate that, then walked to the T-6 thinking it was ready to go. It had fuel and the cover was off, but I still needed to untie it, take the plugs off, pull the prop through, etc., so I was glad I got there a little earlier than needed. I got that ready, climbed in, and we started up at 2:25 on the dot.

Sitting there running in a sea of running warbirds is pretty cool. The T-28s, T-34s, T-6s, and Red Star (Yaks and CJs) were all running, and we taxied out in order, and didn’t goof it up, even though we were in different parts of the warbird parking, which is sort of impressive. There was a cluster on the radio, on the ground, where air boss and the flight leads had differing ideas of what we should be doing. In the air, things were going okay for the most part, a little sloppy. We got it sort of together for the show line, but it wasn’t great. Fortunately it wasn’t ME that was the biggest problem, so I was only a little embarrassed. There was one time that me and #3 got blown out of position. I could have stayed in, but my #3 was way sucked, and I am not supposed to pass him, so I had to power back to stay with him. Photos show our “Bravo” group being way too far back, and it just wasn’t the best formation. But…it was fun, a good experience, a great view. Wish I could take pictures. I made a good landing out of it, and parked, and felt relatively good about the whole thing, even though the whole formation didn’t look the greatest.

Afterwards we had dinner at the trailer. I was invited to “SwampFest”, the party in Warbirds, but I just wasn’t interested in going. Plus it was Chuck’s birthday, so we had cake and sang to him, and that felt more important than more warbird networking this time.  Besides, Thursday I have to go to Gunfighter’s party, so one is enough for me in a week. :)

I think I’m going to fly BOB in Friday’s show, and maybe the T-6 again on Saturday. We shall see!

Catching up

I’m sitting here in Oshkosh, my first morning here. I was so tired at the end of each day at Dubuque that I couldn’t sit down long enough to write without passing out.  Same with last night, here at Oshkosh. So I’m up this morning, have already been up since 5 am, had a cold shower, driven out to warbird parking, hiked to the T-6 patch, taxied it across the hangars to the Weeks Hangar for maintenance work, had coffee and donuts over there with cool people, and then AE drove me back to the camper where I got my laundry ready for my first load, had bacon and eggs, and am now sitting down to catch up as best I can before we go begin our exploring for the first day.

So, Dubuque. I didn’t end up flying in the Mustang at all, front of back seat. Greg was very nice, and the first day we were set up to go flying together in my T-6, and then the other Fighter guys came over and asked if he wanted to join them in the back seat. He said he was already going with me, and I said “no, you will learn a lot more about what you need for formation in fighters WITH the fighters than with me in the T-6, so you should really go with them.” And he did, and they took good care of him from there on out. So that was good for him, and fine with me, considering I plenty of my own things to work on. And I didn’t have to worry about the Mustang thing. I had read up on it, the numbers, some procedures, just in case, but it didn’t happen, and that’s okay too. It was an exciting thought, but there will be something else, I’m sure.

Each day I flew about three sorties. It was as hot as the gates of hell, with high humidity, and we’re required to wear flight suits. So I drank a bottle of water almost non-stop. The first day I was #2, then #4, then #3.  The second day I was #2 all three times, which was actually all right.  The 2nd day we had a Dawn Patrol, and I was up at 4:30 am to fly with a group of 6 or 7 of us.  It was quiet, smooth and calm, unlike the gusty day before, and when we landed, one of the head guys who was in the back of the pack observing, came up to me and pointed and said “YOU are a PHENOMENAL formation pilot. I’m serious. You never MOVED.” He said it about three times, and asked me if I was a Lead. I said no, and he said “You should be. You have more skill than just hanging out on a wing.” Then apparently he said something like that to everybody else, because I had several people tell me that he was bragging on me.  Then the very last flight, the third flight of the day, it was hot and bumpy and I was hot and tired, and I boffed it up, twice, with another of the head guys back there observing. That was embarrassing, but…it happens. I’d have love to have impressed again, but alas, I too am human. ;)

I had backseaters for all but one of my flights. Not my ideal, because I have a harder time concentrating when I have passengers, because I think about what they’re thinking about which distracts me from what I’m doing. But I need to get over that, so I did. I had a 17 year old private pilot who flies T-6s in my back seat for one, and a 30 year old lady who is training to be an airline pilot and is the girlfriend of one of the 60 year old Mustang pilots in my back seat twice, and then a former military fighter pilot who is now a Fed Ex pilot in my back seat too. I didn’t do too badly except for that one flight.

That last flight of the last day, I went to retract my flaps, and they wouldn’t come up. Then they partially came up very slowly. I couldn’t manually extend or retract them, and I was getting zero hydraulic pressure. Fortunately I had a hydraulic failure right as I was landing, apparently. Excellent timing there, actually. Well, it would have been better at home during a slow month, but… So we went into diagnostic mode. I checked the hydraulic fluid first thing, and it was completely full. Tried the manual extension, nothing. I was in the middle of a convention of T-6 pilots and mechanics, and everybody wanted to discuss and diagnose and see if they could help, which is very cool, and a little tiring. lol  I was also on the phone with Eric, our mechanic, and they decided it sounded like a bad seal on the left main landing gear actuator. So then the hunt was on to find the parts. They thought they couldn’t order it until Monday, which means I’m hosed on flying in the airshow at all. I might as well fly it home. But then one of the T-6 guys, Todd Winemiller, carries a set of them in his airplane! He must’ve been a boy scout. Or he’s been there and done that on everything over the years. He gave them to me, and Eric secured a spot with jacks in Weeks Hangar at Oshkosh, which is super cool, and I was to be there by 10 am today. 

The next problem was getting to Oshkosh with a hydraulic problem. See there was a 9 ship of us leaving on Sunday. But if we took off and I couldn’t get my gear up, it was going to be a long, slow flight, and was going to mess up everyone. So we broke into two groups. A flight of 5 and then my flight of 4, who was all willing to go with me slowly with my gear down, which we all expected to happen. We nine all lined up on the runway, they departed in element takeoffs, and then it was my turn. We were about to find out if it was going to be a slow, long, gas burning flight, or a normal gas burning flight. lol We took off, I hit the power push, pulled the gear up, and I couldn’t look and see what it was doing, because I was in a formation takeoff with another guy a few feet off my wingtip and I needed to keep my eyes on him. And then I felt a thunk, and he started pumping his fist up and down, and my gear was UP!  Woo hoo!  Getting it back down wasn’t an issue—it’s a gravity drop system, so while I use hydraulics to lower it, I don’t have to. Now I just had to worry about doing a formation landing with no flaps and not messing everyone else up again, so we put me at the end about halfway there so I could land last.

It was a magnificent view, the five airplanes in front of us, the four of us, skimming along the tops of the clouds. Then the front group separated and started doing aerobatics over the tops of the clouds.  Nobody in our group chose to, but it was fun to watch for a minute.  :)  Then we got to Oshkosh, and it was show time.

I got in the end slot, we hit Warbird Island as a flight of nine, and the winds were very gusty, up over 25 knots, around 290-300 degrees. We requested the overhead break for runway 27. They said unable, and we’d need to go to 36 tower. So we go to 36 tower and request the overhead break, and they say unable, we need to separate. Now it’ll take us longer to separate and land as single ships than it would have if they’d have just let us come in as a formation, but fine. Then they told us we were cleared for 36R. Now 36R is actually a 50’ wide taxiway. Our lead said “We need 36L” they said “It’s too busy, we don’t have space in the traffic for that. WHY can’t you take 36R.” I have never, in all my years here, seen Oshkosh tower force large tailwheel warbirds to land on the taxiway, especially in gusty strong crosswinds. I don’t know if this guy was new, or what. Our choices were basically land on the taxiway like that, or go away and try again later. Our Lead said oookay, and we came in single ship on Runway 36R.  I was last in the line, which meant I had 8 T-6s landing on the runway before me. I put the gear down, and it came down as it should. I put my flaps down, and they went down 10 degrees then stopped cold there. No flaps help it is. I come down to land, and the crosswind is strong, gusty, and I have the dirty air stirred up from 8 other T-6s, on a 50’ wide runway and a 42’ wingspan and not much margin for error.  I was wrestling that thing. The guy in front of me had to do a go-around because he was wrestling too hard too. More dirty air.  I touched down on one wheel, the wind blew me up, I repeated that about three times, and then I finally got the wheel planted, then the other wheel, and I’m rolling down keeping the tail up to the end like you’re supposed to, but it’s shoving me around and acting like a weathervane, and so I finally get the tail down, and I don’t really breathe until I’m stopped at the end. That is one of the most challenging landings I’ve ever done, which says something. We all park, and the other guys get out, and one says “Oh my GOD, I was all assholes and elbows trying to land that thing!  I ain’t doing that again!” I was exhausted from the whole day, and that was the topper! I told Steve is was a rodeo with a goat rope and that’s pretty accurate. 

We had a nice fire, and hung out for the evening. Our “young adults” are here from work. Cameron, Spencer, and Morgan, so it’s always fun being able to share that with them. So my next problem was getting the T-6 to the Weeks hangar by 10 am. I couldn’t get anyone to guarantee a tow over. Not the FBO, not the maintenance facility, not the warbird towing guys. So I was going to taxi it over, but that’s an ordeal out here too. Trying to get all the way across the airport without going flying puts you in opposing traffic and took me 20 minutes to accomplish, at least. When I showed up, I didn’t know where to park, so I tried to go in an unobtrusive corner, because they are doing me a huge favor. The guy didn’t look super pleased, but nobody directed me and it was the only corner not occupied, so I went with it. Later I heard that one of them said “I told them 10 am!” and Greg Ottinger said “If she didn’t get it over here early, she might not be able to get it over here at all”, and they got that and were friendly from there on. One guy said “I saw all that hair flying around and I said “Boy, that guy has long hair”, then “Oh, that’s not a guy.” I said “Actually, that’s my call sign. “NAG”. “Not A Guy”. He laughed uproariously, he thought that was fantastic.

The towed the airplane into the hangar, where it’s tucked up against a Messerschmidt 109 brand new restoration, three P-51s, a Ford Trimotor, a jet glider, and a bunch of other cool things. Someone really pulled a favor in getting me and my airplane in that hangar to be fixed on Monday morning of Oshkosh. Tom M. from Tom Woods, I think, and Eric, his mechanic.  As of 11 am, they think they have it fixed, and are putting it back together. Jack retract test works and all. That means I can probably fly in tomorrow’s show if I want to. Which I think I’ll do, one more time. And hopefully do well doing this time.

So right now, Steve is off in the campground, Nathan is off, everyone is gone exploring except me and one other, and I’m charging my cellphone, charging my apple watch, sending off my first batch of laundry, and updating my blog and logbook.  THEN I’ll be ready to explore and hit the “streets”.  :)

Here

It’s 8:45 pm and I’m probably going to bed soon. The hotel room is dead quiet, I’ve eaten, it was hot, I was sweaty, and I’m wiped out, even though I didn’t have a flight today other than getting here.

“Here” is Dubuque. I landed this morning and didn’t do a darned thing all day after that, but I made it. It was 90 degrees and humid and windy, making for less than stellar flight characteristics.  When I landed I was met by a crew of line guys with cold water and a fuel ticket, and a ramp guy who remembered me by name from last year. How impressive is that??  I got a hug from a T-6 guy named Tim, I got to banter with Lumpy, the P-51 pilot, and another hug from a guy named Ben who I met on the Air Power tour. A handshake and a hello from a couple others.  I almost feel like one of them.  ;)

Tomorrow we start in at 8 am on flights, and I know I’ll be busy all day. I’m flying with Greg, a P-51 guy, he’s too new to the Mustang for them to want him to join them in formation, so he’s flying with me first to see how it goes. He seems nice, and we’ll see how it goes.

I’ve stayed hydrated today. I learned my lesson in Terre Haute, I hope. Here, every time you land, they come to your plane with a fresh cold water. Most excellent.

Now, for not even being 9 pm, I’m beat. See ya tomorrow.

Monday

It started off foggy, which took out my first flight of the day and gave me time to go to Glenndale to pick up my package, the post office to pick up some checks, and get some stuff done at home prior to grabbing lunch and going out to the airport for my second round of stuff.

1 pm was an IFR student. He wanted to practice approaches at Kokomo, but the ceilings weren't high enough, which was funny, and he was going to cancel, and I was like...let's go on a cross country and fly in the clouds.  So that's what we did, and shot an approach into an airport 50 nm away.  It was a work out for him, but it went pretty well.  His first time flying in IMC.  :)

Next up was Isabel in the Champ doing 3-point takeoffs and landings towards her tailwheel endorsement. She did a really nice job with it too, and is ready to move onto crosswind landings, and wheel landings.  Good stuff.

I got contacted by a guy who said this:  

Hello Laura, there is a fellow coming to Dubuque in a P 51 that I was supposed to be flying with, but I had a family emergency and I’m not gonna make DBQ. His paint scheme is oddly similar to the T6 you are Flying. He spoke with Lumpy today and because he has very low time in the mustang, and overall in tailwheel quite frankly, it was recommended he try to get some backseat or front seat T-6 time instead of flying the P51.  I recommended you and he’d like to meet you if you like.  He’s very generous and my guess is he might let you fly the P51, certainly from the back (full dual control but not a TF) if you do some T6 training.

Interesting. So.

Low time tailwheel guy, airline pilot, former military jet pilot, bought a P-51. He's super low tailwheel time. He did go through Stallion 51 and get an insurance checkout. He wants to take it to the formation clinic in Iowa, but the bosses told him he's too low time and low tailwheel time and they want him to get some T-6 time.  So I said I'd be willing to fly with him in the T-6, because...I should be able to have the time for that. But secretly in my head, I thought...do I want to be in the back of the P-51 with him up front if he's that low time in it? As much as I want the time in the airplane, I don't want to be in a position where this guy gets us both in a groundloop or worse from his and my both lack of experience in that airplane. I have 28 hours 12 years ago and no official checkout. He DOES have an official checkout and legally could, but how much do I trust him? Do I trust him not to get us in trouble when he's flying, but even more so do I trust him to get us out of trouble if *I* am flying and make a mistake? No way. So how much do I trust? Even less now that I know that he's so low time that a formation clinic doesn't even want him participating unless he flies in a T-6 some more. lol  So I'll fly with him in the T-6 if he'd still like, and see how he does, and then go from there, assess, and decide what the risk factor seems to be. Could be an interesting week though!  The universe seems to be pushing more P-51 stuff towards me lately.  Nothing has stuck yet, but...hopefully something will.  I don't know what I hope for, or from where, or what is best for me, but I just need that first break. That first chance someone takes on you and sends you through official training. Once the first break comes through, doors open wide open for everything else.  Just like it did in the T-6 world.  Fingers crossed. They say put out what you want, so I've been putting that out there. I want that.  :)

Tomorrow morning I get my hair done, drive to Frankfort, pick up Ethan's Cherokee Six, fly to Kokomo, pick up Ann and Spencer, fly to Tennessee and drop off Ann, fly back to Frankfort, drop off the Cherokee, drive to Kokomo Airport, drop off Spencer, and hop in Glenn's Bonanza to fly to Indy Metro and do the CAF meeting down there at 6:30, stay out late, get home late.  Long day.  Very long day. But hopefully good one.

Isabel in the Champ

Ending

Friday I had a student, and other than that just ran around and tried to get everything that I could together for being gone again Sat & Sun.  A boring list of running around.

First thing Saturday morning, I woke up to IFR weather. I got out to Kokomo early, even though the rides weren't going to be happening in Lewis (Chicago) anyway with the weather like that, I'd told them I'd be there by 9 am so I COULD give rides if the weather lifted. When I got to the RG, it had 30 gallons of gas. That meant I would take about 11 to get there, and then getting home would be close, but at least I could get there.  It was IFR the last half of the trip, and I ended up shooting the RNAV 02 into Lewis to arrive. I haven't flown the 172RG or any single engine piston into IFR myself in ages, so I was actually glad to have the practice on steam gauges.  

When I got there, it was IFR, and no planes were flying. We hung out for awhile, and then opened the ramp, and I went out and stood on the wing of the airplane and let people climb up and in and ask questions, and talked to lots of people, all morning long, while we watched the weather.  Finally around noon it started clearing off.  We got a sandwich, cleared the ramp, and then we were off and rolling.  Fifi took her first load. Diamond Lil took her first load--and came back in less than six minutes with one engine feathered. It had smoke and an engine issue. They shut it down in flight, and safely returned for a landing, just like how it's supposed to work. A good job was done by everyone.  The P-51 fired up and started taking riders, and so did I.  I ended up doing 8 riders, all the way through to 7:30 pm.  I had no loader, so I'd walk over, get them, put them in the plane, buckle them up, do the briefing, then I'd get in and buckle up, start up, do the flight, come back in, shut down, unbuckle, help them out, walk them over, pick up the next person, and do it again.  I got my own bottles of water, and stayed hydrated this time. I had to stop once, and I got fuel, oil, went to the bathroom, and fired back up and went until 7:30 pm straight.  I was the last ride of the day, and everyone was waiting for me to be done.  We added a couple of rides because Sunday's weather didn't look good, and I wanted to get in everyone I could while I could. I forgot my hair scrunchie for the last flight, so when I came back in, my hair was flying all over the place as it does. They'd never seen that, and everyone there commented on it, laughed, pointed, took photos, and talked to me about it later.  They loved it.  Maybe I ought to do that more often--except it's so hard on my hair.  lol  It was funny taxiing up and seeing 20+ blue CAF shirts all waiting for me in front of the hangar to help me push the T-6 away for the night.

My first rider was so excited when he found out I was his pilot. I haven't seen that reaction from a man before that I recall. He was seriously pumped.  It was sweet.  My last three riders were all members of the same family. A grandfather, father, and son. Grandpa was 85 and a C-172 pilot, and he's still quite active. Neither of the next generations were pilots, but they loved their rides. The last guy got out and said "That was worth every penny and I'd do again ten times in a row if I could".  So that's fun. 

I had two friends in the middle as riders. They both wore fake flight suits, and had watched "Top Gun: Maverick" recently. The first said "I'm adventurous" and was bothered that we wouldn't do full aerobatics.  So I cranked him around pretty hard, 80° bank angles, pull up almost vertical, float over to the side, a little zero g, etc., and then he said he felt that, and I went straight and level until the end. We land, I take his buddy, same thing.  Buddy gets out and is met by first guy, and one of them called the other Goose.  I said "So who is Goose and who is Maverick?" The first guy said "Well, based on these flights?  We're both Goose.  YOU'RE Maverick."  That made me smile. 

Matt and Jordan (with the P-51) set me up to do an interview with a YouTube channel guy.  He put a mic on me, and had me talk for like 7 minutes, about myself, the plane, the WASP, all of it. I felt like I did a pretty good job, actually, I articulated well, and a small crowd was standing around watching at the time.  He showed me where his channel is, and had me subscribe.  I did, and today I looked it up. I saw he had a new video out called "CAF B29 B24 T6 P51". I thought, cool!  I watched all 8 minutes and 36 seconds of it.  It was our tour leader John talking in front of Fifi, stilted and uninteresting.  At the very end at 8 minutes and 11 seconds there is a still shot of me standing in front of the T-6.  He had joked that now he was going to do it again and hit 'record'. I wonder if he wasn't joking.  Or he decided to do the airplanes separately later.  Or he decided to do an overall thing instead of an airplane specific thing.  I don't know, but that was funny and odd.  I'll check back now and then and see if he puts up one for each plane too or not, but if not, that was a let down, because I felt like I did a pretty good job for once.  lol

It was late when we left there, so I checked into my hotel and walked next door to the bowling alley, where everyone was meeting to eat a late dinner. I get through the door, and there are two police officers and a metal detector. I stopped short, said "I forgot my wallet, I'll be back", and turned around. I was carrying three things in my purse that didn't need to go through a metal detector let alone police officers. One was a dzus tool, one was a pocket knife.  The last, Steve said "You have got to stop taking that to the Chicago area!" I said "But that's where I need it most!" The bowling alley was fancy, huge, loud, had a bar and good food, and a group of us sat and ate and drank until 9:30, and then I went back to my room to crash for the night.

I woke up at 3:30 am, and didn't really sleep well after that. It was IFR in the morning again. Another guy, Ben, had mentioned three times he wanted to do some of the T-6 rides, and after the B-24 he was flying went down, he was supposed to do Stearman rides. But then the Stearman went down for maintenance too, so he was back to wanting to do T-6 rides. This was my last day to do them, but on the other hand, I didn't mind coming home, either. So I topped off the plane, put oil in it, wiped it down, cleaned it off, did all the paperwork on it, and then handed it off to him, and filed IFR and came on home in the RG.  It was again IFR, and this time I hand flew most of the trip, including the ILS 23 back into Kokomo. I even recorded part of it, holding my iPhone in my right hand and flying with the left.  It amazes me how comfortable I am in IFR, and hand flying, even though I haven't flown a single engine piston on steam gauges in IMC in a really long time. I have enough time doing it over the years that it just fell back into the swing, no problem at all. I remember being white knuckled and tense every time I'd hit a cloud in the past, afraid I'd lose it or something.  Now it doesn't much bother me any more than VFR.  I like that, it felt good.

When I got home, I started to unpack. I have three students tomorrow (with questionable weather), I need to pack for Dubuque and Oshkosh (ack), I have to finish laundry, and get a couple packages that have come in, and then Tuesday take Ann down to Tennessee and then do a CAF thing, Wednesday I have to get BOB to Muncie and fly with a student, and then first thing Thursday morning I launch in Checkertail for Dubuque, and I won't be back home until August.  Yikes.

So my first (maybe only?) bout with the Air Power History Tour lasted a total of 17 days from start to finish. I flew for 11 of those days, for a total of 23.2 hours in the 11 days, with 41 landings (and no bad ones!), with 35 riders.  Not a bad run, man. 

Going down into the IMC

My view most of today, although this was from the other day

Waiting on the weather

Tired me today in my polyester CAF shirt

The weather as I was coming home. I beat the worst of it in, just had to shoot the ILS.

You Got It

First thing this morning I had a new flight student in the 172.  She's a little...different.  I see her being a potential problem student some day in the future, but for today it went fine.  We had a flight yesterday, she and I, in the Champ, and we had no right brake at all, so rather than continue the flight, I canceled it. If it was a more experienced person I'd have probably kept going, but having only one brake is worse than having no brakes at all.  So...parked it is.  The guys today told me "You didn't have ANY right brake" and I was like "That's what I SAID!  I know I didn't!"  lol 

From there I came home and picked up Kaylee, and we went to her MRI appointment. Her doctor had prescribed her some Xanax for the anxiety of both the IV and the procedure.  She took one, and 45 minutes later she looks at me and says "It's Not Working."  I told her to take 1/2 of another, as I was there to drive her home.  They call her back and I start to go with her and they started to have me stay out there, but I said I'd just be with her through the IV, and she said "Please let my mom come back with me. I really hate needles." So they did.  She held my hand, looked me in the eye while they were doing these things, turned bright red, and panicked internally, yelling through her eyes, and then it was over and she was going back in to the scanner. She said that as she was lying there, she finally felt the other 1/2 of the Xanax kick in and she relaxed a little bit finally, but she was still pretty wound up. She said the hardest part after the IV was that they said you have to hold still or you'll be in there longer. She wasn't sure if she was even supposed to swallow, and she's twitchy anyway, so she had a hard time. But finally it was over, and we went for ice cream, a tradition we have after shots or blood work or other medical things.  I left her at home from there, and went out to fly the Cub with Dennis at Glenndale for a flight review, and the Stinson with Jerry at Kokomo for a flight review.  Got 'em in before I have to leave.  Something odd happened with the Cub. We'd landed and were rolling out and heading for his hangar, nothing special, and now I'm just riding along, and suddenly the left wheel goes up like it hit a ramp, and then came off the ground, and the right wing dropped towards the ground, and we were on one wheel.  I said "shit!" and grabbed it from him and got the wing back down and back on all three wheels.  But I have *no* idea how that even happened.  It wasn't a ground loop, it was...weird. Taxiing along straight, still had some speed up, and it was like we hit a ramp on one wheel and then the wing came up/down too.  The ground does go up there, but...weird.  At least my reflexes are still good. Sheesh.  I'd never flown a Stinson 108-3 before. Jerry wanted to do wheel landings in it, says he never gets a good one in there, so I talked him through a couple, and they were all right.  Then when we were all done, he asked if I wanted to do a landing in it, so I said sure.  My takeoff was okay but nothing special.  But I greased that wheel landing on. Butter, man, butter.  :D

I also stopped at the bank and got a check from SMA Support to send to someone, because my online banking isn't working there at the moment.  So irritating. Then I went to the post office to mail the check. And just tried to catch up and keep up before I head back out this weekend...

The initial results, the automatic report, came back in for Kaylee's MRI before end of the day today. She's got a consultation with a neurologist in August, and he/she'll get into the nitty gritty there, but for now, the below is what the report said.

Yellow Cub on Green Grass under a Blue Sky.  Purty.

Brief

My flight this morning was canceled before we got off the ground. Brand new student, in the Champ. Is taxiing too fast and when she went to stop, the left brake worked and the right didn't. We started swinging around,  so I grabbed it, and I had no right brake, so we continued the turn to the left. She said "We're going to hit something!" I said "We're not going to hit anything".  But I couldn't even hold the brake to do a run-up.  Shouldn't need the brakes once you know you don't have them, other than for run-ups or a mistake, but she's brand new, so I taxied back and shut it down, and the plane is down for maintenance until Friday now.  And that was the end of my short-lived flying day.

I've got runny eyes and a scratchy throat from drainage later this morning, which is either Covid or allergies. I took an allergy pill and the Covid test is still negative. So I rested today, will see how I feel tomorrow.  Had Kaylee take Ann her meds and food tonight just in case. Kaylee took the cat over with her, and Ann liked that.  lol

We gave AE our sheets, blankets, pillows, and towels to pack for OSH in the trailer today. So that will be headed up to OSH in about two days. Meanwhile, I'm going to Chicago Sat & Sun (if I'm not sick), then Dubuque's formation clinic, then Oshkosh.  I'm nervous.  I'm perpetually nervous about this stuff, that I also really like.  Go figure...

Kaylee and Steve are out eating dinner, and I'm going to have a salad here at home and finish my laundry up.  Nothing too exciting, but...welcome to Wednesday.

Rescue

On my group texts today, I learned that Todd and Curtis, the two guys in charge of the Ft. Wayne and Terre Haute tour stops, both tested positive for Covid today.  We saw Curtis today, in fact, and Steve shook his hand.  I rode in cars with both, and Todd gave me his keys and his van a couple days ago.  So that's not such great news.  I took a Covid test on Sunday when I felt sick and it was negative. I took another today, a few days later, and still negative.  Hopefully it stays that way. I've been exposed several times and never got it, but this is definitely the most exposure I've ever had to a bunch of known positive people.  Right before Dubuque and Oshkosh would be a particularly sucky time to get sick.

This morning was the last official day of the Flying Squirrels for 2022.  I had two flights. Bryce, the problem child was first. We went to Glenndale to give him a different experience, and then he wanted to do aggressive Top Gun maneuvers (in a 172), so I gave them to him. A spin entry, zero g until the engine stumbled, 90 degree wing-overs, etc.  I don't know that he'll ever be able to get his Pilot's certificate, so since today was the last day, I gave him the fun run.  Then next up was Kendyl. She threw up on me on the first week, and she threw up on Steve C too, last week.  Not sure if she threw up the other times or not, but you only surprise me once. So I took her up on top of the cloud layer where it was cool and smooth, and we just flew around gently. Then there was a wispy cloud, and I let her fly right through it, and she got a huge grin, she loved it.  We circled over the Greentown Howard County Fairgrounds lower on our way back to the airport and she got some photos of it, where her sister is working, and she thought that was great. So that was the end of my teen students for this program this year.  Next up we took all the planes from the morning over to the self serve fuel pump, where the gas is "only" $7.69/gallon, as opposed to $8.19 at the fuel truck.  Ridiculous.  

After lunch, Steve, me, Jon and Spencer got in the Aerostar and flew to Lewis University Airport to save the WASP T-6.  All they brought was a jack and some tow straps. Everyone was shocked to see how close the wingtip really was, even though they'd seen the picture I took. The reality was scary. A couple of inches. They jacked up the tail, swung the tailwheel around the correct way, and tried to push it out, but it was too close, and Steve said stop. Then we swung the tail back around, pushed it backwards and tilted it more in the hangar, and then jacked it up again, swung the tailwheel again, pointed it where we wanted it, I climbed in and unlocked the controls and used full right rudder, and we sloooowly pushed it out of the hangar.  When we finally got both wingtips clear, I felt a huge load lift off my shoulders, and I cheered.  That was a mess, and I am so glad I had my crew to take care of it, because I wouldn't trust the masses or anyone else to have known what to do to get it out of there safely. If we'd just tried to pull it out, or tow it out, or anything, it would have hit the wing and damaged it.  It took patience and thought and visualizing angles.  That was Steve.  

Once it was out, I fired it up to taxi it over to the ramp, and Steve got in the back seat, Jon on the left wing, and Spencer on the right. I wish I had a photo of THAT.  :D  I parked it, and then needed to get it ready for rides. So I had them top it off. I checked the oil. I put the cover on. And then Steve and Spencer said there was vomit on it.  And there was.  From the rider who threw up on the guy who took over for me when I got sick. He stuck his head outside on landing and barfed down the side of the plane. It was still on the fuselage, the elevator, the rudder, all over.  So the guys cleaned that up while I did everything else. That was the responsibility of the pilot who got the rider sick in the first place. I'd never have left that for someone else if it had happened to me.  While we were there, Curtis came up and introduced himself, and like I said, later tested positive for the Vid.  Great.  

We got back in the plane and headed for home, and since then I've been on the run.

I cleaned up the house that didn't get cleaned up while I was gone. Dishes, trash, recyclables, laundry.  I stopped at the Post Office to mail a letter and pick up some checks. Deposited the checks I picked up including $125 from the CAF for my dinners while out on the tour that first week in Ft. Wayne.  That was nice!  I picked up Ann's meds, and a strawberry shake for her. She ate that shake like she was starving, wolfed it down. I'm amazed her stomach didn't hurt after that. She was like a little kid with it!  I cleaned up my email for the most part, still have a few to do. Downloaded my pictures.  Texted about 10 people. Set up my schedule with a couple flight reviews for this week while I'm here. Paid the house bills. Updated my charts on ForeFlight.  Took care of Ann twice.  Ordered stuff from Wal-Mart that we were all out of, to be delivered tomorrow morning 8-9 am. Ordered stuff I'm out of from the make-up place.  Stopped at Panera for soup/dinner.  Filled out my jury duty questionnaire online (I hope they don't pick me right now). Got into a Facebook argument with someone who said we need to vote people in who won't try to make a law to stop women from being pilots.  Because that's a thing conservatives have on the agenda, after all.  RvW goes from federal to state right, so next we're going to make a law that women can't be pilots. As if that's even possible.  Let alone desired. What ever.  Dumbest thing I've read all day. She deleted it after we all told her it was a stupid way to try to "get the vote out" her way.  What I've got left to do tonight is gather together the bedding, pillows, blankets, and towels that we're going to put in the trailer to go to Oshkosh. Because AE is packing that up tomorrow and heading out soon.  And I'm not ready in the least. But I'll need to get that stuff together tonight before I go to bed.

I've got a few days here before I go to Chicago to do more T-6 rides Sat & Sun, and then Dubuque is right after that.  I've got a week and a day or two before we're gone the rest of the month.  Kaylee has her MRI on Thursday, and I have a student, who hasn't been able to fly, but she really doesn't want to go alone, and I don't blame her. She's getting an IV, which horrifies her, and is being put in a little tube for a long period of time, which bothers her, and they gave her a Xanax to take ahead of time, and all of that means she probably doesn't need to be going by herself to this thing.  So my poor student will have to find another day if he can.  

Aerostar and a 'matching' Citation. I honestly think "mine" is cooler.

Fifi the B-29, Diamond Lil the B-24, both one of the last two flying of their types, and Nella the T-6, the last known T-6 actually used at Avenger Field to train WASP.

Steve and Spencer cleaning off vomit

Hard to see, but Huge Fifi, Big Diamond Lil, Tiny little Nella.

Cruising on top

Me, Spencer, Jon, Steve, Successful Mission.  I can breathe again.

Welllllll

I did myself in, yesterday. I woke up in the morning not feeling well, nothing specific, just bleh.  A headache but not my normal one. I felt draggy and slow, thick headed and tired. I ate oatmeal, drank some juice and coffee, and went out to the airport. My first rider was ready to go right when I got there, and off we went. And I didn't feel well. We landed, and my second rider for the day was ready to go for a 40 minute flight.  Halfway through, I REALLY didn't feel well. The sun beating in my eyes, I just felt slower and thicker and yuckier. I even caught myself nauseated and gagging.  We land from that, me pretending to feel fine the whole time when I was not.  My 3rd rider was right there ready to go, and I told the rides guy that I needed a minute, I did not feel good.  I laid down in the "rest" area on a couch for 20 minutes with my eyes closed, and at the end, didn't feel a ton better, but I figured if I could get this last guy done, I had another pilot who could take over for the afternoon.  This guy was excited, had a lot of history with the airplane, and wanted to go really badly, and I didn't want to cancel him, or cost the wing money. And I wasn't feeling as sick. So I went out there for this last 20 minute right.  We are flying along, and again with the nausea. I got out a barf bag just in case. Every time I was pointed into the sun, it was stabbing me.  I was pretending and cheerful and chatty with this guy, the whole time staring at the time, waiting for my 20 minutes to be up, and hoping I wouldn't have to hide barfing from my passenger.  Coming in to land I made sure to focus extra hard--check gear down about 5 times--and once I got him out of the plane, shook his hand, took pictures by the plane, I made a beeline for inside.  I sat in a chair for about 2 minutes, and then boom, up it was coming. I ran for the bathroom, and barely made it before I lost my oatmeal, juice and coffee from that morning that apparently had never digested.  I told the rides desk I was done, and the next guy came on board to take over for my 1 pm flight. I laid on a couch in the "rest" area for hours. I dozed on a couch in public. I was sick.  Like...nauseated, headache, severe fatigue, felt like I had a fever, lethargic.  I don't sleep in public, but I did yesterday. That's one way to know how sick I was.  Finally a guy came around and drove me to a Wal-Mart where I picked up a Covid test, since 3 people on the tour had popped positive for Covid last week.  Then he took me back to my hotel, where I slept some more.  The Covid test took 15 minutes, and came back as a negative, so that was a relief.  I slept the rest of the afternoon, I woke up here and there, drank a $2.50 bottle of vitamin water and regular water out of the sink, all I could get my hands on, went to bed at like 8:30 pm, and woke up at 6 am, starting to feel human.

I can't decide if what I had was a 24 hour bug, or if it was severe dehydration from Saturday, cumulative, that got worse when I was wrapped up back in a flight suit in the sun in the heat the next morning too, or maybe a combination of the two.  But the heat definitely made it worse, and it was only 9 am when I started, so it wasn't even bad yet.  Saturday I was in the plane from 9 am to about 5 pm with barely a break for lunch. The trailer was out of water, and I didn't end up drinking a lot.  And it was hot, and I was in a flight suit, and walking back and forth, and flying all day, and taking pictures. And not drinking enough water. I had a glass of water at the end of the day at dinner, and I drank some in the hotel room, but I also was behind on consumption I'm pretty sure. Steve is convinced that's all I had wrong with me. Heat exhaustion and dehydration.  It seems weird since it was morning and not hot yet, but...cumulative, right?  So it's entirely possible. Whatever it was, I felt *really* bad for awhile there.  And I hated going down on the busy Sunday when they actually needed me, versus the slow Friday where it rained. If you're going to be down for a day, that's the day!

This morning there was weather in Chicago, headed there, so I lit out early to beat it in.  The bombers waited until noon. It was less windy when I got there, but they put me into a hangar that's a t-hangar, with no tow bar, so we had to push it in by hand, and the left wing is too close to the wall.  Now I have to go back up there tomorrow with the guys and try to get it back out of there without smashing the wingtip.  I'm so mad. At myself, at them, at the situation. Ugh.

Getting tired over here, going to get some sleep, as tomorrow is the Flying Squirrels and then a trip to Chicago to hopefully pull out the plane.  *sigh*

Okay

It’s Saturday. I woke up early, my first rider was early. We pulled the plane out of the hangar, I checked the oil and wiped the bugs and pulled the prop through and loaded up, and ran through lunch. Got my lunch, had two long rides, and then they tacked on more at the end, so I ended up doing 8 rides.  I had to get fuel twice, and I didn’t stop much.  Rick B. helped me walk them in and out, load them, brought me a drink, and helped marshal me in. He was worn out by the end of the day. I was worn out too, and would have been more worn out if I’d have had to do that job on top of my own.

Fifi showed up at the end of the day, finally. It was supposed to be on tour with us these last two weeks and had maintenance issue after issue. Then yesterday and this morning the weather tanked. So it finally made it this evening, and has four rides to give tomorrow to try to catch up.  I’ve got 9 am through to 2 pm I believe for riders already, and then whatever walk-ups happen.

Tonight I had dinner with Glenn and mostly Fifi crew I didn’t know, and after we sat down, I realized I had run out of peopling.  I could not people any more. I was tired, I’d been “on” since I woke up this morning, I’d had no moments of rest or silence or time to myself, I’d been surrounded by people All Day Long, and still was, by 8 pm. It was too much, and I don’t think I pulled it off very well either. I’ve rarely been so glad to get back to a hotel room before. D-o-n-e.  If anyone tries to call me, my phone will be off. lol

Tomorrow I’ll be up around 6:15, and then do it again…

She said this was better than skydiving

C-47 in the rain yesterday

Hi Fifi

People

Snack area

Staring

It was overcast, IFR, and rainy all day today. So we did no rides, very few tours, and we mostly sat around and stared at each other today. It was a long, tiring day of doing nothing in the weather.  

Tomorrow, however, I have riders booked up from 9 am to 5 pm solid. I’m not sure the morning forecast is going to allow the first couple riders to go, but I sure hope so. I’m ready to get my boogie on with the airplane.

I also need to get more prepared for something. I’m just writing this out because basically only my mom reads it any more, which is fine by both of us.  :D

So last week I met a man named Lumpy, the head of NATA and a head pilot of Gunfighter, the CAF P-51 that goes on tour giving rides. We spent the week together, with Jordan, who also flies Gunfighter now.  Today, Jordan tells me that Lumpy would like to invite me to the Gunfighter Burger Burn up at Oshkosh. From what I understand, it’s not an event the general public goes to.  Then a bit later, Jordan asked me how many women P-51 pilots I know of. I said two, Connie B and Patty W.  Nothing more was said, but I’m getting an impression that me going to this Gunfighter event is a kind of first test or audition to see how I get along with everyone else, and how they feel about me.  I’m getting an impression that this might be a doorway to possibly…fly the Gunfighter P-51.  Nobody has said that. Nobody has offered anything, and honestly, I didn’t even want to think it out loud or on paper, because if it’s not the case and he’s just inviting me because we got along and he liked me, and there’s no other agenda, and I got my hopes up, unrealistically or unnecessarily, then, well, I don’t like having that hope damaged. The Mustang is the only airplane that still stings to have lost on, years later. When people around me fly them, and I’m happy for them, and it still twinges that sad spot inside. I could go for the B-29 at this point, I’m pretty sure, and I think I’d be able to do it.  The B-29 is also wicked cool, and I may some day, but the fighter is what lights me up first.

So about that “getting prepared” part.  I have two weaknesses. One, systems/mechanics and trying to pass oral exams about it. Even if I understand it, during checkrides I struggle to remember my name, let alone mechanical stuff.  And Two, aerobatics. To do a Fighter Checkout, you have to fly and do aerobatics from the back seat of a T-6, twice, with two different special examiners.  I’ve never flown aerobatics from the back seat, I can basically only do loops and rolls, and while I am very good at instructing in the T-6, talking people through things, I’m not the one doing the actual flying. I rescue it when they screw it up, but I don’t do it all.  So.  I need to go up and go flying from the back seat and get proficient at that.  And then I need to go up and do the more aggressive stall series where you end up upside down, and do it until it’s natural.  And then I need to practice aerobatics from the back seat.  Because right now I wouldn’t feel confident about a fighter check, and I don’t want them to say “You need to go through a fighter check, how about now”, expecting me to be good to go, and me having to say “oh, I’m not ready”, or worse yet, doing it and bombing it.  Worst case scenario, none of this is happening anyway but I get a lot better and proficient at the back seat flying, which is still a win. Best case scenario, I am prepared and ready if that door actually does open, and I can get my shot at a Mustang. 

I actually have three weaknesses.  The third one is myself. John Makinson said that I was in the top 90% of T-6 pilots he’d ever flown with in all his years.  Ray Morris at the NATA clinic went around and told everyone I was a really good stick. Nathan told me that years ago. Jim Z told me I was the best student he’s ever taught in the T-6.  Heck, Marquez told me I was one of the best Private Pilot certificate checkrides he’d given at the time. People tell me that, and I feel like now there’s so much more pressure to be perfect, that if I screw up it’ll all come falling down and they’ll see that I’m not really that good.  That the expectations are so high, that I can’t meet them, that I am going to fail, spectacularly. I see the mistakes I make, the things I get sloppy on, the things I don’t know, the things I can’t do well, I see those, and I don’t feel like I would get through the Stallion 51 Mustang course successfully, because they’re so hard core on the aerobatics and aggressive upset recovery, and drawing the electrical system and explaining all that mechanical stuff that doesn’t really have anything to do with actually flying the airplane. ;)  So I doubt myself, hard, and that makes me want to step back and not try, because if you don’t try, you can’t fail, right?  But…I don’t think I could live with myself if I had a shot at it and didn’t take it.  Heck, it may not even be a possibility in the first place.  Could be a total over-reaction to the conversations we’ve had.  (The checkout course is like $45,000, which I don’t have, and which CAF would pay for if they put me on the plane, with the assumption I would dedicate some time to them.) So I come back to my bottom line.  It doesn’t do you any good if the door opens and you’re not prepared to walk through it. So whether the door opens or not, I’m going to prepare to walk through it as best I can.  I look at some of the people who do pass these things, and I think hell, if he can do it, I can do it.  Right?  Right.

Kaylee has an MRI on Thursday for her headaches. Not sure whether I hope they find something or not. I mean, if they find something, that’s not generally good, but if it’s an answer that can have a solution, that would be nice.  

Well, it’s getting late, and I’ve got a busy day tomorrow, hopefully, so I think I’ll sign off and head to bed!

The Haute

Day One of Stop #2, Terre Haute.  I arrived at 9 this morning, and I had a 10 am ride for 40 minutes. They were there when I landed, a husband and wife team. She had been a student pilot who quit flying 30 years ago, he was a retired Marine, but not a pilot. They saw me pull in and get out, and he said “Are you the pilot for the rides too?” I said yes, and his face. He flinched, cringed, and stuttered, and his wife put her hand on his arm and said “He’s just nervous”. So of course I did the thing where I talk to them until they can see I’m an intelligent person who knows about airplanes, and reminded him with humor that he saw me get it there in the first place, and that it’s fitting that his student pilot wife goes up in a WASP women’s T-6 with a woman pilot anyway.  Then when we were out flying around, another airplane had an emergency, couldn’t verify their gear was down, so we had to stay away from the airport until they landed.  The airport set off a siren and rolled the trucks. Meanwhile, unrelated, someone else had set a tire fire off the end of the runway, and black smoke was rising up. This poor guy had to be scared to death, because we weren’t back yet and obviously something bad was happening. Well, the other plane landed safely, gear stayed down, and they let us back in. As we rolled in, I shut down, and he yelled up “I paid $600 for my wife to have that million dollar smile! And it was worth it!” She had a great time, and I told her “Don’t let it be another 30 years before you get back in the air.” She said “Well, my husband might not be thrilled about it, but…I won’t. I missed this. I didn’t know how much I missed this until today. I’m going to get going again.”

I also met a WWII Veteran, Marine Staff Sergeant, who flew Corsairs, SBDs, FU-100, and various other things, including the T-6. It was great to meet him and see him out there.

Fifi still hasn’t made it out, but they say it’s fixed now, for sure, and when the weather cooperates, they’ll finally make it out of Cincinnati and over to here.  They missed all of Ft. Wayne and now half of Terre Haute. Rough couple of weeks for the B-29. Steve and BOB aren’t making it down tomorrow either, as originally planned.

We got rained out the last half of our day, so the guys took the cars over to the hotel by 4 pm.  I’m sitting in here, waiting to get the group text on dinner, when now it’s 5:30, and Jordan calls and says “Want to get some pizza?” and I’m like “Yes. Come get me.” He drove over and picked me up and I joined him, his wife, Matt Throckmorton, and Jon Carver for some good pizza and breadsticks for a couple of hours. That way when I get back to the hotel at 8 pm, it’s a much more reasonable time frame for getting sleepy.  The group text finally came through that most people were staying in the hotel tonight and not going out. So I was glad I went with Jordan and all. I was going to go with the group so I could hob nob with that group too, since in Ft. Wayne I stayed with the “Fighter Guys” the whole time, and I don’t want them to think I don’t want to hang out with them too. But I’m glad I didn’t turn down tonight’s company just to end up in my own hotel room walking across the street to McDonald’s alone.  :p

I brought my own toilet paper here this time, by the way, and this place has nice toilet paper. Not as nice as mine, but at least it’s not bad like FWA. I took a lot of space in my suitcase for that TP to come along—-it was important. ;)

Tomorrow’s weather looks cruddy. I have zero rides pre-sold. Jordan is probably going to do three-ship formation stuff, with 3 P-51s, which I’m jealous about.  So I probably won’t have a lot to do tomorrow, but…so it goes!

Doin' It

I had today to get a bunch of stuff done, and I think I accomplished most of it.

I started the day test flying the WASP T-6 with cousin Dave in the back seat, to see if the tailwheel shimmy is gone now that they replaced the tube and tire.  It seems to be, for whatever that's worth, so that's good.

I got a bunch of supplies for Ann and us since I've been gone a week and about to be gone another week.  Talked to two CAF guys about shipping stuff, sent in receipts to a WASP and a MBros person.  I wrote out billing for some contract work, T-6 instruction and a MBros trip.  Figured out Venmo enough to get paid for shipping something.  Did all my laundry and repacked my bag for this upcoming week in Terre Haute. Got all my patches back on my flight suit and got it ready to go.  And that reminds me. Know what else I packed? My own roll of toilet paper.  Even the Hilton Suites TP was paper thin, single ply, and you use a bunch of it (I almost said crap ton but that seems wrong) just to barely get the job done. I hate it. So I'm bringing my own roll or soft, fluffy, two-ply toilet paper in my suitcase.  What can I say.  ;)  I also brought my own laundry pods and dryer sheets, so when I have to launder my 2 CAF shirts during the week, I don't have to pay $2.50 for their generic detergent sheet.  Last week I had to wash my one CAF shirt, and wear it multiple days in 90 degree heat, because if you don't wear the flight suit at all times, you need to wear the shirt.  Well I only got two and I'd only packed one!  So I have them both this time at least.  Less reusing.  I updated my logbook, updated the green book in the T-6, updated RallyPoint (the online tracking system for the CAF on flying their airplanes).  I emptied my shampoo and conditioner bottles into the new ones to get all the good stuff out of the bottom where the pump doesn't reach (rip off!) and then recycled those empties, after then filling up my travel shampoo and conditioner bottles too.  I went over to Ann's a couple times as she was confused by the guy working on the fence in our back yard.  I stopped at J Edwards because I was out of my favorite green olives and of course had to pick up some turtles and try a white chocolate macadamia nut bar while I was there too. I fixed dinner and cleaned up the kitchen and basically got everything as ready as it's going to get for me to be gone again.  I feel quite accomplished for the day. I'm not quite done, I have a few more things I'm going to do before I go to bed, but all in all I almost feel prepared for this next stop. 

I'm NOT prepared for Dubuque or Oshkosh, but...one thing at a time, man, one thing at a time.

Next

I spent the morning of the 4th of July doing 3 T-6 rides at Ft. Wayne. The crowds stayed small the whole time, but I did have three family members who all did a ride one after the other. One brought his dad's wedding ring along because his dad had passed away before he got a chance to do this with him, and he wanted to bring a piece of him along.  There weren't any more flights that afternoon, and the ramp was pretty slow, so we started tearing down early, and I helped with that.  We took a group photo, and Rocky (the guy who has everything organized like crazy) took the photos and printed out one for each of us, which I brought home as a nice memento of my first tour, along with a pocket knife he gave me with the B-29/B-24 Squadron info on it.

One of my previous days' riders came up to me and said one of the B-24 guys had convinced him to take a ride with me, that I was amazing, etc.  I said "Boy, I hope he didn't oversell me there!"  Well, we went up for a ride, and the guy was giddy. He loved it, and when he got down, he was bouncing up and down for a long time after that.  Literally jumping up and down.  When he walked away, he said "He didn't oversell you. That was just the best thing ever." So that was really cool.  :)

Funny story.  This tour I was pretty much on my own. I fueled up the plane, put the oil in, wiped the oil and bugs off the plane multiple times. I put the cover on every evening and took it off every night. I pulled the prop through myself. I stood by the wing or on the wing and talked to people all day, putting people in the plane. I loaded the passengers myself, I briefed them, I flew them, I escorted them in and out of the ramp area.  It was in the 90s every day, and I was in a flight suit most of the time.  It was hot, tiring, long, and a lot of work, but rewarding.  I sent a text to the guys telling them I missed them and all their help. ;) I had a tailwheel shimmy, so they suggested I check the tire pressure. I can do that. It was 53 lbs. Fine. Then they said they had a new tailwheel and tire and that I could change it there on the ramp.  Annnnnd there's my line.  I don't know how to do that one. I told them I'd take it back to Kokomo and my guys would do it there, which happened this morning.  lol 

I got home last night, sweaty, wiped out, beat up, tired, and glad to be home. Hotels are nice but home is nicer.

I then had a flight first thing this morning. Originally we were supposed to leave at 7 am.  He texted to make it 7:30.  I got out there by 7:10 am, got everything ready, pulled it out, and then at 7:30 he said it would be 8.  At 8 I warned him that the weather was tanking, and we needed to GO.  We didn't end up leaving until 8:30, and by then we had to go somewhere further south, Charleston, West Virginia, or we wouldn't beat the weather.  So it went. We had to dodge thunderstorms, and the line filled in FAST. You could see it building right in front of your eyes. We landed just fine, fortunately, before the weather completely blocked us off.  I went into town then and got brunch, drove around a bit, but then the weather moved in. I called the FBO and asked them to tow the plane into a hangar, and they said they were on a "ramp stand down" because there was lightning within 5 miles.  Well, sheesh.  So I went back to the airport and watched over the plane, and it was fine, just rain, no big wind or hail or anything problematic, thank goodness.  The trip home we had a little weather to go around, but nothing  like the trip out.  Home by 6 pm, raced home to get Ann, Kaylee and Steve were both gone. It was hotter than hades again, and that's just a good way to wear a person out...

Gumby before our trip today

Some of the weather in the way

Pretty little build-ups

Rain and clouds

Misty mountains

That's a pile of water in the window heating unit

Storm cell dumping

The crew on the Air Power History Tour, Ft. Wayne stop.

Third

I’m sitting on the 6th floor in my hotel suite watching the fireworks show over Ft. Wayne. It’s the 3rd, not the 4th, but since the 4th is Monday night I’m assuming they didn’t want to make the parents stay out late on a work night.  I’ve actually got about 3 fireworks shows I can see from my window.  Big ones, not neighborhood ones.

The Air Power History Tour stop in Ft. Wayne has been suuuper slow, as I said. So 12 riders in 4 days is not great, but at least today helped out, as I had 7 of them. Five pre-sold and two walk-up, two long (40 minute) rides, 5 short (20 min) rides.  I’ll have three more shorts tomorrow, so 15 total unless more people walk up.  I’ve done 15 rides in one day in the past.  15 rides in 5 days isn’t great.  The costs of all these people and food and water and hotel rooms and fuel is huge. They’re probably going to eat it on this stop, unfortunately.

There are two guys on the B-24 who are or were trying to work me a little. I think one has a crush on me, but that cooled off after the 2nd day.  The second one wants to get T-6 flight training with me, so he’s just always there, sucking up.  A lot of the crew over there is a little odd, to be honest. A bit of the island of misfit toys vibe. But mostly nice. I wouldn’t know about the Fifi crew as they never made it. I got some good spirited flack for hanging out with the Fighter guys. Then Jordan said “Hey, Laura is a Fighter Gal.” I appreciated that, actually.

The John guy who was getting on my nerves yesterday, come to find out today, he was doing the same thing to Larry and Jordan both, and even followed Jordan into the bathroom to keep talking to him. So it wasn’t just me…the guy is just wound too tight and is not able to follow social cues, like when someone tries to walk away, or goes to do something else, you don’t follow them, particularly into the bathroom. Larry said he might talk to him about it, and I cringed. Awkward. I had said “Don’t do it on my account!” and that’s when they told me how he’d done the same thing to them and their plane. Oops.  lol

One of my riders today kept cracking woman jokes. When we were getting ready to get in, he said “How many misogynists does it take to open a beer.” I said “Let me guess, none, because the wives do it for them.” He said “Well, the bitch better have it open before it gets to me.” I’m like…gutsy move, Mav.  As my friend Allan was loading him in the plane, he said “So, uh, do you have anything you’d like to apologize for before we go here?” and the guy says “Nah, I just needed to make sure I got a good ride.” So we took off, I got away from the city, I let him fly for a minute, and then I cranked it around.  About three maneuvers, and he said “Okay, that’s good, we can stop.” I pulled up hard one more time, shoved him back in his seat, and said “You sure? Wouldn’t want you to think you got a wussy, girly ride.” He says “I’m sure, I’m done.” I thought about making him barf anyway, but then I’d have had to clean it up, because Allan already told me he wouldn’t. ;) I later told Allan I made the guy tap out and he enjoyed that.

For dinner we went to Texas Roadhouse, the five of us. We’ve really had a fun week and I’ve enjoyed getting to know Lumpy and his wife and spending time with Jordan and Matt.

For me, Mom & Kaylee. ;)

Guns

Thinking of AE and OSH

In the news today. I’m in the bottom right, the back of me anyway

Happy rider

View from my 6th floor

Another happy rider

Ha

Matt, me, Kathy, Larry/Lumpy, Jordan

Ice cream

Full sized paper

Guns at the Six