Less Productivity

Ha.

My flights for today were canceled because the winds just got nasty. So instead I stayed home and worked on stuff here. I did still get some exercise in, and cleaned up a lot of stuff, did a lot of writing, got some paperwork done. I need to schedule my Medical. It doesn't expire until February, but often I let it expire to a 3rd class and don't worry about it, but now the CAF is tracking my medical, and if I go below a 2nd class I won't be able to do the Air Power History Tour rides in Feb/Mar, which would be a problem. And Mike (my AME who does my medical) gets booked up months in advance. So tomorrow I will try to remember to give him a call and get that set up.

Roadie isn't eating. I haven't gotten her to eat hardly anything today, even with the steroids. She is going into kidney failure, almost certainly. She's drinking a lot, losing weight, peeing a lot, sleepy a lot more, not eating again even on steroids, all the signs and stages, she checks the boxes.  I'm guessing her time is short. We then need to decide when to take her in so she doesn't end up peeing on herself unable to move on the kitchen floor again, because that is the saddest thing I have ever seen and we don't want her to suffer.  She gained a good amount of time and got some good loving in with Kaylee and us, enjoyed some last attention and care.  Tonight she put her paw up towards my face, and stared at me for a long time. I wish I knew what she was trying to say.  Stupid sweet cat that never figured out a litterbox.

We also got notification today that we needed to get a lawyer for federal court too, as as are having to do something in Southern Indiana on this lawsuit that is being taken to federal court, and our current attorney doesn't do federal.  That'll be nice and cheap too.  It's great that the plaintiffs don't have to pay anything while they try to wipe everyone else out in the name of...money. I mean "accountability" ala money.  Sad, pathetic, weak, gross, hypocritical, shallow people.

Another fun thing from today was learning that our 172 with a fairly new engine has bad 'lifters'. Probably from cheap manufacturing, but we have to replace 7 of the 8, at over $400 each, and the plane will be down for weeks at the end of our decent flying season.  So we needed another multi-thousands-of-dollars worth of expenses there too.

The preliminary report has come out for the Dallas crash too, and that's fired off more hubbub.  It's not good. It sounds like the airboss told the fighters to go in trail and then go in front of the bombers. With no altitude separation. The first two made it, the third plowed into the B-17.  Ugh.

It hasn't actually been a very good day.  lol

Steve did contact a place to start coming in and helping us with Ann's bathing and personal care. We'll see how that goes. Last time it didn't go well at all. Maybe she's far enough advanced now that she won't fight it. Maybe not. I don't know, but we need to try.  That's going to be $24/hour, by the way.  I may be looking for the street corner that will best suit our needs coming up...

Tomorrow I have a full day, with two students and a trip with the Purdue basketball coach, down to Kentucky, leaving at 6 pm and not getting home until VERY late. We're landing down there at 7 pm, the game starts at 8 pm, and I don't fly him home until after the game, and then it'll be an hour to get him home, and another 15 minutes to get the plane to Kokomo, then put away and drive home.  1 am? 2 am?  3?  It's gonna be late.

No pictures today. Somehow, pictures of me cleaning out the fridge or walking on the treadmill don't seem that worthy.  Tomorrow will be another day...

More Productivity

Still on a roll.

I had an appointment from 10-11:30, hit a drive through, and was out at the airport by noon. John R. and I took both his airplanes to Shelbyville, to drop his Bonanza off for annual.  I flew his Bo, and he flew his C-421. Insurance requires me to have a recurrent training to even meet the open pilot's clause, and that's a couple thousand bucks, so I can't fly that one any more without him.  They're getting that way with all cabin class twins, same with Ethan's 340, which is stupid considering how much time I have in twin cessnas now.  But that's why I'm doing a 340 recurrent coming up, only because he wanted me to, and he's paying for it, not me, so...

Anyway.  So I took the Bonanza and we headed out.  We had nasty winds. The surface winds were gusting over 30 knots with a 10 knot gust factor, and the winds aloft were reporting at 42 knots off the nose at 3000'.  I was doing 119 knots groundspeed in a turbocharge Bonanza A-36, which is cruising slower than our 172RG does.  We landed, I left his Bonanza at the shop, and we hopped in his 421 and came home. Somehow the 42 knot direct headwind became an only 30 knot tailwind. Unfair.  It was beautiful and sunny and warm-ish, but buddy it was windy, bumpy and gusty. I canceled my next two lessons because of it. They wouldn't have gotten much out of those conditions.

When I got home, I hit the treadmill for 20 minutes. I'm starting there for awhile until that gets easy, then I'll either up the speed or lengthen the time. But for now that's long enough to do something and short enough to not make me not want to do it.  I watch a show while I'm doing it. Today's was the first episode of "1883", and it was really good, by the way.

More clean-up at home. Laundry, trash, dishes. Cat flea stuff, cat steroids, cat food, Ann's food, Ann's meds, ordered in things we were out of, like bandaids and Tylenol and contact solution.  I was OUT out of contact solution and didn't know I'd used my last bottle.  Oops.  On my order, I'd also ordered two boxes of generic salt-free crackers for Ann.  I got a ding on the app that they were replacing the generic with the "Premium" brand as they were out of the other. I was fine with that, although the generic was $1.32/box and the Premium was $3.58/box.  And then when it got here I had six boxes of it. So I looked it up, and they had replaced my order with not just a different brand, but 8 of them!  So I ordered 2, paid for 8 at triple the price, and only received 6. I am currently on a chat with Walmart customer service, and they claim they will refund me for six of them.  So I'll still have six boxes of crackers, and will have only paid for two of them.  That means I paid $7.16 for two boxes when it would have cost me $2.76.  However, that does mean with 6 boxes I paid $1.19 for each, which is $.20 off of what I'd have paid for the two generics.  So...seems to be a slight win.  Albeit an irritating one.  lol  At least I got $21 back I didn't need to spend.

I went through and did my CAF annual quiz on operations. It's 50 questions. I tried to do it last night, and it makes you correct it to 100%, and says "hit the back button to answer the questions you get wrong".  Well, when I did that, it wiped out my whole quiz. So I just dropped it for the night.  Tonight when it said "hit the back button", I just hit the "return to previous page" button, and did NOT wipe out my quiz.  Got that done, got that submitted to the CAF, got my information updated in RallyPoint. I also contacted them and asked them to correct my information, as it's missing the L-2. I had a checkride for the L-2 too, so it should be on there even though I'm out of currency on it.  Then it'll list me as an Instructor and Check Pilot in the L-2, PT-26, BT-13, T-6, and C-45.  Kinda cool!  :)  Next up... is what...we shall see.  :)

I was watching Yellowstone tonight, and one of the women had lost her son at birth. She was Native American, so they had a ceremony privately.  Her father-in-law stumbled upon the ceremony, and watched from afar. Afterwards he went up to the chief and said he wished he'd known.  The chief said "Grief isn't meant to be shared, but comfort is. The ceremony is over, now they could use the comfort."  I thought that was wise.  Her father-in-law's comfort to her was to tell her a story about a baby his mother lost, and his dad said "His time was short, but he lived a perfect life. All he knew was you, and that you loved him. It wasn't long, but it was perfect." And that made my eyes water a little...

Cruisin' in the Bonanza

Where I get my hairs cut and my brows waxed.

Progress

Some days you get stuff done, and that was today for me to a degree, so I was sort of pleased with that. I got some treadmill walking in to get a little more activity than I had been. Did some stretches for flexibility, and did some body-weight strength exercises too, mostly upper body today.  It's a start, anyway. 

I bought a Wal-Mart membership for $98 for the year.  Their grocery deliveries are otherwise $10 a shot, and I do it more than 10 times a year, so I got the membership, which gives me free deliveries.  It also gives me access to Paramount Plus the TV app, so I can now watch the shows that are only on that and not on regular network TV, like Criminal Minds: Evolution, SEALS, and the Yellowstone Spin-offs like 1886.  All for free. So that pleases me too.

We made it to lunch with the gang, first time in awhile, and then I test flew the Champ out of annual. The fuel valve was worked on, tailwheel and brakes, all sorts of stuff.  I wrote up a report on that on my phone after I taxied in. Everything went great.  Then I had a flight with a student who came from somewhere else and didn't finish her Private in time. She's now Spencer's student, and had struggled with landings. She hadn't flown in 2 weeks, her checkride is scheduled for next Monday, she hasn't done checkride prep and still had .6 of solo time to do too.  So I went up with her to make sure she was safe to solo first, and she was, but she's not ready for a checkride, I can tell you that much.  But she got her solo time in at least, and Spencer has his work cut out for him.

I went to Culvers and picked up an Oreo blizzard thing for Ann, and I got a frozen hot chocolate one for me, but I haven't eaten it, it's still in the freezer. I just lost the mood for it I guess.  Anyway, went over and fed her dinner, meds, and dessert. She was in a really good mood tonight, super happy, singing songs, and she made sense for the first time in a long time. She told me about her mom, and how her mom was always laughing, and she would laugh with her mom. She told me how much she loves me and how sweet and kind I always am to her, and she said she was glad to have a partner in crime to laugh with her.  She hasn't been coherent in a long time, so that was a neat window to see into.

Then I started getting to other important things.  I renewed our Jeppessen subscription for the C-340's databases, with Justin G's help on remembering what I'm doing and why. I joined the B-29/B-24 Squadron of the CAF, because I wasn't a member of enough of them yet. (Indiana, WASP, and Wisconsin).  I registered for the B-29/B-24/T-6 ground schools out in Dallas this year. It's more hard core than the T-6 ground school we do in Wisconsin, so I'm going to need to actually study before I go up there.  lol  I got my hotel room in Dallas for that time frame, at a cheap rate, and I can cancel all the way up to 2 days before without penalty, so that's good. I have not gotten a flight yet, because I'm going to see if I can hitch a ride with Jordan if he's going, or maybe get a Southwest ticket from Ethan if not.  I'll try to save money there if I can so this isn't too terrible on us in the middle of January.

I went through my email and got that cleaned up, and next up I'm going to hit some of the groundschool stuff I need to do ahead of time for some things.  Two online 'schools' I need to do, with quizzes included. I'll go in tonight and see if I can knock those out. 

So all in all I'm feeling quite productive today.  Tomorrow may be another story, but hey, today is today.

Kaylee's back at school and healing up and doing okay. Steve is about to pull the trigger on replacing our TV with the burned out LEDs because it's Cyber Monday and you can buy it at a 37% discount today only. He's waited until 10 pm so far, has until Midnight before the deal is gone, and trying to decide whether he wants to spend the money right before winter hits vs getting 37% off of it being the pro vs the con. Good luck to him. ;)  The cat seems to be slowing down, but she's still okay for now.  And now that's it!

Devotion

We woke up to grey and rainy skies, more of a November day than most of the ones we've had so far.  It was a good day to put things back in order around the house. Kaylee packed up her stuff, I got the kitchen cleaned up, nothing exciting.  At 1:30, we went to see "Devotion", the movie about Jesse Brown, the first black naval aviator, who flew Bearcats and then Corsairs during the Korean War. (Yes I know it was technically a conflict, but if you Google it, it's amusing to see that it says "The Korean War, a Conflict between...")  Over 2 million people died, and if that's not a war...

Anyway.  We did enjoy the movie. The flying scenes made me smile, and the story did an amazing job at being accurate with real life. When we got home, we saw a news story about it, and they showed footage of the real Jesse, his wife Daisy, Tom, the scenes of some of them getting their medals, and the real footage was amazingly close to the movie footage.  I think they did the story justice, and that's pretty cool.

At one point, reporters came onto the ship to take photos of him in front of the Corsair as a "feel good" piece, and they kept trying to get him to say it was hard to be a black pilot, but he kept saying that wasn't why he was there, and that he wasn't going to say what they wanted him to say. He just wanted to be a pilot.  It was hard for everyone on a carrier in the Navy, regardless. There was one time that he was given an order, and he ignored it. The order was by his friend, who wrote the report up as it happened, and Jesse got reprimanded for disobeying the order. He got mad at his friend for writing the report and said a mark on him was worse than a mark on anyone else, as it would be used against him when it came time to upgrade.  Steve and I both piped up with "Then you shouldn't have disobeyed a direct order, bud. There are consequences to that choice!" 

Kaylee also said that it seems pretty important to have friends at war. I said maybe, but I think a lot of them didn't want to get too close, because a lot of people died. She pointed out a bit of a recurring theme with it though. One person goes down, is trapped and alive, and his friend is circling overhead helpless, and decides to deliberately crash land in hostile territory to try to rescue his friend.  Secondly, two people are trapped in hostile territory and the sun goes down and search and rescue authorities refuse to go get them because it's too dangerous. One of the helicopter pilots says "Who is it down there?" and when he hears who, he says "You tell them I'm coming".  One was a friend.  Again, this was a true story.  So Kaylee's point is valid...

Kaylee kept leaning over and asking me questions during the movie.  Like a dozen of them. One was, when there was an impending engine failure and they climbed, she asked if that was a good idea. I said yes, that altitude gives you time and distance and options, and she said that makes sense. Another was, someone trying to reach a field and clear a ridge, and put flaps down. She said "I thought flaps were to help you go slower so you could land slower".  I asked if she remembered what it was like in the C-172 when you put the first notch of flaps in. She said it balloons up and you have to push down, and I was impressed she remembered that as it's been years since she did it in the 172. The taildraggers don't have flaps.  We said yes, that's lift, and she got it. That was kind of cool.  There was a line in the movie where the pilot said he wasn't confident about his ability to land the Corsair. His wife said "You've never met an airplane you couldn't land." Kaylee leans over and says "You've never met an airplane you can't land either, have you."  That made me feel warm and fuzzy, but the only appropriate answer is no, not yet, but I sure haven't met all the airplanes yet, either. 

Again I was impressed with that generation and their willingness to put their lives on the line.  The commander (?) told them that one particular mission was high risk and that many of them may not come home. Nobody backed down. Just like in real life, many times.  Like the Doolittle Raiders who were told they weren't going to have enough gas to get home. And nobody backed down. You don't get a whole lot of that any more.

One of my favorite scenes was when a bunch of Marines and Army were trapped and pinned down by Koreans, terrible conditions, sub freezing temps, out-manned, and about to be wiped out. Along comes the US Navy in Corsairs and saves the day. Those guys in the trenches, covered in mud and blood, hearing those planes come overhead and the bombs and guns dropping the enemy and sending them running, the cheering and relief on their faces as they chase the stragglers to finish the job, it makes your heart soar. Especially knowing how crucial air support was during war.

Steve, Kaylee and I went to McCallister's Deli afterwards for dinner, because that's basically what Kaylee can eat, soup, and that's her favorite soup.  Her mouth is doing a little better. She can talk more, less pain, still can't open her mouth more than 2 fingers width, can't chew with her back teeth yet, but she's a lot more energetic and spending time deliberately annoying me, so she's definitely feeling better. One side had a stitch come out, the other side with the mutant tooth is still more sore.  But she's definitely finally on the upswing, thank goodness, with the mouth ulcers getting better since the mouthwash came in. 

The cat hasn't been eating quite as much, and has been sitting by herself instead of up with me where she normally goes. I have been giving her the steroids, but I'm wondering if the effectiveness of them is starting to wear off.  We'll see, now I'm just suspicious when anything starts going different or off on her, waiting for the last big spiral.

When I went to put Ann to bed, she was eating a peanut butter cracker. I asked if she wanted a drink of water, and got the bottle out. She could not comprehend taking a drink of water. She was like 'yeah, there's another bottle in there', and I just said "do you want a drink?" and she unscrewed the lid and was going to add more water, on and on. I finally just gave up and assumed she didn't need a drink of water even though she had a mouth full of peanut butter cracker.  This brain stuff...

I am going to work on doing a little more stretching, flexibility exercises. Kaylee got some for me. My knees are stiffer and more painful than they used to be, and I know it's use it or lose it. So I have some yoga and stretching stuff to start working on. Especially during the winter months, I have more time to focus on some of that stuff.

A little clip I found that has some truth in it.

The rest of these are sitting in the theater for "Devotion". Those are my feet up on the bar. lol

Soooo purty.

Holidays and Stuff

I got behind as usual, of course!

Wednesday morning first thing, Kaylee had a CT scan of her head, in order to send to the ENT who will be trying to figure out why she is getting repetitive sinus infections. I also called her oral surgeon, because the night before and that morning, her mouth started hurting a lot more than it was supposed to.  I got an answering machine at 8 am on Wednesday that said "Our offices are closed until Monday the 28th". No number to call for emergencies, no paging system, nobody to call, nothing.  That was FIVE DAYS away.  Not cool, guys. 

After the CT, I had a cross country flight with Morgan to Knox, using just VOR airways, no GPS. That was a blast from the past for all of us. Pretty much nobody does that any more, but I wanted her to be able to do it anyway, because while they are deactivating VORs, they are still leaving a skeletal system of a VOR every 100 nm, in case the GPS system ever goes down. Should that happen, there will be a lot of people who don't have a clue how to navigate, and I didn't want her to be one of them. Even one of the ATC controllers asked us where we were going, because the airway goes north, then we intercept an intersection, then we go west, as opposed to just going diagonally 'direct' there. We had filed it appropriately, he just hadn't seen anyone actually follow the airways before apparently.  So it was good for him, too. ;)

When I got back from that, I did some last minute getting some stuff ready for Mom and Ernie and Thanksgiving. I had to go back to the store because Kaylee wanted soy milk. The afternoon before Thanksgiving, go to a store. It's not cool, man. I told her she'd better drink that stuff.  

Mom and Ernie made it Wednesday evening, and we went to Pastarrific after we got Ann to bed. 

Thanksgiving Day, Steve got up early and went next door to get our big 15 pound turkey out of Ann's fridge. See, it wouldn't fit in our fridge. But we didn't really know how big it was because there was NO weight on the thing. Anywhere. So Steve had to take and plop the turkey on our bathroom scale to find out it was 15 lbs. lol We put the turkey in, and then I made breakfast. Biscuits and gravy, Steve made eggs, I made bacon, and we had orange juice and milk.  You get cleaned up from that, and it's time to work on the lunch stuff, mashed potatoes and stuffing and corn with cream cheese and cooked rolls. Dave & Dawn came over with green bean casserole, fresh baked bread, and a pumpkin and a pecan pie. We watched the Thanksgiving Day parade, we hung out, we ate too much, we cooked, and cleaned, and ate some more, and had a good day to be able to just be together.  Ann came over for a little while, but just being over there for a bit really confused her afterwards, and she wasn't sure what to do or what was happening.  But at least she was able to eat lunch with us and be okay.  

Friday morning Mom and Ernie headed out, and Kaylee and I attempted to find a "doc in a box", or a walk in clinic, because her mouth has gotten just worse and worse. She wasn't able to eat or drink much of anything. She had gotten results back from the CT Scan that said she had Mucosal Thickening which they said probably meant another sinus infection. She had mouth ulcers, big time, from the stitches and swelling rubbing her cheeks and gums raw. She had bruises on her face where they had pried her jaw open for the surgery.  She'd had no wisdom teeth on the bottom, one up top on the right, and a "giant mutant tooth" on the left that was two wisdom teeth fused together. The kid is in a lot of pain. Wisdom teeth removal, bruised face, sore jaw that can't move, mouth ulcers, and oh yeah, sinus pain from an infection.  Miserable.  So we look up these walk in clinics and they all say they're open. I drive to one, and it's closed. So I call the others from the parking lot. They're all closed except for one.  I drive to the one. We walk in. She says "We are full today on walk ins. I can make an appointment for you for tomorrow."  *sigh*.  I make the appointment for 9:45 am, and we have to leave, with no relief.

Today is Saturday. I get Kaylee to the walk in clinic, and the sign on their door says they are booked up on appointments and cannot take any walk ins, so it's good we made the appointment yesterday. There isn't an actual doctor there now, just a Nurse Practitioner, and he's a little odd. I think he's on the spectrum. A little know it all, a little arrogant. He informed us that there is no cure for mouth ulcers (but there are things to treat it which is why we were there), informed us that peroxide is a poison and we shouldn't swish with it (I told him it was an over the counter Oral B mouthwash so pretty sure we were fine for using it), informed us that he didn't think she has mouth ulcers because he can't see them (she can't open her mouth wide enough for him to see back where they are).  Regardless, we convinced him to give us the mouthwash she uses that really helps, Mary's Magic Mouthwash, made with lidocaine and an antifungal and three other things. So it's a compound drug that takes the pharmacy a bit to make, but they do, thankfully. He also said most sinus infections are viral, not bacterial, and that she shouldn't take antibiotics unless ten days pass with symptoms still and/or she gets green or yellow goopy sinus discharge. I agreed with him there. So we finally left with a prescription.

I drove her to McCalister's to pick up sweet tea and soup for her lunch, then dropped the prescription off at CVS, dropped her off at home, and then went out to the airport for a 12-2 pm flight, another IFR cross country in the RG.

When I was done, I didn't have anything else I needed to do at home. It was a warm, sunny, calm, beautiful day. I SHOULD have wanted to go flying. I should take the T-6 up before I can't any more. The Champ even.  The Cub.  I. Did. Not. Feel. Like. It. I literally couldn't talk myself into it.  Just had no desire.  I think something is wrong with me. The clock is ticking, I have very few days left where I can do this, especially when it's this warm and nice.  Shortly, I will be stuck with twins and trainers for months. And yet I just couldn't do it. I went to Hydration Station to pick up some Frosted Hot Chocolate for me and Kaylee, a strawberry shake for Ann, and a Vanilla Coke for Steve, stopped at CVS to pick up Kaylee's drugs, and then came on home for the day.  Another load of dishes, another load of laundry, another dose of steroids for the cat, another putting Ann to bed, another fetching things for an uncomfortable Kaylee with chipmonk and bruised cheeks.  I should've gone flying, but I still don't feel like it right now, so hey.  Tomorrow's weather sucks, so I'll see if next week looks better and maybe I can motivate then.  I hope.

So to recap, Monday I went to her wisdom teeth removal surgery. Wednesday I took her to a CT scan. Friday I took her to a walk in clinic unsuccessfully.  Today I took her to a walk in clinic successfully.  I have been to the pharmacy three times for meds. I took Ann to a cardiology appointment last week. I took Roadie to the vet last week.  I would like to not go back to any doctor anytime soon, for anyone. ;)

Tomorrow Steve and I and Kaylee are planning on going to see "Devotion", the movie about the first black WWII Navy carrier pilot in Corsairs.  I look forward to it. :)

I know I'm forgetting things.  But Kaylee keeps talking to me and Steve is talking on the phone, so my concentration is crap.  lol  It was really good to have everybody together though.

Well, we have decided not to do this first thing. I did not know this!

Kaylee at the doc in the box today. Snooping.

The RG on takeoff at Kokomo

Clear blue skies

The RG in the sun.

Long Day

I was up at 5:30 am for a trip to W. Virginia. I had invited Ana to go, and she took off work and drove 90 minutes to get there. When I arrived at the airport at 6:45 am, there were no lights on in the parking lot, and the gate wouldn't work. There was no power. Duke Energy said that there was an accident, car hit a pole, took out power to 583 people and the airport. So I went home, Ana went to a coffee shop, the MBros guys went to the shop. The power was to be restored by 10:15 am, but at 9 am it actually was already up, so I took care of Ann then went back out to the airport, and Ana, me, and two MBros guys flew to W. Virginia. I just dropped them off, hit the bathroom, then Ana and I came home, and she picked up the clearance and did a lot of the flying.  At the end we canceled IFR and I did some zero G and messed around a bit, because she likes that and it's fun.  lol

We got a sandwich from Miller's, and then it was time to go try to pick up that T-6 one more time. Spencer and Isabel went in the RG with me to Anderson. The T-6 ran like crap. Spencer took off the cowl and replaced the spark plugs on the #1 cylinder, and it still ran like crap. So he replaced the plugs on the #6 cylinder (those were the two that were colder after I ran it on one mag), and then like magic, it ran on the left mag without backfiring and cutting out. Now I felt a little better about moving it to Marion. I didn't have hydraulic to start with, but eventually it came up and started working. The controls felt sloppy and messy, and the seat was too low even all the way up. The airplane ran so rich it wouldn't die when I pulled the mixture to idle, and even when I opened the throttle, and eventually I had to just shut the mags off.  I didn't make the world's best takeoff or landing with the sloppy thing, but I got it there and down and safe, and I hope to not see it again. I don't want to be the one to ferry to it S. Carolina, I don't think...

The RG wouldn't start after that, so we had to get it jumped, and then I didn't shut it off when we got to Kokomo because I had one more flight in it first. Morgan and I took it on an IFR cross country to Crawfordsville.  Got home after dark.  All in all, a lot of flying today, all interesting stuff, but Be Real didn't go off until I was in my car on the way home, of course. 

Me hopefully for the last time in this plane

Sunset in the RG

Teeth

This morning was the day Kaylee got her wisdom teeth removed.  We were up early,  and I drove her in. They were super concerned that she not have her phone on her. They told her that every time they talked, in every paperwork, there was a sign on the window that said "no phones", and when she walked back there they asked again if she had her phone.  I'm a little bothered that they're so bothered by phones. They don't want to be recorded while someone is under anesthesia.  Okay, I get it, I don't like it when students do that either on flights, but...they seem pretty darned paranoid about it. But I had the guy when I did mine, and he's old, and gentle, and kind, and I get zero 'creep' vibes from him. So for whatever reason, apparently they just don't want people having their phones back there.

Anyway, Kaylee did fine. She was in and out really fast. They walked her out to my car, and on the way home she took ten minutes to figure out how to put on chapstick, and was drugged up, but otherwise fairly normal. No crying, or hallucinations, or weird or funny things.  She wanted me to record her in case she did something funny or stupid, but she didn't.  lol She has been recuperating at home, in her chair, with ice packs on her jaw, and me giving her pain meds every two hours so she wouldn't have to use the hydrocodone that they prescribed. I give her Tylenol and Motrin alternating. She's in pain but is managing. I might give her a big pill before bed so she can sleep better, I dunno. I don't want to use the opioids if I don't have to. I did pick them up, though, because options of pain meds are good even if they sit up there until they get old and you throw them away ten years later. ;)  

You know what's crazy?  That hydrocodone was like $4.49 for ten pills.  SO cheap, inexpensive, and dangerous.

Kaylee hasn't been able to eat much, and has had to keep gauze in there because of the bleeding. She's hungry, but she's not allowed to eat anything hot or chunky, and nothing sounds good to her. I got her applesauce, chocolate pudding, jello with mandarin oranges, a big blueberry shake, but she's not getting much of it down. She says she wants a cheeseburger but the only that's possible is if I blend it up and let it get cool. Gross.  lol  She also had a craving for like brownie batter, so I made some of that and she ate a little. The rest is in my fridge right now in a cool whip container ready to be put on some ice cream or something. I mean, I could have cooked the rest, but the batter is better than the baked finished product anyway, so hey. 

She has to be back at class tomorrow, she said, as she's not allowed to miss any more classes. We told her that may not be easy, but she didn't think it would be that bad. Today she is rethinking that. But she's still going to try to go.

I was Nurse Laura today. Went out and got her the shake, and the meds, got some additional groceries for this weekend and for Kaylee, squirted steroids in Roadie's mouth, got a treat for Ann, got Ann's meds and dinner, cleaned up the kitchen, and back to Kaylee, giving her meds, trying the next small food thing, feeding the cat 5 times because she's needy too, and all day long I ended up hopping between people and the cat, which was kind of funny. 

Tomorrow I've got a trip to W. Virginia and I'm bringing my student along, leaving at 6:50 am.  I need to get the T-6 back from Anderson to Marion too, and I have two students in the afternoon. Not sure how to get all that done, but I'm gonna try.

I have to go to 340 recurrent training Dec. 8-9th, which is one day before our club Christmas party, down in TN. I don't feel like it, don't want to go do that at all, but Ethan wants me to, wants to be able to use me to move his plane around. So I shall, but I really don't feel like it. Two days spent doing that for several thousand dollars (not my $$) and I don't have to, because MBros insurance doesn't require it, but Ethan's does.  *sigh* Fine...

Home Again

It was bitter cold even in W. Virginia. After a little blizzard moved through, dumping a fair amount of snow, the sun came out, and that snow partially melted, especially on the ramp, and turned into water. The sun then went down, the water froze, and that whole ramp became a sheet of ice.  I went out to check the fuel in my plane and brush off the melting snow from the leading edges and the control surfaces so I wouldn't have ice all over the plane that was fully loaded and heading out of the mountainous area.  You know, that being safe thing. ;)  But when I walked out to the plane, I didn't walk, I glided. On ice. I slid all the way there.  I thought...uh oh.  The runway though was reported to be braking action of 6/1/6, which means okay in the beginning and end, and slick as snot in the middle.  Well...okay.  When my guys finally arrived around 9:30 pm, I loaded them up carefully, and did a little donut spin-out on the ramp turning around, which was sort of fun, and then took off uneventfully.  Two of my passengers had never flown a small plane before, and had heard about our rough approach that morning, and were nervous. But it was perfectly smooth all the way home, and they relaxed and enjoyed the whole time, so that was good.  The one thing left I was careful of, was Kokomo was reporting braking action of 3/3/3, which is not great at all, and it was a crosswind, gusting to 25 knots.  Icy runway plus big crosswind is something to watch out for.  So I had a plan, and I was careful, but when I got there, the winds died down to 14 knots, and the runway was not bad at all. It had obviously improved since they made that report.  So that was good!  I landed at like 11:30 pm or so, sent them on home, and then went to put the plane away and had trouble getting it up on the tug. The wheel(s) would spin trying to push up under the nosewheel, on the ice.  Finally I got it on the tug, and then got it stuck trying to get in the hangar. Meanwhile it's breezy, icy, cold, and dark, and I had gloves on, and my hands were still burning and numb, and I hated life right then.  The NOT great side of my chosen profession. ;)  I did finally get it put away, got home after midnight, and couldn't go right to sleep after being wound up, so I had to chill out on the couch for almost an hour before heading to bed.  But it was good, I had a full day, got some stuff done, got some exercise in, walked to the restaurant on field and got a good BLT, watched a sunset and a blizzard, chatted with a jet pilot, and had an uneventful flight home.  All good.

This morning when I woke up, the winds forecast was for 35 knots and I had two students today. One was doing an IFR cross country in the system, and the other was doing a 172 re-checkout. But looking at the details of everything, I didn't think the winds were going to get much over 30, and they were down the runway.  So I went on the cross country first. We went to Terre Haute, and as we were coming in, I heard Jordan in the Mustang taking off. So I got on the radio and said "Hi Jordan" cause it made me smile.  He later texted me that it was good to hear my voice on the radio. Same, my friend.  Anyway, it was only around 25 knots at that time, and not too bumpy except in the pattern.  So that went well.  Next up, Steve, Nathan, Chuck and I went to Mexican for lunch, and then my 2 pm student decided she really wanted to go even though the winds were bad now.  So we went up and did some flying, her first time in a 172 in a year, and did air work. Steep turns, slow flight, power off stalls, etc.  We came in to do one landing, and by now the winds were a 30-40 degree crosswind gusting to 32 knots. She wrestled it pretty close to the ground, and then I had to rescue it when we ballooned up with a gust, stall horn on, 20' in the air, and she froze with the power out.  We made that landing, and then decided we'd come back for pattern work another day when it was a little less...aggressive...out there.  lol  But both airplanes I had to fill up with gas afterwards, in the icy wind. It was like 20 some degrees, with a 30 knot wind, and it was frigid. It took me a long time to warm back up, man. 

I came home, fed Ann, got some groceries, squired steroids in the cat's mouth, fed the cat, did the dishes, and then Kaylee called and wanted to go out to eat. I sort of wanted to stay home and warm now, but I won't turn down Kaylee, so we went to Pastarrific and had some good food.  Kaylee has had some roommate problems. Two of her roommates will go do things and not invite her, but will invite the others, and it hurts her feelings.  She may be willing to write them off now, finally. Stop caring about them so much, stop giving them the power to hurt you. Do you really want to spend time with them anyway like that?  Nah. Also put as "Screw 'em."  So anyway, they pulled that again tonight, so she came home to hang out with us so she wouldn't be sitting alone in her dorm while others went to Indy to go do something.  I really dislike mean girls.

Speaking of mean girls. Well, this is a mean guy. My second student of the day went to Purdue, and absolutely hated it, and left. Today she told me that her instructor there was really mean, would call her stupid, would tell her she was being "blonde", wouldn't instruct her on how to do something, would just tell her to demo it, and if she didn't get it right, he'd rail on her. She said it shook her entire confidence as a pilot. She's a private pilot with her tailwheel endorsement working on her instrument rating, and he knocked her down hard. She wouldn't give me his name, however. I'd like to have a conversation with him, or his boss. I may get it out of her yet.  Anyway, we got done flying today, and she was so excited, and felt so good, and said she was so glad to be back here.  Morgan has said the same thing, she's so much happier learning here than Purdue. Their program is in some kind of disarray right now. Not enough instructors, very few experienced instructors left, not enough planes for the number of students, and POOR instruction all around.  I'm glad to have these girls back here too, where I could take one of them on an IFR cross country in the system on a 30 knot wind day, where they'd be grounded at Purdue, for example.  MY students can actually use their instrument ratings after they're done with the checkride, thankyouverymuch...

I've still got a busy week coming up, am supposed to go to Michigan Monday or Tuesday, but Monday Kaylee is having her wisdom teeth removed (she only has them on the top, there are none showing even on x-ray on the bottom!), and I have to be there with her, and then Tuesday I have another MBros trip and then need to try to move that stupid wounded T-6 to Marion. We shall see.

Here's my series of photos.

My new favorite vanity license plate

Grey and gloomy below, clear and blue above.

92 knot tailwind

307 knot groundspeed isn't shabby in a 340.

The next four are of the same spot, the windsock and runway, as the blizzard moves in then out.

Same with the control tower behind that tree

Airplanes on the ramp

A pretty flower with snow and the sun setting behind it, shining off the ice on the ramp.

When I slid out to wipe the snow off the 340, you can see the white ramp a bit there, before it all melted down to pure ice.

The blackhawk over the runway blowing the snow off of it. :)

Columbus, OH off the right, pretty panel lights

Dayton, OH off the left, stars and planes and clouds and lights

This was our squawk code today in the RG, Morgan and I on our cross country trip.  ;)

W. Virginia

I’m sitting here in a lobby in West Virginia. The sun has gone down and it’s already pitch black outside, even though it’s only 6 pm. When I landed here around 1 pm, it was snowing pretty hard, and the visibility wasn’t great, and the winds were high, and the turbulence was pretty bad.  Coming down on the approach we hit turbulence so bad that I had trouble talking on the radio and I had to power back and put speed brakes on to slow down below maneuvering speed. When we finally landed, my back seater was pretty white faced. Didn’t blame him-that was rough and I wouldn’t have liked it in the back either. ;)

Then an even worse blizzard moved through, and everything dropped to probably below minimums. I couldn’t even see the tower, or the windsock, right across the way there. I am glad I got down before that hit.  A lot of snow fell in a short time, and then the sun came back out for a little while, which allowed the snow on the ramp and runway to melt a little bit—just before the sun went down. The ramp is now a sheet of ice. The runway is patchy ice, but they are working on it, they said. Taxiways and ramp are bad. I hate winter. Like, seriously hate winter. Ice, snow, on the ground and in the air.  Bah Humbug.

I am not going to be heading home until after 10 pm, so it’ll likely be midnight or later when I get home. Dark and cold and windy. Bleh. But I do need the paycheck, so…. It’s a good thing I’m a night owl. I’m alone in this place, it’s pitch black out and dead quiet, and I’ve got four hours to go before I leave. And no, I don’t want to nap, or I’ll be groggy, and I’ll have three passengers coming home and none of us needs me to be groggy. :p 

I’m still processing Dallas. Man, that was bad. Bad enough that I feel bad about posting normal things on say Facebook, knowing the pain and shock and loss so many people in the warbird community are feeling. I never have liked people who come out of the woodwork and act ‘devastated’ when someone they’ve heard of died in a crash, when the people who really did know them are usually the quietly grieving ones. I feel like I am more of a peripheral person in this accident as I wasn’t close to them, but boy, I have to say, it does still hit hard. You can’t see a B-17 (and P-63) in pieces burning on the ground with people you were around the day before inside and feel nothing, or at least I can’t, or maybe nobody should. But they weren’t MY family or close friends, so I try to be respectful and not be the lookey loo that so many other people are. It’s gross, like they’re ‘excited’ because something happened that they can get some attention for too.  But I heard the wailing and the keening cries of some of the family members, something else I can’t get out of my head, like the sound of the explosion, and I know it’s not about me. But damn, that was rough. It brought back the Saratoga accident, of course. The Toga was my plane flown by my friend with my two cousins and my flight student on board, and I saw it fall and explode, and I dealt with that too. If you think a Toga fireball was bad in person, you should see a B-17.  Or actually, please don’t… Anyway. Still processing. 

It did lead to more conversations about risk vs reward, and “Fate is the Hunter”.  After more assessment, I have not changed my point of view. Aviation has given me 30 years of wonderful, amazing things. It has brought fulfillment, brought me confidence and skill, many different purposes.  And I, for my part, have been able to make a difference to other people because of aviation. As far as warbirds go, I’ve seen ancient men turn young again, I’ve heard stories that families never knew before, I’ve seen hardened men cry, I’ve seen wonder and awe, in children and adults. I’ve helped get loved ones to the sides of their husbands and sons before they passed away.  I fly time machines, almost literally and definitely figuratively. I don’t want to die in an airplane accident. I don’t want to leave my family early, I don’t want to make a mistake big enough to take my own or God forbid other people’s lives. But my choice is a life without aviation, or a life in aviation where I run the risk of losing that life to aviation.  And the life without aviation just isn’t worth it right now. The last 30 years alone have been worth it. Should I go out in an accident say ten years from now, I don’t regret the choices that would have given me 40 years of following my passion. Besides, with my luck, I’d get an office job, be miserable there for 40 years, then have a mass shooter come in and wipe us all out or something. We’re all gonna go at some point of some thing.  So I might as well spend the time I do have doing what lights me up.  I have gotten to do so many amazing things, and I’m not done yet.  ;)  But seriously, I am doing my best to make sure I do continue to come home safely, and the day I’m not sure I can do that any more, I will ground, and relive my old glory days via photos and blog, and find another thing to dedicate my time to. Maybe cooking. ;)

Enough naval gazing. That’s what you get when I sit in a dark airport FBO all alone for hours. ;)

I have photos from today but can’t upload them from here. So I shall update that later, maybe after I get home…or maybe tomorrow since it’ll be so late…

Photos

I updated the day below, and finally got some photos done that I'll post up here.  Some will be out of order, but in general it's flying down to Texas in the C-47, flying in the show, etc.

Glenn dropped me off and I hopped in the C-47

Winging our way to Dallas

Me & Lumpy in the front of the C-47

This is from the very far back of the airplane looking towards the cockpit waaay up there

Dirty windows!

Kathy & Lumpy L., Jordan, Jeff & Lindy L.  Gunfighter crew

This was in my hotel lobby, and it worked.

Friday's airshow briefing. You can see the P-63 in the back next to Gunfighter, the last night this plane existed. It's the silver one with the "X" on the cowl.

More briefing photos. Fifi there, and the P-63

Airshow line-up.

Jordan and Lumpy getting the C-47 ready

Pretty

The other C-47 and the crowd behind it

Tora Tora Tora. It would be fun to fly for them some day. I'd rather do that than Aeroshell, actually. Shhhh.  But it's more fun than doing the same aerobatic routine 50000 times, and minimal aerobatics and mostly maneuvering and dogfighting, and that's more up my alley.

The B-17 Texas Raiders with Tora Tora Tora for Buddy's last flight, and unknown to all of us, the second to last flight of this airplane.

Suited up and in the plane for the show.

Lumpy and Jordan

The airport environment

The other C-47

Some of the crowd through the windshield.

Post-flight briefing

Someone else took this picture. It was Saturday's briefing, and I'm in the back row, sitting in a folding chair.

Just before the show, I'm standing in the cargo door of the C-47.

Snow on the wing of the T-6 stuck at Anderson right now.

Blue/white flame

Change the mixture, get a yellow/orange flame. :)