Two Pilots & an LSW: Air

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Air

It was super windy today, but it was sunny and 40 degrees too. I went to lunch for the first time in ages, and then out to the airport for a lesson. We were doing instrument flight, two full IFR approaches getting ready for the checkride. The winds aloft according to our GPS were 55 knots at 3000'. That made doing approaches and holds interesting. :D Good practice.

After she and I got done, I had daylight, nowhere else I had to be, and a decent day. The T-6 is buried in the hangar behind a Citabria torn apart, the Cheyenne in the way, and the 340. So I took the Champ up instead, and it was marvelous. Windy, gusty, but after the sub freezing temps we've had so far, I was quite content up there. I spent about an hour, while the sun was getting low, flew around, did some maneuvers, then hit the takeoffs and landings. Three point, wheel landings, which were really one wheel landings anyway because of the gusty crosswinds, had to land on one wheel first and ride it down, then one wheel landings where I stayed that way, then one-wheel landing where I switched to the other wheel, then engine out landings, using runway 14 and 23 both, with winds 190 gusting to 25 or so. The winds aloft were still so strong that I was flying sideways to stay parallel to downwind the whole time.

All winter I'm going to be flying mostly nosewheel airplanes on trips or lessons. So this was my last flight in 2022 anyway in something that will give me a workout with my feet. I hope to be able to get the T-6 up again before it goes down for annual, but that will depend on the weather and the temps. The rest of this week looks warmer (thank heavens) but rainy, gusty, IFR and overall nasty. So this was possibly it for 2022. We shall see. I just hope it's not it for the whole winter.

Kaylee is off with a friend drinking hot chocolate and watching movies, which is good.

Roadie is still plugging along, the stubborn little thing. She walked on the hot stove today after Kaylee fixed her egg breakfast. She's not supposed to be up there but we occasionally see her little paw prints on the stove anyway. Well, today she walked across the hot stove (after it was shut off), yelped, jumped down, and then spent time staring at the stove in concern for awhile. But she is walking fine, so I think it surprised more than hurt her. Maybe that'll stop her from doing it again, though. lol

Ann is recovered, if I didn't say that already. She was in bed and asleep when I got over there at 6 pm to put her to bed. Shoes off, hearing aids out, windows closed, the only thing I had to do was turn off her lights and say goodnight. That was amazingly easy. :)

I have a trip mid-January, and it's back to Vegas, and it's for a different convention, with Ethan, and he's inviting Kaylee and Steve along. We'll have to see if Cathy can come up to take care off Ann or not. But I'm going either way, as the pilot, of course, and we have a room at the Bellagio, fountain side, and he's taking us out to eat at "Prime", in the Bellagio, a rather high end steak house where we even have to not wear a t-shirt. I'm looking forward to this. If Kaylee can go, it'll be her first time in Vegas, and THAT will be fun to share with her. If Steve can go too, it'll be our first family vacation with the three of us in a very long time. Even longer if you don't count Oshkosh, those that's been a few years too. And a family vacation in a fancy casino hotel with a fancy steak dinner on a turboprop airplane into Vegas...that I get PAID to fly? Yeah. I'm looking forward to this. ;)

These pictures are because I couldn't decide which angle or light I liked better, so I took a bunch and will post most of 'em. The last one, taxiing in, is my favorite.