Two Pilots & an LSW: Ohio

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Ohio

I was supposed to ride along today while E flew us and his wife to Cleveland, then over to Defiance, OH to get an oil change done on his airplane, while his wife Amber was at a seminar, then go back and pick her up in Cleveland. It was the international airport, the big one, so we expected it to be pretty busy. He woke up this morning not feeling well, so asked me to take it myself, which is no problem, of course. So I drove down to Frankfort, and I flew Amber to Cleveland. No issues, nice flight, nice tailwinds. When I got there, I got 65 gallons of gas to prevent them charging me a $60 landing fee, took their courtesy car, and ran her to her seminar/workshop. Came back through Dunkin Donuts and got an egg sausage croissant and a coffee, and headed back to the airport. Flew over to Williams County, Ohio so that the mechanic there could do an oil change on the airplane. While he was doing that, I went over to their new FBO building. They have a super cool conference table, made out of a Champ wing inside glass. Really nice facilities. Got the plane done in a couple hours, and I topped it off at the self serve pump there, to try to avoid Cleveland's $9.50/gallon gas. Unreal. Got back to Cleveland and had an hour or so to kill before going to pick up Amber and head home. The FBO had new workers there and she wanted to charge me for the second landing of the day, even though I had a deal with the other lady. I argued and basically just walked out and plowed over her. I'm not paying $120 to just land there twice in one day AND pay $3/more per gallon for fuel than I could get anywhere else.

The trip home was uneventful, slow thanks to a head wind, but just fine, and Amber and I had a nice time together. We talked, listened to music, I answered flying questions, and she gave me one of the set of flowers she made at the workshop. Pretty pinks!