This morning Steve and I took the 172RG down to Sky King Airport by Terre Haute to support a fly-in brunch put on by the son of a friend. We wanted to go in something cool, but had problems because of the facility. It was too short for the Aerostar to get into. (Well technically I could have landed, but I wouldn't have gotten back out without hitting trees, wires and a building or two, so...) We could have taken a Citabria, but it is slow, and that is far away, and it would have taken forever to get there and back. Plus fuel only burns out of one tank and not the other, so we'd have had to top off down there. They'd have loved it if I brought the T-6 in, but I was frankly not feeling macho enough. It's a short strip, which wouldn't have been a problem, with a lot of obstacles all around it, which would have been okay, with the runway in front of the crowd right by the hangars, which means a close up audience, and...it's 50' wide. On the 50' wide runways, in the 3-point attitude, I don't really have any visibility on the runway itself. My wingspan is 42'. There's no real margin for error, and it's been gusty and swirly, with the place surrounded by trees (more weird winds). Could it be done? Yes. I landed at Oshkosh on the 50' wide taxiway with a 28 knot direct gusty crosswind in front of tens of thousands of pilots and cameras. Did I like it? No. No I did not. I do not ever want to do that again. The thought of coming into there today in the Six gave me indigestion. So we took the 172RG instead. It wasn't sexy, nobody took photos of it, but we supported our friend, got there in a timely manner, and didn't stress ourselves out in the process. Win/win/win. Getting out of the short field with obstacles, even the 172RG didn't exactly make it out with room to spare.
Steve and I went to dinner in Fairmount at Bad Dad's Brewery and Pizza (great cheesy bread and stone fired pizza) with AE, and then came home to watch John Wick 4, because we hadn't seen 400 people slaughtered in awhile. ;)
Kaylee is housesitting for her former professor, along with three dogs. She says she is quite outnumbered. lol
Ethan's 340 mechanic has been working on the airplane, the gear, etc. He told Ethan today that "he really doesn't see how it stayed up and didn't fold over on you when you landed." I'll thank my tired Guardian Angel for that. One leg out of three collapsing at over 100 mph wouldn't have been...great. Instead it was a non-event. Thank you...
Probably the last few photos from the TBM Avenger Gathering here. I like these, the sunset one is cool, and it's a good formation shot as we do an element takeoff. I am glad to have these memories and opportunities and abilities.
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