Two Pilots & an LSW: Florida

Monday, June 05, 2023

Florida

At the airport by 8:40, in the air shortly after 9 am. Me, Kevin, his wife Janene, son Steven, went down at 25,000', uneventfully. We had a nice tailwind, so got down there in under 2.5 hours. When I got there, Kevin and family loaded up and headed to Disney, and I took a courtesy car and went into town for food. I went to this seafood place, and when I walked in, they pushed a table number onto a robot and it talked to me and said something like "Follow me to your table, please!" all girly and chipper and Disney or Barbie sounding. I followed it, it stopped at the appropriate table, it left. Later it brought me my food on a tray on its back. If I was a waitress there, its voice would drive me insane in short order, but it was wild, a first for me.

The trip home, I was alone, so I went up to FL320, so I could see if those random cracking and banging noises were still happening up at altitude. Fortunately, the answer to that is no. There wasn't a single one, which is much more reassuring.

Oh. I got a call from the Lead pilot of the mass T-6 formations at Oshkosh. He asked if I was coming to Dubuque and Oshkosh this year. That it's the 85th anniversary of the T-6, and they want to put up a giant 8-5 number formed by T-6s, and he asked if I would be interested in participating. I got a personal invitation to fly over Oshkosh in an "85" tribute. Four years ago I couldn't get them to fly with me at all, now they're calling me to come do their tribute. That feels pretty nice, actually. I was not planning on going to DBQ or take Checkertail up to OSH either one. But that would be neat to be able to participate in. I dunno.

The rest of my day was answering emails, feeding the cat and Ann, answering more emails, setting a schedule, you know, the exciting things that comprise daily life.