The Day

Up at 6 am, leaving the house by 6:40, at the airport by 7 am.  I got a text that D was taking the 340 at 6:45 am. Problem is he didn't let us know, so the 340 was in the back of the hangar behind the T-6, and he can't pull out the Cheyenne, T-6 and 340 himself.  I texted him that I'd be there at 7 and help him.  Got him going, and then Spencer and I took the T-6 over to Muncie. Spencer flew us over and did the landing, which I had to help with at the end there, but he does a good job.  I picked up the Aerostar, and he flew us home in the Aerostar next.  Nice landing.  ;)  Meanwhile, the 340 was supposed to be back in time to go over to Muncie as originally planned. Then it wasn't.  Then they wanted it anyway. I had a 2-4 student. The 340 got back at 2:20. I got two laps around the pattern with my student in the 172, and had to be dropped off to take the 340 to Muncie to pick up the T-6.  The right engine wouldn't start. Dead starter, it wouldn't even turn over.  I needed to get to Muncie before they closed. So Greg O took me and a kid named Justin Harris over to Muncie in the 172RG. It was hot, windy, bumpy, and heavy, and he wasn't used to that much weight and high DA in an airplane, so it was a good experience for him, too.  At Muncie I had to tell them the 340 wasn't coming and I was there to pick up the T-6. Justin got in the back, and I took off out of there, and for the first time in awhile, things went like they were supposed to.  Justin has worked for us since last Fall and hasn't gotten to be in anything interesting. He's quiet, a decent worker, a young kid working on his Private, and not someone I'd normally think about for "perks" because I didn't know him that well. But yesterday I thought about having him go along, and today it worked out.  On the way home, he kept saying how amazing and cool this was, and he said "I wish you could see the smile on my face back here".  I pulled some higher G moves on him, and he said the first one surprised him (I warned him, just the g-force surprised him), and then he loved it.  We did a fly-by of the hangar, pulled up and came around and landed.  I also told him afterwards that in a serious moment, people get killed doing 'stunts' or showing off, especially close to the ground, that I was very careful with how I managed my energy, and that he should under no circumstances think this was something he should go try to copy on his own.  He agreed.  He seems to be a serious kid, not a yahoo, so that's good.  I really had fun flying with him and introducing him to something besides a 172, to the world of warbirds, to something beyond straight and level and pattern work.  He loved it, and I did too.  You gotta have SOME perks for working out at our hangars for months over the winter months, you know?  I hope that went a ways towards giving him motivation and a good day.

No real photos from today, but it was a decent day...