I guess swatting mosquitos isn't that fun, but other than that...
Even the Checkertail Mustang crashing on July 4th back in 2014 couldn't ruin the holiday for me in the future.
So on THIS 4th of July, I was up in Checkertail T-6 (I actually flinched when I thought about the P-51 as I was getting ready to go up in the T-6. It would suck to lose both Checkertails on the same day years apart. But I'm not superstitious so I ignored that and went up and was as careful as I always try to be.). I went up with Glenn to finish off his last 1.5 hours of T-6 training to be able to do his paperwork to sign him off for flying T-6s. He nailed it down pretty well this time, so we finished up in the heat and did the computer work and I was headed home around lunch time, with another T-6 pilot loose on the world. Steve and I spent the rest of the day hanging out, but I had to go to bed early, at 10 pm, because I had to get up at 4:30 am. Bleh, right?
When the alarm went off at 4:30, I was right in the middle of some involved dream, I remember that, though I can't remember what it was about now. I had to drive from Kokomo to Frankfort (about an hour), hop in the 340 and fly down to Jacksboro, Tennessee, in a valley with lots of little mountains around, self-serve fuel, pick up 4 people, fly them back to Frankfort, self-serve fuel again, fly back down to Jacksboro, pick up 3 more people, fly back to Frankfort, then drive home. That was the plan. I got everything ready, the weather looked rainy and cloudy in the morning but fine, with thunderstorms happening after about noon to 1, so that's why I needed to get out of there so early, so I could do two trips before the storms hit. Well, I wake up (at 4:30, did I mention), and it is FOG down there. Not just IFR, but less than 1/4 mile and fog. They only have one approach into that strip, it's offset by 13° to the runway because of the mountains, it's non-precision, so it has step down fixes, and there is no way to get in there with less than 500' and 1 mile. So I got ready, and I drove to Frankfort, and then I sat there for 2 hours and watched the fog Not. Move. Finally I called him and said "Hey, here are our options. 1) continue to wait and see how long it takes to lift, but if I can't get the first round done soon, we're going to run into a problem with the storms. 2) Can you guys all get to London, an airport an hour drive away from them, which was clear enough for me to get into on the other side of the mountains. 3) Can the first round get to London and then I'll see about getting into the original place for the second round after this 3 hour leg and we'll see if the fog lifts by then. He said he'd drive the first round to London, take the rental car back to Jacksboro, and then whenever I could get in there, he'd wait for me there with the second round. And so it was. London went fine. The drop off went fine. I topped off and headed back down, and that's where the storms were happening. I ended up going directly to my Initial Approach Fix for the approach into Jacksboro, which served two purposes--it got me out of the way of the storms, and it set me up for the approach from way out, rather than me having to request it at the last minute with the frequency change to Atlanta and then do a big deviation just to get to it. The weather there went up to 700' and 1 mile, so I was even able to shoot the approach in and get the field in sight while I still had enough room to maneuver around to line up on it properly while still not hitting the mountains. All good. They were there ready for me to grab them. I got gas, went to the bathroom, hopped in the plane and flew them right back home. Had more weather to deal with on this leg, it was rainy and cloudy. Going out of that airport and going into the clouds and knowing the terrain was out there was creepy. But that's what departure procedures are for. Atlanta couldn't see me until 5200' and if you're going to hit something it'll be at or below that, so you take your time and Make Sure you're not going to find something hard in the clouds. Creepy, man. Anyway. I deviated around the mountains, deviated around the storms, got a little wet but not bad, and the rest of the flight home was uneventful, and everyone back there slept all the way home.
All in all it was 6 hours of flying and 2 hours of driving and almost no hours of sitting on the ground waiting other than the first 2 hours watching the fog not lift.
I had some peanut butter crackers in my purse for food, and I did a good job staying hydrated this time with my insulated water bottle and my electrolytes. It was over 90 degrees today, with humidity in the like 70% range, so the plane was steaming hot, self-serve fueling was steaming hot, and I just kept drinking fluids the whole time. I feel okay tonight, thankfully, but I may drink a little more electrolytes before I go to bed, as it's first thing in the morning I feel more dehydrated after a long day like this.
When I got back to Frankfort, Ethan was waiting for me, and we talked about everything we need to get done in the next few days. The Conquest is set to be delivered at FKR on Friday morning at 9 am, and then I am supposed to fly the pilot up to Detroit to catch his airline flight home. Then I have to get back to Kokomo to get the T-6 and fly it up to Goshen, where we are scheduled to give rides from noon until dark on Friday, spend the night, and give rides Saturday until the afternoon. I am also supposed to fly with Lawrence in the BT-13 to give him some back seat time, and then fly with some guy who is insistent on doing T-6 training right now, 5 hours, and just got his tailwheel endorsement, and I Do Not feel like dealing with him right now too. If we're slow I may have to do some ground with him, and take him up on a flight and see how he does. I personally hope we're busy giving rides, but I don't have hope of that based on what I see of the event.
Then Sunday, or Monday, or maybe Tuesday, I'm supposed to get my Conquest II checkout done. Then if I get it done Sunday or Monday, on Tuesday I'm supposed to airline flight to Waco, Texas, pick up another Cheyenne 400LS, and fly Ted Nugent to one of his events. Where I get a back stage "go anywhere" pass and get to check everything out. Which would be kinda cool, I think. I might need to find a more professional looking shirt and pants or something, I don't know. I'll have to ask his normal pilot what he generally wears. I doubt a Checkertail T-shirt, jeans and tennies would go over smashingly, but then again, I don't know the guy, maybe he doesn't care either. ;) Then Thursday I fly "our" Cheyenne to NYC area again to pick up Kevin and family. After which, my time building in the Conquest will ramp up, flying with Ethan to get his hours, the trips we need to take for him and his brother, all of it.
But tomorrow is another day. It's six legs of flying plus the two hours of driving. So I'll be going from Frankfort to Grand Rapids, MI with Amber, dropping her off, fueling up (NOT self serve thank heavens), going straight to Delphi, IN, picking up Nick, flying him to a project in Ohio. Fueling there, waiting for him, flying him back to Delphi, then back up to Grand Rapids to pick up Amber and fly her home to Frankfort.
After tomorrow's flights, I will likely break 100 hours in the last 30 days, and the Conquest stuff hasn't even hit yet. Busy, man, busy...
Kaylee is fine. The cat is still alive somehow. Ann has a replacement hearing aid for the one she tried to eat, that Steve found on Ebay, just like her old one. Steve is just as busy as I am, moreso in some ways, but nothing I can spell out for you to be interesting. He's also getting ready for Oshkosh. Like I think I said, I probably won't make it up this year, or if I do, just for a day or two.
And that is the catch-up for the last few days. ;)
Me & Kaylee at dinner at Red Lobster with Steve & AE
T-6ing on the 4th of July
Well, folks, here are two groups and songs I've personally never heard of before, found while surfing the XM radio in the airplane today during my 6 hours of flying
Monochrome shades of grey
A more normal photo going around a big slightly angry cloud.
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