My day didn't go as expected. First I was supposed to be going to Oshkosh with Ethan today. But then the Conquest had a maintenance issue, with oil leaking out, so we canceled that, and today I flew the 340 over to Ohio to pick up Steve F., the mechanic, to take care of the problem, that we all thought was simple. A little oil leak. It was not easy. I fly him back to Frankfort, and then we spend the whole entire day there. It was hot, muggy, steamy, and one thing after the other went wrong. I ran to Jimmy John's and got some sandwiches, and that was the food I ate until 7 pm. At least they have a big sandwich. I sat in the cockpit for awhile running various tests while they tried to isolate and find the problem, and boy, it was probably about 140 degrees in there, no lie. My head, arms, face, everything was covered in sweat, and it was hard to actually breathe, even. I had to keep crawling out of the cockpit to try to get some air for a minute while they figured out what to do next. Eventually with the mechanic from Ohio on the phone with the mechanic from Florida and Ethan and me, they think they got it figured out, and we buttoned it up, and around 4:30 pm I flew Steve F back to Ohio. He did a leak check, and everything seemed fine, so we buttoned it back up, and I flew it home. On the way home I noticed some oil leaking out the side. I landed, got out, and oil was streaming out of the left engine. Last time it was just a little drip. This was a thin but constant stream. Not only was it not fixed, it was worse. It did eventually slow down to a drip again at least.
There were a bunch of pop up storms along the way. Looked pretty from the air.
Now I have to fly the 340 back to Kokomo, and there are multiple people wanting to stop and chat. I'm hot, I'm tired, I've gotten nothing done today, the plane is broke, I've sweated through my clothes multiple times already, I'm hungry, I'm dehydrated, and I want to go home. I'm having trouble rounding up the friendly to chat here. I did it with two inside for a few minutes, go outside to walk to my plane and get hit with two more. One who is not a good pilot and I have thus far avoided but now that she has been introduced to me, wants to be friends on facebook and maybe have me as a mentor to help her get into corporate flying. She is working on her Commercial right now, is starting an opposing flight school, and everyone I know who has flown with her or even watched her fly has been very unimpressed with her capabilities. She's been off the runway at least once, another instructor said he didn't know how she ever passed her Private checkride. I avoided her so I wouldn't end up with more drama in my life. But now she's found me....and wants things from me... Le Sigh.
The second person is Ethan's old primary flight instructor, Mark. He's a non-stop talker and story teller. He needed a ride back to Kokomo to pick up his truck, and guess who was going to Kokomo? That's right, me. There was no graceful way out of this one. I invited him to go with me in the 340 to Kokomo to pick up his car. He talked non-stop all the way home, of course, and then we sat in my car after I put the plane away and locked up the hangar (all with him talking) and drove him to his truck (with him talking) and then we sat in my car while he told more stories, it's 7 pm, and I'd just like to kick him out. Finally he gets out and I drive home. I don't even stop to get food. I figure I'll eat the salad I had at home and some peach crepes that I still have. Good enough dinner for me.
While I was gone today, Cathy texted that Ann had gone for a walk. Alone. The neighbor lady recognized her and walked her back home. Cathy was here, but just didn't see her leave, and she's never done that before. Ann said she was going for a walk with Richard or something. I don't know what to do about that. I mean...what do you do about that?! So Steve came up with this idea, and it seems to be a temporary solution to hopefully something that won't be an additional problem. But if it is we're looking into different locks. In case you're wondering, that's a big driveway brick propped up in front of her door and that's her looking at me suspiciously through the window after I just got home. Good times, man. I've been letting Cathy take care of her exclusively while she's here, and the break is nice. I'm sure Cathy will be glad to go home...I would like to do that too. lol
Tomorrow I'm taking the Conquest back to Ohio to deliver to the mechanic where he can hopefully fix up the issue once and for all. Hopefully again, I can get it there without it having too big of an issue. I'll need more oil, first. *sigh*
The one good thing from today? I hadn't had any more peach crepes since I made them the other day. I was too full yesterday after my big seafood meal. And they are quite delicious cold and refrigerated too. ;)
Thursday we were going to try to go to Oshkosh, me and Ethan, but now he can't because he spent today with the airplane instead of working. I'm okay with that looking at how the weather forecast says it's going to be 94 degrees and muggy up there on Thursday. Just to fly in there, sweat, walk around all day, sweat, fly home, sweat, get up early Friday and start that day. Nooo thank you. Oh, but Friday instead of going to Colorado they're probably going to airline it. So now I have to just take Andy to TN on Friday so I can then get up to Oshkosh Saturday morning.
If I can ever finish writing this. Talker in the house, too--I'll give up for now, I can't think of anything else anyway. ;)
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