Tennessee

Not much to note for today.  I had one revenue flight, a trip down to Jacksboro, TN to pick up Andy and family in the Conquest.  Today I practiced the RNAV 23 on full autopilot, and got it to work, and did a "circle to land" Runway 5, which is where the winds were from today.  This is the first time I've had to land on the other runway.  It has an upslope which is nice for stopping, but you're by the mountains, below the mountains, on downwind and base, and they are right there. It's a little creepy, honestly.  I wasn't talented enough to get a video of that and fly at the same time today.  Wouldn't want to misjudge that one, considering I'm traveling at 150 mph with mountains not that far off my wingtips.  Maybe I can get someone else to video it though, give you a view of what I'm looking at.  The controllers were a little annoyed at me because it's Atlanta Center, and they're very busy, and they just wanted me to take a visual approach and go away.  But I want to practice this RNAV and circle to land approach into the place when I can SEE what I'm doing, where the approach goes, what is around there, how much room for error there is, etc., so that when I go back into there and it's at minimums for circling to land, I know exactly what I'm dealing with.  Now I have a plan of how far to get or not get away from the runway, and I will be a lot more conservative with the circle to land than I will with the RNAV from the other end, which is still offset by 13 degrees to the runway, not a straight in approach.  Because of the mountains.  They're not the Rockies or the Idaho mountains, but they're still bigger than I am, so I do believe I'll take them seriously anyway.  ;)  It was a successful flight.

Kaylee texted me this picture of her and Ruby.  I told her it was sweet, they are both clearly smiling.  Sweet golden retriever.  She's good for Kaylee, too.

When I got back from TN, instead of going home, I drove down to Indy.  My house isn't just mine right now, so I decided I might as well go do something on my own.  I went to a seafood restaurant in Indy and had some good stuff.  What's funny is they also had these crepes, and I looked at them for awhile, and they looked good, bananas and cream, and then I realized...I have better ones at home.  So I left those right there.  ;)  I sat in a booth and ate seafood and read a book on my iPad for a good hour or so before wrapping it up and coming home.  It was a nice way to end the day.

The Conquest had some oil kind of dripping/running out of it that shouldn't have been doing that, so I took a video of it, sent it to the mechanic, and the main mechanic down in FL gave me a call asap, asked me two questions, and said "It's gotta be the unfeathering pump", he's sending one over to the Ohio mechanic, and tomorrow morning I'm flying the thing over to OH for him to look at it, verify that's the only problem and that there's not a bigger problem, and go from there.  He won't have the pump yet but he wants to hands on look at it and make sure I don't have a bigger problem before my next few flights, one of which will be heading over the mountains of Colorado with 9 people on board.  Sounds like a good plan for him to check on everything to me!  And you too, I'm sure.  :)

The T-6s arrived today and the mass arrival is tomorrow.  The rest of our people from here are up there now.  BOB the Beech is at Oshkosh now, and so is Nella the WASP T-6.  Once in awhile I see a campground photo from Morgan on Be Real, and Nathan sent me a "we miss you how are you" text, which was nice.

Tomorrow my only real plans are to take the Conquest to Ohio, and then figure out the rest.  I might go fly something for fun, or take the T-6 up to test some stall stuff on it, or...whatever.  I thought about going shopping for some nicer clothes, but I hate shopping.  Thus my problem.  ;)  I don't know yet, but I'll come up with something.