Blur

Yesterday started early and ran late, but it was all good.  I got out to Kokomo and flew the 340 back home to Frankfort.  Pulled out the Conquest, and then Ethan and I took it, and for the first time he finally flew his own airplane from start up to shut down.  We took it to Ohio where Fortner topped off the oxygen, topped off the brakes/hydraulics, and looked for an inverter problem.  Flew it back to Frankfort, Ethan did, landed from that, and then I was supposed to take the Cherokee Six to Kokomo, check out Morgan in it, leave it there for Spencer and Morgan to fly it through the weekend, do Cameron's HP endorsement in it, etc. But went to start it, and it was dead.  No start-y.  Dead battery.  So all that got scrapped, and Ethan had to drive me back out to the Kokomo Airport from Frankfort.  From there I took care of the people at home, and then went back out to Glenndale to check out Morgan in Chuck's Citabria. We got out there and it was empty, as in almost no gas. No big puddle or stain on the floor, and he'd left it 2/3 full or more. FlightAware even backs up that it had less than an hour flight on it since fueling up at Kokomo. So the only option left is that someone drained the fuel out of it.  It's in a locked hangar, so someone who has to know the combo, or got lucky.  Or got in through Tom's side.  There wasn't enough in there to go fly to get gas and there's no gas at Glenndale.  So Ron came over with 5.5 gallons of fuel and poured it in.  The plane burns about 6 gph, I now have at least that, and it's about a 10 minute flight over, but we didn't dally. Started up, taxied, run up, take off, aim for the end of Runway 5 at Kokomo.  Landed, topped off, and it took almost 17 gallons. Including the 5.5 gallons Ron put in there, that's 22.5 that it took.  It holds 25.  So yeah.  Some way or another, gas got ungassed in the airplane.  It started us off late, but fortunately Morgan is good, and we enjoyed the sunset anyway.  I had her go up and do steep turns, and suddenly it started talking to us.  Verbally and loudly. It's some unit in the panel that's new.  It was saying "ROLL ROLL ROLL ROLL ROLL" and then beeping really loudly.  Morgan says "WHY IS IT YELLING AT ME!?" and I laughed and said "I don't know!"  Then we figured it out, when you exceed 45 degrees it yells at you.  Well, Private Pilot checkride and Sport both require 45 degrees, and Commercial requires 50-55 degrees bank, so that's a stupid marker.  So then I had an idea, and I asked for the controls, and I pitched up pretty far.  It starts screaming, high pitched, "PITCH PITCH PITCH PITCH PITCH"  I was like...what are you calling me??  So we went into the unit and found the menu on how to shut those alerts off.  It's an AEROBATIC AIRPLANE.  Stop it with the alerts when you exceed straight and level.  Chuck never does more than a 15 degree bank anyway, so he would never know or care that the alerts were disconnected, though I did tell him at lunch today.  lol  Anyway, then we did steep turns, stalls, 3-point and wheel landings, all of which she did great, so moved over to Glenndale as she's not familiar.   Had to come in over the wires on 18, so that was good practice.  She did great, we did three in a row on 18, then I had her do the takeoff on 36 over the wires, and a landing on 36 too, just to have done both directions. The only thing we didn't have was any wind at all, so I want to go back up with her in crosswinds, but...I know she'll be fine.  Watched the sun set from the Citabria. 

Today I was supposed to go to Gary, Indiana (oh yay).  Weather blocked us all morning, so that trip has been rescheduled for tomorrow.  That'll be fine, I was going to try to fly the T-6 with the Ft. Wayne guy, but his plane is in the shop for repairs, so it's not available anyway.  So now I have something to do tomorrow to get paid for.  Perfect.  ;)

Tonight Morgan is talking at the EAA/Squirrels meeting about the Women's Air Race Classic.  She doesn't want to, Steve forced her into it, but she'll be all right. None of us likes to talk in public.  I reminded her that the Squirrels don't even know how to fly yet, and the majority of the guys in there haven't flown anything in decades, so she doesn't need to be intimidated, just go up there and share her story and it'll be fine.  :)