Friday

Friday was a pretty quiet day.  I had my cross-country with Ana.  We even got a good amount of IMC in. We went up by Lake Michigan, gave her a nice fun view for the day once we broke out and I let her look out.  lol  The problem was we also had an alternator failure in flight on the way home. I saw the first signs, and I waited a bit to see if she would notice, and then she did. She noticed the slight discharge and the off-to-the-side low voltage light that flickered a little when she keyed the PTT. So I thought that was good. It ended up being a really good IFR lesson because of it. What do we do now (trouble-shooting, recycling or no, communicate it or no, do we reset the circuit breaker or not, yadda yadda), what could we do, what would we do if we couldn't get out of IMC right here, what would you do if we lost all electrical, what procedures would you follow, how long do we have, what backups do we have in the plane, what else would fail if we lost the battery too, all that good stuff.

I like it when stuff like that happens on a dual flight. Then if or when it happens again some day, when they're on their own, they're not freaking out and panicking and they've seen it before and it's probably going to be just fine.

I also got my oil changed in my car yesterday. (I have to do it at an approved dealer or they void the warranty). They made me call on the phone to set the appointment, as the online version didn't work. So I asked her, where do I go, what do I do, this is my first time. She laughed, oh, it's super easy, just follow the signs.  No info there.  So I pull in, and there aren't any signs directing you what to do.  There are three garage bays for "Service".  But there are cars in all of them. I pull up and sit and hit the "Let my provider know I'm here" button on the app.  Nobody comes out.  The cars are facing the other way in there so I drive around the back to see if that's where I'm supposed to go in.  Nothing seems to indicate that.  I park in the parking lot and go inside.  There's a guy in a uniform shirt sitting there.  He watches me walk up and doesn't say anything.  I say "I'm here for an oil change". He doesn't say anything.  I say "I've never been here before, I'm not sure what to do."  He says "Where is your car?"  I point out to the lot, and he says "Well drive it right in here."  Kind of being a jerk about it.  From there on out it was fine, I drove it in, they took care of the oil change, they put it back in  one of the other bays and told me to drive it home, it took like 35 minutes.  But there are three garage door bays, no sign or directions to tell you that one is the one you pull into, one they do the work in and the third is staging to leave.  NOW I know that, but when someone asks where to go originally, she could've said "The far right bay door, just drive right up".  Easy enough.

Austin's bail is set for $40,000 cash only supposedly, I don't think he's out yet.  I don't know if his family can or will get him out or not.

Here's some Lake Michigan from Above.