Florida

Kaylee and Steve hung out all day at home today. It was another pretty, but windy one, and Steve just got a bunch of work done and I don’t know what Kaylee did. Took the day off, mostly, and hung out with family.

I didn’t have a great day. With the storms moving in, the barometric pressure dropped low, and I woke up at 4 am to storms and a headache. I took something, and could never get back to sleep. When I got up at 6:15 am I still had the headache, so I took more something, took my shower and got ready.  I did not feel great. My nose was running, the right side of my head was blocked up, and I was queasy.  In the car on the way to the airport I had to open my car window to have cold air on my face so I wouldn’t throw up.  The weather was crystal clear all the way and my head was all right, but man I was queasy.  I pulled a sick sack out of the back of the plane and thought about making myself sick to get it over with, but didn’t do it. I tried to eat some crackers and had to stop after one.  When I got to Florida, I laid down in the pilot’s lounge with my sunglasses on and closed my eyes, and then 20 minutes later ate the rest of the crackers and some water, and finally the queasy passed. I don’t know why I was so nauseated. But the weather definitely does a number on my sinuses and head sometimes, and it did today. By the time my passengers had arrived, because I’d gotten some food down, the nausea had passed and I felt a lot better.  The flights themselves were uneventful. Clear and easy. I’d have had to cancel if it was a tricky weather day or if my head hadn’t settled down, and a family of 6 including a 7 week old baby would have been stuck down there for awhile longer the day before Easter.  Which would have just had to be, if it had to be, because it’s better to be stuck in Florida for an extra day than end up on the news. But fortunately I was at the inside edge of doable, and it got better before my pax arrived to be taken home.

Florida. Florida during Spring Break. Florida is a terrible state to fly to. The airspace is a disaster. The traffic is a disaster. It took me 25 minutes to get off the ground at Marco. Last week I had a 6 hour delay that I cheated to get around. Flying into Florida is a circus, and all the professional pilot groups are complaining about it and sharing tips and tricks they use to try to get around it. Problem is, ATC knows about it too and they’re violating and yelling at pilots who try to get away with gaming the system. Like I did last week. I hope there aren’t too many more trips down there. I know Kevin and us are going down in June to Orlando. Other than that nothing is on the schedule for Florida…thank heavens.  I’m coming to actively dislike that place.

I enjoyed Purdue winning so handily last night after they started off slow. Tomorrow I’ll watch them against Tennessee and hope they win there, too. I don’t normally care about college basketball, not sure I’ve ever watched before. What can I say—I fly the guy around some and he bought me dinner at Wendy’s and McDonald’s and I’ve attended basketball games with him and Purdue is actually doing well in the tournament (they usually do well during their regular season and tank it in the playoffs), so…I’m wating this time.  It’s kind of fun.

No pics today. Hoping I sleep like a rock and wake up refreshed on Easter Sunday.

Beeeeautiful

Man it was gorgeous today! CALM winds, blue skies, 60-some degrees.  I only had one flight today, at 1:30 in the RG doing instrument approaches. It would have been the perfect day for tailwheel stuff, but unfortunately our Champ was up flying around and the engine quit, and Jerry the 87 year old instructor safely landed it on the runway. Come to find out, there is a fuel tank in the hangar that we use to top off the Champ after each flight so we don’t have to call the fuel truck over for 4 gallons every other hour.  The end of the hose had a cap on it, and someone didn’t take the cap off before they put the hose in the tank, and the cap fell off into the fuel tank. The debris blocked something in there, stopped fuel flow, and the engine quit.  A little excitement for Jerry and his poor student today.

Kaylee is home for 5 days here, through Easter, and on Monday starts full time at her new place. She and Steve and I met AE at “the Jungle Mexican Restaurant”, which is the name of it, and it’s located where “Little Daddy’s” was, which was a small local strip joint.  I said I wouldn’t eat off the floor. ;) It actually looks really nice in there, they did a nice job with it, and the food was good. But when the waiter came to the table, he said “Welcome to the Jungle”, and that was it for me.  I’m still singing it in my head two hours later.

Yesterday I took Kevin and his daughter Jackie and her husband Sean to NYC. There was a President in the area so there was a TFR, but fortunately my airport was in the outer ring of it where they’d still let me in.  It was raining and IFR, did the RNAV 4 in. Dropped them off, had to wait on the ground for 25 minutes with engines running before the airspace opened up enough to let me back out.  And the park job there, I had to reverse the Cheyenne and back up because they parked a plane in front of me so tight that I couldn’t get around it to the taxiway. One line guy was impressed when I reversed out of my parking spot instead of going forward from it. ;)

This afternoon I hit Meijer and got some gluten free food to make for dinner Sunday. Nothing fancy this time, I will be gone all day tomorrow to Florida and I don’t have the time or energy to plan or make a big meal. But I at least got a few things that we can all have together that she can enjoy too.  I even got gluten free double-stuffed Oreos and tried one, and they taste exactly like normal ones. I will have no problem eating those if Kaylee doesn’t.  lol

We’re watching Purdue play tonight, and they’re not doing great so far. I mean, okay, but not great. Get your act together, boys!

I spent my whole day until I flew on the phone. I talked to the Terre Haute T-6 guy back and forth, the Illinois Stearman guy coming for T-6 training back and forth, the MBros 340 guy, Ethan back and forth, Andy back and forth about tomorrow, Dennis about a Purdue event back and forth, Nick on the TBM thing back and forth, the Mechanic Sam about the T-6 back and forth, and those were just the texts and calls, not even including all the people I had to email back and forth with—-Jordan, JP, Bart, oh, forget it.  It was a busy day of too much talking back and forth. I don’t even like talking back and forth, usually Steve has to do all that.  Bleh!

Tonight on our way to dinner, the car in front of us in front of our house ran a stop sign. A car coming from the other direction swerved to miss them, and launched up someone’s yard work, and ended up upside down in the road, airbags going off, etc.  I parked and Steve got out to run over, while Kaylee called 911 for help. I saw the guy in the driver’s seat push his airbag down and crawl out his window, so he was okay, but his wife was stuck inside. The other people who came out told her to stay put until the paramedics arrived just in case. It was weird seeing a car upside down in the middle of the road.  The guy from the car fortunately posted later on his “Scanner” post that he and his wife were okay. So that’s good! It is always jarring to see an accident right in front of you.  Glad they are okay.

Trip home from NY in the Cheyenne

This was in today’s Kokomo Scanner. Made me laugh out loud.

Behinder

My laptop is permanently dead, so it makes it a little harder to catch up in the evenings.  We took it to the laptop repair place and they laughed. It’s dead, Jim, and time for a new one.  So be it.  I have everything but one file backed up on it, and they say they can pull that file off my desktop, so I won’t lose anything. 

I don’t even know how many days it’s been since I caught up or what I’ve missed.

Today was a home instructor day. I flew in the RG with Ana first thing and we just did a bunch of xwind takeoffs and landings. It was another windy, gusty day, but not into the 25 knot range at least.  Next up was a test flight in the Cherokee 180 to see if it flies straight yet (it does not). Last up was a flight in the Champ with a kid named Ian, who did pretty well for having gusty crosswinds in the tailwheel he hadn’t flown in months. 

Yesterday we had a family dinner with Steve’s side of the family. His great-aunt Beverly, Annie’s brother George’s first wife, and their family. Their sons Tim, who has Alzheimer’s and his wife Missy, Lance and his wife, daughter Diane and her granddaughter, Dave and Dawn Hughes, Tammy Petty with Schizophrenia I believe it is, and Jeff Petty, who has diabetes uncontrolled for the most part, neuropathy in the legs and a lack of feeling in his hand, and I would bet $100 also early to mid dementia/alzheimre’s, and then Steve and I rounded it out. It was actually a nice time, even if people hugged me. ;) 

Steve and I went from there on down to Indy International, because AE had been traveling around, and he lost his car keys, so we drove to his farm, picked up his spare set, drove to Indy, sat in the cellphone lot in the dark for an hour when his flight in was delayed, then drove around the arrivals area to hand off his keys to him. We got home at midnight.  He later found out that his keys were left at Indy International Airport with TSA when he went through screening. So we drove for 3 hours round trip, sat for one in the parking lot, and got home at midnight to bring keys to someone whose keys were right there all along. That’s what friends are for, man. ;)

Sunday I was supposed to fly the T-6 at Terre Haute but I didn’t have it in me, so I canceled. I needed that, too.  I sat around and watched Roadhouse the original (yay Sam Elliot and Patrick Sawyzee and violence) and then Roadhouse the new one (not bad Jake Gillinhall, you just have to treat them like two different movies, which they pretty much are, with a little homage spent to the original.  

I’ve got a bunch more people coming for T-6 training. Like…I have three of them scheduled already with three more who want to be. One of them I don’t want to do. He’s a problem guy who is being passed off to me, and I don’t need any problem T-6 guys.

I can’t remember what else I’ve done since I last updated. Ran down to Marco Island to drop off the Andy Family?  No real trips this week until tomorrow when I take Kevin to New York…

Me with Scott in the WI T-6

The family get-together

Ian on final Runway 32 with some gusty winds.

Polo

Kaylee brought a friend of hers over and we ate at Pastarrific with them. She wanted to introduce her friend to us and us to her and her friend to Pastarrific’s food and Peach Bellini, her favorite.  It was good to see them and we had fun. The friend liked it enough she got an entree to take home to her husband, too. :). Kaylee is doing all right. Yesterday was her last day at Compass Rose before they shut down her end of it, but she goes back Tuesday to her new place, Farrington I believe, and she really likes it there, too.  So, all good.

The rest of this is flying.

This morning I was supposed to leave in the Conquest for Marco Island, FL to take Andy, his wife Sharla, his daughter, his son and his son’s wife, and their brand new baby girl, 6 weeks old.  We were supposed to go yesterday but the weather and the airspace was a shit show, so we waited for today at 10 am. I checked the National Air Space (NAS) website to look for any EDCT (Estimated Departure Clearance Times) or delays, even as of 30 minutes before we were supposed to depart, and there was nothing listed.  So I’m about 10 minutes from loading up and heading out, and I get a private message from Andrew O, a local Grissom controller and pilot. He asks if I’m taking 5CE to FL today, and I said yep! He then says “You have an EDCT of 2015 zulu”. That is SIX HOURS and 15 MINUTES past when I’m supposed to be leaving. That’s 4:15 pm instead of 10 am.  That is Awful. I warn Andy. It’s not VFR all the way so I can’t just go VFR. Then Andrew tells me I should pick up my clearance with Indy.  Bottom line here, if I try to get my clearance with Grissom in the air or on the ground, they can not give me the clearance, they must hold me until 4:15 pm.  But if I take off out of Frankfort, which is right on the border of Indy and GUS airspace, and pick up my clearance with Indy, THEY won’t see my EDCT, just my clearance.  He told me there was an 80% chance they’d just clear me to Florida and have no idea I wasn’t supposed to be there, and that once I got cleared IFR, they’d make a hole for me and they would not stop me when I got down there.  So I told all my people the risks—we may have to turn around and come back, or land in TN before the clouds roll in and wait, or there was an 80% chance we’d get cleared to go to FL. They were willing ot take the chance, so we loaded up everyone and away we went. I flew for 5 minutes until I was in Indy’s space, then called up for a clearance. They asked if I had one on file. I gulped, said yes, my original airport of departure was Frankfort. Long pause, and then they gave me my clearance. I fist pumped, told the back seaters we were headed all the way to FL, it worked!

There were a couple small lines of storms, but nothing big, and most planes were just going over or around it, not a big deal. They didn’t sound any busier than normal, and the weather was pretty good, so I have no idea why they had a 6 hour delay on letting people into the state.  I can’t stand Florida any more. They are such a mess to deal with. New York has all these huge busy Class B airports next to each other and THEY manage their airspace fine. Why can’t Florida get its act together?!

You’re not supposed to try to game the system. You’re not supposed to take off VFR and try to pick it up in the air and force them to clear you. (They won’t). You’re not supposed to file for one place then request a destination change into the airspace (that works sometimes but not always).  You’re probably not supposed to do what I did either, because you’re supposed to “wait your turn”.  Screw that.  I have no regrets. I got in and got it done.  It WAS my turn. ;)

Something like 7 hours, 8 hours in the air today. I haven’t figured it out yet.  Long time in the airplane, my butt got tired of sitting. And I read an entire novel on my iPad on the way down and back. Thank you very much.

I was supposed to do T-6 flying tomorrow but I don’t have it in me. I got home at what, 9 pm tonight after getting up early again.  I’d have had to get up at 5:30 am tomorrow, figure out how to get to where I was going (we have no working planes right now that I can use for a trip), spend the day with high winds again in a T-6 in training, and I just don’t have it in me for tomorrow. I need the day. So I took it.

My laptop is dead, the screen is just blue. Guess that’s the end of that.  :o

Now, I’m finally winding down and getting tired.  Even though it’s only 10:21 pm.  Tomorrow I probably won’t post much, because I’m not planning on doing anything but billing, paperwork, laundry, and watching movies or reading books.  Now we’re all caught up.

On Point

I was pretty pleased with myself yesterday.  I had a LOT of stuff to do, and it involved a lot of different people from a lot of different places, and I nailed it.  I'm actually very good at planning, organization, corporate pilot stuff On Time.  So this is boring, but I'm writing it out because I was proud of it.  Well, most of it.

I haven't been wearing my Apple Watch, right? My cellphone alarm either didn't go off or didn't go off loudly enough for me to hear it. So I started the day where I was supposed to be leaving at 7:45 am and I woke up at 7:33 am.  I flew out of that bed like my hair was on fire, and I raced through the shower, raced through my clothes, ran out the door.  My appointment was at 8 am, and I walked in the door at 8 am.  That started my day off on the run, and I ran the rest of the day.

I was done around 11:30, ran home, grabbed some stuff, drove through McDonald's and picked up a cheeseburger, made it out to Kokomo by noon, took off in the 172RG with Morgan by 12:15.  Got to Toledo at 1:15.  They said I needed to do a test flight on the Conquest, fully shut down the engine and start it back up.  They sent a maintenance guy along with me, so at 1:30 we went up to 10,000' and shut the left engine down to full feather, then restarted it.  Everything worked the way it was supposed to work, all was well, so we came in and landed.  I did their paperwork, got ready, and left at 2 pm.  Meanwhile, Morgan had already left in the 172RG headed for Frankfort.  I passed her right over Ft. Wayne.  We were at the exact same altitude on the same track, and I had a closure rate on her of 120 knots.  I watched her on my traffic system before I could see her out my windshield.  When I did see her out my windshield, it was amazing how fast I overtook her and blew past.  I waved on my way by. ;)  I landed at Frankfort at 2:47 pm, and I was ahead of Morgan a bit.  I put the Conquest away, and Morgan lands at 3:15 pm.  She picks me up, and we head back to Kokomo.  We're on final at Kokomo and I hear a T-6 call in ten miles out...that's my 4 pm appointment.  We land at Kokomo at 3:35 pm, and I run to the hangar, where I take my 3:45 pm conference call with 4 people, a Piper Clipper owner and AOPA, who wants to do an article and a photo shoot of his airplane, but insist on having a formation pilot on board and at the controls of his aircraft during the photo shoot.  They ask pointed questions as to my qualifications, and everyone is satisfied.  The phone call is done, and by then the 4 pm T-6 guy has topped off his plane and is ready to go.  So I hop in the back of his T-6, and we do a checkout flight for an hour, for the CAF. You have to have a checkride every year, so I went up with him to make sure he was still good to go.  He was.  We land at 5, he gets more gas, I go inside and do his paperwork, talk to him for a bit, we finish up his CAF stuff, and now it's time to go next door for the EAA Meetings.  We have a VFR meeting first, and then at 6:30 we have the chapter meeting and food.  After that, two teenage boys stay behind and ask me a ton of questions, some of them very insightful, so I stay behind to talk to them until about 9 pm all total.  I leave the airport at 9, get home at 9:30, and Kaylee wants to talk about her day, so I talk to her on the phone for an hour.  By 10:30, Steve is passing out and so am I.  I told her I had to go to bed like an old person, and we did, we headed to bed and passed out.  Everything on this day just moved just like I needed it to, so that I was never late for one thing, and I got a bunch of stuff done in the process.

I also arranged a flight for someone else for Saturday, canceled a flight of mine for Saturday, moved one of mine from Friday to Saturday, looked at the weather and evaluated everything from here to Virginia to Florida for two days, and dealt with 4 different people on these trips.  In the 5 minutes I had here and there in between each of the above things.

I felt quite productive with all this, for the record.

I was supposed to go to Roanoke, VA with Eric in the RG on Saturday, and Marco with Andy on Friday. However, Friday looked like a disaster down there with thunderstorms and weather, so he needed to go Saturday. So I arranged for Cameron to take Eric, but Saturday's weather had ice involved, which the RG can't do. So I canceled Eric and moved Andy to Saturday.

Today, because my Florida trip was moved, I didn't have to get up, so of course I woke up earlier than I did yesterday when I was late.  lol I just did the household chores I'd been behind on because I have been gone so much over the weekends.  Meanwhile, Morgan went on her CFII checkride this morning, and I took lunch out to the airport for everyone working out there today.  She passed her checkride, so she only has one checkride to go--her MEI, Multi Instructor.  Woot! 

Afterwards I did a test flight on the Cherokee 180. Its ailerons aren't quit rigged right, so they've been trying to get that right.  Today it still turned to the left when you let go, so they still don't have it correct yet.  I took a video to show them for evidence...back to the drawing board!

Oh, the Conquest, when I picked it up, they told me they also had to tighten up a lot of oil lines that were loose on the left engine.  So just to recap, things that were loose, falling off or falling apart:  Oil lines. Fuel valve arm. Prop control. "Throttle" control.  Also known as every major control in the airplane.  Fuel, oil, prop, throttle.  Good grief.

Kaylee called the other night. Her new place, Farrington I believe is the name of it, she really loves it, says it's smaller than she thought, but has a good vibe, friendly people, and they are putting her right into the middle of it.  She sat in on someone's session, a 19 year old, and she said it was really refreshing speaking to someone who is at a higher level than the 14-17 year olds she deals with at her current place.  She loves being thrown into the session, and having an after-session talk with the therapist about theories, procedures, what she'd look into doing next.  She's super excited about the job, and happy to be there.  I'm happy for her.  :)

I still feel pretty good and solid physically and mentally.  I have still had several headaches in a row, and I can't tell if it's 1) dehydration, 2) big weather changes, or 3) hormones, because all three could have come into play in the last week, and maybe all three have and that's why nothing stopped the 3 days in a row of headaches.  So we'll see if now that one or two of those has passed, if I have fewer headaches overall the rest of the time here.  If not, the watch thing had nothing to do with it, alas, but I do still have a lot better overall clarity and mobility thus far.

Steve got his heart scan done like I did, and his score was 38.  So 1-10 is minimal risk, 10-100 is mild.  They said at 38 he was doing great for his age, that he had nothing to worry about, no real risk factor happening at this time, and he didn't need to come back for 5 years either unless something changed.  So that's good.  Two clean hearts in the family, at least from plaque and calcification.  I'll take it!

We ordered a new couch back in like December, or early January.  It's going to be in mid to end of April. I'm looking forward to that.  No more torn up broken down couch in here.  :)

I have three people scheduling T-6 checkouts right now, with three more who have asked about it.  I'm already busy most of April and that's with them and BOB the C-45.  I'm not gonna have time for my real job at this rate!  Nothing like getting into the swing of the warbird world with a vengeance this spring. Now if we can get it to stop blowing holy hell on the winds, that would be fabulous.  It stresses me the heck out doing this training in high winds.

Got our hotels for Sun-n-Fun set up, when I'm doing rides in the C-45.  I am looking forward to most of this stuff. It's exciting stuff, really. Some day I'll miss it I'm sure, even if I find it as stressful as I do fun sometimes. It's still an amazing opportunity that not a lot of people get to do. It's an interesting life and I appreciate it.

I added a bunch of photos but my laptop died before blogger 'saved' it, and they're only on my laptop, so I'll send this one and hope my laptop comes alive again.  It's in bad shape.  lol

*Sigh*

4:20 am wake up call, out the door by 5:15, wheels up by 6 am, headed to Birmingham, Alabama.  Me, D and another guy. We're on our way, and the CHT's on the right engine #4 cylinder go through the roof. It kind of looks like a bad probe, jumping around, but it does go high and stay high. Normally they fall off or don't read if it's a bad probe.  It just kind of niggled at my mind. So I took a video and showed all the CHTs, and when we landed, I sent it off to Steve.  He called and said the same thing I wondered, and asked if there was a mechanic on field to look at it.  I went hunting, and sure enough there is, and they even answered their phone.  I taxied the plane on over to the other side of the field to them, explained to them that the #4 cylinder on the right engine was reading wonky and high CHTs on the way here, but didn't read at all on the taxi over, so it was probably a probe, but could they put eyes on it and verify the cylinder itself didn't look cooked or cracked, that the probe needed fixed, etc. 

I'm there for 20 minutes, they have the cowl off, and he comes in and says "I have bad news.  The probe is fine. The cylinder seems to be okay.  But you have a bad exhaust leak.  There is a gap in the fitting and it is shooting exhaust directly onto that probe, cylinder, wiring, etc. back there."  The airplane is grounded, safety of flight issue. It could cook and crack the cylinder, blow off a head, or even start a fire in there.  In the old days, Twin Cessnas had a known issue with exhaust that burned through the wing spar. Entire engines and wings fell off of the airplanes up at altitudes, causing fatal crashes.  Until an AD came out and some changes were made that took care of that problem.  So...that exhaust and the leak is no joke.  (I mean, this is a different area, not the wing spar, so that wouldn't have happened anyway, don't worry.) Which once again means I am glad that everyone took it seriously. We've had a lot of bad probes on various airplanes including that one.  It happens fairly often. This looked like another one. I almost blew it off.  But that feeling... we have a JPI unit so that it will detect if there is an issue before it becomes a major problem. That's exactly what it did today. The old manual gauges didn't show any problem. I'd not have known there was any issue until something did blow or catch fire without it.  And wouldn't I have felt stupid later if the JPI told me something was wrong and I assumed it was nothing and ignored it until a catastrophic failure happened.  That's not in the form of a question because it is not a question.  

So how do we get home? Ethan is down with the flu, high fever, sick as a dog. So he and his 340 are out of the question.  Nathan and Steve can't do the Cheyenne or Aerostar right now.  That leaves John R. and his C-421, or the airlines out of Birmingham, which have nothing direct to Indy and the only flights come into Indy after midnight. I call John and ask how his day is going, and it's not good, it's not good at all.  We talk for about 15 minutes about what's going on with him.  And then I tell him what's going on with me. I tell him if it's too much, or it's too bad a day, or he just can't or doesn't want to, we will airline out. He looks at the weather and everything else, and says he can do it, so he drags Morgan along, and the two of them fly down to Alabama to rescue the three of us down there.  It's 2.5 hours home, and we land about 7:30 or so.  Adventure for the day over.

While I'm at it, as you know, the Conquest is in Ohio to fix the oil leak, right?  Well, I am going over tomorrow to pick up the airplane, and the oil leak is not fixed, because they ran out of time to fix it before we had to have it back to take Andy and family to Marco on Friday. They ran out of time to fix it because they opened it up and found three other safety of flight issues on that left engine that needed addressed ASAP. They were concerned enough that they wouldn't even run the engine on the ground before fixing these things.  What were they?  The fuel shut-off arm was about to fall off, the prop control linkage was about to fall off, and the engine power lever arm at the engine was coming apart.  Mom, don't ask Ernie what that could mean. You don't want to know.  If I believed in luck, I'd probably quit flying, assuming I used it all up over time.  Don from Florida who did all the work on that left engine is about to hear a lot of things I doubt he'll like very much.  The oil leak which remains, they agree that it's not a safety of flight issue, just messy, and we'll have to take it back to get that fixed later.  Again.

*sigh*

Ending on a good note.  Kaylee's new internship was today. She texted me from there this morning and said "I LOVE IT HERE!!!!" She was supposed to call us and talk tonight and tell us about it, but she fell asleep early, long day.  So I'll have to tell you about it tomorrow or whenever I hear.  ;)

I'm Wiped Out.  This day started at 4:30 am, was long, I was on the phone dealing with three different mechanics, three different pilots, and a bunch of other stuff all day.  Didn't get in the door back at home until 9 pm.  I'm gonna go fall down now. It's bed time...

Blown Away

We had 35 knot winds around here today, about 30 down in IL where I was.  So rough and bumpy.

I wasn't wheels up until 1:30 pm. We took off on time, with a nasty crosswind, and went to Carmi.  The building was locked up except for one room, which had one chair and a bathroom.  And wifi. Very slow wifi.  They did have a car in the garage. The engine light was on and the seatbelt wouldn't click, making it ding at me the whole time, but it got me into town. All the cafe's were closed except one, so I went there, and they had chicken pot pie with taters, which I ordered, and was told they were out. They only had polish sausage or something else I don't like, so I got a tea and a piece of pie and then went back to the airport. We were supposed to leave by 4:30 pm.  We did not leave until 6:30 pm.  Got back to Frankfort too late for me to go to the CAF meeting, so Steve went on his own, and I ordered Taku on my phone and picked it up on the way home.  Let Steve have the leftovers when he got back.  End of day.

Tomorrow I have to get up at 4:30 am to be wheels up at 6 am for Birmingham.  Gah.

This was not even on St. Patrick's Day.  Hello, Kokomo

Me on the ramp in the wind

Parked crooked into the wind

The sock bent backwards at times, wish I'd have gotten a shot of that.  The plane into the wind.

Yawn

We had snow flurries today--mother nature's way of paying me back for saying Spring is almost here. 

I did wake up with a headache this morning, so those aren't gone, although this one seems to be of the "temperatures and pressures took a dive" weather style headache...one of the kind I can't do anything about.  But I didn't take anything because I'm doing this heart scan this afternoon, and I didn't want to mess up anything.  So I took a couple of Excedrin and a couple Tylenol and went about my day.  Except it did what it does, got a little better, then got worse again, so I ended up having to take something anyway.  Then I pulled up the website to see where to go and it said "avoid caffeine" before the scan. They didn't tell me that before, and I took my Excedrin that morning with a cup of coffee.  lol  When I went in, I told them, and he said if I was used to caffeine it wouldn't be a problem at all.  It didn't end up being a problem, for the record.

I'm in this machine with a whirring thing that goes around you, but it's open on both ends so I don't feel totally trapped.  They sent me to a chair to wait on the results, and then he came back within five minutes with a sheaf of papers. 

He asked how hard I'd studied for the test, and told me I got a Zero.

I'm like... what does that mean. :o

1-10 is minimal risk, 11-100 mild, 101-400 moderate, 401+ extensive risk.

"The patient has a total calcium score of 0. This places the patient into the 0th percentile. This means that 0% of females aged 50-54 have calcium scores lower than the patient. There was no identifiable plaque detected. Patient is advised to adhere to general guidelines on diet and exercise. Additional testing is not recommended unless additional symptoms or change occurs, or at least 5 years."

Boom. 

I am tired today, and we can blame the headache and the med for that. But I am clear, and I can still walk and jump and bend pain and stiffness free, and I have fewer and fewer even twinges of it. It's kind of weird to get up from my chair, or out of my car, or up from the lunch table, and not have those first few steps be painful or stiff or shuffle-y.  I appreciate it.

I'm ordering dinner in tonight. After that good report I thought about going and getting my favorite dessert, because I was right by J Edwards.  I didn't do it though, because I wasn't actually hungry yet, so no need to eat just to eat, and because I've lost 5 pounds over the last couple of months and I don't feel the need to unnecessarily calorie up, either.  I'll save it for when I really want it, make it more worthwhile.  ;)

Something else kind of interesting, I haven't been able to pop my neck, back, fingers as much as I used to. Lately I've been able to do a little more of that, too.  So while that's not a great thing as far as Steve or my mother is concerned, I think it was because my joints were a little inflamed. My neck still isn't doing much, but my back and other things are cracking again. Weird.

My week is shaping up quickly. Tomorrow is a 340 trip to Carmi, Illinois. Last time I was there there wasn't even a room to go to.  Hopefully it's better tomorrow!  Wednesday is the other 340 in a trip to Alabama.  Thursday is probably Ohio to pick up the Conquest. Friday is taking Andy to Marco Island. Saturday is Eric in the RG on a N. Carolina trip, I believe. Sunday is back to Terre Haute to do more T-6 training.  Giddy-up!

Still Lion-y

March, comes in like a lion, and stays that way. :p

I was up very early this morning, drove to Frankfort, took the 340 to Terre Haute, and landed down there at 8:20 am.  The plane was out and ready to go, and he wanted to see some takeoffs and landings first, so I got up in the front seat and did two or three wheel landings, and then two 3-point landings, and then took it back to the hangars to swap seats.  Dennis came out with his dog, so we sat and chatted with him for awhile. The only down side to that was that the winds kept picking up.  By the time we finally went, they were starting off at 310 at 14 gusting 19.  Runway 32, so not terrible.  Then it became 300 14 gusting 25.  More interesting.  We did something like 5 landings, all wheel landings now that it was that gusty. I had to help on the first one, save it, but after that he managed them. But it was windy, it was gusty, it was tricky, and it was cold. By the time we stopped for fuel and lunch, I was worn out.  I'm serious, I do not much enjoy T-6 instruction. I always feel like I'm on the edge of trouble.  But it's also good for me in a couple of ways.  Anyway, we stopped for lunch, right? We're eating our sandwich, and I call the weather and it's saying 300 gusting to 25 still.  So we're going to go back up and do some more.  We get back in the plane, and the plane is rocking just sitting there. I call again and now it's 280 variable, 15 gusting 29.  That's over my line of comfort. The 25 knots almost down the runway was enough work with a 10 knot gust factor. Add in a 40 degree crosswind, variable, and up to 29 knots, and I was out. I said I wanted to call it.  What I hate is that he wasn't planning on calling it. The winds don't bother him in his Citation and King Air, of course.  They don't bother me in the 340 or a 172 or whatever, either.  But they do in the T-6, for good reason, and I can't seem to impart that on him no matter how many times I've said it.  It makes me look like the one 'wussing out', and I am, but I am wussing out because it's the smart thing to do. COULD we make it? Probably. I've had those winds as a direct crosswind before and managed it. Is it smart? Not particularly.  Is it smart for a guy's first day really doing takeoffs and landings in that airplane no matter how good a pilot he otherwise is? Where we both just hope I can save it if need be? Definitely not. So I do what I have to do and call him off, while flinching at having to be the one to stand down. I hate being the one to stand down.

He wanted me to drop him back off in Eagle Creek on my way home, so I did that in the 340.  He asked if the winds bothered me there. No, not in a 340.  *sigh*  Dropped him off, and headed back to Frankfort, pulled up to the self serve pump and topped off on my card so I could bill him for the fuel.  

When I got home, I was so tired, not from lack of sleep or anything, but purely from adrenaline.  Had I been wearing my Apple Watch, I'm quite sure it would have shown a high increase in heart rate.  I've seen my heart rate higher when in T-6s than I did doing Spins in the Champ, or exercising.  No joke. I got home, had some juice, changed clothes, sat down, and closed my eyes and took a short half nap, until Steve and his friends woke me up on the deck.  When I woke up, I was mentally clear. I'm tired from being cold, and shaking from being cold, and worn down from the stress of the day, but when I got up and walked around, still feel good.

I told Steve today what I've been doing, and he compared it to chem trails (which are laughable and not real)--he doesn't think it has much of anything to do with it.  He's not buying it that the constant EMF exposure on my skin had any negative effects, or that it really bothers much of anyone, that we get a lot more from household things (not wrong, wifi routers and such put out a fair amount).  His suggestion was that the better sleep I got the last few night helped with the stiffness and swollen feeling and mental clarity and such.  I've gotten good nights of sleep before in the last year or 8 months or whatever, and not woken to feel that good, so I think it's more than that.  He also suggests I've felt crappy for awhile because we're getting older, too sedentary, and too fat.  All true as well.  But I'm still all three of those things and feel pretty good the last three days.  So who knows.  So I'm running the experiment, keeping it off for about 10 days in a row, see if this is a fluke, if everything comes back, if it doesn't.  Then I'll probably put it back on and wear it non-stop again and see what happens. I don't think I'll psych myself in or out of anything, I'm usually pretty good about assessing things relatively objectively.  We'll see.  Today I was able to run up the wing of the T-6, whereas by the end of last season I had to crawl up it on my knees because I couldn't put that much pressure on my legs, they were too weak and painful.  I am going to keep exercising my legs too--I'm sure I've lost some muscle mass.  I'm glad I'd been still walking, on the treadmill some, etc. But I'll need to do a little more.  Anyway, that's today's update.  I got tired, but I had good reasons to be tired, and I wasn't mentally foggy along with it, and I can handle most things as long as my head is clear, ya know?

Tomorrow afternoon I have a doc appointment at Ascension St. Vincent to have a heart health scan done.  A few years ago I did a series of ultrasound scans of my various arteries, EKG, etc., and got a glowing report of heart and artery health.  Since it's been a few years, I'm doing a full heart scan, just to make sure everything is good there. I'm doing it, like the other one, outside of my regular doctor's office, paying cash, so that I can have information without any threats to my livelihood.  Should something be detected, I can learn more about it and what I need to do and what it means, before having to deal with the FAA.  I don't expect them to find anything, for the record. I'm just staying on top of it, is all.  :) 

Nothing else going on tonight but a little relaxation, some emails, some laundry, getting ready for next week, and a few new TV show episodes we enjoy.

See ya!

Breezy

It's another March day in Indiana--wind gusts over 30 knots, howling along.  Bad timing, as we try to get tailwheel and T-6 stuff going.  *sigh*  Tomorrow I go down to Terre Haute to fly the T-6 again, and it'll be in the 20 knot range again, possibly with a decent crosswind again, but we couldn't go last weekend, so I need to try to go if I can.  I wish I was looking forward to it more, but I'm not. I just hope everything goes well and safely, he makes progress and is pleased, and I don't age another 5 years in one day again.

Steve had two lessons today, got blown around the pattern fiercely, but got done what he needed to. Most of our instructors were up today, too. They've grown a lot in the last few months.  :)

I slept in until about 7:30 am, took my time getting ready, and took some lunch out to Steve at the airport before going to Meijer and grabbing some supplies.  

When I got home, after putting everything away, I did some research and some clean up, and then juiced a pitcher's worth of stuff.  I still juice every now and then, I just do it differently. It's a fair amount of work, so rather than just do a little at a time, I wait awhile, then do a bunch all at once and put it in the fridge where I can drink on it for a few days.  The juicing is still good for you.  So I use green apples, carrots, celery and radishes. It still tastes good that way.  It takes me almost an hour to clean the fruits/veggies, juice them, clean up the juicer, and put everything away. That's why I want to do a big batch all at once.  I'm lazy.

As far as the "how Laura's feeling" paragraph.  When I woke up, I could feel some stiffness and soreness, but it wasn't bad, and as soon as I got up and took two steps, I felt good.  Usually in the mornings I walk stiffly and jerkily for a little while.  I was awake and alert all day, even doing things that normally wipe me out like shopping.  I got done on the floor and got back up, and was able to do it.  Before, it would hurt when I bent my legs like that. Sitting at the computer desk, I started to use my arms to get up, like normal, then just used my legs, and could, without pain.  I really do feel better, clearer and stronger, still.  I will probably continue not wearing the watch at night, and just be more mindful of things.  I was sort of excited to feel this good two days in a row. It's been rare, for awhile. I'm usually just...tired.  All the time.  If my headaches decrease again, I'll be even happier. 

Going to try to get some sleep tonight for tomorrow's early morning and high stress activities.

Coo-Coo

Thursday it just rained like a mother around here. I just stayed around the house and did house things, and did some research and reading, too.  Usual stuff.

This morning I had a trip back to St. Louis Lambert International, this time in the 340.  I didn't hear my alarm, for reasons I'll explain at the end, where I sound like a nut.  This time I woke up a little bit but not enough to want to pick up my phone and see what time it was, until eventually I figured I must be close to my alarm going off, so I looked.  I was supposed to get up at 7 am and leave the house at 7:45 am.  When I pulled up my phone and looked at the time, it was 7:37 am.  I leaped out of that bed like I was on fire. I didn't have time for a shower, so fortunately I hadn't done anything yesterday that left me grungy.  My biggest problem was my hair looking like I slept on it, which of course I had.  lol  I left the house at 7:50 and drove like a demon, making it exactly on time, ten minutes faster than you should be able to arrive there.  ;)

The trip was fine and easy. Strong winds so I stayed low on the way there, IFR, shot an ILS approach in, and that was only interesting because they told me to keep my speed up to 180 kts then 170 knots until advised otherwise.  Except they didn't tell me I could slow down, and my gear down speed is 137 knots. I had to start going down on the ILS gear up, flaps up, faster than shit.  No speed brakes on this 340, and no beta like the turboprops, so going down and slowing down at the same time are a problem. Also not supposed to just pull the engines closed on a turbocharged engine, but I had no choice that time.  I made it, and all the way on short final I kept thinking "Gear gear gear gear gear gear gear" because I couldn't put it down until fairly short final and stuff out of the ordinary like that (I ALWAYS put the gear down at the FAF and follow the glideslope down there) is how people do gear up landings, especially at busy airfields with lots of distractions and talking and stuff.  But that was it, the rest of the flight and day was uneventful.

My guys were only gone an hour and a half.  I topped off with fuel to waive their $250 landing fee, and barely had time to catch up on a few things before the guys were back.  An easy hour flight home, an hour drive back to Kokomo, stopped at Panera to pick up their poppyseed chicken salad that I like, and home by 2 pm!  Get paid for the day, and it's an easy one, that makes it a win/win.

So here's where I sound like a coo-coo.  I have been having some health things that had been bothering me. Aside from my annoying waking up too early sleep thing, I've been fatigued almost all the time. Napping in the morning or the afternoon if I have trips instead of going somewhere. Wiped out by mid-afternoon.  My headaches have increased by a lot, went from maybe 1-2 days a month to 5 or 6.  I'm stiff and sore a lot.  My legs were weak, a lot of times I would need to use my arms to push off on the desk to stand up. I don't jump up or down off the T-6 because it hurts.  Getting down on the floor and back up was a problem. My mind felt a little foggy a lot, I wasn't concentrating as well, just fuzzy. I just felt tired and murky and low energy most of the time. Like I suddenly just got old or something.  I had done research on inflammation, took some supplements to help with that, but it didn't seem to.  I figured I'd better do something about it soon, because I have been healthy from a blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. standpoint, but I felt like I was a disorder waiting to happen, something wasn't right.  

Okay.  Back to the nuts thing.  I saw an article about EMF exposure. I read it, had heard of it before, didn't really pay much attention to it.  A few nights later, I got to thinking about it.  I wear the Apple watch 23 out of 24 hours in a day.  I wear it all night, it wakes me up in the morning, I charge it when I shower, I wear it all day.  It puts out as much signal as a regular cellphone, which studies have shown over the years that you should not stick up against your head for long periods of time, or tuck into your bra if you're a woman who carries it there, etc.  I sit with my laptop on my lap almost every evening, for hours.  I have a cellphone on me all the time.  I have my iPad on me a lot.  But that Apple watch, it has wireless and 5G as well, and it is tight, right on the skin of your wrist, constantly.  I thought...nah.  I did some more research.  There is actually a lot of data out there on this stuff.  Even the conservative medical folks who don't think there's much merit to it admit that there are negative effects to too much exposure.  

Symptoms of prolonged EMF exposure: fatigue, headache, mood swings, cardiac issues, asthma, digestive issues, impaired memory, insomnia, infertility, sleep disturbances, depression and depressive symptoms, lack of concentration, changes in memory, dizziness, irritability, restlessness and anxiety, nausea. Long term, it's a Class 2B carcinogen.  I have many of those things.  Of course most of those things can also be caused by a bunch of other things.  Sleep depravation, hormone changes now that I'm 52, years of a bad diet, maybe a little bit of all the above.  So here's the rub.  I did a test.  For two days I didn't wear the Apple Watch. I put my cellphone on airplane mode while I was sleeping with it next to my head, and I used the desktop rather than sit with the laptop on me.  This morning I didn't wake up at 5 am.  I didn't wake up feeling foggy and draggy.  It's 8:30 pm and I've been awake and alert all day, haven't even had the slightest desire to rest or nap. My mind is clear.  I could get up and down out of the desktop chair without having to use my arms.  I even jumped up and down in my living room, and got down on my knees, and I could do it without pain.  Is it in my head? I kind of doubt it, I did not expect anything so I didn't really even pay attention until today when I looked back on it.  But it's possible enough to make me feel like an idiot conspiracy theorist.  But seriously. I feel so much better today than I did two days ago.  I'm going to continue the experiment a bit. See what happens over a week or two, see if the stiffness or fatigue or whatever comes back, if it's just a cyclical coincidence, or what.  I'm not going to wear a tin foil hat or avoid all wifi, but I can lower the exposure some, not wear the watch all night for example, keep the computers off my lap for hours at a time, etc. See if it helps, what it does.  I'll let you know.  Is it old age? Or did that really have a cumulative negative effect over at least a year or two straight of maximum exposure like that?  I hope it's as easy as that.

St. Louis International

The only prop on the field, I think. lol

Ohio

Had a really nice day.  It was in the 60s, sunny, decent winds, it was beautiful out.  I took Morgan and the 340 and flew Nick to Batavia, OH where Sporty's is, and then over to Zanesville, OH.  There was a little restaurant there called "Muddy Waters Cafe", and it was right on a river with a big metal bridge and a railroad right there.  We sat outside to eat. I had a lobster roll and sea salt kettle chips, and it was really good, in the sun, with a view.  It was nice, you could feel the Vitamin D soaking in just a little bit.

I had Morgan fly us back to Frankfort, and we arrived right when they were closing up at 5 pm, so I didn't have to put it away by myself.

Tomorrow is supposed to be raining and storming big time all day and into the night, with flooding, thunderstorms, all the stuff.  So nobody will be doing much of anything, and fortunately I don't have anything scheduled anyway.  Friday morning first thing I'm going back into St. Louis International for a few hours, this time in the 340. I'll be the smallest airplane anywhere around there.  lol

I've been working on getting my ducks in a row. Kevin is headed out of country the end of March, and I'm dropping him off in the Cheyenne.  He needs picked back up April 11th. Unfortunately, April 9-14th I'm supposed to go to Lakeland, FL with BOB the Beech. We've got volunteers, hotel rooms, a car, and a promise to the unit and to SnF to be there and do this.  So it looks like I'll probably have to get Ethan to help me get airline tickets, and it'll go like this: I take BOB to FL on the 9th. On the morning of the 11th I get an airline flight back to Indy, an Uber to Kokomo, fly to NY, fly back to Kokomo, Uber back to Indy, fly back down to Florida, and finish out the rest of the week.  That's going to be a tiring 1-2 days, but I'm still young, right?  Right?  Right.  :)

Kaylee sent me this photo of her "forced cuddling" Ruby the dog. She seems pretty content, and Ruby seems to be tolerating it.  lol  Ruby is one of the things Kaylee will miss the most when her company shuts down shortly here. :(

My kid is so cute.

Sunrise at the airport today

Where I was sitting outside at the restaurant enjoying food and sun and views

Muddy Waters, indeed

Old railroad tracks

Daily Stuff

I slept until the light came in my window and woke me up, after 8 am.  That was really nice.

Since I only had one student, I did some other stuff.  Ran through the car wash, and stopped at the vacuum stations and vacuumed out my car, too.  You know the one thing that will not come up? My hair.  I have shed a lot of hair in my car and it does not vacuum up.  I used my fingers to hold it up to the vacuum but there's still hair in there.  Annoying.

Got my packages, paid bills, updated my logbook and billing, then went out to Kokomo and flew in the RG with Eric, doing two instrument approaches. Except the gear warning horn stayed on the whole time.  Bzzzt Bzzzt Bzzzt Bzzzt the entire time.  It was...annoying. Super annoying. We 'ignored' it enough to do one VOR approach at Marion and a Localizer 23 approach at Kokomo, and then landed in the 25 knot gusty winds, and called it a day, pulling the plane into the maintenance hangar so they can try to fix it for tomorrow, when it has like 12 hours straight of flights on it.

After that, I drove out to Glenndale, and Morgan and I took the Citabria up for a good 1.7 hours.  It was super windy, so we went up to Wabash by her friends and family's houses, and then landed at Kokomo to top off the airplane, and by then the winds were more calm, so she did a bunch of take offs and landings.  Headed back to Glenndale at sunset.  Put everything away, and I stopped by Arby's on my way home at 8 pm.  The sun was still out at 7:45 pm and it was SO NICE.

I ordered some house supplies on Amazon, cleaned up some receipts and paperwork, hit a load of laundry, basically just got stuff done that needed done.  It was all good.

Tomorrow is two legs to Ohio in the 340.  Good weather, should be uneventful.

Lots of sunset photos from today.

Oh yeah, and the airspeed didn't work. You can see the "steam" gauge is reading almost red line, and the "glass" gauge is blank on airspeed.  It wasn't workin' at all until we landed for fuel and I manipulated the pitot 'cover'.

Little Hops

Having to get up at 6 am was like getting up at 5 am since we just "sprang forward" last night.  Sheesh!

It was 27 degrees and the winds were gusting up around 25 knots, so it was one frigid morning.  Sunny at least.  I took the 340 over to Bryan, Ohio where the maintenance shop is, and dropped it there so they could replace the tires. That meant jacking it up, bleeding the brakes, all the stuff.  I hoofed it up to the FBO and spent an hour and a half up there, before seeing that Ethan in the Conquest was leaving Crawfordsville and heading to Toledo International.  So I then hopped in Ethan's Cherokee Six, and I took off for Toledo International myself.  Beat him there by like 10 minutes. Parked at the maintenance shop, but all the doors were locked and nobody came out. I waited until Ethan got there, and then they heard HIM, so came on out. lol  We left the Conquest there for them to FINALLY fix the oil leak that we have had on the left engine of that plane since we first got it.  Ethan and I went back to Bryan, OH in the Cherokee Six to pick up the 340.  It wasn't ready, so Ethan took the Cherokee back to Frankfort and I took the Courtesy Van with the check engine light on into town and ate at Blueberry Hill, a nice late brunch.  Waited a bit at the FBO, where a guy came in to work on the heater.  He looks at me and says "You're the first person I've ever seen in here that isn't a pilot!" I said the usual--"I am a pilot".  He asked what I flew, so I told him what was there.  He says "I don't know what any of those are, but that's nice."  I'm thinking I may need to get a shirt that just says "I am the pilot" and wear that around.  Make life easier. ;)

When I got the 340 back to Frankfort, and left it, I drove right out to Kokomo. The T-6 has been done for several days, but the weather has been crap. Yesterday was super gusty and windy, same with Saturday once it quit being IFR and rainy too.  Today it was still windy, gusting up around 23 knots or so at Kokomo, but at least it was only 10-20 degrees off the runway this time.  I did almost a dozen takeoffs and landings. The wheel landings were all good. The three-point landings were inconsistent. But I was light on fuel, and no weight in the back, so I was running out of elevator trim and having to yank it back to the three point attitude. Nothing forced goes well. It felt good to fly it though.  When I got back to the hangar, Steve said I was much happier than when I left.  Indeed.  ;)

Steve, Morgan and I went to Half Moon for dinner, came back to watch a movie "Due Justice", and tomorrow I don't have to get up early.  Hopefully I won't actually wake up early again, like I have been anyway.  Annoying.

Oops

I didn't realize it had been five days since I posted.  Time got away from me this time, I thought I was just a day or two behind! Oops.

The 6th I went to Owensboro, KY with Nick, and it was low IFR, minimums again.  I had to go into another airport because our original airport didn't have approaches that went to 200' and 1/2 mile, and I needed that.

The 7th was more low IFR, going to Danville and Pontiac Illinois with Stephen and a guy.  I was really tired on this one, I haven't been sleeping well.  But I couldn't nap at the airports I was at, so I was just tired.

The 8th I didn't have to leave until 12:30 and I slept okay, but was still tired. I went to Flint, MI and St. Louis, MO. There was moderate rain all over the entire route of flight.  St. Louis, when I got handed off to the last approach, they said "You ARE landing at Lambert, right?" because it's an airline hub and us little people don't usually go there, right?  When I went to leave the FBO, the lady at the desk didn't want to let us out to the airplane without the crew. I said I was the pilot. She asked if I had a badge or something. I laughed and said no, we're General Aviation. She was a little suspicious but finally let us out before I had to pull out my pilot's license and show her. 

It's kind of fun going into the big places now and then, but I'm glad those aren't the only places I go.  I did get my clearance via text and email, which is nice. When it's all written down for you already you don't have to copy it while they're talking and hope you got it all right. 

The 9th I was supposed to fly the T-6 with the guy down in Terre Haute. I didn't feel like it, and I wasn't sorry it was cloudy and windy and he canceled. Steve, Kaylee and I went to Market Street Square for my birthday dinner, and it was really good. Afterwards we went to her apartment where he helped her fix a couple small things.  It's looking more and more homey in there.  :)

While we were there, a young lady came up to me and said "Are you Laura?" I was, and it happened to be a good friend of Morgan, my student.  So this girl took a photo with me to send on to Morgan to shock her. She recognized me from Instagram.  Too funny.

On my actual birthday here, it was sunny and cold and windy, and I stayed inside, ordered in food, watched movies with Steve, kept it low key. I'd have gone and test flown the T-6 after its annual, but it's cold and windy.  Tomorrow looks like a better day, warmer, less windy, ergo a better plan.  I've also got a morning trip with Ethan to Ohio, so it'll be productive in a couple ways...

I've been too busy to have anything interesting to tell you. I did wear myself out the last week, and with the gray skies and wind and blah, I felt like crap.  I was bummed out, Steve was bummed out, Kaylee is sad because her company is closing their doors and it's in the final days, it was just a bummer of a week or so.  Even the flying wasn't fun for me, I just wanted to do nothing and be a bum. Which is kind of what I did yesterday and today, and it was nice.  ;)  Hopefully with later sunlight and warmer days, things will start feeling like life again.

Happy 52 to me. ;)

Baltimore

Four am is rough on anyone, I'd think. It's a day later and I'm still recuperating.  That early morning stuff is for the birds.  But it was a pretty morning.  I was up at 4, out of the house by 4:50, at the airport by 5:15, wheels up by 5:30 am.  Went to Elkhart with Dustin to pick up a new guy, and headed to Baltimore.  They went off on their way, and I tried unsuccessfully to take a nap in the FBO, where the doors were open, people kept coming in, and it was hot in the room.  So I gave up and walked to the nearby "Carson's Creekside Restaurant", a place I go to every time we go into KMNT, or Baltimore. And I always walk there. For one thing, they don't have courtesy cars, so you have to be driven there in a van if they have time. For another, it's .6 to .7 miles away.  So I load up my iPad, phone, purse, sweater, and start walking. It's on the water, and it looks like a dive from the outside, but the food inside is fantastic.  Huge, thick crab cakes the likes of which I've not had anywhere else.  They have great mussels, crab, all sorts of good stuff.  So I walked there and just got the crab cake sandwich this time, and walked back to the FBO.  So about a 1.5 mile walk total to get a good lunch and a bit of exercise at the same time.

I was there until late--they ran into problems with their project, so I didn't end up getting home until 8:30 pm.  Left the house at 4:50 am, back home by 8:30 pm.  Long day.  Great sunrise and sunset to watch though, and excellent crab cake in case I didn't mention that.  ;)

Today I tried to sleep in and woke up at 5 am anyway, thanks to a giant thunderstorm with hail and thunder that shook the room, and to just generally waking up too early anyway.  I had ordered some house supplies to be delivered this morning, and I had a 9 am flight, too.  The delivery ran an hour late, and the flight got bumped an hour too, and then once I got out there, we couldn't fly anyway because it was IFR.  So...not super productive today.  Instead I caught back up on ground stuff the rest of today. 

Tomorrow is Kentucky, Thursday is multiple stops, Friday is either Terre Haute, Ohio, or nothing, depending on the rain.  Thursday I was supposed to run up the T-6 but I'll be gone, now.  *sigh*  One day at a time.

The restaurant front, side and back

One giant crab cake

View from the water side of the restaurant

Departing Baltimore

Sunset in progress. I didn't change the color on these.