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.
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