Heights

Thursday Morgan and I took the 340 and Stephen over to Logan, IL, KAAA. We dropped him off there, and before we left I noticed there was a beacon tower over there that didn't have a sign or a fence blocking access. So Morgan and I went ahead and started climbing it.  I used to climb those in my 20s, but I'm 52 now, and fat, and not as strong, and a sort of weaker shoulder, and in slippery-ish shoes.  Morgan went up first and stopped about halfway, so I stopped a couple rungs below her, and neither of us went to the top. I'm not afraid of heights, I like them actually, and a good part of me wanted to climb on up. The other part of me had visions of losing my grip up there and dying on the concrete below, which would really honk off Steve and Kaylee and my mother, for a dumb reason.  lol But since she didn't go up, I didn't go up, and it was good enough. It was still a great view and nobody was maimed or killed in the process.

We went from there over to Rantoul, IL, a former military base, most of it deserted, runways closed, weeds growing up through the concrete everywhere, windows broken out of deserted hangars; it looked like something out of the Walking Dead show.  The pilot lounge was in a bunker, so Morgan and I mostly sat outside at a picnic table in the sunshine and enjoyed the day. 

Morgan had to get back to do a handicap flight for the Women's Classic Air Race that she's participating in for Purdue with her friend Raena. We got back just in time, I met her friend, and they headed off to Kokomo to do the flight. 

Friday our house was getting cleaned, so I went next door to work on depositing checks, paying bills, signing up for a new fuel points program, dealing with scheduling, which takes up a good chunk of time these days.  Met up with Ty, Nathan, Kevin & John, Steve, George and Mark T for lunch, first time I've seen most of them in a long time since I've been gone so much over lunch.  Came back to do a little more work, and then I went out to Kokomo--I was feeling kind of bleh and needed some air therapy, so I took up the Champ. I had trouble getting into the groove. Usually within about two landings I get back in the swing, but today I was distracted, and about 6-7 landings in I still wasn't happy. This one was off the centerline, that one dribbled on, that one was a little crooked, I just wasn't hitting.  That made me mad, and once I got mad, then it dialed in.  I did landings with a slight right crosswind on the prevailing wind runway until I was nailing the 3-point, wheel, and one-wheel landings, and then I switched to the crosswind runway, which was almost a direct crosswind, and hit some left crosswind stuff--rolled those on, but I still wasn't done yet, so I left the area, went up to 3000', and hit 4 or 5 spins. That put a smile on my face. I was coming back in to maybe do a few more landings, but I heard our 172 take off to stay in the pattern, and since I don't get above about 400' and keep it tight and that would mess them up and they'd mess me up, I just ended on the last one.  I needed that more than I thought.

Went out to dinner with Chuck, AE, Steve and I at Harvey Hinklemeyers, and came back for the guys to hang out outside by the fire and have an evening. I decided to stay in and watch cheesy movies and relax before I leave tomorrow for an almost 10 hour flight down to FL and back to drop off Kevin and family, since the Cheyenne is down and out, and I have to take a 340.  It'll be 5 hours just down there.  Long day...

Morgan with her park job that started off perfect until it rolled forward into the ramp and she didn't notice. lol

The beacon tower while I was deciding to climb it

Morgan playing with a weed in the middle of the concrete

Looking up through the center of it

And she's going up

And WE'RE going up

The view from above

This is what the view out of the windshield is when you're spinning

This is the view of my face after spinning.  lol

Michigan Runs

Up at 6:15 am, kicking Steve out of the bathroom again, on my way out the door around 7 am, at Frankfort by 8 am, up in the air by 8:15. There were four of us today, Nick, Stephen, Clay and myself, and we started off going into Lansing, MI. I dropped off Nick and Clay, and Stephen and I went over to Grand Rapids, MI.  I waited there until he was done, and then we went back over to Lansing, picked up Nick & Clay, and we all stopped in South Bend.  Were there for a couple hours, then I brought everyone home.  All three are airline hub larger busier airports, so I got gas at the two most expensive otherwise fee ones and paid the $21 fee at the other one. I was so tired, that in Grand Rapids I was sitting in a chair in the pilot's lounge and some guy came in and sat down in the recliner next to me (seems like a party foul--you should not sit right next to people. Like a urinal. Don't pee right next to someone, right? Space it out a little!)  Anyway, I was so tired that with my iPad in my lap working on updating hobbs and airplane logbook and such, I fell asleep. Sitting there. Next to a dude who was too close to me.  When I woke up he was in a sleep room himself so maybe I zonked him out while I was at it, but I actually fell asleep in a chair in a pilot's lounge in the middle of the morning next to a stranger.  That was sleepy.

Tomorrow I don't have to leave the house until 9 am, so I get to sleep in a little, which is exciting. I probably WON'T sleep in, but I COULD...

One of the guys I fly reminded me that on our last trip, he'd seen something weird. First, let me say that I believe him. I don't know what he saw and I can't explain it, but I believe that he saw it. He's not a half blind old guy or a "hysterical" person. We're flying along and he yells "did you see that???" I wasn't looking. He said it looked like a skydiver, pointed head down, right in front of the plane, wearing red, with flapping material. He said in terms we know, it looks like a Superman dive wearing a Spiderman costume with a cape.  He wasn't kidding. I actually asked the controller if there was a skydive jump plane up, and he said not that was talking to him. I wonder if it was a wing suit flyer. I don't know. Like I said, I can't explain it, but he saw a dude dropping towards earth head down wearing red.  So there ya go. My weird story for the day. ;)

The FBO in South Bend, kinda cool. "Corporate Wings" was the FBO. Nice place!

Memorial Day et all

We were back out at the airport in Huntsville by 7:45 am. There had been another big thunderstorm overnight/early morning, as forecast, and this time it was a one port-o-pot storm. It only knocked over one tent and one potty instead of a bunch of tents and two pots.  BOB was once again doing just fine. I unstrapped it, pulled the plugs, put the oil back in, preflighted, took the control lock off, got it all ready to go and I had three rides set up to go right away.  The weather was supposed to tank, with a direct gusty crosswind, but it held off. It was a crosswind, but it was light. Fifi was out and doing rides, all the airplanes did a bunch of rides, and I ended up doing six rides. Then Glenn got there, and he and I hopped in BOB in did his 602 ride, or annual proficiency checkride.  I took the rental car then, and drove to Huntsville International Airport, the one I landed at originally, mistakenly, and got on a little hopper airline flight to Atlanta.  I was on an aisle seat which was okay. Get to Atlanta and I am too short on time to get to my next gate. I'm dehydrated but no time to stop and pull my purse out of my suitcase so I keep running until I get to my gate, and now my departure is delayed. So I got a smoothie and a sandwich and charged my phone. Next flight was less fun. It was a Delta flight, and I was in row 22, seat B, which is the middle seat. I was in between two large people and I'm not small either. I had flown SIX rides in a flightsuit in the sun and had a 7th flight with Glenn. I had run through the airport. I was hot, sweaty, and claustrophobic.  And now I'm crammed into a small seat with little room sandwiched in between two larger people who encroached into my space too. That wasn't so much fun. It was only an hour and ten minutes flight at least.  My flight landed late, like at 10-something p.m., so I didn't get home until 11.  Kaylee and Steve both came to get me, and we hung out and cuddled for awhile before she headed back to her own place, late.  And I was finally home.  I was too tired to unpack or do anything else...

Today I woke up early to go to Rehab/Therapy. I went in, did all the exercises, and the PT I like asked if I needed to keep coming. I was going to stop going in anyway but now I had a legal out. He redid my testing. I can now put weight on and push up on my wrist, I held a 1.5 gallon cannister of oil up over my head, climbed a ladder, poured it holding it steady over a funnel without being able to brace it for long periods of time to get all that oil in there, etc.  I can still feel a twinge here and there, and I need to keep working it, but I can do that on my own just as well if not better than there.  So he did all my range of motion exercises, and I've regained all my range of motion, too.  So he signed off on me and called me pretty well healed, and told me to come back next week and get a free t-shirt. So I'm free from therapy now.  Yay!

I left there, came home and fell asleep on the couch. Steve called to talk to me about lunch, and we met with Jeff and his daughter Megan at Grindestone's for lunch. I was really tired today, I was needing a day off. I didn't quite get it. Therapy first, then a kind of awkward lunch, after which we went out to the airport so I could take Megan flying. She is 17 physically, maybe 12 or 13 mentally/emotionally. Talking her through a discovery flight and flying for a little under an hour was pretty tiring. She fired off random questions non-stop like a rabbit on speed the whole time, and I wasn't mentally prepared to do the people thing today.  I didn't get home until about 4 pm. Did some laundry, unpacked my bags finally, updated RallyPoint and my logbook, prepared for my 3 legs of flights tomorrow. Worked on my schedule for the upcoming Air Power tour flights, talked to Glenn, fired off receipts, trying to get ready before I'm back up at 6 am for the next round.

This is the photo I should've been in. I'm going to photoshop myself in in place of Glenn back there. I was there all week, he was there for 4 hours.  lol

Little girl in BOB

Me and the little one in BOB

My non-window on the first leg

My last trip through that door, hopefully

Megan flying us around

T-Minus One

The dehydration from yesterday caught up to me today, and I was okay until I was back in the heat and the sun and humidity, and then here came the headache, no matter what water or caffeine or electrolytes I took. I headed it off at the pass, but it took a couple hours to fully depart the area. Maybe I just need IV fluids to carry around and put in halfway through a day.

Today was windy and gusty. Mostly down the runway, a little off to the right, gusting anywhere from 17 to 25 knots. I had to work the Beech down carefully, as it has kind of bouncy tires. Fortunately I made 5 landings today and 4 of them were excellent and the 5th was fine.  One was particularly gusty and crosswindy and I had to fight it down, and when I touched down I rolled on the right main first, then the left, then the tail, and the people in the plane applauded me.  I’m like…hey, I’ll take it!  Ha

I had five rides today, each of them only had about 3 people, so none of them were full, but it kept the noise coming and it did make money each time, so that’s good. Not as good as yesterday, but not bad.  I had several nervous people today, and because it was so windy and gusty, it was also bumpy up there. The most scared were a little girl and an older man. The older man sat up front, and every time a bump hit he’d grab for the dash or the window. I talked to him like I did scared kids or sick pets. Soothing, quiet, easy, reminded him that we’re just hitting potholes in the sky, like an old Ford with bad suspension on a gravel road. Then I hesitated but asked if he’d like to fly it. He lit up and said yes, and I secretly didn’t let him do anything that would scare himself, and he was so excited he said it was the coolest thing he’s ever done, and his fear was pretty well gone too. He didn’t blink when we came in to land and it made me work for it.  The little girl started in the back, and by the end of the flight crawled up front to look over my shoulder and said she wished she could fly. Then afterwards she sat in the cockpit and asked me questions for 5 minutes on what everything was and how it worked and what it did. So that’s also fun.  Had an old gent on oxygen and a walker that I got in there, he said it would probably be his last hurrah and asked if he could get in.  That was no problem, and he really enjoyed himself. He said it was a lot better than he was expecting. And of course the woman I posted on FB about, her dad was an Army veteran who also flew C-45s, and he died a few months ago, and his name was Bob, and she HAD to fly on BOB the Beech in honor of him. She flew the plane herself as well, said her dad would be super proud of her for going up and doing this in honor of them.  Very sweet, and afterwards we took a photo with my BOB T-shirt under the flight suit next to her in front of the plane. 

A lady was wandering around the ramp, she said “Excuse me” while I was cleaning oil off of BOB, and asked if she could give me this, that she’d made. It was a hand crocheted butterfly in red, white and blue. She said she makes things by hand and just likes to give them away to people to make them happy, and when they’re happy, she’s happy. She was crying, as in tears down her cheeks, when I said thank you so much, it’s beautiful, asked for a photo with her, etc. She gave away several things to the mostly ladies working on the ramp.  It was sweet.

Tonight for dinner we went to a place that carves off pieces of meat and puts them on your plate until you turn your tag over to red to say stop. Chicken, pork, steak, all of it. They said “We prepare our steak medium rare. If you need something else, let us know and we’ll try to accommodate you”.  Ha. Medium rare for the win. ;) The food was excellent, the service was excellent, but there were 16 of us, and everyone has to pay for themselves in the CAF group, so all separate tickets. That took her forever. They aren’t supposed to do it, they did it anyway, and some of the guys were getting cranky about how long it was taking. They said up front they’re not supposed to separate checks over 8 people, and we were double that, but she stayed polite and professional and did her best.  So I gave her a $20 bill in cash as a tip, because others were grumbling and I didn’t know if they’d take care of her or not, and she deserved it. She’d done a great job, and the separate bill stuff wasn’t her fault.

We’re supposed to have more storms tonight/tomorrow. I’ve got BOB battened down, locked down, tied down, all the downs. Hopefully it fares as well tonight as it did the other night.  When I was fueling up at the end of the day, this time I got my own damn ladder out. MY ladder is tall enough to get me onto the wing, unlike the fuel truck’s ladder. I climbed up there and waited on those guys, and he came out and said “Hey, I like your ladder better” and I said “I like my ladder better too. At least I can get up here in one piece without looking like an idiot”. He was gallant to inform me I didn’t look like an idiot, but I know what an idiot looks like, and the other day, that was me.  ;)

Oh, I did my first safety wire job today too.  My fuel sump cover lost a hinge and a fastener. A B-29 guy came over with his safety wire and put the wire where the hinge goes, but the one fastener missing and the big crack in the plate where the other fastener actually was meant that it was still loose, sloppy, and likely to break off.  I couldn’t pull a fastener from somewhere else. The guy couldn’t come back and fix the rest of it. So I went hunting through our tools and found safety wire and the safety wire plier tool thingy, and I took the wire up through the fastener hole, back down around the frame, and I safety wired that thing shut. Now we can’t sump the fuel from that tank, but my plan is to sump from the left main, and take off on that tank.  Right main fuel can’t be sumped so should only be used in cruise at altitude, until we get the thing fixed, which should be at the next tour stop in a couple of days. So shouldn’t be a biggie. But hey. I safety wired something!  It’s a terrible job, it’s ugly, but it’s secure, so…yay me!

I’ve almost made it. I have one more day, and I go home tomorrow evening. I’m supposed to land in Indy at 9:30 pm.  Tomorrow should be a direct crosswind, gusty, which I’m not looking forward to doing rides in. It was tricky enough today gusty with minimal crosswind.  *sigh*  I’ve got three rides scheduled for first thing in the morning already.  We’ll see, I guess.  I’ll be glad to be home, though.

Me and butterfly lady :)

A blurry photo of taxiing out behind Fifi

Topping off the oil first thing in the HOT morning.

The broken cover. Fastener missing, hinge gone

Crack in the side that DID have a fastener

My repair

Fifi overhead

Finally

Today was legit hopping. At 5:45 am I was woken up by the sound of a huge thunderstorm. Over the room air conditioning, over my white noise app by my head, booming thunder, heavy winds, and hail. I pull up my phone and see a massive line of storms over us and headed to the airport, where BOB was sitting outside. Nothing I could do about it, either. So I laid in bed until 6:15 or so and then just got up and got to it.

We got out to the airport to find first thing the two port-o-pots had been blown over and the lemonade stand was upside down with the pop up tent over it destroyed. Got closer to see two more destroyed pop up tents. Got in the gate and saw that the Navion had moved out of its chocks, and a metal set of stairs had flipped upside down right by the wing of it.  FIFI’s nose had moved and one of its pitot covers was on the ramp. I go running to BOB first thing, it’s covered in water/raindrops, and I go searching for damage. Not a thing. It’s sitting there like a wet, grungy tank. It hadn’t moved. All the plugs and covers stayed in. Fabric was fine. It was fine. All the other planes were in the hangars so they were fine, but they didn’t have room for BOB last night. I was so glad to see everything still looking good. That was scary for a minute there.

The rides started slow for me. By the time I got the oil done and everything prepped for rides, I was already sweating like a pig, because it’s humid as hell out here. I get out of the shower, eat breakfast, go to the airport, prep the plane for 40 minutes, and bam, I’m sweat balls. I hate that.

My first ride came slowly. I had one young man who bought a ride first thing, and then had to wait for more people. A second guy bought a ride.  Right when I got two more, the second guy said he had to leave and moved over to the Stearman the next day. *sigh* I take that first flight up, and since nobody had bought a front seat, I gave it to the kid who bought the ride first early that morning and waited two hours to be able to go.  He loved it, I let him fly it, and afterwards I signed his logbook, so I made it worth his while, and I appreciated his patience.

I had a little girl who says she’s going to be a Navy Fighter Pilot. She wanted me to sign her logbook too. And the next flight was a little boy who said he was going to be a Navy Fighter Pilot too. He said he was influenced by Top Gun: Maverick.  I let him fly too, and he kept saying how excited he was, how he’d been waiting for this, and how this was his dream come true.  I had a plane full of relatives of Rocky, the main ramp guy, and I gave them a fun ride. An older Commercial pilot I convinced to go.  Every time I landed, the desk texted me that they had another flight for me.  Once it started rolling, it started ROLLING.  They told me lunch was there but I told them I’d fly the people here while they were here, and I just kept going. I had two people bring me a bottle of water, otherwise, I did it all on my own. My own oil, prepping, briefing, loading, buckling. Flying. Talking. Landing, taxiing, parking, unloading, chit chatting afterwards, then standing there and trying to sell the next rides. But the rides came so fast today I didn’t have to do much selling after the first two hours, and I LOVE that so much better. I can do all the work, but if I don’t have to do the selling, I am so much happier. Even though I flew 8 rides and am beat, I am not as beat as I was yesterday standing outside in the sun all day talking for hours trying to sell rides only to give just two of them.  This is so much better.

I had to get gas before my last flight of the day, and their ladder doesn’t go all the way up to my wing. Usually I hang on the engine and the window, but the engines were steaming hot, and I burnt my hand trying to get up there. Still hurts, 4 hours later!  I may have to do something different. I did get a laugh though, and I don’t even know the whole story. I’m up on the wing and I hear one line guy murmur something, and the other guy said “Dude, she’s a Twin Beech pilot. It’s all good, trust me.”

I stuck the photos in the middle and I can’t move them. So here they are, then the rest of the story.  lol

The crowd watching Fifi

Gunfighter

Blown over port-o-pots and stuff

Destroyed tents, upside down metal things, Navion moved out of its chocks

Nasty sweaty me at 8 am after getting the stupid plane ready to go for the day.

Ended the flights, and it took me awhile to put BOB back to bed. Again, on my own. I was the last one done and they kept yelling at me to hurry up. I get back over there for the debrief and I’m again covered in sweat because that’s sweaty work. We’re going to a guy named Chris’s house. He’s a T-6 guy, lives in a mansion on a grass strip. We don’t shower first. I have no face on, I’m sunburnt, sweaty, and very nasty, and have been all day. We go to his white mansion and sit outside on his porch facing the runway, porch with a fireplace and a giant tv mounted, etc.  Lumpy and Jeff are there, we ate burgers, we hung out, and then I got back to the hotel to do a load of laundry. My pants, my shirts, my socks, everything is just too bad after TWO DAYS, I had to do a load.

I’m going to be here until late Monday, so…two more days.  I can do it. Tomorrow we have to be down at the hotel lobby by 7 am. That’s early. But I can do it, right?  Right.

Alabama

Happy 28th Anniversary to Steve, whom I left at home for his anniversary present, I guess!  Lol We texted hello, love ya, a couple times, but it was another busy day.

Downstairs by 7:15 am, leave at 7:30, airport by 8, start the process of getting the Beech out of the hangar and ready to go. I get it all ready, and weather is moving in. They do a few pre-sold rides, I get a few bites, then we all look at the weather and there’s a huge storm coming. So I get the tie downs and secure the airplane again, do all the things, and the weather just creeeeeeeeps.  For hours. It never really arrives and when it does it’s just rain.  So we lost most of the day to the rain.  Then around 3 pm it clears off, and it’s humid as hell, and I stand outside by the plane and try to sell rides. I get two who hung around all day waiting. I’m supposed to have three, but with one in the front and one in the back I can make it happen and not go in the hole. So I do, to try to get things started, which makes the rides guy mad because he says we need 3 people or THEY lose out on money. They lose out on $5 of OUR money. I’m the one doing the selling, the prep, the loading, the briefing, the rides, the ramp walk, the debrief, I have no crew, and they just collect and process the money.  So…

Second flight was a family who bought the whole plane for $800. Three little kids, two men. The guys sat in the back without headsets, and the 3 kids sat up front with the headsets, and screamed the entire time. Happy screams, yelling, shouting, playing around, it was deafening, I had to turn them off a couple times to hear radio calls. The girl wanted right seat, the dad gave it to her brother instead, who pretended (verbally only) then to crash the plane and scare his sisters until I told him to knock it off.  We got down, finally, that was a long 20 minutes of noise, but the girl came back about 15 minutes later with a bracelet of weeds/flowers she’d made for me and put on my wrist. She was alone, and she said thank you, very sincerely. It was sweet.

I had no more rides. Topped off with fuel on top of the burning wing, cicadas in my hair and on my pants, put everything away, and saw they were calling for more storms the next morning early. This time there was no hangar available. I woke up this morning at 5:30 am to the sound of wind, rain and thunder, pulled it up and saw hail symbols, so I’m hoping when I get out to the airport, BOB is in one piece. 

8 of us went out for sushi last night. It took them 2 hours to feed us. Longest time frame to get a volcano roll ever. ;) Got back to the room at 9:30 or so, and Kaylee called to talk for 45 minutes or so. I put in the rides to RallyPoint and updated my logbook and then I was in bed.  Back up at 5:45 am to start today.

Because of the rain, I now have three rides scheduled for Monday, so I can’t leave Sunday like I was going to. It’s going to be hard to be here 5 days straight. This stuff is exhausting. Soooo many people. Soooo much sweating. And talking. And sun. And humidity. And people, did I mention people?  And selling. I just love trying to sell people on things. And the speech of what all BOB did. 50 times a day or more. Okay, I think I’m done complaining. It’s time to go downstairs and get some breakfast and get ready for the next round.  Wish me luck.

WWII Veteran telling us all stories of his service while it rains

He used to fly C-45s :)

Full size photo

Bugs everywhere including me

Where we had dinner

A guy I gave a spin training endorsement to, his CFI wants me to send this endorsement to endorse myself that I was allowed to provide the endorsement because I’ve been a CFI for more than 2 years. So stupid. You don’t endorse yourself, if you sign the endorsement you’re certifying you’re allowed to do it, or you wouldn’t be endorsing the guy in the first place. I hate that stuff. 

This is me dying

Man

I’m pooped!

Got out to Kokomo this morning, and Jon and Justin H had worked on the prop governor settings. I was supposed to take off and head to Alabama, but on takeoff, the RPMs weren’t right, so I relanded and they adjusted it.  Another attempt, not right, I landed, they readjusted it.  I’m climbing down the ladder in the hangar next to BOB’s engine, and I take that last step back, and my foot comes down with the big orange tow bar right behind my ankle, and I go down like a felled tree, straight back to the concrete behind me. I’m lucky I didn’t spear myself on the pitot tubes. My head hit, and I of course landed on my left side, too. You know, my already damaged left wrist and arm. I just laid there for a second while the guys ran over to see if I was dead. I held up my hand and said I was okay. Justin was going to haul me up but I told him to let me stay down for a second. I had to assess the damage. No concussion, just a sore spot on my head. My wrist and arm are sore and aching again, and stiff. Too bad I don’t have any Aleve or Advil here. Anyway, I got up and carried on.  By the end of today, I can feel it, but I’m hoping it’s minimal.

Anyway. Third time was the charm, and I was able to top back off, launch, everything went well, and I headed to Huntsville, AL. The weather had also been holding me up. Low IFR in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Rain. Some storms. I had a window but I was missing it because of maintenance, but the weather was moving back in on me while taking too long to lift to VFR.  I couldn’t go on top of the low IFR layers because there were too many other layers above it and I didn’t want to get trapped in the clouds in that airplane. Illegally too. So I went under, and a few times I was just at 1000’ above the ground and there were a few mirky areas, but I stayed VFR and safe.

Landed in Huntsville, and couldn’t find Fifi. Fifi is a big airplane and I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t find it. Because I’d been sent to the wrong Huntsville airport. There are two, and I was at the international one and needed to be at the “executive” one.  They’re only 17 miles apart. So I had to call up tower and ask them to let me depart back to where I was supposed to be. lol My rental car had been set up at the wrong airport too, so I didn’t have wheels. Fortunately the folks here had enough empty seats to get me from the airport to the hotel and the hotel to dinner and back.

When I landed, I got out of the plane and was met by a guy who said his daughter had bought him a ride but they wouldn’t honor it there. I said of course we’ll honor it. Then the desk told me I had a full plane whenever I wanted to take it, and I said I’d take it right now.  Fly when you can, Rule #1. So five folks from one family went up with me and we did a ride, and we took photos and they had fun.  I get out initially, and a cicada lands on my arm. Buzzes my head. Lands on my flight suit. There are cicadas everywhere down here. I didn’t miss them in Indiana. Fortunately I’m not scared of the things, but I don’t like it when anything dive bombs my head and gets caught in my hair which has also happened a lot. They are SO LOUD in the trees around us too. Dead ones all over the ramp. They’re definitely a thing down here.

The birthday guy, we needed two more people to go to pay for the flight. So HE went around to anyone who walked through the gate and tried to convince them to go flying in BOB with him. He finally won someone over. A married couple who both sat in the back and were Super kind to this man. They paid $300 total to go on a flight so this man could have his birthday flight. I’d have taken him even if we lost money on it, but I’m glad we didn’t have to lose money on it, and even more glad to witness the true kindness these two shared. Even though they all bought back seats, they asked if he could sit up front since nobody bought the front seat anyway, and let the like 75 year old birthday boy sit up there. So I did. Why not, right? It was sweet.

I’d topped off with fuel, and at the end of that flight it was the end of the day. I put tie down straps in, put the oil canisters on, the plugs and covers, locked the control surfaces, did all the things which took a long time, and we were getting ready to leave, when someone called our “leader” and said the forecast was calling for severe storms with hail tonight, and they’d talked to their corporate guys and asked if we could borrow the hangar to put even BOB in overnight, and they said yes. Not charging us, not harassing us, just “yes”. So I had to undo all of that, and taxi it over to the hangar, and they put it in for us, and said if there’s any oil we’ll need to clean it up. I said definitely but the oil canisters should prevent that.  It was super helpful and appreciated, and who knows, may have saved us from hail damage.

I went to dinner with five folks instead of with the big main group, who all went to Mexican. Mexican seems to be the restaurant of choice for airshows and tours. I only like a little bit of Mexican, not a lot of Mexican.  But I really hate big crowds and long lines, and that place had both. So five of us went to Logan Steakhouse instead and had a nice evening.

Now. I have to be up at the buttcrack tomorrow and start a hot, humid day of potentially not great weather. We shall see what we get. In the meantime, I’m going to bed!

CAF Meeting 

BOB going around storms/weather. 

Another full day.  I had four legs. Stopped at Ohio State and picked up a guy who is also a pilot, flies a Champ out of a nearby grass strip. A line of weather in Ohio I had to work around going into OSU, leaving there to go to PA, and back to OSU, three of the four legs I had weather to deal with, but not a ton. Took the four of us to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.  They took the courtesy car so I stayed in the little room up there and tried to figure out the rest of my day, flights, tomorrow, I had a bunch of stuff to deal with. On the second leg, I also noticed that I had several small things I was forgetting. Small but should Not be forgotten and usually don't forget. I forgot to put the mixtures rich before starting the engines the second time. Forgot to put the flaps up after I landed. Forgot to reset the pressurization on the ground. I noticed these things and had my own little stand down after the next leg. I didn't feel sleepy, but I was being forgetful and off my game, so I also took the time in PA to just relax, rest, think through the rest of the day. My last two legs went smoothly.  The winds were stiff, 30+ knots, it was a crosswind everywhere I went, a significant one, like 70 degrees, the gust factor was really high, it was just an all around Rough trip.  All landings were nice though so at least I had that going for me. ;)

Got to Frankfort at 3, out to Kokomo Airport by 4, pulled out BOB and ran it over and over trying to work on the vacuum pump and the left prop governor. Took like 1.5 hours, and we never really resolved anything. Left vacuum pump still doesn't work and the left prop governor is close enough.  It needs cowled up tomorrow morning and then I head out when the weather allows, and go to Huntsville.

It looks lower ceilings and rain early in the morning, so I'm going to try to leave around 10 or so and hope for the best in Tennessee/Kentucky.  Looks decent here and there, it's just the middle that always seems to be the issue. We just painted the leading edges on BOB, and Steve doesn't want me to fly it through rain as it may take the paint back off, but I may not have a choice.  We'll see.

Morgan was thinking of coming along, which would be nice for the company, and for a little help during the event, and for her to be able to learn more about operating the plane, since her letter came through today so she can start training, and we need her. But her grandma's birthday dinner is tomorrow night and I suggested that there would be other times and grandmas are important, but it was up to her. She decided to stay, which is the right decision.

Well, we'll see if I can be ready for this Alabama thing or not. I gotta get there. Then I have to run the rides in it by myself for four days.  Getting it ready every morning with the oil is the biggest pain in the butt, and putting it away at night. So much work, and I'm hoping I can sling the jugs of oil up the ladder with my bad arm/wrist. It being hot and muggy in Alabama in almost June isn't going to help, and wearing the stupid flight suit. Of course I can do it, I'm just gonna be even more tired. Reminds me, with all that dehydration and sun even trying to drink water non-stop, bring extra imitrex.  Just gotta get through this week and then I'll have some rest time...

Back to Ohio

Up at 5:30 am again, out to Frankfort, took Nick and Stephen down to Evansville, got gas, dropped off Nick, took Stephen over to Madison County, Ohio. Took their courtesy car which was an old cop car of course, into town and had a good BLT at a bar.  Drove back, took Stephen back to Evansville, picked up Nick, and got back to Frankfort by 3:30 pm.  It was 87 degrees out. No AC in the airplane, hotter than hell. No AC in the courtesy car I had. I have been running non-stop for days and days, hard core, low sleep. Awake too early. Going from thing to thing to thing, days straight. I got actually fatigued by the end of today.  I get in my car, and the air conditioning feels wonderful, but I'm driving right out to Kokomo in order to get in the Aerostar and fly with Steve and Morgan down to Metro to a CAF meeting, which I didn't get home from until 9:30 pm tonight. Again. After leaving the house at 6:45 am to start the day. I was tired, grumpy, hungry. But tonight's meeting was a board vote on allowing Morgan to be a sponsor of BOB the Beech. It passed, she will be learning to fly BOB. She's terrified of BOB, because it's so big and heavy. But she has good tailwheel techniques and has been flying the heavier twins too, and put them together and I think she'll catch on pretty quickly.

Tonight at the CAF meeting, Nick came up to me grinning and said he was still absolutely delighted about how I handled Mike. He wants to make it part of next year's CRM training. How to handle an A-hole with a big ego.  That did make me laugh.

My social battery was run out, so I sat in the back of the hangar with my feet up and didn't talk to anybody, but we had grilled chicken thighs and mac and cheese and chocolate and lots of good food in the hangar, and sitting for an hour without having to engage with anyone, and eating, and resting, helped revive me a little by the end of the evening.

Good thing, because tomorrow is more. Well, it was supposed to be a LOT more, but Andy canceled his part of it, so now I've just got Nick and Stephen again, stopping in Ohio to pick up a guy then heading to PA. They canceled jobs to allow Andy to get a job in too, and I sent two people home to Oklahoma instead of T-6 training them for the two days they wanted, for an additional $4500, to get this job done, and now Andy dropped out of it and Stephen said this job doesn't happen for a year anyway and it's not that important if we need to reschedule it for weather.  I'm tired enough that that didn't hit me very well.  Tomorrow's weather does look questionable, some storms popping up, hopefully we'll get home before they get too interesting...

Out of order but here are Peru photos.

Fireworks Friday night

Parade of Veterans on Saturday. Civilians holding flags while veterans go through

Our gaggle on leaving Terre Haute

Our gaggle on arriving in Peru. I'm on the right side of the picture, left side of the C-47. The Twin Beech over there out of position...

Our little tent set up before the crowds, people, planes, etc. got there

The line up of airplanes leaving Terre Haute. I look so little.

Parade of Veterans

The one shot where we all actually look okay.

It rained on the T-6 in Terre Haute, you can see the clear area under the airplane in the shape of an airplane

Morgan's T-6 hair knots. ;)

One giant margarita we both drank

Getting ready for the evening show

Aeroshell aka Titan

Flying with Nick to do his annual checkride at Peru

Me with Greg Morehead

Smoked out from Titan Team

Me and Vicki

With the Checkertail Tattoo

Missing Man with TBMs. Jon, Spencer, Brennan

All of us under the warbirds tent to stay out of the sun

Having a little fun on the way home

Whee. ;)

That evening Morgan and I went up in the Citabria

The Twin beech up way high on the DC-3 instead of stepped down

Quite a gaggle here

*sigh*

End of day flight.