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