Two Pilots & an LSW: 340-ing Hops and Stuffed

Right now as I type this, the heat index had dropped to 94F. Isn't that nice? No, that is not nice. Since I'm talking to myself I might as well answer myself. This stuff sucks. Not as bad as winter, because winter sucks and I'm not able to do anything fun except sit on the couch and watch it suck. But it still sucks. I'm done saying the word sucks, I think. For now. Except this week is supposed to get hotter and hotter and hotter, and in little airplanes, these temps are brutal. My water bottle left in my car was almost too hot to hold on to. I want to get a thermometer to put in the planes, to test the temp of my water next time, see what it's actually getting to in these planes and cars. I know it ain't good!

I started the day going to Coldwater, Michigan. There's a little restaurant on field there where I had bacon, eggs and toast. They were huge eggs, made in a cast iron skillet, with homemade sourdough bread, and while the bacon was just average, everything else was *amazing*. Some of the best I've had. So I was full, right? (That's important later. lol) I walked down to the restaurant, it ended up being about a 3/4 mile hike in total. Nothing huge, but at least got the legs moving for the day, and it was morning in MI so it was warm and sticky but not horrid yet.

We leave there and go over to Schaumburg, IL. I don't think I've been there before. It's right off the end of Chicago O'Hare's runways. I mean, RIGHT off the end. It's a great view but I was way too busy to snap a photo of it at the time, unfortunately. Not a very long runway, which was fine for landing, and a little close on takeoff on such a hot day, making you glad you didn't have an engine failure there.

There was a restaurant on field here, too. But again, I'm full. But I needed fuel here, and they gave a $.25/gallon fuel discount if you ate at the restaurant upstairs, called "Pilot Pete's". I'm like...I'll just get a drink. But then if they look at my receipt it won't count. So I went up there and I took one for the team, and I ordered a lobster roll and tator tots, and I ate most of it, and I am so full I am STILL full, 5 hours later. I ate that thing because it was good, and sure enough, at $.25/gallon off on my fuel, I saved $18.15 on my fuel bill there. That is not insignificant, you know!

But after I ate I wallowed my way into the pilot's lounge to try to do some work. I figured out which airline flight to take out to Syracuse to do C-45 rides and bring it back to IN for maintenance. I flight planned that trip some so I could have one of the guys, Loren, who needs a checkout in the plane, airline out there and fly back to IN with me to get 5 hours of the 10 he has to have. I needed to know when sunset was, what time I needed to leave by to get home from NY with a fuel stop before then, so he could know what time to airline in. Setting up a letter to send to a Squirrel so she can join the 99's for scholarship benefits. And then I halfway passed out for 45 minutes. Halfway woke up to come home in the sweaty, sauna, humid airplane, back to Frankfort.

Got home, ran laundry, which you need to do more frequently when it's this hot, sent off receipts and billing, updated logbook for me and plane, and got lost down a rabbit hole of Dan Gryder's accident. The guy is a total douche. There was a Lockheed Electra that crashed a couple days ago and he put out a video (as he does) right away while the wreckage was still smoking about how they were incompetent pilots who didn't use a checklist. He then, yesterday, took up another Lockheed Electra (there are only a few left flying), with cameras, to video how it's *supposed* to be done, using checklists and such. He and the pilot and an observer in the back, they landed, ran off the left side of the runway, and into a tree. Nobody was killed, but it was bad. One guy's facial injuries were so bad they said he was unrecognizable. Everyone has shattered legs. Dan and the backseater were pinned in the airplane with broken legs bones for 1.5 hours. The pilot got himself out but he has 7 broken ribs and broken legs too. They were all lifelined out of there, but seem to be stable and okay other than on a lot of drugs and in pain.

So. I can't stand the guy, but I don't wish anybody to be pinned in wreckage with fuel all over waiting to burn to death or be in pain for a long time. Also, however, the IRONY of his family asking for privacy when he never, ever gives the families of accident pilots privacy of any kind himself, was too much for me to swallow. The irony of him going up to do a video on how to do it safely only to end up in a wreck, is also a little too much for me. He claims it was a mechanical failure "after the landing was already well over with", except there's a video, and the tailwheel comes down, and the plane goes left. So no, anyone who flies a tailwheel knows the landing isn't over when the tailwheel comes down, the ride is right at the most exciting part. So anyway. We'll see, but...one way or the other, it's a little Karma like if you ask me.

Kaylee is loving her new car, and she was excited--she sent a text that says "I got ducked!!!" It's a Jeep thing. ;)

Well, I've still got a lot to do tonight and tomorrow. Groceries and supplies for the house, among other things. HOPING the Conquest will be back tomorrow or Friday morning so I don't have to try to take 6 people in the 340 to TN on one of the hottest days of the year. Fingers crossed.