IFR X-Country

The day was a lot of administrative stuff, and one flight. I had an IFR cross-country with Greg O, just went to Goshen in the system, his 2nd only IFR cross-country in the system. It was VFR out but boy howdy it was windy and gusty.  32 knot winds when we left made it a bit of a rodeo for him, but we did all right.  I was supposed to do a tailwheel flight with Cameron in the Citabria afterwards, with him flying from the back seat to practice towards being an instructor, but the winds are too high for that in that for his 3rd flight ever in the airplane, or at all, really.  So I texted him that I had said I wanted more winds, and here we go. He didn't really bite though. I thought he'd be concerned that I wanted him to fly in that. When I brought up that I expected him to be more concerned, he said he trusted me and knew I'd be safe no matter what, so if I felt like it was okay, it'd be okay, and he knew I wouldn't do it if it wasn't okay.  Well darn, I couldn't even freak him out.  ;)

I sent out emails to the club about our Barnstormer's event in Indy next Saturday. It was just supposed to be a rides event, nothing else. But the manager down at Indy Exec said the feedback he was getting suggested it was going to have a huge turn-out, and we have nothing but rides planned, so he got bounce houses and basically asked Steve to do the same things we used to do, try to get people, planes, formations, fly-overs, etc., which is what we did NOT want to do. I detest begging local pilots to come to these events only to have them not come.  But here we go again.

We're also talking about me staying in NY instead of coming home for this event. It would save two airline tickets. One back here on the 14th, one back out there on the 16th.  Instead I could just stay, do rides, and fly BOB back when I'm done.  But this is our event, and BOB is also "ours", and if I don't stay here, this event loses out on T-6 rides, income, and formation stuff that I could do.  So...we'll see. Either way something loses and something wins, and either way I'm busy.

Also today I test drove a car we're getting for Kaylee. She drives about 19,000 miles a year going back and forth to Indy and back and forth to Ft. Wayne for work. The old cars we had were fine for many years, but now we're spending too much money on them and they're too unreliable. I've had to drive out 45 minutes one way to her place to swap cars with her, or rescue her when she breaks down. So, a car with minimal likelihood of breaking down, and a warranty, coming up.  This one is nice. It has more features than mine does, actually. It's a black Jeep Compass with black wheels and tinted windows, has heated and cooled seats, adaptive cruise control, all the things.  She'll love it.  I really like it myself.  :)

Guess that's about it for today...