Oh Boy

Well, that was an eventful two days. Mostly one day.

Yesterday I left around 2:30 pm to drive to Frankfort, watching some weather. It was supposed to be bad, then it was supposed to be fine, but while it's saying it's fine, I'm looking at it and it doesn't look fine. I'm taking Andy, Sharla, and two girls to drop them off at Norris Lake in TN. Clay is coming with me, as after I drop them off, I go down to Atlanta International to pick up Ethan's daughter, Amity, who is arriving on the Turkish Airlines from Istanbul after coming from a mission trip in Uganda. She lands at 8 pm. All is going well so far.

I get halfway to TN, and the weather down there is Really Bad. Really bad, and filling in fast and hard. There's no way around that and it's sitting on top of my airport with severe thunderstorms. So I power way back, slow down, and do a diverting vector to the east. The controller comes on and says there are no other airplanes within 60 miles of there so he doesn't know what to tell me. I told him I was slowing down to let it move through so I could land, and I'd like vectors to the east. It rained so hard it took bugs off my windshield, which was actually nice. ;) I see lightning over there, and what I'm looking at is definitely nothing to play with.  I keep listening to the AWOS for the airport, and it goes from 1/2 mile and thunderstorm to a mile, and radar shows the weather moving past the airport, so I shoot the approach, come on in and land on the wet, short, downsloping runway, which is no problem in a turboprop.  Pull up, let them off, and they have No Idea yet what kind of weather I was working around. But when they got to their condo, they had lost power, and their boat dock was broken/sunk. So they knew then. They then followed the rest of my flight to Atlanta out of curiosity.  lol

I couldn't go from there to Atlanta, the severe weather was smack in the way. So I had to deviate almost due west, to Nashville, to get to the back side of it, and then swing back around and down to Atlanta. What should have taken 36 minutes took an hour and 20 minutes. Part of that is Atlanta vectoring, but the rest was me doubling the size of my flight just to go around that nasty stuff.

I land in Atlanta, first time I'd been there in years. Busiest airport in the world. On the way in, I hear an emergency Delta with fumes in the cockpit, wearing masks, and with a control issue too, landing no flap. All went professionally and well. Landing was easy, I was on 26R and the FBO was right off the taxiway.  I did the math and figured it was cheaper to pay the $200 fee than it was to buy gas that would cost $430 more than if I bought it at home, to waive the $200. So no fuel. Clay and I got a ride over to the terminal, and we went to "International Baggage". No security to get there, just seats there to wait for her. Her flight was supposed to land at 7:50. We were there by 7:30. Except more thunderstorms moved in, and they didn't let them deplane, because nobody can be on the ramp with lightning within so many miles of the airport.  She was on a bus ride that was supposed to be 8 hours that was 15. Then she was on 20 hours worth of airline flights. Now she's here, ready to go home, except she's trapped sitting on the plane until after 10 pm with screaming kids and frustrated people all around. Meanwhile, Clay and I were dying. No food, no drink, for hours. We're starving and there's nowhere we can go. I resorted to eating cough drops and a package of crushed peanut butter crackers from my purse that I shared with him. It was ridiculous. THEN they lost her bags. A bunch of people's bags.  We finally get a ride back over to the FBO, get in the plane, they opened Atlanta back up, and they were swarmed with arrivals while we all sat on the taxiways. 

I got PDC, which means my clearance texted to me, but the clearance guy still read it all to me anyway. Making sure I didn't goof it up there, I'm assuming, because the point of PDC is so they don't have to read it to you. But you goof it up there, you goof up a lot of people. So I read it back, he says yes, I go to ground, and ground says "Ohhhhh boy, let's see what we're going to do with you". Because there is a huge conga line of jet airliners waiting to leave and I am small and slow. But they did an amazing job. At one point they wanted me to cross Runway 26L and get on taxiway B, in a hurry, and it's a "switchback" taxiway. I go barreling across the runway when they say "GO", but I can't see the taxiway. He asks me "Do you see where it goes", and I admit "no", and he says "Go left, left, there, see it?" and I did, and it's a good thing he did that, because it ends in grass if you don't do a super sharp left turn. He could have left me to my own devices there, but he was helping. Then he told me to follow the UPS Heavy, and paused and said "You don't have to crawl up his exhaust though, you can leave some room". I laughed, because, duh, but I said "roger, thanks".  Airplanes were backed up on the whole airport for 3-4 runways all at once. They did arrivals for awhile and no departures, then shut down arrivals and started sending us all.  3-4 runways, one guy starts rolling the next guy pulls into position and waits. One is off the runway, two goes, three lines up and waits. It was super impressive to see. 

I was wondering about me, though. Typically they want you to wait 2 minutes after a big jet for wake turbulence. Well, there wasn't going to be any of THAT here. But still...I'm behind a UPS Heavy jet.  The controllers being pros, they sent the jet, then they pulled another smaller airliner from the opposite side of the runway and had her go next. That helped dissipate and left enough time.  American Airlines was cleared for takeoff and they told me to line up and wait. American hadn't even started rolling yet and I'm pulling onto the runway behind them, holding onto my controls as the jet blast buffets the airplane.  It was a trip!

They sent me off, and I'd been given a SID (Departure) to fly "Via", which means you have to follow exact heading, altitude, directions without being told them, or you get a pilot violation. It was midnight. I'd had a long, tough day already. It's the busiest airport in the world, literally, and even busier than normal because of all the delays and backups. I'm single pilot, in a turboprop, and trying to make very sure I don't goof anything up.  I did not. In fact, I was pretty pleased with the whole thing. Especially when my autopilot, which I used to help with my workload there, disconnected right after I put it on after climbing out, and I had to hand fly the departure, talk to everyone, read and meet the next waypoints and directions to follow, etc.  And that's why I practice hand flying. When things settled down, I admit, I nodded to myself in satisfaction. 

Get out of there and take a deep breath, but the night isn't over yet. There's more weather, and it has closed in on me with all the delays. ATC tells me my holes are closing in on me, say they see one at 12 o'clock, and one at 11 o'clock, both only 9 miles wide or so. But at my 12 o'clock all I see are dark clouds and lightning shows. My onboard nexrad and ADS-B weather say I should go right, but I don't like how right looks. So I tell them I'm going to take the 11 o'clock hole, which I can see. I thread in between two very active storm cells, and it's perfectly smooth and fine, but with lightning going off All Over the place.  I work left and right, get through it, and then we're finally home clear for the rest of the flight.  It was a lot of work load. And it's hard to tell someone "I know the weather on screen says I should do this, but my gut says go over here". The weather displayed on these units is delayed. So what I could see with my eyeballs told me right wasn't as good as it originally looked to them or my screens. That's why I want to stay VMC as much as possible in bad weather.

I land just before 2 am, and I'm home and in bed at 3.

My alarm was set for 7:30 am, because this morning I had to get up and drive back to Frankfort and fly up to Mackinac Island to pick up the four folks I dropped off there. They wanted to leave by 11 so that's why I had to get up that early. I get there, and we don't leave until 12:15 pm, because their taxi (horse and buggy) was running late, then once it got there, they had to stop at the stable to swap horses because the horses were tired.  I could've slept in another hour and gotten FIVE hours of sleep instead of Four.  *sigh*  We dropped the family members off in Ohio and then came back to Indiana. More weather to deal with, but this time it fizzled, thankfully. Nothing burger.

I still hadn't really eaten. No food in the house, not hungry at 3 am, no breakfast stuff here, so I finally went through the drive-through at Culvers on the way home, and I was starving. I get back home, sit down, start doing paperwork (logbook, receipts, billing, airplane log, etc), and then boom, I'm down for the nap. I can't even keep my eyes open another minute. Steve asked if I wanted to go down to Sheridan to meet pilot friends for dinner and I'm like Lord, No. I'm STILL finishing up and catching up a bunch of stuff and it's 11 pm. But this time I'm going to bed, and I do Not have to get up early tomorrow. Whew.

So as you can see, that was a long day and a half. Nasty weather didn't help.  Glad to be home. Nothing exciting is planned for tomorrow, and I'm going to need that to recuperate from this one!

Breaking out of the bad weather by TN

Two shots of mammatus clouds. You don't really want to fly into those.

I didn't even like being under them

Coming around the back side of the weather, turning towards Atlanta from here. That color of blue is no bueno

Bad shot of Atlanta

Bad shot of Atlanta Airport

Tower

Lined up behind UPS Heavy

Unfortunately it focused on the rain on my window and not the pretty lights and scenery and I didn't have time for anything else. American is still lifting off here and now it's my turn

Home

"Atlanta experiencing delays".  Yeah...

And...We're Back

Kaylee just came in. She had a doc appointment in Russiaville, and the doctor was running 2 hours behind. Most others rescheduled, but she had traveled from Ft. Wayne to be there and didn't have an easier way to reschedule. So she waited for 2 hours past her appointment time to be seen. I'd ben mad. It's not like her doc is an OBGYN or something, so I hope it was important.

Anyway, once she got here, I took her old paper plates off her car and put her new permanent one on, and put her new registration in, so now she's legal and good to go, and can even go back through a car wash without destroying anything this time.  lol

She's going back tonight, just came to town for the doc appointment, so it was good to see her.

I slept in until 9 am, which is 8 am Wisconsin time, which is still sleeping in compared to the last 5 days, when you wake up at 5:30 am because the sun is up and so bright in your face in the camper.  lol  I had some weather to look at and deal with, for my trips today to Versailles, Ohio, then on to Mackinac Island, MI. It ended up being a nothing burger, a few cells to go over and/or around mostly on the way home. 

Ethan and Amber were on board to Ohio, and Amber brought homemade lattes and a charcuterie box of goodies she made up by hand, and it was the best coffee I have had in ages. I saved the food for when I got home, and it was three types of cheese, meats speared on a stick, cracker/wafers, candied pecans, a chocolate caramel, big red grapes, dried apricots. Good stuff, man.

We met up with Ethan's cousin and her husband, who had not been on "small" planes before, and we headed to Mackinac, which is a short-ish runway on an island way up there. Ethan flew us to OH and there, and I talked him through the shorter landing, which went fine. I dropped them off, and then I was on my own and actually doing my own flying in an airplane again for the first time since before Oshkosh. On the way home Morgan flew, and today Ethan flew, so it felt nice to actually be doing the flying myself again.

I turned up my music, cruised home at FL240 to get over most of the rain, and felt myself really relax for the first time in awhile. Even sitting around the camp fire, you're around 20 people, and lots of talking, but here, I'm alone, up high, and just feels like I can just...be.  Even if I have to answer radio calls or move around for weather, I'm still at home.  ;)

Got to Frankfort before they closed, left with a fuel and pull out order for tomorrow, and came on home to meet up with Kaylee.  Sent out billing, aircraft log, pilot log, flight planned for tomorrow, and now that Steve is back we have 8 big black bags of bedding, laundry, plus food, his own stuff, etc. to put away and take care of.  Oshkosh is always a pain in that way. 

Steve said I missed a bumper thing that's supposed to go on the new license plate on the back of it, so he went out to fix what I did. Gotta keep these guys around.  He's home, by the way, back from Oshkosh finally, just made it in the last 45 minutes or so.

Kaylee is pet sitting for 4 dogs, 4 cats, and 12 chickens for 5 days. She asked what to charge. She/people normally charge $20/day per dog. So I suggested she make it $500.  $20/day per dog is $400. The cats are indoor/outdoor so no litter box to deal with, just some food, and the chickens she just has to lock into their roost at night and let out in the morning. She's going to live there for the 5 days. So an extra $100 for the other stuff even though there's not much. She was nervous asking for $500 so she just went with $20/day per dog, and they jumped on it, so she admits she undercharged, getting $400 instead of $500, but...she's also excited to play with 4 Golden Retrievers and 4 cats AND get $400 for it.

I sent an email out to one of the guys who flies Fifi, who had talked to me about doing it, and let him know I was interested and asked what the next step is, to see if this would be a good fit for the Squadron and me both.  I told him I'm throwing my hat in the ring, would like more info, and we'll see how it goes from there.  So...balloon has been floated, and we'll see where it goes. I think it would be pretty cool to fly a B-29. Who would've thought someone like me could someday have that opportunity? I don't know if I will or won't, but still. It's not outside the realm of possibility, ya know?

Tomorrow I go into Atlanta International, which should be a "treat".  That's stop 2 of 3. Best go get ready for that one.

Getting ready to depart Mackinac

The island from above

My charcuterie box. Fancy fancy!

Packing up

It’s Sunday morning. Yesterday afternoon, AE and the guys rolled up our fake grass carpet so they could get that put away while it was still dry. Someone had clipped their toenails and left them on the fake grass. Three or four thick toenail clippings right on the ground under our picnic tables where people eat. Why would you do that.

I started the fire around 8 pm to burn off as much wood as possible, and ran it until about 10:30, when I gave it back over to Brennan, for whom I wrote out an actual “Fire handling endorsement” on paper and put in his tent, as it was his first time learning how to build and manage a pit fire. ;)

We watched the night airshow from the campsite, with the fire going, and the music of it playing on an ipad and through a speaker nearby. Not as spectacular from afar in many regards, but you do get a better overview of some of the acts. Just not of the fireworks, fireball, and drones. But you also don’t have a huge walk and a herd of people. So… once there, once back at the site makes for a nice compromise.

Last night was leftover night, and we had all the food out. Whatever people didn’t eat was going to get tossed. I had chicken and corn and baked potato and cake and melon and was too full to do anything more.

Most of our people are gone. A lot of them packed up and headed out yesterday. The boys are breaking down camp now. I tried to help and so did Morgan, but they have a very specific way of doing things and we just got in the way. So I came in here instead to clean up the trailer, get my stuff ready, plan my flight back home, etc. Chuck and Allen made it back, Opie and his aunt Delores, etc. 

Speaking of Delores, she’s like Annie before Dementia, add some spiciness. Never met a stranger, talks, funny, engaged, but also feisty. She told me that she talked to all the young people that were here, and they all said the same things, nothing but nice things about me and Steve, about how we’ve helped them, about how great it is to work with/for us, and she was really impressed with our group and with us and our mentorship. She also said Zak said that he wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without us and that I was one of his biggest mentors. That’s nice because he ghosted us three years ago and I would have expected him to have negative things to say, as that was his M.O. years ago, towards others. But we did have quite the crew of kids here. Let’s see. Did I spell this out already? Probably. But Cameron, Spencer, Brennan, Ben, Morgan, Shelbe, Isaac…I feel like I’m missing someone. Zak doesn’t really count as he’s like 32 now and not really one of ours any more. But I thought it was sweet of Delores to talk to all of them and ask them questions and find out about their lives. She’s a super neat lady and I can only hope to have her energy at 88. It took like 5 people to keep up with her and keep her occupied this week!

I’ll probably post at the end of this when I get home. Just a “close out the chapter” kind of thing.  For now, it’s wait and see when we leave and get brunch. ;)

And I'm home. Morgan and I took off in the Aerostar after Greg O, AE and Steve dropped us off at the airport after we all had brunch.  Most things are packed up today, and they just stay until tomorrow to ride the trams, have a cigar alone, finish picking up the stuff, get trailers ready for delivery, and slowly drive home.

I've done two loads of laundry and put it all away, done all my photos, caught up on my emails from the last week, including taking care of everything in there, paid bills, and gotten everything ready for tomorrow's 3 legs of flights. Dropping two families off at Mackinac Island, MI.

Oh, and I burnt the shit out of my feet and lower legs, so when I got home, I put some aloe stuff on them. They hurt like a mother, hurt to bend, hurt to touch, hurt to take a shower with, hurt to walk, just hurt. I really, really burnt them.  Whoops.

Photo dump is next. Fair warning. The last two photos are of my feet/legs. They're ugly on multiple levels. If you don't like feet, or gross feet, don't go all the way to the bottom.

Me and Morgan at Oshkosh

Brennan working on the fire

Doctor Nancy looking in Greg's ear

Lancaster and two B-29s flying overhead

The boys watching the night airshow

Night airshow

Rosie the Riveter via Drones

Airplane drones

American Flag drones

Zombie walkers

Morgan in Warbirds

We got chased by a couch

The backyard at the Burger Burn for Gunfighter before people came

The worst idea I've had in years Sunning my feet

At our campsite 

Our campsite at evening

Steak night!

Steak night

Chuck turns 83

Lights in camp

Start-up around the fire

Steve at his happy place with dreamsicle ice cream

Our tent campers across the street in our group

AE's trailer

Our parking, some tents

Daytime Fire

The endorsement I wrote out for Brennan

Watching the fireworks from the campsite

Firelight on the Cub at camp

My home for the week

The rest is our campsite torn down and people gone

Flying away from Fond du Lac

Morgan flying us home

Rock on

Next photos are feet photos, fair warning.

My ankle all swollen up

The white of before, the red below, and the almost purple on the top of my feet.