Two Pilots & an LSW: Kaylee

Yesterday I didn't have anything on the schedule, so I was cranking out of a lot of prep work for a lot of stuff I have coming up. Like a LOT of stuff. Steve left to go to the airport at 1, and I ordered in food and kept going. By that evening, I was kind of done, and I mostly wanted an evening to myself. In silence, peace and quiet, alone in the house, which was handy because there was an EAA meeting out at the hangar that would go until 8:30 or 9 pm. So I decided not to go, and I'd...chill. At 7 pm, Kaylee texts that she's stuck, in her car, and needs help. This is a long story so I'm going to try to shorten it.

Her car sensors told her her tire pressure was a little low. Temps have just started dropping into the 30s, so no shock. She did a good thing and took it to Circle K gas station to fill it up. Here's where it went wrong. She ended up letting air out of her tires and not putting air in. She can't get the air to go in the tires. Here I am, annoyed, because how hard is that, right? She wants me to come help her. I suggest she try again and press harder and not let the air out. She says she's tried that. I'm like "So you want me to drive two hours round trip to do it for you?" and she says yes. I'm a little annoyed here because there goes my evening to myself. Well, like I said, long story short? She was right. I get there, the machine is making noise and putting out air, but it ain't getting into the tire. By now she has one tire down to 11 psi so we aren't even going to drive it anywhere else. I go inside and the lady in there says "isn't the sign there"? Someone had taken down the "Out of Order" sign. Too low to go anywhere else and that isn't working, so I pull the kit from her trunk. Plug it in, fire it up, and air isn't coming out at all, and when I try, something white and hot smelling like ammonia starts dripping out of it onto the ground. The unit isn't working right. So I try calling our 24 hour auto service that says right on it "low tires", etc. 24 hrs a day 7 days a week. It's automated. It insists I tell them where I want my car towed to. I don't WANT my car towed, I want them to come air up my tires. It's not an option. (We need to talk to them again now and learn what the heck). Now I have to call Steve and have him drive over from the EAA meeting and bring the compressor we keep in the back of BOB the Beech that I use to air up the tires on tour. So he does, it works, and eventually we get home at like 10:30 pm. Everything that could go wrong, did, everything that should have worked, didn't, and it took me 3.5 hours to help Kaylee get air in her tires. What a cluster. And I did not get an evening off.

Today is also unscheduled, so I continued my plotting, organizing and planning. Set up all sorts of stuff, got certificates of insurance for a formation fly-over coming up, set up an event in Arkansas with people, training stuff. just...stuff. Then Steve and I drove over to Marion to meet up with Kaylee for lunch at her office, our first time there. I don't know what I was expecting, but her office building is HUGE. It's huge, by a river, an old building with a cool basement that looks like something out of a horror movie, a maze, everything is a maze. Kaylee's office is on the second floor, and has a window, and it's a small little room but it's light green and white and bright and really, really well done. She decorated it up so nicely, it's warming and friendly and professional looking, and I was just impressed. She gave us the whole tour of the place, and like I said, it was huge, and I didn't even know where I was half the time. They also have these doors that go outside on the back side, and it's a huge porch up on the top floor that overlooks the river, trees, etc. where the sun shines down on you. We said they HAD to get some lawnchair furniture out here and set it up so they could sit outside when it's nice enough and enjoy some air, Vitamin D, sunlight. It was cool. I'm glad I went and saw it. Neat facility, huge facility, 3 stories and it seemed to cover half a block in there. It was wild to see my little girl who had been so upset the night before at her inability to get her tires aired up properly in a professional therapist role/environment. It was fun, I'm glad we did it!

Steve and I stopped back at the airport on the way home so he could touch base with the maintenance guys on something, and then we booked it out of there when one of our students showed up with her mother and her mother's boyfriend. All three of them are really annoying people, tiring to be around. So we booked it out of there as soon as they pulled in. ;)

We met up with Chuck at Pizza Hut, his idea. I haven't eaten IN a Pizza Hut in decades. Remember when it used to be The place to go? It was the nice family restaurant, they had a salad bar and a juke box and it was a treat? Now they have a super limited menu, almost no drinks, nothing much inside, it's beat down and old. The owners are who I used to fly for, until they sold their plane, and my main guy was laid off, and they just started losing money, long long time ago, like 20 years now. But the pizza was good, no problems with that, at least! Steve and I leave, and Chuck calls when we get about 2 minutes away, and says "Well, we'll never eat THERE again", and I was like... uh oh. Did he see roaches in the back or something? Nope, they told him that they weren't going to be here this time next week, they were closing down, moving locations, and setting up shop as a carry-out only place, no dining in. So we were one of the last groups to eat there.

Today Ernie had a couple stents put in, and is hopefully home and recovering safely now. Glad they caught it when they did.

And Gunfighter posted on FB a special announcement today: they welcomed their newest pilot, Jon H, who is headed to Stallion 51 shortly. And...so it goes.