Minnesota

Up at 5:30 am, drove to the airport in the dark, took off in the dark!  Yuck. The sunrise was behind me, unfortunately, but I caught hints of it. I was flying a young man up to the Minneapolis area to drop him off so he could drive a work truck 10.5 hours home for Ethan.  The weather here was a little rainy, the weather there was fine but with rain and wind coming in. I landed there at a tiny country airport with a short-ish runway, dropped him off, went to the self serve pump because they didn't have a fuel truck there, or a person working, or facilities, really. There was a building but it was empty and gutted. The women's rest room had no door, no floor, no lighting. The men's restroom had no floor, but it did have a light and a door, so I used that one. ;) No seats, nowhere to go. They're renovating there, so I'm sure it'll be great when they're done, and from reading the signs on the wall, I'm lucky it was open to go to the bathroom in at all.  After a 2.7 hour flight, I needed a bathroom! 

The bad deal was that I didn't realize they were self-serve only, until I was on my way there, so I hadn't packed gloves or a jacket. In mid-November. In Minnesota.  They didn't have a normal ladder there either, and I can't reach the tip tanks without one, so I had to drag over this huge...thing...and climb up on it. It took me so long to get it over to the tip tank that the fuel pump shut off, so I had to go back and swipe the card again and start the process again halfway through. It was cold, and my hands were not happy with me, but I got the job done. Muttering. A fair amount of muttering, but done. At least it wasn't any windier or colder. I need to start remembering to pack gear for colder temps again. *sigh*

Five hours flight time, I landed back at Frankfort at 1 pm, ran to Jimmy Johns and got a mini sandwich, came back, and flew with Cameron in the Cherokee Six to check him out in it. We flew about an hour and a half, and did most of it. Steep turns, slow flight, power off stalls, power on stalls, instrument approach, coupled autopilot stuff, regular takeoffs and landings, two engine outs to landing, go arounds, etc. He did great, greased it on, probably made a better landing than my last one in there, though I didn't tell him that. :p Then I had him shut down at the fuel pump, top off the mains, and then do a hot start in there. The hot starts are the hard part about flying that airplane. Those engines get...picky.  But it got done, he did great, so he's off and ready to fly it with Jim now.

Steve and I met Chuck at Grindestone's for dinner, then it's home to do all the paperwork and billing and logbook and receipts and stuff.

My first Meridian trip was supposed to be Friday. He meant Wednesday. I already had a flight on Wednesday so I moved him to Thursday. Then the Wednesday flight said they needed to move to Thursday. I said I had a guy on Thursday that I'd moved, and asked if they really needed it moved. Yes they did. So I moved Thursday guy back to Wednesday which he wanted in the first place and moved Wednesday guy over to Thursday. Done.  I'm a little uncertain about Wednesday's flight, starting the flights in the Meridian. The weather is going to be tricky, I've flown the plane twice, once for a 7 minute leg to Muncie and back. It's not a super tricky airplane, but I wish I could take it by myself for a trip first, instead of having the new owner along observing. But...it is what it is and we'll see how it goes.

No flights for tomorrow, so I'll look over the checklists and try to prepare as best I can for Wednesday to FL. 

Litchfield, MN

Women's "bathroom"

The rest of the "FBO" building. Floors to come soon.