Two Pilots & an LSW: New York & PA

Up early, driving to the airport in the rain. Morgan was supposed to have students, but because of the nasty winds and rain, they were all canceled, so at the last minute she drove out to the airport and met me there to go with me to Dunkirk, NY. The funny thing is that Dunkirk is where I tried to stop in BOB when I was flying it home from Syracuse, and got stopped by the storms, and ended up landing in nearby Buffalo with 40 knot winds and wind shear, one of the most tense and possibly frightened landings I've ever made. So today I made it to Dunkirk, and I had winds gusting to 35 knots at 40-50 degrees off the runway, 15 knot wind shear. It was very similar to the Buffalo landing but I wasn't nervous because I was in a nose dragger airplane, not a tailwheel. lol I had warned the backseater that he should secure his laptop and tighten his seatbelt. I land (nicely, actually), and he said "Well, that wasn't stirring chili, that was stirring concrete! I was just going to enjoy the ride but somewhere between base and final I decided I'd better actually tighten up my seat belt after all". I'm rolling out and a voice over the radio comes on and says "Nice one!" Line guy inside was watching. Funny.

We take an Uber into town for food, because Nick had the courtesy car, and we went to a cafe that was only open until 3 and had great looking breakfasts, but we get there and they stop serving breakfast at 10:45. Isn't that a little early for that?? Anyway, still had good food. Just lunch food. Our Uber driver on the way back was a former pilot, quite talkative about his NATO contract and jets that he works with. Says he soloed at 15 and got his license at 16, except as long as I've known, the age to get your license was always 17. You could solo illegally early, but checkride probably not. Unless in the 80s you could get your license at 16 and they changed it before 1991. Anyway.

Nick comes back and needs to run over to Pennsylvania. This is the same place in PA where we went last month and nobody in there spoke to me or said a word for the 2 hours I was there. Didn't ask if I needed gas, or a car, or nothing. So we go there today, and there's one super old man with no teeth in there. The winds are SO strong today that I needed gas or I wouldn't get home, so I asked for gas and he didn't seem to want to do it. But they don't have a self serve pump, and I needed it, so... He gives the courtesy car to Nick, and then comes walking in and slaps a gun down on the table next to us. Says "I guess I better take the peashooter out of the car he's taking". He then walks away and leaves his loaded gun sitting on the table with nobody else there but two strange women he's never met before. It was a weird looking gun, so I looked it over, and even picked it up. It's a Rhino 40DS .357 Magnum, "made in Italy by Chiappa Firearms, Dayton Ohio". (So made in Italy or made in Dayton?) This place, Clearfield, PA, is one freaking weird place, man. He got my gas, gave me a discounted price, and wouldn't stop talking to me when he was there. I think I liked it better when the guys there didn't talk to me. ;)

It was then a 2.5 hour flight home. That makes for a long day. 5.1 hours flight time, a ton of wind, some rain, some turbulence, let the good times roll.

Steve went over to check on the cat for Kaylee, because Kaylee was gone from early morning until like 7 pm to work. She didn't ask him to, he asked if she wanted him to, and she did, but she wouldn't ask because we'd made it clear we weren't going to be responsible for nor caring for her cat. But Steve knew it was her first full day away and that she wanted to make sure Molly was all right. So he went over, and she came trotting up to him, rubbing on him, playing a bit, and Steve sent Kaylee photos that all was well with the cat. Kaylee texted this morning that her alarm went off, and Molly jumped up on the bed with her and meowed at her quite a bit, and laid down next to her for a bit, followed her around all morning. Kaylee's next text was "Best morning ever". I think she ended up with the exact right cat for her. It's sweet. :)

Tomorrow I was supposed to get up at 3 am to get a guy dropped off in Missouri by 6:30 am. But unfortunately for him and for my bank account, and fortunately for my sleep schedule, tomorrow's weather is a mess, with a line of thunderstorms probably hitting that area right when I'd be going through there. And he HAS to be there, and I cannot promise to safely get him there. So he started driving tonight. That saves me a 3 am wake-up call, but loses me two days of flights. The flight down and the flight back home the next day. But shhhh, I'll take the sleep.

Instead, I'm taking the Meridian over to Muncie fairly early in the morning to get some work done on it. It'll be my first 'solo' in it. Cameron made a different checklist, so I'm going to try it out, and I'm going to do some work in it myself, by myself. My first trip in it is supposed to be Saturday, down to Sarasota, FL. And we begin.

Tomorrow is the big day. I already voted, so here we go with the rest of the mess. No matter what happens, I do not see this going well. *sigh*

Okay. I need to prep for tomorrow's trip in the new plane, with hopefully good enough weather. Then Thursday's flight with Andy to 4 places in MO, figure out airports, FBOs, times, weather, etc. Start looking into Saturday's flight to FL, too. Do all the paperwork stuff from the last couple days, receipts, billing, logs, etc. And find something to eat. Watch NCIS. Relax. Maybe order some groceries and do a load of laundry. Just in the next couple of hours and then I need to go to bed to get up early to start the day.