It was a nice, leisurely morning. Got up at 8, got ready, got everything packed back up, went downstairs and had their breakfast buffet, started a new Harlan Coben novel while I ate and had some coffee, and took my time. Went back upstairs, and got ready for my Uber that I'd pre-ordered the night before. I used the Hilton app to check out. I don't think I mentioned the app before. I'm sure this is not new to some of you, but I'd never messed with a hotel app before, figuring I didn't really need it. But this is actually pretty cool. I was able to check into my room on the app sitting in the back of my Uber from the airport to the hotel, so that I could just walk into the hotel when I got there, bypass the front desk, and just go to my room. I got to pick which room I wanted. It told me which rooms were available, showed me what floor and where they were on the ground map. I chose a corner room on the top floor, because it had a lot of windows. I thought THAT was cool too. The handiest feature was that instead of getting a plastic room key, it has a digital key off my phone/the app. So I'd get off the elevator, pull up the app, get within a few feet of my door, hit "Unlock" on the app, and my door would unlock in front of me and I could just walk in. No fumbling for keys. No keys being stolen. No plastic waste, while I'm at it. I dig it. Then I get in the room, and I can sit on the bed or couch and pull up and control the TV with my phone app too. And the lights in the room. I mean...seriously, that's cool! So when it was time to check out, I just hit "check out", and it automatically disables the door key and sends a receipt of the hotel to my email. And I never have to talk to anyone. Boom. The app also had floor plans, lists of services, times for breakfasts, menu at the bar downstairs, all that good stuff. I liked it. I will be doing that from now on at any hotel that does it.
My Uber arrived on time, so I went out to the airport, preflighted the plane, got everything ready to go, and when the family got there, I loaded up their bags into the nose compartment while they were getting ready, and then we took off. A little rain, some turbulence the last 45 minutes or so, but otherwise no big deal, and 3.7 hours later, we were back.
It was sprinkling, but I had to have them top back off the Conquest for my trip to Iowa tomorrow, four legs of it. Meanwhile I jumped in the car and ran over to Kokomo Airport, where they had pulled out BOB. It was ready to go on a post-maintenance test flight. It was a big one, having had engine work done, prop and levers work done, flaps and ailerons had been completely removed and redone and reinstalled. So a good time to be careful. Although it's always a good time to be careful. But maybe extra careful. ;) Long preflight, long run-up, everything looked good, so away I went. It still needs a little adjustment on the prop settings, but everything else did great, ran great, flew great. Which is a good thing, because tomorrow I'm gone to Iowa, Saturday I have to go to Ohio and the weather isn't great, Sunday I have to go back down to Florida to pick up Ethan's crew, and Monday I have to come back from Florida, get BOB, and head back down to Florida before they close at 7 pm. Not much time in there for me to test fly again if stuff wasn't right. So I'm glad it did well.
Meanwhile, now I need to get some sleep.
The four headsets in the back, hanging up and ready to go
A local did 3D printing of those holders for the headsets
I think they turned out pretty cool!
Wet day
Looking back
Test flight
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