Two Pilots & an LSW: Early

Friday, July 18, 2025

Early

I tried to go to sleep at 10:30 pm last night so I could get up early, and was mostly successful. I had a dream that my alarm went off, and I woke up and laid there and tried to wake up, and was having trouble, when I looked at the time and saw it was only 3:30 am, which I was glad for because it meant I got another hour after all. It was hard to get up though. 4:45 is never a good time to have to get up.

I drove to Frankfort in the dark, which was depressingly like winter. It was supposed to be VFR, but the closer I got, the more it looked like the clouds were just moving in. By the time I got there, it was dumping rain. I had to pull the plane out myself in the rain, so I was good and wet by the time I got in. Now it's dark, wet, and feels cold. There was a line of cells in my way, but Chicago did a nice job getting me off the ground quickly for once and letting me go around the weather without too much hassle.

Toledo isn't far away in the Conquest, like 30 minutes. I watched the sun come up from the air, and it was a pretty one as you'll see, once I got past the rain. Got there, gave them my squawk list again, which I had emailed to them ahead of time anyway, then sat in a little tiny office with fluorescent lighting and no chair that reclines or even has a head rest. There was a low back couch and I halfway laid on it and put my sunglasses on, but it was the room that also had the office printer in it, so people kept coming in and out. The room was like 5' across as is, tiny, so anyone coming in the room and it was instantly crowded. I was super sleepy, but there's nowhere to go, and can't sleep in there, so I was just sleepy.

They came back in, had fixed the side panel and the oil temp gauge and I could go ahead and head home. I flew back, nicer weather. When I drove back to Kokomo, I was really hungry, like almost nauseated from being hungry, so I decided to treat Kokomo like I do the places I fly to, and I went to Misty's (a diner cafe brunch place) and sat down inside by myself with my iPad and had a delicious stuffed french toast with fruit breakfast. I don't feel weird eating alone anywhere else, I don't feel weird eating alone in public here either. It's kinda nice. I like being comfortable independently.

Came home and tried to nap. Did not succeed. We were waiting on a part for BOB, and after it got put in, it would need run, and if it worked, we were going to OSH on Sunday, and if not, we were not going on Sunday. So I texted them from my couch and was like "How's it going", and they said it would be ready to test run in 30, so I went on out there. I test ran it, and it failed miserably. We're done. *sigh* No BOB at Oshkosh.

I stayed out at the airport, because the weather was cooler, and it was nice, and a couple of us just hung out. At the end, Morgan and I went out to McCallister's for a BLT, and then it was still light out, the sun didn't go down until after 9 pm, so I decided to go back out and fly the Champ for a little while. Went over to Glenndale, where a hangar full of people were sitting out and watching, and then back to Kokomo where a guy in a Tesla truck sat and watched too. Ended the night just before sun down, stopping and getting fuel, driving home, and catching up. Logbook, billing, etc.

Tomorrow I was supposed to go to Gunnison. The weather still looks terrible in the afternoon, so we're going to wait and see what happens. May make it Sunday instead...