My day was supposed to go one way, and as often happens, went another. I slept *really* hard last night, and slept through my alarm somehow (it was silent and I don't know why), so Steve came in and woke me up, and I ran around to get ready. I was supposed to drive to Frankfort, pick up the 340, fly it to Ohio and drop it off, while Morgan came and got me in the 172 RG, and we meet there at 10:15 am. Then Steve said he had a good idea, where we take two girls to Frankfort in the airplane and drop them off so they can clean the Conquest. Okay, so I go in the plane with them to FKR then, drop us all off, they clean the plane, I fly the 340 to OH. Except Hannah says she can't be there that early and Kathryn isn't answering her texts. I pull into Kokomo now, and Morgan has the RG all ready to go, and clouds that weren't supposed to be there are rolling in. Now I'm running late and the weather is deteriorating and Hannah isn't going to make it so it's just Kathryn who still doesn't respond to texts. We finally get off the ground at like 10 till 10, almost an hour late. We scud run over to Frankfort at pattern altitude, drop her off, I get in the 340, and file IFR to fly over to Ohio. That was worse. At the altitudes we were at, we were right in the buildups. She was in the 172RG, I'm in the 340, but it's only 37 minutes over there so I can't go very high. It was bumpy, we're both deviating around, and there's this one cell right at the airport. I get lower, cancel IFR, and come in and land, then I watch her, because the cell is moving over the field. I wasn't sure if she was going to make it in, and I was wondering what she was going to do. She deviated north, then came straight in on Runway 7, with a slight tailwind, rather than shoot the pattern too close to the cell. She lands in the rain and taxies up, and I find myself proud, especially remembering the girl who was nervous with one layer at 1400' and having to talk to ATC...not that long ago. I did warn her not to get complacent with the weather now that she's had some closer skims at it that went fine. That if there had been a gust front, or lightning, or it had grown rapidly, it was still dangerous and to respect it. But she did good, man.
I dropped off the 340, and Steve F put it away in another hangar, where he's leaving it until he has time to do it, which is not right now. Morgan and I flew back to Kokomo, and we did it VFR under all the build-ups. Visibility was okay, ceilings high enough to be legal, and it was way better than being IN it on an IFR. And now it was time for me to test fly Jerry's Citabria. The rigging was messed with a lot and was way off, and they thought they put it where it needed to be, but warned me that the ailerons in particular may or may not be rigged right, and for me to be careful. I walk over to the hangar, and it's locked. I walk back to get the key, and it's not hanging there. Nobody knows where it is except Morgan thinks Justin H has it. I text him and he doesn't answer. I'm getting hangry so I take her to Wendy's and eat lunch. Come back, Justin is back with the key, and I go test fly the Citabria, which does not roll violently into the ground or anything, so that's good. ;) It was fine. I tested it out, then came in and did 3 takeoffs and landings, and was pleased with them, so I texted Morgan and asked if she wanted to do some from the back, to which she said "Of course". Pick her up, she does 3, then Steve texts me and says "It's time to stop. This was just supposed to be a test flight!" So I land. Told him the test flight was done successfully first by myself, reported my little squawk list.
Then I'm in there in the hangar, and it's SO HOT. No air is moving. Nathan wants me and Morgan to help him look for a washer he lost that he can't get another of for 6 weeks. We hunted for 20 minutes and never found it, but now I was sweating like a vampire in church. No air flow back there in the big hangar when it's this hot and muggy is awful. So I laid down on the couch in the maintenance hangar, and actually fell asleep there. I did hear Kathryn get back and Hannah who had gone down to "help" her, but didn't, and heard that they hadn't done the top back of the engines on the Conquest, which was the only actual thing that needed done on it, so we can monitor/track it, as that's new. So she spent all day down there cleaning, and didn't clean what actually needed cleaned. *sigh*
Steve left me asleep on the couch and came home. When I finally woke up, I hadn't realized he was gone, but I picked up our package up at the FBO, said bye to Morgan who was waiting for a 6 pm student, and went to Hardees to pick up dinner.
Home to watch Steve pack up for Oshkosh, which he leaves for tomorrow morning at 7 am, and do some work here before he leaves.
My plan tomorrow or Friday is to take the Conquest to Ohio to repair a couple of small things, and then Saturday I go to Colorado to pick up Ethan and small family (weather looks awful so I hope that changes), and Sunday I go with Morgan to drop off BOB at Oshkosh (she's nervous about going into OSH on her own in it), and I get a ride back home from Glenn, because I have several corporate flights until Wednesday night, when I can finally go up there and stay with everyone else. I hope it's not this hot though...
I caught up my last few days from last week on the blog below; after I get some stuff ready for tonight, I'll have to go through and read all the days from last week in a row and see if I forgot anything...
Today
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