Weekend

Kaylee texted us yesterday that she was headed to Pennsylvania for a couple days and wondered if we could watch Molly for her. I don't know where she's going, or with who, or for what, and I don't care, but I'm glad she's going out and doing something fun this weekend. :) Molly is too stinking cute. She's a little fluffball and talks a lot and is super engaged and happy to see you every time. If you don't like that cat, something is wrong with your personality, dang it.

My tooth hole is doing better. It still kind of itches and aches sometimes, but I only had to take one Advil yesterday. I've been doing what I was supposed to for care of it, and I think it's healing appropriately.

Saturday morning, Chuck came and picked me up at the house at 6:45 am (was going to be 7 so good thing I always get ready early lol), and he drove me to Marion, while Steve and AE went together after meeting up at Kokomo to pick up the trailer. I got to Marion as the sun was rising, which honestly depressed me, that it was still dark at 7-something a.m. C'mon, Mother Nature. Stop now. 

When we got there, I went to go through the pancake line, and Ray J, in charge of the event, pulled me over and handed me a mic and did an interview with me over the whole PA system, to sell rides. I'm not great at interviews first thing in the morning, unprepared, etc., but I did all right. Had my pancakes and sausage, which were both very good, and then started greeting people I knew, hadn't seen for a long time, got hugged several times, and it sort of felt like I was 'back'.

We hadn't gotten any rides by 10 am, so I took Morgan up in the T-6 and just flew around the pattern a couple of times to make noise. She took some photos of the grounds below, and when I landed and we got out, I shook her hand like she was a passenger, and we all laughed. 

We had SO MANY people there. Steve had called in a ton of reinforcements for the day, way more than we ended up needing, but hopefully they enjoyed spending the day out there somewhat anyway. We had 15 support people there, including me, and not including the CAF guys who were also there! Holy cow...

My rides started with Rob, the gent from Ft Wayne who isn't a pilot but had bought a T-6 and I used to fly him around in it. He bought a double ride for his buddy, an airline pilot. He is going to buy another T-6, and let his airline pilot buddy fly it, and his buddy (can't remember his name so let's say Kurt) wanted to do some flying and takeoffs and landings from the back seat. I hesitated, because I'll be darned if I want to let him do his first takeoffs and landings from the back seat at Marion, filled with everyone who knows the plane, knows me, where I've given rides for 17 years, where there are cameras and videos going at all times, because they're gonna think it's ME. He didn't care, didn't think it would be that big of a deal, but he didn't know what he didn't know, did he? Muncie airport wasn't that far away and he'd bought a double ride, so I had him do the flying in the air, I did the landing at Muncie and explained what I was doing, then I let him taxi us back to the runway. I asked tower to let us do some maneuvering on the ramp, which they granted, and they must have thought we were nuts, because I was showing him how to lock and unlock the tailwheel, spin around, stop it, lock it back in place, etc., and we had to do 20 turns or more. Finally he was ready, and I talked him through his first takeoff, which got a little sideways, not enough rudder, but he got it off the ground with a "whoa!" We came around the pattern, and I talked him through the landing. We turn final and he says "I can't see anything! How are you supposed to land if you can't see anything!" which made me laugh out loud, because that's what I said back there too! I was like "peripheral, man". He touched down okay, I told him not to move anything for a second or two, just let it settle. He moved something, the plane darts, and I rescue it and pull off. Have him taxi us back, and he does the second takeoff, which I also have to rescue because he's trying to pull it off the ground too soon, too slow, and crooked, after much swerving.  Kurt says "Wow, this thing is amazing. You really have to know what you're doing in here, don't you". I'm like...yeah, THIS is why I wasn't going to do this at Marion in front of everyone! I just said that I have a lot of time in here and I still botch landings, and you have to respect the airplane, always. He said over and over that in the airlines, he's just a systems manager, but THIS kind of flying is why he got into flying in the first place, and he is so excited to learn new things, and he's so excited to actually be feeling the flying. I told him the usual line, flying is part art and part science, but in some airplanes, like the Cub, or the T-6, the art outweighs the science. You need the science to know what you're supposed to do as far as P-factor and gyroscopic precession and angle of attack and so forth, but you have to have the feel of it, the art of it, to actually be any good at executing the science. It's not just buttons and numbers. He loved that. When we landed, he was excited, and was talking to Rob and Steve about it, all lit up, and I'm pretty sure yesterday an airline pilot got his groove back for flying. ;)

I also had a little girl as a passenger. She was nervous, and her grandparents had sent her up. She was fairly quiet, but she would answer me. I asked if she wanted to try flying, she said no. I flew around a bit, gently going over the cities, etc., and I asked if she wanted to do things like a roller coaster, or if she liked it just like this. She liked it just like this. So we just floated around, I'd comment now and then, and then before going in I said "I'm not trying to pressure you into doing something you don't want, but I don't want you to have any regrets, so if you'd like to try flying it yourself for a second, I won't let you do anything that scares either one of us", and she agreed to it. She flew it for two turns, and then I took it back, and I came in and landed a little early, actually, because I could tell, she was good. She didn't need to keep going. I land, she gets out, and that night I see posts on Facebook about how this girl went on her first ride and she wouldn't stop smiling the rest of the day and how excited and happy she was, etc. So that's fun!

Next up was Rob, the non-pilot who bought Kurt his double ride. He got himself one, and we went up and talked and had fun too. He asked me if I'd gotten my Mustang checkout done yet. We'd talked about P-51s before, and he knew I wished I could do that. I said no, it takes $50k just to go down and get the initial insurance checkout, and that's not something I have available to me, and probably won't ever have (I mean, if I have $50k disposable I've got to be more practical with it), but that's life, and I changed the topic. We landed, and Kurt had been trying to convince him to get a Bearcat. I told him, "Hey, if you get that Bearcat, let me know so I can come over and pet it!" I was just kidding, of course. He said "I don't think that would be a great investment. I'm not a pilot, and it's a single seat airplane, so what am I going to do with that thing except write a lot of big checks and stare at it from the ground or on the ground. I think a better investment would be to send you to Florida and get you checked out in Mustangs." I, being me, had no idea what to say to that. I didn't say anything I don't think. He's too big to fit in the back of a Mustang, and I'm certainly not going to take him seriously. It was a sweet thing to say, though. 

One of the last passengers was a club member who is learning to fly the Champ with Nick. He told me many times how much he loves our flight training centers, how he has a huge drive to fly with us but it's worth every moment, and he loved his flight time. Got down and talked some more to Steve about how much he enjoys FTC, the Champ, us, etc. So that's always nice to hear too. A lot of times unhappy feedback is a lot more common than happy feedback, ya know?

So basically yesterday was a lot of fun. It was kind of restorative—I needed that. I do love my job, but I need the back-up pilot so I can go do the rest of the things I love doing too. That needs to happen by next Spring. I’ve let my formation card expire, I’ve dropped out of the Air Power tour, I’ve only made 2 events this whole season, I haven’t been able to do any of the warbird training in the T-6 or C-45. I’ve lost touch with friends in that community.

It felt so good to see everyone, give rides on a pretty day, come home smelling like oil and radial engine with gnarled up hair from the open cockpit and a little sunburn, after having gotten lots of smiles and a few “whee’s”.

End of the day, I flew it back to Frankfort and met Chuck, AE, Morgan, Steve and a kid named Josh (one of the 15 workers there) at Pastarrific for an after-event dinner, which we all enjoyed. I hadn't eaten since pancakes at 7:45 am, and it was now 4:30 pm, so it was time to get some food!

Morgan asked if I was too tired to Champ with her (we use Champ as a verb too). I thought about it, and I was not. It was a beautiful evening. So we went out to Glenndale, and she and I went Champing, and had a lot of fun. She'd had to watch everyone else fly all day, and not get to do it herself. I get it, I know how that is for us addicts. :D She was having trouble on the bumpy grass strip, getting smooth takeoffs. The tail would go up and down, the plane would launch early, she did like 3 bad takeoffs in a row and was getting annoyed, so I said "Let me try one, probably do the same thing". I took off pretty fine, and it came back to me, so I helped her out on technique, which made us both happy. Me because I still have useful information for her even though she's rapidly getting very good, and her because she smoothed out and fixed a problem. lol I did one takeoff and one landing, but otherwise let her do all the flying. We ended and I said "Now do a wheel landing", and she didn't think she could on the rough runway. I said you can, and she got it. So I said "Now do a one-wheel landing", and she didn't think she could, and I said "If you can do a wheel landing, you can do a one-wheel landing!" and she did. So the evening ended as the sun was almost gone, and we laughed our way around the pattern for an hour and a half straight. 

It was a good day.

Parked either late last night or sunrise this morning

The CAF Stearman

Checkertail

Kayleigh (who didn't spend the whole time on her phone, she was good) Adeline, Morgan

Cameron and Zak loading up the young lady

Firing up

Great smile

Unloading!

Scenes passing by the event

She had a bad headache. Pushing really hard on her head made it temporarily feel better

Pretty Molly. I take a pic of her each night that Kaylee is gone and send to her as a "hi Mom"

A little blasphemous probably, but amusing

Colorado T-6

Ha, I’m writing this at 5:20 am, sitting in the Delphi Airport lounge couch, waiting for my people who are supposed to be here so we can leave at 5:30 am, which would be…being here by now and firing up. I had to set my alarm for 3:15 am this morning. However, my good ole internal alarm clock woke me up at 2:54 am, and trying to doze for 20 min would 1) not have worked and 2) have left me more groggy than if I just got up, so I just got up. I laid down at 9:30 last night, went to sleep some time after 10 pm, so got about 5 hours of sleep, which is minimal for me, but I’m doing okay so far. As long as I don’t have to sit here on a cushy couch in a dark, silent room for much longer.  (I turned on my phone music to have some noise in here so I don’t get groggy/sleepy. Hopefully. Too much. Hurry up and get here).

We are doing this because Andy wants picked up in Missouri as close to after 10:30 am as possible. Ethan and family want to go out to Colorado. So I’m taking them out first thing this morning, then on the way home stopping in Missouri to pick up Andy. This requires we be on time from the get go (which is already not happening), and quick turns on the fuel in Gunnison, which this early in the morning should be. No time to eat, or walk around, just go. So I brought a snack with me today, and will get a bottle of water at each place. My work day will be over by 1-2 pm, but by then I’ll have been up for 11 hours, which is crazy.

We’re trying to save hours on the Conquest like this, because we are out of hours before it needs a Phase II/III inspection soon, but have a ton of trips scheduled on it. And we have to get Kevin’s trips in there, because he loaned the Cheyenne for a lot of hours. So Ethan is taking a bunch of jet charter flights instead, to save hours on the plane. Of course those are jobs I won’t be able to do, so as usual, as soon as things get rolling and get busy, something comes along to put the brakes on. After the last Kevin trip, the plane goes down for 2 weeks for its inspection, too.

Ah, it’s 5:29 and they’re pulling in. We’ll be out of here by 5:45 or so. I’ll get back to ya in the air on the way to Missouri when I’m alone. ;) 

Yep, we got out at 5:45 am, so about 15 min late. Landed at Gunnison and had to go around the pattern, then taxi back. Fuel was really fast. Ethan wanted to go get his vehicle and put something in the airplane, so that took a little time. I was still only going to be about 15 minutes late…until Denver held me on the ground for 15 minutes because of an IFR airplane coming in. I had to wait 15 minutes on the ground for that guy, and finally I was off. Now I’ll arrive 11:30 or so in Missouri when I was aiming at and could have hit 11 am if everything had gone on time. But…so it goes.

I need to get the T-6 over to Marion when I get back but I don’t have a ride back to my car at Frankfort. Everything is a hassle, from someone driving to Marion to get me, then driving over an hour to Frankfort to get my car, then driving an hour home from there, to flying anything which is located an hour drive away to get to an airplane, Logansport or Sheridan. I dunno…not sure what I’ll do with that yet.

My stitches are annoying me in my gum. I think they’re starting to come out. He told me they’d come out on their own. They itch and they’re long and I keep feeling them with my tongue. I sure don’t want to pull on them, but I wouldn’t mind if they just…came out. As long as everything else is okay of course. I still have to take Advil now and then if it starts aching, but it hasn’t been too terrible.

I landed at Frankfort, and BOB and Glenn was/were there. BOB has some maintenance issues, still, and we're trying to determine whether or not it can finish the last two tour stops. Glenn will do the next one, and then Morgan is up for the last one. She's nervous, but willing. Last time she landed with a big smoking engine. 

The T-6 was sitting outside, and I took it over to Marion for the fly-in. It was already busy at Marion, so I just landed and brought it to its parking spot. It felt really good to fly the T-6. I just haven't done it hardly at all this season. And it was a beautiful, sunny day, with light winds, and it just felt free and relaxing and rejuvenating.

AE was at Marion, and he drove me back into town (my car is at Frankfort) and I went to Harvey Hinklemeyer's with him and Chuck, before coming home to finally unwind. My day started at 2:54 am and now finally at 6 pm I'm in comfy clothes, full, and ready to nap and get ready for tomorrow's adventures.

I did lose a stitch in my gum by the way. It was a really long one, and it bled a little, which concerned me a little, but I think it's okay. It was supposed to come out, right? Right.

Sunrise on the way to CO

T-6ing

Tooth

Well, it's done. I was nervous most of the morning, extra nervous going in. I put in ear buds to listen to my own music and closed my eyes once I saw all the needles and tools, but you couldn't stop the sounds and vibrations and the fact he insisted on telling me what he was doing. Other than the giant needle to the face/jaw, the pain wasn't too bad during the procedure, it was just loud, hard, pressure, drilling, pushing, cracking, all the things. Drill a hole. (My bone looks great. Marvelous).  Screw in a pole/stud. Put a little cap on it. He had to stitch it up afterwards, so another big needle and thread in there for awhile. I mostly kept my eyes squeezed shut and music on and waited for it to be over. It was like 30 minutes that lasted about 3 hours. Really, really, really hate dentistry. Really.

When it finally was, Steve drove me home. I didn't have big sedation so I could've driven home, but I sure didn't feel like it, and felt shaky/traumatized enough. So he drove us home, we stopped at CVS to pick up my next round of antibiotics and oxy should I want it, and then when it was ready, came home. I slept all afternoon; recovery I guess. Finally woke up at 7:30, and Steve had said he was afraid I was sleeping too hard and kept kind of shaking me awake to make sure I was in one piece. I had no memory of that--I was OUT out.

I just ordered some soft foods--cheddar biscuits, pasta and cheesecake from Red Lobster, and will enjoy hopefully a slow, soft dinner. 

Not a darned other thing happened today as far as I was concerned.

--------------------------

I never hit "post" on this. Lol

So I'll just go ahead and fill in today too.

The face doesn't hurt too bad. I have been managing it with Advil, because I can't fly on nor do I like to use oxy anyway.  It's been manageable so far, fortunately. I sort of hate to go on antibiotics again. I have had SO much (many) antibiotics this year, and I don't have an infection either. But neither do you want to get one and end up behind the curve on it, and he told me to take it, so I'll take it. 

Today I took Andy, his wife and son to Ohio State University's airport. I went to eat at a place called Cafe Elena, and it had amazing food. I ended up having no choice but to try the Italiano Cannoli pancakes. A couple of soft pancakes with sweet cannoli filling and a smattering of chocolate chips. It was 100% a dessert and not a breakfast, but it was amazing. Absolutely amazing. I will try to eat something much better for dinner tonight as far as health goes, but damn, I've never seen or had anything like that before and I have no regrets. ;)

Got back from OSU just in time to make it to my haircut appointment. Left that and got home in time to meet Steve for dinner in town, as he just got back from Iowa.

Steve, Morgan, Brennan, Jon, Justin all loaded up the Aerostar and flew over to Iowa to finish working on BOB, and they were successful. They replaced a cylinder and a blower, and test flew it for an hour over the pattern out there. All went well, so they topped it off and left it on the ramp for Glenn to come get it and take it on one of the only tour stops it will actually make this year--Springfield, Ohio. It took forever, and a lot of time, effort and money, but finally, finally it's on the way. Thank heavens.

Well, it feels like I'm forgetting things, but I'm tired, a little beat up, hungry, getting ready to go eat with Steve, and will sign off for now. Bottom line, yes I'm alive, and yes I still hate dentists. Even though they called me today and left a message to make sure I was doing okay, which was nice. But what they did to me was icky. Maybe important, but icky. Just sayin'. :p

Bolingbrook

This was an easy one and I enjoyed it! I slept in; around 8 am, Steve came in and asked if I was okay or late. Lol I didn't have to leave the house until 10 am, so it was a nice slow pace and a relaxing morning. The weather was great, everything was just easy.

I took Andy and his wife to Bolingbrook, Illinois, which is in the south Chicago area. It's a short runway, only 3300', surrounded by houses, businesses, it's completely suburban locked. I landed nice and short, taxied to the end, and someone asked if I could get off on the taxiway or if I needed to back taxi, because the taxiway is narrow. I can make it, I say, and I do. It IS a narrow taxiway, no margin for much there, or for parking. Juuuust enough. There's a restaurant right on field, so I go in and have a nice brunch. Eggs, toast. While I'm in there, there's this little boy, maybe 4 years old, there with his grandpa and a friend. This kid has his face pressed up against the window glass, watching airplanes. Moved his seat so he could see outside better. So when I left, I hesitated for a second, then approached their table and offered to let them climb up in the Conquest if they wanted to check it out when they were done with their breakfast.

They did--they all climbed in. The grandpa was a private pilot, and the kid was fascinated, so they sat up in there, got pictures in the front seat, asked some questions, and we hung out for about 30 minutes. I took pictures of them in front of the plane, too, as a group. They had fun, and so did I. :)

Andy and Sharla got back about 40 minutes later, and I flew us home, took a whopping 30 minutes flat. Climb up, level off, descend and land.

I hadn't had a chance to do laundry or anything this week, so I got home in time to do some of that and some catching up. Met up with Steve and Chuck for dinner. Ran my car through the car wash where it bent the right mirror back again. Hung out with Kaylee for a couple of hours. Watching a movie called "Guns Up" with Steve before heading to bed. Don't have to get up early tomorrow, because I have tomorrow off of 'work' so I can go down to Noblesville and get the post drilled into my gum where they're going to put my new tooth implant in the existing hole. I had decided on not doing the IV sedation and hoping for the best, so I could get myself home and Steve wouldn't have to go with me. He told me today he's going with me anyway, so he can drive me home afterwards just in case I need it. I very well may, and I appreciate it. I can do things for myself, and I would have handled it, but oral surgery is somewhere at the bottom of my list of things I enjoy in life.  Now that I know I'm not driving home, I may take a little something when I go in to try to relax me. I'm sure I have something in the cabinet that will work. Not looking forward to this, or however long it is before I can chew solid food without pain again.

Oh, I also got a text from Isabel, who had gotten a voicemail from a guy (M) who said he was Nick's (whom I fly) brother-in-law, and that she had flown Nick to Nebraska last week and this guy wanted her to fly him around on trips too, to look at jobs, just for a different company. He listed several places he wanted to go. She sent that to me, knowing SHE wasn't the one who flew him to Nebraska, and figured I might have. I responded to the guy that the airplane wasn't available for charters, that's not how it works, and that Isabel wasn't a commercial/corporate pilot. He said she'd been recommended to him for instructing his son on lessons, and that she does trips for people, too. I said no, she's not an instructor either, she's a stay at home mom. He wanted me to call him about flight instructing, so I sent him to Steve, who likes to talk on the phone, IF the guy really wants to talk about flight instructing in the first place. See, Nick informed me via text to watch it, that his BIL can be very persuasive. I said "Not to me". Nick texted back "Stephen and I just LOLed over that!!" with two laughy faces. lol  But it's true--this guy randomly calls up who he thought the pilot was that he saw last week flying Nick somewhere, and asks them to fly him around to jobs too for a different company. That's not...that's not how any of this works, and fairly gutsy, too. So no, I won't be impressed, or easily persuaded, to break the FARs and do illegal chartering, either. ;)

I think I spotted Big Foot today. See him?

Miss Molly watching me through the deck window from her perch

Nachos for dinner

What the car wash has done to my mirror the last two times

Stuff

Kaylee’s former boss J who is Ruby the dog’s mom had a death in the family, and she asked Kaylee to dog sit for her for the weekend so she could go to the funeral. Kaylee jumped on it, as she hasn’t seen Ruby in a very long time, and missed her. That meant Steve and I get to watch Molly for a couple days, which really just consists of going over a couple times and scooping poop, as her food and water are automated. Molly was so happy to see me last night, she trotted over, meowed, wanted to play, wanted petted. Kaylee hadn’t even been gone that long, but she was usually home by that late, so Molly was happy to see someone, even if it wasn’t her mom. :)

Kaylee said she wasn’t sure she’d get any sleep overnight because she was on the couch, and no way to stop the dogs from being there too. I texted her to see if she got any sleep, but it’s 11:17 am and she still has notifications off, so probably still sleeping or trying to sleep. She said Ruby was so excited to see her, she plowed over her and won’t stop climbing on her and licking her. Personally I can’t stand that, so I’m glad she’s amused by it. I’d be like…Get OFF.

I did a lot of emails and work stuff yesterday, and only one flight. I took the Aerostar over to Muscatine, Iowa, to pick up Justin H., who had decided he HAD to go home yesterday evening, and not go home in the morning with Jon. So it cost a good $500 to take an airplane over there and fetch him; I’m hoping Steve bills him for the fuel. The Aerostar is based out of Logansport while Kokomo is closed, so that was my first time contacting them to get in and out of the hangar to go do something. I’m hoping we don’t need anything else until it’s time to leave; I don’t want to be a pain to our hosts.

As far as Saturday goes, Frankfort is doing a Community Day today, and I have the T-6 out there pulled out for static. Steve is there with the CAF doing rides, except I think the day kind of fell apart. The Stearman doesn’t have a pilot because of the Noblesville pancake breakfast at the same time, the T-6 doesn’t have a pilot because I’m in Colorado, the BT-13 wouldn’t start this morning so even though it sold 3 rides, it is going to be hours late and I don’t know if the people will wait for their rides or not. We’re on a ramp kind of far away from all the other activity, last I knew. So…we’ll see, but it doesn’t sound promising, unfortunately. And BOB is still trapped in Iowa.

Well, it's a day later now, and I have some answers.

Kaylee did in fact not sleep the first night, and stepped in poop in the dark. She slept a little bit the second night, but now is home and napping because she's still tired. lol

The trip to Colorado went fine. Ethan had me fly, and seemed a little out of sorts. Allergies maybe. I was up at 5 am and pretty tired to start with, and it was a longer day ahead.

The CAF event went well, actually, even with the T-6 on static only and no Stearman. The BT-13 did get there, and both it and the PT-26 did six rides each! So that's great! I arrived at 2:30, after everything was winding down. I was there in time for some homemade ice cream that AE made and brought, and to sit and chat for awhile before we packed up and headed out.

Steve, Cameron and I went to Pastarrific for dinner, and then I went out to the Nickel Plate Saloon, where I met Morgan, her parents, her grandpa, her friend Shay and friend Izzy, and we had a couple of drinks and watched her Uncle Jeff, her dad's brother, who was the lead singer in a band who was playing there. That was a stretch for me, where I really only knew one person, but I did it anyway. It was a tiny room, and they put 100 people in there. They sold tickets, and it's a limited number of tickets available--they put a wrist band on you too tight to get off and reuse. We got up to the front, because it's family up there, and then we listened to the opening guy first, and then Jeff's band. They did 90's alternative/rock/metal, which was funny because it's the one music era I really don't know any of the songs on. I knew like two songs. But I can enjoy a good beat. :) Jeff was good, the band was good. He's played at the same festivals as like Metallica and has been around for a long time, and has a following. So that's fun for the family. His dad (Morgan's grandpa), that is NOT his scene, but he was there to support his son, which was sweet.  Her parents were rocking out, but they were the younger ones there, except for Morgan and her friends. The funny part to me is that it was a room full of Pure Gen X. Almost everyone there was my age, hard-faced, hard-eyed, smokin', drinkin', rock t-shirt wearing, 50-year-olds with no shits left to give, just absolutely rocking out.  It was Deafeningly Loud, too. I mean, I could feel my clothes vibrating on me. My watch kept going off that the decibel levels were over 100 db. You could feel it in your chest. It was a tiny room with massive speakers and the volume up to Def Con 5. I had removed my Loop Ear plugs from my purse, didn't think they'd work for me any more, but ear plugs of some sort sure would've been handy. I couldn't stand there for 3.5 hours with my fingers in my ears. Aside from being rude, you just can't stand that long like that, especially with a drink in your hand. lol It. Was. Loud. I would type text to talk sometimes, because talking involved putting your mouth right up against someone's ear and screaming into it. By the end of the night, my voice was raw, and I felt so bad for my poor ears, I drove home afterwards in complete silence and hoped I didn't have permanent hearing loss.  I'm too old for that noise level, man. lol But it was a different and fun evening. I put myself out there a little bit, felt a little weird, but not too bad, and I'm glad I went. I was also amazed that I didn't get claustrophobia. Tight space, it was hotter than heck, a crowd of people all right in there, no real air, AND loud noise. How I didn't end up having to run out of there to the outside air and how I didn't wake up with a migraine are both beyond me, but I was fine!

I woke up at 7 am and got ready, met with Morgan at Frankfort, and we flew the Conquest down to Marco Island. I gave her the first leg when it was just the two of us, so she sat left seat. Florida was Florida, and there was weather all over it. We got down okay. I got gas, topped off the plane, and she and I took a car and went to the Dolphin Tiki Bar and Grill, where I had a tasty mahi wrap. It was 92 down there, and the weather kept getting worse. We booked it back to the airport, where they were waiting already (I knew they would be, he tracks me on FlightAware and most times that I've arrived early, even way early, he's shown up early too. But we needed to eat, so I filed for a time to leave, and that's when we left, this time).  The trip home was my leg. Weather had spread, but I still had a path to the east, so I took that, and we were home in 3.5 hours. A good day's trip. I'm awful tired, however, so I'm putting all this into one long post, probably skipping things of actual interest, and calling it a day.

I called Kaylee tonight when I got home, and she let me know that she had reconnected with Meredith. Meredith used to be her best friend, and then got caught up in what I'll call a cult. A "trad wife" or traditional wife culture, uber religious, where everything had to be blessed by God and every decision had to be supported by a man and every meeting with friends, families and strangers had to be about trying to get them on the right path, which was to preach at them, judge them, tell them what they were doing sinfully, and get them to that church. Meredith and Kaylee drifted apart. Mer because she thought Kaylee wasn't churchy enough and Kaylee because she thought Mer was half lost and judgement of her. It's been a couple of years now. Mer wouldn't hold a job because this place taught them to take odd jobs and rely on God for life. Etc. Well, Meredith has finally woken up, and she reached out to Kaylee and asked to meet up, and Kaylee hesitated (she's turned her down before), and then went, only to see that her friend was back. The sparkle was back, the personality was back, she is changed like we all do, but out from under the spell. Thank Goodness. I'm really happy to hear it, because we always really liked Meredith. She and Kaylee were good for each other, and they were best friends. Now Meredith is moving to Texas to live with her sister and start over. I was sad she was moving, since it would be handy to have another friend locally to do things with, but it's what's best for her, and I totally get it. It feels a bit like a happy ending though. I'm quite relieved!

Well, for now that's all. Did one load of emergency laundry, watching John Wick 3, and getting ready for tomorrow's trip to Illinois...

These are out of order, but here they be. It was SO HOT in there, I was sweating like crazy at times, which you can clearly see in the first one. lol

Me, Shay, Morgan, Izzy

Morgan's Mom, her, and me

Be Real. Me, Morgan, Shay

Sunrise in the Conquest 

On board radar, on board nexrad, and flying along around weather

Colorado Mountains from above

A foggy lake back there, mountains

Interrupting real photos with this nugget

The band on stage. Morgan's parents the two in the center

Morgan's uncle is the singer

Us and the other two young people in the bar back there

"My" Airplane sitting at Frankfort while I was gone.

Kentucky & South Bend

It would have been handy if I'd slept better, but so it goes. I got to sleep after 1:30 am, and was up at 6, taking Nick in the Conquest down to Owensboro, Kentucky. I tried to nap over there and wasn't super successful. We left there and went up to South Bend, IN for another gig. They charged hundreds of dollars in fees, one $180 fee waived with 80 gallons of super expensive fuel, the rest not waived, and then didn't even have a courtesy car. Pay all that money, and nobody came out to park me, nobody pulled my chocks or moved cones when I left, and no car. SO what exactly are we paying for?!  Anyway, I Uber Eats some Japanese rolls on over, have a Diet Coke, and try to not get too sleepy again. Nick gets back with a success story, and we're back at the home base in 30 min flat.

I drove home, laid on the couch and halfway napped, but not really, then got up and went out to Glenndale for our EAA and Flying Squirrels meeting. There were a LOT of people there! Cameron did an IMC talk on autopilots, Jerry did a VMC talk on how make performance calculations out of Glenndale, then Dawn Brier got up to talk about her dad's life, the "Dale" in "Glenndale". It was sweet, and several of us shared stories about Dale, including me.  He was a larger than life dude for most of his life.

Home and tired. Tomorrow I didn't have anything, but now I have to fly over to Iowa to pick up a guy who was working on BOB but who needs to go home tomorrow. Don't know if he knows how much money it costs to run back and forth, and Steve is annoyed he can't stay overnight and go home with everyone else, but I'm going to get him anyway. Just have to figure out how to get in and out of Logansport's big hangar after hours now.

Photos and an update from yesterday below, and now I'm caught up.

This on a vehicle in front of me today

A marshaller for pilots?! 

Dawn talking tonight at the EAA meeting. There were another 20 people behind me.