I woke up in Florida, and I could have slept in, but who sleeps well in hotels especially the first night? So I was up pretty early, but took my time. Went downstairs and had 'breakfast', a little yogurt, 1/4th of a waffle, eggs, 1/2 a bagel. Called for a Lyft to take me to Sarasota Avionics, where the Conquest was waiting. The ride took a lot longer to get there than it took to get from the airport to the hotel; I waited like 35 minutes. But the ride was only $7, too, so...ya can't complain. We get there, and on the way I called to have the plane topped off. It was all done, and I just had to walk in and be escorted out to the plane and I could leave. This place said they'd be done by 11 am. They were done at 10:40. I mean...since when does that happen in airplane maintenance shops?! Very impressive. In fact, she gave me a strip of paper with a QR code to leave them a Google review and I just may do it.
I took off out of Venice, got a super grumpy controller to start with. I called once for my clearance and he fires back with "Aircraft on the ground at Venice, I am talking to a bunch of planes that are actually already in the AIR, and I will get to you when I get a chance!" All Grumpy Pants. I didn't even respond, I just sat there and burned gas for however long it took him to get back to me. Freakin' Florida.
The ride home was easy. Decent weather and all, so I was able to get a fair amount of work done with the Starlink. Saved me a bunch of time tonight, so all I really have to do is this blog, download the photos from yesterday mostly, and go to bed early, because...
Tomorrow I wake up at 5:45 am to go back to Colorado. Gonna be tired by the end of this one, as it's been a busy several days.
Anyway. After I got back from Florida, I had one hour. Morgan came out to the airport and brought me a turkey sandwich while Lexi topped off the Conquest for me, and within the hour, I was to take a man and woman down to Gainsville, GA to drop them off. Morgan was coming with me so she could fly the second half of the trip, get more hours. The two people I took to Georgia today, I don't know them I don't think, but they were asking me if I took Andy to Florida, because they saw his truck at the airport. I hesitated and then nodded and said "Yep". He decided I was sketchy about it so he called Andy's wife and asked if they were in FL because he'd asked me and I had hesitated. I hesitated because I don't discuss the people I fly around, where I'm flying them, why I'm flying them, or anything about them personally, particularly with people I don't know. It's nobody's business, and if they want people to know, they'll tell them. It's part of being a professional, ya know, not being a blabbermouth about other people's business.
Morgan and I had an enjoyable flight home. She started laughing so hard at the hold short line of the runway that it took her three tries to get a radio call out, and she was wiping tears off her face for 10 minutes afterwards. We hit clouds, and I smiled and said "I sure do like flying" and she laughed and said "I was JUST going to say that." I always enjoy trips, but they're more fun with my sidekick. She invited me to go with her and her two young friends to a bar in Peru to watch her uncle perform in a band songs that would be from my generation, but I feel very awkward about doing that with her friends whom I don't know. The old lady hanging out with three 22-year-olds, two that I don't know. I dunno...
I was grabbing something from the back while she kept us going at 30,000'
No comments:
Post a Comment