Pennsylvania, and Virginia

Yesterday was a full, long day.  Steve and I were both up early, and he and Morgan were wheels-up by 7:30 am in the Aerostar, headed to Pennsylvania. Ashley (our new CFI) and I went in the Cheyenne over, as I'm dropping it off for its annual inspection, which is going to include an overhauled prop, a leaky tank, and a lot of service bulletins that have become mandatory and will take like 3 months to complete. For a lot of money. All for a lot of money. But it's out of the hangar now and on the way to being inspected and fixed up, so that's one thing out of the way.

We flew home in the Aerostar, and after we landed I took my car and drove over to Marion; stopped at Culver's to eat lunch, and then went over to Marion to pick up the Meridian, and flew it over to Frankfort. I was 30 min early there, but Andy was already waiting. As soon as his guy Josh arrived, we hopped in and flew down to Lynchburg, Virginia. Easy flight, easy weather, easy day. I like those. We were there a few hours, and then headed back to Frankfort, landing by 8 pm. I dropped them off, then flew over Glenndale where they had an EAA meeting on my way back to Marion. Dropped the plane off there at 8:30, stopped at Hydration Station for a frosted hot chocolate on the way home (yum) and was home by 9:30 pm. So an early start and a late end to the day, but a good day.

Andy told me that he would still like me to leave their long trips on the schedule, as he'll be chartering out his jet, and if someone else wants it on his dates, he'll probably let them take it and he'll do the Conquest instead. He's also still planning on using me for the short hops like this one. So all that's good enough.

Today was a day 'off', and I've spent a lot of it, like usual, on scheduling. Nathan added in a couple of dates, Nick added in a couple of dates, there's more paperwork to do, this is all the time I spend on stuff I don't actually even get paid for. But...gotta do it and stay organized to do stuff I DO get paid for, so hey.

I also got a text from my friend John R. He had beaten cancer and a brain bleed. His AME said his medical should be fine with the paperwork they sent in. But not only was it not fine, it was flat-out denied. Not deferred until they get more info, but "NO". That screws him for Basic Med, for Sport Pilot, for *everything*. He owns a Bonanza and a C-421 and a $400k hangar and he can't fly any of it right now. I've offered to fly with him, but he hates asking people for help or favors as much as I do, and he won't do it. So when I heard from him today, I had the day off, and asked if he wanted to go fly. He took me up on it, and we went up in the Bo. That's when he told me that he was trying to sell the 421 so it wouldn't just sit and rot while he fights the FAA on his denial, but that there are 43, count them *43* C-421C's for sale on Barnstormer right now. His chances of selling his in this environment are not great. So I asked him if he'd thought about putting me back on his insurance. It would mean sending me to recurrent training, because per the insurance company, flying Twin Cessna 340s and Twin Cessna 441s aren't good enough to fly Twin Cessna 421s. Whatever. Anyway, he'd have to pay to do that, but then I could fly his 421 with him (I don't meet the open pilot clause because even that insists on annual recurrent training in the 421), or fly Tina out west, or even use his plane for some of the other stuff we do. He's not paying to have his own recurrent any more, so it wouldn't cost any more than normal. He didn't want to because I'm so busy and he didn't want to bother me, but I said I want to, and it's the best option right now since selling isn't likely to go well. So he hasn't done it yet, but I hope he will. 

Meridian at Sunset