Kaylee has a rousing round of Covid going on. She texted me that she had a terrible headache, a fever, congestion, body aches, fatigue. I said "That sounds like Covid", because that's how it always goes with me, starting with the fatigue and then the nasty headache that even Imitrex doesn't kick properly. She got a test, and you were supposed to check it at 15 minutes, but it popped positive big and bright at 4 minutes. The best part about this for me is that last night she was over at our house, lying on top of me, with her face at my face, for over an hour. So, I'm toast. Which is great. *sigh* She felt really bad this afternoon. Temp up to 102.8, so when I got home I went over and got her some Tylenol and a sweet tea. Her blood pressure was down to 98/55 for awhile, which is getting a little low on the low end. She got the food/drink down, and felt a little better, so another 2 hours later she took some Advil, and last she checked her temp was back to just under 100. She's eaten oatmeal and broccoli cheddar soup, water and the sweet tea, and she's hanging in there. When I went over there at 5 pm or so, she was waxy white with pink spots in her cheeks, crying, shaking, unable to move her eyes or her neck without a lot of pain. Thus the Tylenol. She called the doc's office and they never got back to her, so that wasn't great on their part, even if there wasn't anything they were going to do for her. She's too young for Paxlovid, which has a big rebound effect a good percentage of the time anyway. Anyway. She was feeling terrible, now she feels a little better, but this is day one, so I'm sure she has a few more bad days to come. And Steve and I are likely to have a few of them ourselves. Steve and I are both fatigued today, and my nose is a little runny, so I'm wondering if instead of her giving it to me yesterday, we all already were exposed anyway, 'cause it don't work that fast.
Today was stressful on the flying front. I had to get up at 5:30 am, and we had a winter storm. The roads were terrible. I never got over 40 mph on my way there. There were people driving too fast and riding my back side, and I'd just pull to the side and let them pass. There were people driving too slow--like 15-20 mph, on a state road, making us all pass them, which puts us all at risk. There were 3 accidents I saw or drove past right after they happened, on the way to Frankfort. There were an additional 3 ambulances that I had to pull over for for accidents I didn't see but obviously happened. Indy police department said they had 50 wrecks by 9 am. Two highways were shut completely down for wrecks. Not only the first snow of the season, which is always bad, but it's also a bad one, late night with rain and sleet turning to ice, with a dusting of snow on top of it. It was messy, and scary, and dark, and not fun at all. I was so glad to make it to the airport without exiting the road myself.
Lexi is the airport worker who had to go out to the airport in the middle of the night to plow off the runway, taxiway, and ramp, so I could get out by 7:30 am. I feel so bad for her. What a sucky job. Just for one plane to get in and out.
Even so, the taxiway and runway were slicker than snot. And I had pulled the plane out of the warm hangar, and it was about 20 minutes before the guys got there and we got going. I saw some moisture on top of the wings, but it didn't look that exciting, I've flown with worse. We get out there on the slick runway, and I get to rotate speed, and it's not rotating. Five more knots and I'm starting to try to pull it off, and it's not happy. I consider aborting but the runway is not that long, and it's slick as hell, and I'm already fast. So I give it five more knots and bring it off, and we fly away. But it wasn't happy to start with. I have to climb through some icing to get on top at 21,000', and we make good time to Pennsylvania. I'm watching out the left wing as the precip on the top of it starts sublimating off, which is great.
Where we were going in Pennsylvania, they didn't have a runway condition NOTAM. I called there after they opened, and they said they couldn't give us a runway condition report, only the Airport Authority could, and transferred me to them. Except they weren't open yet, so I had no idea if the snow up there had made that runway as bad as ours. And they have a shorter runway. And a crosswind. So I had to come up with Plan B. Pittsburg International said their runways were okay. It wouldn't be ideal, but my plan was to shoot the approach to Butler (because of course it was still IFR, too), and when I got down there, if the runway looked snow covered, I was going to go missed approach and go over to PIT. If it looked okay, I'd land. I asked center if anyone had been in or out of there and if there was any runway report, and they said no, and no. So I shot the approach. Broke out, looked down, and the runway was clear. Whew. I landed, our guy didn't have to drive an extra hour from PIT, and leg one was done.
I topped off with fuel (they asked if I wanted positive or negative and I said I wanted 100LL not Jet A, so that's always scary), and Nick and I departed within about 45 minutes to go to Buffalo, NY. Which was also getting a snow event, and was IFR. 3/4 mile visibility, blowing snow, etc. I shot the ILS in to there. The plane sat out and gathered some more loose snow, and already had ice on it, as it was icy going out of PIT and into BUF both. I took the crew car and went to Lonestar Steakhouse and had some lobster bisque and a strawberry feta pecan side salad. Came back, paid the bill, and Nick wasn't far behind. I went out and brushed most of the loose snow off, to make sure it wasn't stuck. The windshield was also covered. We stuck our arms out the side windows and got what we could. Firing it up didn't get it off. Takeoff speed would, but I had to see to taxi. I turned on the windshield heat plate, and it worked within a minute or two and melted off enough of a stripe to see to taxi. Yay me.
Took off in the snow and IFR, climbed up to 20,000', got on top of it all into the sunshine, and had a nice rest of the flight home.
Frankfort was supposed to be clear. I get 12 miles away and there's a wall of clouds. Instead of the visual I requested, I re-requested the RNAV 27, and ended up having to shoot it as the weather socked in the airport with another snow shower right when I got there. Landed out of that, and finally it was time to put the plane away and go home.
I stopped at McDonald's to get Kaylee's sweet tea and picked up dinner for me and Steve while I was at it. Later I ordered some broccoli cheddar soup for all of us too. Mine's in the fridge for later, and Kaylee ate hers.
I've got flights Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday now, so...I really hope I don't get sick until after that...
Kaylee wants me to make her my mashed potatoes, has a craving for them. It's not something I can whip up on a whim here. It takes shopping and about 2 hours total time to make them. She's hoping I'll do it tomorrow. I dunno, man, they're a lot of effort. But nothing else tastes like them, either. ;)
New phone case, new Navy Blue nail polish that looks black
I had to clear off my own crew car, buried in snow. They said "It's our first snowstorm of the year here!" and I said "I'm SO glad I was able to be here for this..."
Ice crystals on my window
More ice crystals on the side window
A brief moment of kinda pretty
And back to shitty snow coming into Frankfort
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