Last Thursday was a Cirrus trip with Clay to Traverse City, Michigan. I get to the airport and the plane is still in the hangar. I needed it out and fueled to be on time. I was not Pleasant Laura. They got it out and I launched for Delphi, landing exactly on time. He got in and we got off the ground Exactly on time. Landed in Michigan exactly on time. It was a little stressful, but it got done. Coming in to land, Clay was telling me about "Chef Luke" and asked if I'd ever heard of him. I have not. He's some Instagram guy who has a menu each day at a little convenience store in town and talks about their specials. Since Clay was going to be gone several hours, I took the crew car and went out to breakfast, then stopped at a little coffee shop and got myself something there. Drove out to the lake and walked on a nice sandy beach for a few minutes. The water was ice cold, but it was pretty and I enjoyed walking around for a few.
Then I decided to go to Chef Luke's little convenience store. If he's 'known' on insta, then why not take a look right? That was freaking funny. It is a tiny little store, and inside it is pure upper Michigan. Fishing lures and bait and house supplies and food and Chef Luke's little corner of food. And then I keep walking and there's a display of hatchets and machetes up there. I smile. Then there's an entire rack of...knives. Big knives, long knives, short knives, all in clear plastic pouches so you can see them hanging there. I've never seen THAT before. Okay. Right next to them is a rack full of different sizes of....zip ties. This is where I started laughing. Out loud. We're talking murder central here. I took photos of the displays for proof. You can buy your knife, machete, zip ties, plastic bags, lime, rope, acid, everything you need to disappear someone up in north Michigan, all in one place, and then get some hot fried chicken or home made pizza and veggies and a little buffet to go. HA.
We flew home, and I dropped Clay off in Delphi, then I flew the Cirrus to Kokomo to show it off. The Bonanza guys came Thursday and had ground school all afternoon, so there were a few people out there along with all our guys, and I showed people the pretty little Cirrus. When it was time to return it, I took Steve with me and let him fly it back to Indy Exec so he could get a feel of it too. He enjoyed that--something different for him to mess with too, you know?
Clay is a rather relaxed passenger
machetes
Pick your knife
zip ties
The Beach
Oh, I learned how to send satellite text messages from the plane, too, on the FMS down there.
This is the second Cirrus. I need a photo with better lighting.
That night we went out with everyone to Pastarrific, and got home late. Early morning, late night, Round One.
Next morning I'm awake at 5 am even though I didn't need to be. It was a windy, gusty day (again). And I stayed hopping All Day. Morgan and I took up Brennan, Josh, and Jack S., our "kids" workers, for a fun flight. There was rain coming in so we had to cut it short, but we at least let each of the kids fly BOB for a few minutes, and I hopped in the back while Morgan flew up front with them. Then we came back in to land, and unfortunately Morgan bounced it. Hard. Three times. She was pretty upset about it. She'd only ever bounced BOB twice before ever, and doing it for a third time made her mad, and embarrassed to do it in front of her own students and all of us, and nothing I said made any difference or made it any better, and her confidence took a huge hit too. I know how she feels, because she is so much like me in so many ways and I would have been just as upset at her age in flying too. I bounced it at Sun-n-Fun, the only time I've ever actually bounced BOB, and I was pretty embarrassed too, but not devastatingly so. Shit happens, everyone screws up now and then. She'll learn, it's okay. :)
After that I went up in the Citabria with Jerry. He's 89 years old, turns 90 in August. He fell over the winter and hurt his leg and couldn't get into his airplane until now, and even now he can only get into the back seat. So we did that, got him in the back, and he flew for the first time in months. He did pretty well, a little rusty, and not used to flying from the back and not being able to see his instruments. So I called out his airspeeds for him, and he got better and better. His only real problem is that from the back, his big feet can't stay off the brakes, and when we touch down we're skidding the brakes too, which is not great. But he can't fit up front and he can't stay off the brakes in the back, so I'm not sure how we're going to fix that. I want to fly one more time before signing off his flight review, and then we've got to figure out how to get him up front. His leg just won't bend that way. *sigh* But I have to put this even though you didn't ask for it. He's getting out of the plane. I am standing right behind him, to catch him if he starts to fall out. He bends forward and grabs the bars in the front to help himself down. I'm right there almost touching him. And when he bends forward, he farts. Twice. Loudly. Right at my face. I didn't know if he knew or not, he didn't say anything, so I didn't say anything, and we moved on. But...that was new!
I topped off the evening by taking Morgan in the Champ with me. She was still too demoralized to want to fly herself, so I flew and she rode in the back. I took off, and went cloud surfing, saw the shadow of the plane on the clouds, flew by Glenndale, went up and did a spin. Morgan was just talking, the whole time I pulled the plane up, kicked it into a spin, and recovered it, her voice never changed and she kept talking. Lol, she had fun but wasn't worried at all. Then we came back to Kokomo and I did some landings and they just were not very good. Maybe I was psychologically trying to make her feel better, but I didn't do it on purpose. I only got like a couple good landings out of it. So then she did some from back there, and was GREASING them on. Like, I couldn't do better even if I was on my game. I could do the same, but not better. Then we played a little game that was fun. Front seat person comes over the numbers at a slow speed, levels off, and then the backseater calls out "Three Point", "Wheel", or "One Wheel", and front seater has to hear that, process it, and execute the landing, within like 1-2 seconds before the wheels touch. It's harder than you think. I did three, then she did three, and we had fun with that. She is still not over BOB's Bounce, but still had fun with that. We flew until the sun went down, and then it was pizza and beer in the big hangar, and once again I got home late. Early morning, late night, Round Two.
Morgan, Josh, Jack, me, Brennan
BOB Shadows
Me and Morgan up front, Jack and Brennan in front two seats
Meanwhile I get back to the hangar and this is on my phone. I'm like WHAT is THIS. Is that my hand? Is my hand that wrinkly? I do not have big long hairs on my hand! I switch photos and I see...
This guy. John R took my phone and left me a present. lol
End of the day Champ flight at sunset!
Now we're up to Saturday. I'm awake at 5 am. Today is BOB Training Day with Doug L. He flies a C-195 with crosswind gear, and that's really the only tailwheel he's flown. These first few flights in BOB are a lot. There's a ton of paperwork and a ton of talking and a ton of info. Hours worth. And then we flew. It was still windy, and in his 195, you land it in a crab, not straight, and the gear straightens you out automatically. Pretty wild, but not helpful for BOB. ;) We went up and did all the maneuvers, including engine out to full feather, and then a few takeoffs and landings. He has improved, and I'm hoping a couple more flights and I'll be able to sign him off. We fly a couple of times, which takes all day from start to stop. And the airport is chaos. There are airplanes everywhere. The winds are variable. People are using whatever runway they feel like. We're using Runway 5 because the longer runway is better. The Bonanzas were using Runway 32. The aerobatic guys were out. At one time, Doug lines up on Runway 5. I call Departing Runway 5. Our Cessna 172 was at the end of Runway 32 holding short of the runway. A Piper calls back-taxiing down Runway 32. We start rolling. I look out my window down the runway and there's an airplane on it. I tell Doug to abort. I ask the position of the plane and he says he's back-taxiing 32. I say I don't think you are, I think you're back taxiing Runway 23. He's like "oh yeah, I guess so", and that he's going to turn around and take off on 23. I said "We're in the middle of Runway 5 after aborting our takeoff, suggest you get off at the end." He derped his way to the end, we took off on 5, he took off on 23, and the 172 took off on 32. Then we're coming in to land and a flight of Bonanzas says they're 6 miles out while we're on downwind, so we keep going. We end up landing on both runways at the same time, and I'm watching, and Doug is on speed, so we land and the Bos keep coming on an element landing, and I call out that we will hold short of Runway 32. We stop short of that runway and they land in front of us. Hold short operations at a pilot controlled airport. Kind of crazy, really. Like I said, the day was chaos, and exhausting. Head on a swivel all day, plus sketchy BOB landings made for one tired Laura.
After that Morgan and I were going to go up again in BOB. She needs to fly it and not land it badly before it goes away on tour and she has to do a tour stop and is completely freaked out. She did not need an audience. Steve decided to invite another couple people to go along with us when we went up, and he did it in front of them, leaving no room to politely say 'no'. Morgan didn't want to go at all now, but needed to. Neither of us were happy about it. Only one of them went, a kid named Cameron, but it really would have been better to not have him there for this one flight. Steve feels like it helps justify the plane going up if we take up people with it, but he doesn't understand how our personalities work, not really, and how sometimes being watched is *not* helpful or desired. She made her three landings, and they were all fine, but the confidence and smoothness was gone. She just put it on the runway and brought it to a stop, tense and business. Each landing was fine, but she is not back yet. That BOB bounce took a bite out of her.
Late dinner was at Half Moon. Like 14 of us. The two guys who we held short for ended up buying my dinner as a thank you, so hey. lol Got home late again. Early morning, late night, Round Three.
Sunday, up at 6 am even though I didn't need to be. Better than 5 am but not by much. It was another full one. JP flew up in his Twinkie, after his single engine Comanche had a gear failure and he had to belly it in at Terre Haute. He was here so I could do his CAF checkride, and then he could do mine. Meanwhile, Billy Werth who is a friend who was terribly injured in a plane crash six years ago, almost died, got his medical back in his hand, and he wanted to take up his daughter in his plane for his first flight as PIC in six years, and wanted to get pictures in the air of himself up there. I said OF COURSE. I didn't even lose my medical, I just *almost* lost my medical, and it was terrible for me. Awful. I can't imagine having lost it for 6 years and getting it back. So I was willing to take whatever time I needed to help him do this. So I got JP to agree, and off we went.
JP flew first, we did the air work, steep turns, slow flight, power off and on stalls and recoveries, engine out to full feather, and then I did my air work, did the same things. Then Billy called up and he was in the air and ready to go. He found us pretty quickly, and joined up like a pro, with his 6 year old daughter waving and smiling from the front. :) I took a bunch of photos, and then they peeled off and did their thing, and we came in and did the three takeoffs and landings he needed for currency. Then it's in for more paperwork on the computer. First I have to fill out BOB's book. Then RallyPoint, then go into CAF and do the 602 forms, Twice. It takes an hour at best...
Next up was Glenn O doing his currency takeoffs and landings in the T-6. I asked if he was comfortable with the winds, because they were crosswindy and gusty, and I am rusty, and I'm in the back. He says sure. I figure...okay...and we go. He taxies too fast, and he is too hard on the power. We take off and it's not a good takeoff, and I'm thinking, oh man, I am not ready for this. I tell him to exit the pattern and go get his feet under him for a bit, so he does, and then makes it back in for a landing, which is okay. Not great, but okay. Next trip around the pattern, the Champ is taxiing out with Morgan and Josh. Josh is trying to master wheel landings and failing badly. He'll get them then lose them which means he never got them. We come down in the T-6 and Glenn bounces it so high he just cobs power to it and we go right around. Right call. I am not relaxed. Meanwhile, his seat keeps dropping. It'll drop a notch, he'll fix it, it'll drop. So he tells me if it drops on this lap he'll give it to me. I don't freaking want it, I'm not looking to do a gusty crosswind landing from the back seat today. And if it drops in the flare or something, that's a terrible version of the fun game Morgan and I were playing in the Champ the other night. Fortunately it didn't do that. He did a third landing, which was okay if not great, and then we stopped for the day, thank heavens. He gets his currency in, I get a little refresher on the back seat before I get a guy coming in this Friday, and we all lived.
By now it's past 6 pm, and Mike M had flown up from down South somewhere to learn to fly BOB too. So once again, starting over with a new person, ton of talking, paperwork and information. We fly for the first time, and he's behind the plane, and he knows it. The fun one though was power on stalls. When it breaks, the right wing drops pretty far, and he immediately cranked the ailerons all the way over to the left and pulled. And that, folks, is how the party really gets started. I made him do like 5 of them in a row. Second time he only put a little aileron in and did put rudder in, but didn't get the nose down, third fourth and fifth time he started getting it. He said he hadn't done anything like that in an airplane in decades. We ran through the engine out stuff about 4 times before he started getting that down too. We came in for one landing, and it didn't go super well either, so we ended the day on that one. More paperwork, more putting things away, Grindestones for dinner with just Steve and Morgan. Got home late, was only up an hour or so, ran a load of laundry for clean clothes, to bed late. Early morning, late night, Round Four.
Glenn in Checkertail
Billy and Camber his daughter
Feathered shut down right engine
Closer view of it
Me trying not to be worried about these landings. ;)
Glenn
This brings us to today. Up at 6 am. Morgan had a trip to Ohio for me so I could fly with Mike again. Weather was okay but moving in to bad this afternoon/evening. Mike and I got there at 8 am and were up flying by 9. This day went much smoother for him. He started getting it together. We did takeoffs and landings, and I fine tuned those, and they kept getting better. We landed after 2.1 hours, which is a long flight. We topped off, got a snack, a drink, a bathroom break, and then we looked at the weather, which was not good. Rain was moving in, massive storms behind it. Morgan texts me, she's in Ohio, she'd told them to be back by 1 but it was only 11:15 and it was coming. I told her she needed to text them and tell them to come back, that they need to leave now or they may not make it back in. She said "Right now?" and I said "Right Now." So she did, and when they got there she got in and aimed right for Indy Exec, skipped Delphi, landed just in front of the weather, and drove them back to their own cars at Delphi.
Mike and I go for one last flight. I feel like I can make this one a check flight. We go up and race through the maneuvers while I'm watching the weather to the west out the window. Steep turns, all the stalls, which he does correctly, engine out which he does smoothly and correctly, takeoffs and landings, crosswind, go-arounds. I pull an engine on him after takeoff and totally take him by surprise. He says "Dang you, Girl!" Lolol He does well with it and brings it around safely for a good landing. We do half flap landings, I do another engine out in the pattern and he lands out of that one too. We taxi back, and I'm good. I tell him I'm good with him, and then give him a list of some things to fine tune and work on when he's on his own. And I know he will, too.
We go inside and do MORE paperwork; his logbook, mine, RallyPoint, the CAF form 602, all the things. Within a few hours his letter came through granting him permission to fly the plane. So this is good. Less than an hour after we landed it started raining like crazy, and I came on home, and it was the first time I made it home at a reasonable hour. I was super excited. Steve stayed out there to work for a few hours and then went to dinner with Mike and Chuck. I came home and started working on things, including this. And then I fell asleep for 15 minutes before a text woke me back up. And then Steve and I started watching TV, and a big old storm rolled in with tornado warnings and hail and wind. The "storm team" interrupted the last 30 minutes of the show, just to do that thing where they say the same thing over and over, so we switched to On Demand and caught up on Boston Blue instead. But I wasn't happy about it. I hate that. Put a banner on the bottom. Set off an alarm if a tornado is actually there. But don't make the weather guy talk about nothing for an hour or more at a time. :/
Me and Mike in BOB
Morgan is the "Private" plane off to the right, and here comes the weather. She was going into TYQ
Tomorrow...tomorrow I wait for the weather to clear up, hope it clears up enough, and then Doug and I are going to try to get him finished up in the C-45 too. He needs more crosswind work, and we're likely to get it with the forecast, so hopefully it's not TOO exciting. Nobody needs that, you know.
I'm also going to try to sleep in tomorrow. In fact I may take something to make Sure I sleep in tomorrow. I need to sleep in tomorrow. Even my ring says I'm in a moderate sleep deficit again. I shall sleep...
No comments:
Post a Comment