Ypsilanti

I'm home from Michigan, and all went well.

Yesterday we left in the afternoon, and made it up there by 3:45 pm. My rental car was waiting for me, and we drove to the hotel and checked in, put our bags in the rooms, then went for a coffee. All the coffee shops except for Dunkins and Starbucks, and many, many restaurants were all Middle Eastern, with those drinks, desserts, free Quran available at many of them advertised. Ypsilanti definitely has a huge Muslim influence. We then drove around and checked things out. We went out to Grand Isle, and there was a fair going on at the old naval base out there. But it was huge, and we'd have to walk a bunch, and there were a lot of fair rides put together by fair people, and neither Morgan nor I decided we needed to go. I'm trying to protect my legs, too. So instead we went to a place to eat, JP's Waterside Restaurant. But the inside is dark, crowded and loud. So we went to the outside patio on the water, in the sunshine, but it was only 50 some degrees and windy, and we were really cold out there. So we packed it in and drove around some more and ended up at BJ's for dinner, where I had a "Lucy Ducky" drink in a tub with a floating rubber duck and a straw. And dinner. lol

We went to the rooms by 10 pm since we had to get up at 4:15 am, and I fell asleep sometime between 10:30-11 pm. I then woke up, and tried to get back to sleep, and finally looked at my watch and saw 1:30 am. I never really got back to sleep after that. Not ideal. But when my alarm went off at 4:15, I was actually alert and ready. I was really focused on this mission, wanting it to go well, I'd run over all the possibilities, how I'd do a briefing for the pilots, where we would go, all the stuff. So we get out to the airport at 5:15 am, met up with the three Huey guys and three C-47 folks. Rachel was the left-seater in the C-47, and she was a professional pilot too. Everyone we worked with this time was top notch. Last time we tried to photo their B-25 and that pilot was terrible. Our expectations were low this time because of that, but they brought their A game and we brought ours, and Greg said we ended up with some excellent shots they'll be happy with.

It was tiring and a lot of work. A crew that doesn't know me nor me them, I'm not familiar with the area, it's in the middle of Detroit's Class B airspace, we're trying to find areas without ground clutter but the best two areas had tall towers in the way I had to keep an eye out for for both me and the plane we were photographing. I had to direct them, watch for traffic, obstacles, talk on the radio, and fly very, very smoothly for the ships flying off of me. For the Huey, they wanted us at 90 mph, which meant I had to drop some flaps and do slow flight while I was at it. And avoid their rotor wash. I was pleased because I held pretty much exactly 90 mph the entire time, with the air smooth as glass. Steady and smooth. It was good.

My legs were so much better yesterday. Right one didn't hurt at all, left one only a little, and I could walk pretty normally. I took a stool and Morgan would help me with it, climb up so I didn't have to, put the stool away after I climbed up. And then came today. Just the two hours of flying we did and the action, my legs hurt again quite a bit. They were weak, stiff and achy. I put on my knee wrap this evening and am trying to rest as much as I can. Because...my next two T-6 checkout guys arrived this evening to Kokomo, and we start tomorrow morning at 9 am, only this time I have to get in the back. So Steve is going to have the guys bring a ladder over for me so I can just get in and out a lot more gently. These T-6 checkouts are coming at a good time when I don't have anything on the schedule at all for corporate flying until like June 27th. Not that more won't happen, but that's crazy. And I have these two this week, another guy next week, and a third guy the 3rd week in June. That means Morgan can take the corporate stuff that comes in, because she'll need that too, along with students, and then I can actually make more money doing the T-6 stuff. I can make as much in one weekend in the T-6 as I can in a month of the corporate flights. I need that right now. I also need my knees. So I will be as gentle and kind to them as I can, no playing the hero like I did the first time and just ignoring it and pretending it was fine. It was not fine. I'm just grateful they were starting to get so much better, meaning it wasn't some kind of permanent damage. They are still weak, and they inflame easily, and get stiff and a little painful easily, but they ARE better. I just need to keep them that way, while I also make a living.

Steve and Kaylee went hiking today. It ended up being a harder hike than they intended, and Steve was excited because he's lost about 7 pounds, and been eating much healthier, and he didn't have hardly any trouble with the hike. Meanwhile, Kaylee did have more trouble, but she also had a bigger pack with extra 15 pounds on it because it was supposed to be an easy trail but wasn't. She's leaving in 5 days to go to Wyoming to go hiking with her friend in a higher altitude environment, and now she's worried about her conditioning for that. She hasn't been doing any hiking in quite awhile, and now she's jumping into this, so she has a reason to be worried. Me, I've also lost a couple pounds and have been working with weights for my bad left shoulder and arms, regaining some muscle, because I couldn't hardly use that arm for months, and what you don't use, you lose. I've been bigger for a long time now, but I was always very strong anyway. I've been focusing on my own health too, including weight and strength.

Steve is still working on his garage project too, and my car is sitting outside while he organizes everything. He's super pumped with having these new tools and tool boxes and this project to complete. He's been on cloud 9 with it all. :) He thinks he'll be close to having it back together by the end of today.

Like I said, I got 3 hours of sleep last night, so I tried to take a nap when I got home and Steve and Kaylee were off hiking. I think I did fall asleep, but it was less than an hour. Maybe that's good. I'll try to go to bed early tonight for tomorrow's work.

Tonight a guy flew his own T-6 here and parked on the ramp at Kokomo. Starting tomorrow, he wants his son checked out in it, but started out in Checkertail for about 5 hours first. Then he wants to go up with me on a refresher flight and see if he's "picked up any bad habits" or has anything to fine tune, and he wants to do some flying from the back seat, too. I don't feel quite ready for this one because I've been focused on the photo shoot, and I'm too tired to plan much tonight for the few hours before I go to bed, and when I wake up I'll have to go out and be ready to go. But...it's not my first time so I'm guessing I'll make it work out. Hopefully. :)

Morgan took this one of the back of my head/the plane

Me with my Lucky Ducky ;)

From the front seat while Morgan does all the flying

Another view of the drink

This was on a toolbox in the warbird hangar and it made me laugh. Because heck yeah, I got a gold star for my mental health too! ;)

MI

I'm headed to MI today in the T-6 to do this photo shoot. The B-25 blew a cylinder so it's just the C-47 and the Huey, and hopefully they go all right. I asked a couple people about flying off a Huey and they haven't gotten back to me yet.

I'll update this one tonight probably when I get back to the hotel. But I forgot something about yesterday. I had a really weird, unpleasant dream night before last. I was right seat in a Piper with Morgan flying, and she botched the approach and we were way high and fast and floating down the runway, and I sarcastically mentioned something about "isn't that the other end of the runway coming at us" because you could see the other runway numbers. She said yeah, then said she guessed she'd go around. I'm nervous because there's not much room to go around at this point, and she adds power and we climb out. Suddenly the scene switches, she's in the right seat, someone else is in the left, don't know who, and I'm in the back seat, and we're fairly high up but still doing this go-around. I look out the right side and there is a solid object of some sort right there, and I say "HEY" but it's too late, and I watch as the right wing runs into this object, and then the right wing tears off of the airplane. I freeze, there's that moment where your brain says "That didn't just happen I don't want that to have happened that can't have happened", and then the plane starts to tilt and I resignedly said quietly "Well guys, that's it", and then the plane yaws and rolls and I'm watching the ground come up at us. I wanted to get on the PTT and tell someone what happened but I was in the back, I thought about trying to get my phone out and text but I knew there wasn't enough time, so I just watched the ground get bigger until I woke up, heart hammering, sweating. So yesterday I'm flying with Morgan in the Citabria and she wants to do spins and I'm like "well, good thing I'm not superstitious". lol We also agreed that me saying "Well guys, that's it" probably sounds like something I'd say. We also agreed we're not planning on finding out. ;)

I should quit procrastinating now and pack and get ready for this photo shoot thing. Fortunately we're not on any kind of time crunch as we're not really doing it until 5:30 am tomorrow morning. Getting up there early just to get settled, get gas, get a room, drive around, do whatever...

More Round

Another headache last night, took two rounds to get rid of it. Hoping that's the end of this month's fun. Didn't have to get up early though, so at least I could sleep in and wake up feeling just fine again. So thankful to have the drugs that make it so I can just wake up and be fine and go about my day. 

Steve brought home the Corvette today and it was kind of bad news. He took it to Mark (mechanic) because the exhaust was loose and he wanted something else small fixed. He was told and thought it would be a certain amount of money and take one day. Three or four days later; he learned he needs an entire new exhaust and has many other problems to fix that ended up taking three times the amount of money expected or desired on spending on that car. He had told Mark he didn't want it left outdoors, so Mark kept it in his shop. Steve gets there today to pick it up, and there are two long dribbles of what looks like bird poop on the hood, so he gets it home and goes to wipe it off. It doesn't come off all the way, it is completely etched into the paint on his hood, several feet long, two different runs. It was some sticky chemical that ate into the paint. He is beside himself. That Corvette means a lot to him, and he can't stand his things being ruined let alone like that. He finally called Mark and told him, and Mark said he'd make it right whatever it took. Neither of them want to have to repaint the whole car, and it's too old to repaint just the hood and have it look normal. Steve just wants it back the way it was and is hoping Mark can do something about that. So that was a less than stellar start to the day.

Then Steve was telling me about multiple students who aren't paying their bill, and he's upset that he's having to get mean on them, and worried that we'll just be out the money, which happens more often than you'd think. 

Our 172RG was down for maintenance, our one 172 is in for 100 hour, our 2nd 172 went down with a flap problem, and the weather is nice for the first time in ages. So that was also not a great start to today. But by the end of today, the RG and one 172 were both back up. So that's good.

We got some car shuffling done and I was driving Steve to the airport when Ethan texted and asked if we were around--I said we'd be there in 15 or so. Ethan comes flying in in a Cirrus. He just bought his own Cirrus. It's a 2023 SR22T G6, an older model than the ones we rent, but with a low time engine and a full maintenance program until 2028. It's wired up for Starlink too, so if I have to go low and slow at least I'll have internet again. That means he's pushing off buying a bigger plane for at least another year. He swears he'll still buy a bigger plane 'some day', but in the meantime he's going to Colorado on Monday in his brother's jet and I fly his guys around in the Cirrus and occasionally MBros 340. 

Oh, and Kevin is putting the Cheyenne up for sale. The huge expense of the Service Bulletins on top of the new avionics panel it really needs...they've contacted a broker on it, and they won't be getting anything else. So that takes care of all the turboprops. 

End of the afternoon, Steve brought home a trailer full of really nice expensive tools and toolboxes that belonged to Russ Pogue, a gent who built an RV-12 from scratch, and passed away right when it was done. Stroke. Nathan bought the plane, and Steve got the tools and box for his help in selling it. He's so excited about that, and has all that stuff in the garage, and while I'm gone this weekend he's going to go through his tools, his set up, put in the new stuff, take some of the old stuff and put it in Kaylee's basement and the rest out to the airport. So he's really pleased about that.

We then went out to dinner at Harvey Hinkelmeyers, AE, me, Chuck and Steve this time. The guys came back to our house to hang out around the fire pit in the yard and have beer and cigars. Around 7:30 pm I headed back out to Glenndale, to meet up with Morgan and go flying in Chuck's Citabria. We wanted to do a sunset flight. She went up to do some spins, so we did some to the left and right there, and then some takeoffs and landings at Kokomo, then I circled over our house where the fire pit fire was really bright and noticeable, and I said hi, and they came out into the driveway to wave up at me. Then we ended at Glenndale and stayed in the air and watched the sun go down, before landing, wiping off all the bugs, and driving home for the night. Nice end to the day.

It's going to have a different N#, with Ethan's Initials at the end

Just a little spin action

Right Round

I only had one thing today. I didn't sleep well last night, woke up with a headache that took three rounds of meds to kick, which is annoying. The wine I had last night along with the weather maybe? I don't know. But anyway, I was fine by the time I got up at 8:45 am, at least.

I had a student in the Champ. He's a weird, weird kid, but he tries very hard and has very specific goals. I think I said before he has a touch of the Tism, and part of that makes him super detail oriented, engineer-brain, which can be tedious on the instruction end of things unless you're built the same way, which I'm not. But today was a fun flight. I had him go up and practice short field 3 point landings until he could do 3 in a row down and stopped by 1000' markers, without using the brakes, which aren't working right now. Well, right one isn't working, left one chatters but kind of works. Once he could do that, I took him into Converse, the 40' x 1800' old military style runway. We did a low pass/fly by of the runway to make sure it was still clear, and then did a landing there. Had to get out and push the tail around by hand with the plane running because the brakes didn't work well enough for us to turn around on the good 40' of concrete. lol We then went up and did spins. Two to the left, one to the right, and he did a nice job with those. So he had fun, we both did.

Went with Morgan into town and for a late lunch at McCallister's, and stopped at Hobby Lobby to pick up another coloring book thing for her. It's her stress management tool. I hobbled through Hobby Lobby because she walks fast even trying to not walk fast for my sake. After that, when I brought Steve a sandwich back, I left there to go to CVS for car gum, only to find they didn't have the kind I like, so I went through the car wash next, stopped at Walgreens, and they DID have my car gum, and I saw a wall of braces and such. I thought...hmmm...and I picked up a compression knee wrap, which is almost a knee brace but not quite. I spent 15 minutes looking them over, getting the right size, getting a decent brand, and when I got home I tried it on, and it really does seem to help. My kneecap feels loose in the left leg, and weak, like it's going to give out, and that compression wrap/brace really gives it good support. It takes a little getting used to, but I think I can do that, and I think it'll help during times I have to be on it a lot. I just googled "can I wear these to bed" and dr google says definitely don't do that, don't wear it more than 2-4 hours at a time and then give your circulation a break. So. Will do. Will not do and will do, I should say.

Kaylee's car behaved well today. Steve took it to the airport and we took it to dinner and so far it isn't glitching. He's afraid to let her drive it tomorrow because his Fridays are sacred and if it breaks down in Indy at 6 pm after work it will ruin his Friday. So he may not let her have it until Saturday anyway so he will be able to relax on his Friday and not worry that it will fail. lol

I don't know what else. I think I mentioned I got my hair permed yesterday. It's a new type of perm, and 1) it doesn't smell nearly as bad, and 2) my hair is softer. Nice.

Oh! I know. Kaylee got a new office today! A therapist is leaving and her office is opening up. Kaylee wanted it because it is larger, has a bunch of windows, and she could have plants in there because of the light. But a more senior therapist wanted it so got it. But then this other lady decided she didn't want it after all because it gets too warm in there in the summer. Kaylee's like "put me in coach!" She doesn't get warm, she'll be just fine, and she'll love all the natural light, and the more space, and the ability to have plants in there with her. She is So excited. She texted us in all caps like three times in a row. Ha. Good for her. I'm happy for her! Getting her favorite car back (her own) and a fancy new office...life is pretty good! :)

Okay. My Friday is quiet, and then Saturday gets busy going to Michigan where I am doing a photo shoot now with a B-25 and a C-47 with crews that aren't formation pilots and last time the B-25 did a terrible job for the photo mission, and it's the same pilot. So I'm going to change on my end and have them fly slow and just let me maneuver around them. And then we're going to do a Huey helicopter too. I've never done THAT before, and I'm not really sure how that's going to work out. I'm a little concerned about the rotor wash, being in position to get good photos without getting tossed around. So there will definitely have to be a good pilot briefing, and I retain the right to call it off and say no if it's going to be a problem. I'll think about that tomorrow when I have more time to think about how I'm going to do a photo ship with 3 airplanes out of an airport in the middle of the Detroit Class B airspace, literally right off the end of the Detroit airport. With pilots who were not good at this. So...I'll have to chew on that some. But not tonight.

Plans

Oddly enough, on a whim I decided to try the Meta team again to just delete that whole Meta Ad page, as long as it didn't affect my personal FB page. They said it wouldn't. I actually got a live agent the first time I tried. This is unusual and my hopes are low, but...I still hope. I am a perpetual optimist somehow still. ;)

We're going back and forth now. Will see how this goes. I'm so stinking suspicious, I keep looking to see if this is a legitimate Meta guy. If they ask for a password I'm out.

I am not picking up BOB tomorrow. The weather down south is IFR in the morning Marginal after that, and Rain after that. We need all our ducks in a row, and we do not need additional challenges with weather on top of everything else. So...we wait.

I got a perm today. First time in a year. My hair must not be growing as fast as it used to because it wasn't even totally flat/bad yet. lol I still hate getting them, and I still feel like I have a touch of the Tism because of how much I hate the sensory stuff of getting perms. But I do still like the end result for the next 6-12 months. I don't have to do a thing to my hair in the morning except get up, wash it, pull a hair pick through it, and let it air dry while I walk out the door and do my thing. And it rarely looks bad. Works for me!

Oh my gosh, I think Meta was actually helpful this time! They let me know that the Thai hackers can't do anything on that page either, that it will be deleted on its own shortly, and it won't affect my main profile or page at all. It was a little like pulling teeth, but finally I have been told that my profile is safe, the hackers won't be able to do anything, the two factor authentication saved my bacon, and the bogus page will be deleted after a bit. So, finally, after all that, all good.

I also had to get my brows done and buy shampoo so I guess today was hair care day.

This afternoon I finally got tired of sitting at home, so I went back out to the airport. Steve and Morgan were out there, and I took up the Champ for half an hour and enjoyed some air therapy. Had some nice landings and just wanted to do it by myself. After about 30 min I texted Morgan to see if she wanted to go, with me or by herself, and she wanted the front seat with me along, so we flew for another 30 minutes, just messing around. It was nice.

Then the three of us went to Angry Donkey for dinner from there. The sunset was so nice we decided we'd go Citabria flying tomorrow evening if it's like this. I think I'm still in a bummed out mode, like winter isn't over, like summer fun hasn't started or something. I'm just...meh. So it's good to get moving again.

Oh, something funny, I stopped at CVS today to pick up two things. Reading glasses so I can see with the lower power contacts that don't make everything else look weird unlike the higher power ones, and a batch of Osteo Bi-Flex which is a joint supplement. I don't know if it'll help or not, but I'm willing to try anything. My legs...they were better today, but I just can't use them much right now before they get weak, wobbly, stiff and painful. Sit for long? Stiff and painful. They pop very painfully and then feel better for a bit until they need to pop again. Heck, I don't know. But I thought it was funny because I went to the drug store to buy two old lady things.

Tomorrow is a (slightly autistic) student who is working on his tailwheel stuff with me, then the Citabria flight with Morgan in the evening. 

For now, that's it. Kaylee's car behaved today and didn't die in Indy, but Steve was so nervous about it he's making her take his car again tomorrow so he can see if it'll quit on him first over the weekend, and if not, she can start taking it again on Monday...

Life

Let's see.

I spent 3 days fighting with Facebook Meta trying to get a live agent. See, I also found my ads center was compromised, after I got my Instagram and my FB accounts back. There were 5 Thailand guys as "admins" on my ads manager page, and they sent out 22 ads in one day out of my account, which got that account locked. So I tried for 3 days to get help. I'd try every couple hours, I'd try every couple of minutes, I'd try randomly to get through and it would always say "Our agents are at capacity try again in a couple hours". I was just getting ready to go to bed last night and I got through! I was so excited. I had to re-explain myself three times to him but he finally said he'd pass my problem on to "the team" and they'd get back to me when they were done. I stayed up an extra hour, didn't hear anything, had to get up at 7 for work, so went to bed. Woke up at 7 am to the "team" telling me at 3 am that my account was locked because of unauthorized bad ads and they couldn't unlock it for me, and since I wasn't responding, they were closing my ticket, bye.  I didn't ask them to open my account, I asked 14 times to remove the Thai hackers off my ad account. I swear to the good lord above, they're idiots or bad AI or non-Americans who don't understand English, or something. So after 3 days of screwing with it only to have that result, I am just leaving it alone. They can't access my actual FB account, just the ads thing, and my ad account was shut down because of them, and I didn't use that anyway, so...they can sit there and rot I guess. SO frustrating. I even found a FB group that claimed to be Meta support team helpers that you DM and they'll help you with issues. So I did that, with my specific problem, only for "her" to come back and say "you'll pay me money to help offset costs and then I'll get a password for you to get into your account". I immediately blocked "her". Not paying money and I didn't need a password to get into my account, that was not the problem...

SO this has been fun.

I spent the weekend being kind to my knees. I thought they were doing well, but it took a few days for the NSAIDs Kaylee gave me to get out of my system. The last two days they've been getting worse again, and today they were downright painful. I had to walk up and down 20 stairs, walk across the ramp at Indy Exec from the south side, get in and out of the Cirrus multiple times, get in and out of a big tall truck a couple of times, walk across a parking lot, and all of those things were difficult and painful. I am having trouble getting up or sitting down again. Which is just great. I don't even know what that means. Did I tear something in there? I tried exercising them and I about crippled myself last weekend. I tried resting them and it was fine...until I used them again. They should be healed up by now if it was just a muscle strain, it's been like a month. So I guess I'm going to have to go visit a doctor after all, if I can figure out a time to make it in. *sigh*

Kaylee's new car is back home again. Twice it wouldn't start because of a computer glitch, a fun new problem with new computerized vehicles. Steve told them if it happened again we were returning the car and they were getting us a different one, and he started the Lemon Law stuff. They think it's fixed now, and we all hope so. We're driving it around here for awhile before Kaylee tries taking it to work and potentially getting stranded in Indy. We shall see.

I headed to Henderson, KY today, or I was supposed to, in the Cirrus. I get down there and they only had a VOR-A (non-precision non-precision approach lol) approach in and the ceilings were 700' with minimums at 600'. But I get close and they tell me that VOR is no longer working (wasn't in the NOTAMs yet). So I tried to do a GPS overlay thing and they let me at first and then they said no. So I ended up in Evansville instead, and the weather was down to 500' overcast, so I might not have gotten into Henderson anyway.  Unexpected weirdness for the day.

I was home by 4:30 pm though, which was nice. Let Nick do the flying out of Delphi and back into Delphi, talked him through the landing. He had fun with that. Clay was nervous as he doesn't like landings anyway, but we all made it. ;)

Upcoming, let's see. Morgan and I are flying Gumby down to Alabama on Thursday so that I can meet Glenn there and he and I will bring BOB home. Carefully. Morgan will be chase plane in case we need anything. Saturday evening I'm flying the T-6 up to Ypsilanti, MI to spend the night so that at 5:30 am I can be at the airport pre-dawn for a sunrise photo shoot flight with Greg Moorehead on a C-47 and B-25. They aren't formation qualified and usually those photo shoots don't go that well, and it's going to be an overnight, expensive, and buttcrack of dawn adventure. Morgan may go up with me just for grins.

Then Monday morning I have two guys, father and son, coming from MN to do T-6 checkouts over the next 3 days. I don't have any Ethan flights yet, and if I do they'll go to Morgan, but I'm mostly worried about my freaking knees and getting in and out of there. They're talking about doing two people's checkouts over 3-4 days. That is a LOT of getting in and out back there. Nothing to do but keep going for now.

Anniversary

As of today, Steve and I have been married for 30 years. Talk about feeling old. ;)

We had talked about going down to French Lick and spending a day or two down there in the fancy hotel, having a fancy dinner, but...I went first and said that I thought maybe we should stay home this weekend, that it has been a tight winter and we should maybe be a little more conservative on funding for now. Then Steve said he had a lot to catch up on and he wouldn't mind being home either. So home we decided to stay. Fortunately neither of us gets weird about milestone stuff for the most part, or holidays, or whatever, so no hurt feelings as far as I know. ;)

We celebrated at home. Steve had gotten some ribeyes to cook up for tonight, and some cabernet wine, and I made corn with cream cheese. He was going to do it on the grill, but unfortunately after he fired up the grill, he ran out of propane. Doh! So instead he made them on the cast iron skillets in the house, except they smoked up the whole house so badly the smoke alarm was going off and we had all the doors open trying to get the haze out. Ha. Kaylee came over with Molly, and we ate dinner, toasted 30 years, and enjoyed the family company.

Steve worked on some house projects, both Kaylee and our house and yards. He got a lot done and was pleased. I spent a lot of time today still working on my Facebook hack job. My ad account was hacked by Thailand fellows. Five Thai names were added as admins to my account. I don't use the ad account, and they didn't get any of my money, but they were using Thai money to put in and use my account to shoot out a bunch of bad ads, 22 of them, before Facebook/Meta shut down my ad account.  It is different from my actual FB account, and that's fine. I have spent two days trying to get rid of those five guys. I did everything I can on my own, but now I need a Meta human account support person to remove the 5 people. And I can't get a human. It keeps saying "We're at capacity, try again in a couple hours", and over 2 days, they've never been anything but "too busy to see you right now try again". No queue so you can't just wait them out. No phone number. Just this Meta AI who has to connect you to a human if you get lucky enough to find one. We'll see how that goes, but in the meantime, at least everything I use is secure/shut down.

Watching the Season Finales of Marshalls and Tracker, two shows we like. Nothing happening tomorrow, just a day off. Then a flight on Tuesday.  Still trying to get BOB.

And...onward.

Brief

Just got back from the old person dinner starting at 4:45 pm and ending by 5:45 pm so Steve can get back on the deck by his 6 pm Friday night "date" night with his buds.  We go to Harvey Hinklemeyer many Fridays, and meet up with Chuck, AE, sometimes Jeff, sometimes Jerry Keller, sometimes Morgan and Steve and me. Tonight it was me, Chuck, Steve, Morgan, Jerry. Only problem with eating that early is I'll probably get hungry later at night when I'm trying not to eat. :p 

Speaking of old person, my Aspercreme came in today. I'm not going to use it yet. My knees/legs were doing well today, so I'm going to let Kaylee's drugs wear off, and then I'm going to see how I'm doing. If the inflammation is down and the pain is gone, then I'm in good shape and I'll let it be. If the pain comes back, I'll start using the cream and hoping it helps and is temporary. I'll find out more starting tomorrow morning as it'll have been 24 hours since off the meds then. Crossing fingers. And I'm going to get more hard core about taking off some of the weight and relieving my joints.

The eye doctor says today that the contacts I have have 2.0 and 2.5 as the "up close" part, and you can't get anything in between. Problem is that the 2.0, I can't read small print off my phone or email or menus. But with the 2.5, I can read that stuff great, but at night all the lights become blobs, I can't find runways, or see if there is one car or three headed at me and how far away they are. So I'll either have to wear glasses, which doesn't work for tailwheel or formation stuff, but would for others; wear the 2.0 and use reading glasses to read the small print stuff, which annoys me and is a hassle, or deal with having trouble seeing at night, which isn't that common during the summer hours but still not great. *sigh*  Sure would like to be able to just look out and read and see. Such a thought. ;)

That's about it. I mean, I stayed busy most of the day working on stuff, but none of it was interesting. Formation Proficiency Report (FPR) going out to my signatory to keep me active for the year, trying to find when I can go get BOB in Alabama, paperwork, house work, a couple phone calls, getting ready for next week, some scheduling stuff, looking up the helmet I hope to get eventually to replace my old broken down one, yadda yadda...

Home

Good recuperating day.  I slept in until 8, which felt like a late morning, which is just wrong. ;)

One thing I forgot to mention about how I spent my time in Nebraska. I woke up yesterday morning to a flurry of texts on my phone that said my Instagram account was being attempted to log into from a bunch of different places. From 1-4 am they blitzed my account, and finally they actually got in. It said my account was logged in in NY. I go into my account and I can still get in. I don't know how they got past my 2 factor authentication but they did. Then I look around my account, and my email and cellphone are still in there, but there is an additional email and a "Whatsapp" that I don't have. My birthdate has been changed too. I try to change my birthday back and it asks for my password and now my password is 'wrong' so it has been changed. Gulp. I ask around and most people say I'm screwed, there's nothing I can do, I'll have to report it hacked and probably shut it down, etc. I spent the next three hours fighting it. First I separated my Facebook from my Instagram as they were tied together. They had different passwords though so I thought that was okay. (Spoiler alert, it wasn't totally okay).  I'd request something and it would go to my cellphone except it was going to a Whatsapp on "my" phone and I don't have Whatsapp so it was going to them. I tried everything in the book, kept hitting it with stuff, and then I eventually got it to send something to my email, which I actually got. I was able to change my password. Then I changed my birthday back, and I shut off my cellphone access since it wasn't going to me somehow. I deleted their email, and went in and logged out of all devices and logged back into mine. I finally won, and I got control of my account back. They *still* have a whatsapp somewhere, but other than that I seem to have regained control. I set up a different two-factor authentication, using Google Authenticator instead of my cellphone. I still don't know how they got past that in the first place, but I am grateful I didn't lose all my photos and stuff off of it. And I was kind of proud of myself for finding a way around them to get it back. I don't even remember which back door thing I tried that finally worked, I'm just glad it did.

Yesterday I got notifications from Facebook that they'd removed 4 offensive photos off of my timeline for being violent and offensive. See, this happened to me like a year ago where they removed a post where I said I'd light a house on fire to kill a spider, and called it violent. So I figured that's what this was, but Facebook wouldn't even tell me what photos they removed, they said "We can't show you the photos". I'm like...how can I defend myself against photos when I don't know what you found so bad this time?! I fired back and said I denied their allegations even though I didn't know what they were talking about. So this morning I wake up to a text from Steve Tummers letting me know there was a photo "I posted" that he hoped I could get fixed. I was like...what?! I go to my own timeline and see an image of Isis getting ready to behead somebody with a giant sword. Obviously I did not post that, so obviously my FB account was compromised too. First I deleted that image asap, and then I changed my password--again--and then I went hunting through my account profile to see where it had been compromised, and I couldn't find a thing. It was all just MY information in there. So I think it happened when my Instagram account was hacked, because it was tied to my FB account for awhile, and they must have posted that stuff through my Insta account. I spent this morning resetting my passwords for FB, and Apple ID since that had the same password as one of my hacked accounts, and other things, and tightening up my security. So that was fun! (not) It was a close one.

I didn't do much exciting today. Steve's been working on all our car problems. Kaylee's Jeep Compass that was hit in December and totaled by the insurance company; we've ended up paying lease payments on a car we haven't even had in our possession in 5 months. The Jeep Cherokee Hybrid that has glitched twice, Steve started the Lemon Law process and told them if they didn't get it fixed this time he doesn't want that car back. Then we're getting my Charger and his Jeep in to fix the hail damage from the hail storm last month. He took the Corvette in and it needs a new exhaust system. So basically, all in all, our lives are inundated with car problems. He is currently driving that Orange Juice Colored Jeep Compass around and sticking out like a sore thumb while Kaylee drives his Jeep to work each day. lol

Kaylee and Molly came over to hang out tonight. Molly was talking and talking and talking at us, non-stop, going in the kitchen, and finally Kaylee followed her out there, and her door was closed to her new litterbox and she was informing us all she needed to pee. Such a good cat.

We started watching "Dutton Ranch" tonight, first episode. I really liked Yellowstone until it got weird, 1883 I watched while I was laid up with Covid and either my illness affected me or it was really really good, but it got me. Same with 1923; long periods of build up but still a really dang good sad hard show. "Marshalls" is a spin off of Kasey Dutton but it's like a typical show, nothing special. So I'm hoping this Dutton Ranch is one of the better versions.

Not much on for tomorrow for me. Eye doc phone call, house work, more of my own PT to try to help my shoulder/knees, and on that note, I looked up the drugs Kaylee was giving me, Diclofenac, which has worked SO WELL on my joint/knee pain, and I shouldn't keep taking it because it's hard on the kidneys, which I'm still trying to be kind to. So I ordered a non-prescription gel that has an over the counter strength version of the same thing, diclofenac, that since it's topical won't affect my kidneys. Only problem?  It's Aspercreme. I just bought apsercreme. I just hope like heck it doesn't have a strong scent and I don't walk around smelling like an old lady. I also hope it works 2/3rds as well as the drugs have. And I hope this is a short term problem that is over with soon and not a long-lasting injury. But mostly I hope I don't smell like an old lady. Gah.

Jiggidy Jig

Home again, home again!

My next day in Nebraska it was sunny but windy as heck and still cold. I stayed in the hotel room until I had to leave at 11 am, then went out to the airport to make sure they'd topped me off. They hadn't. So I did that, untied the plane, got everything ready, and then headed back out in the rental mini van to go to Freddie's for a late lunch early dinner. Ended up back at the airport in the pilot's lounge waiting to hear from the guys. They said we'd be leaving around 5:30 pm, so I got everything ready and watched the weather, which was terrible, but so far only terrible east of Kokomo. I was really hoping it wouldn't blow up in between, and low and behold it was FINE. We had a massive tailwind, and what took us almost 4 hours to get to only took us 2.4 hours to get home. Ha.

I landed at Delphi at 9 pm our time, dropped off Logan, then flew back to Kokomo myself, put the 340 away, and drove home sometime after 10 pm. Tired, but good. And I DID sleep really well in the hotel room the night before too. 

Kaylee and Molly were in the house waiting for me along with Steve, and we stayed up until like 11:30, and then it was like...I gotta go to bed. :)

My legs were still not great. I still had trouble sitting down in seats or walking very far, and last night my left knee popped and kind of gave out from underneath me very painfully, making me yelp, which made them both stare at me until I waived them off. So Kaylee gave me a prescription strength NSAID she has. Diclofenac. Enough for two days' worth, to give it a try.

I woke up this morning around 7 am, because a student had scheduled me for two flights today, one in the 172, one in the Champ, starting at 9 am. I got out of bed, went to the bathroom, got ready, didn't think much about it. Went flying in the 172 and was able to walk mostly normally out to the plane even walking fairly quickly with the young peppy student. Got done, went to the restroom, climbed into the back of the Champ, flew around in that for 1.4 and was able to get out, another bottle of water, hopped into the car and got some late lunch, back into the back seat of the Citabria, flew that for 1.4 with Cameron to officially check him out in it, got out, went to the restroom, and somewhere in there it occurred to me. I was able to sit down without pain. I was able to climb in and out of the back seats of the taildraggers without a lot of pain and effort. My Legs Were Better. Kaylee's NSAID was working for me! I was super excited, and I'm so used to feeling normal that it didn't occur to me I was feeling normal for too long. Don't want to take that for granted. I'm hoping that after these two days maybe that's enough to get the inflammation down and maybe it'll stay down. But if it doesn't, I may have to go back to my own doctor to get some of that stuff for myself. Hopefully it's a short term thing.  Your knees and leg muscles are really important to a lot of functions in life, including stepping up over the bathtub lip or sitting on a toilet or climbing into a car. Basic life stuff, you know? Let alone getting up and down the airplanes. I was able to put my knee down in the back seat of my car to reach something too, something else I couldn't do yesterday. Progress, I hope. I will be kinder to my joints from here on out, I swear. I admit it, I'm not 30 any more.

Steve, Cameron and I went to Pastarrific for dinner and drinks, and then home to crash on a mini nap. I was only asleep for a few minutes before Steve took a phone call, which woke me up, and then he slept for an hour after that. The bum. ;)

Next up I have to catch up on stuff from being gone, and then try to plan how I'm going to go get BOB from Alabama. I need good weather, which has been in short supply lately...

Nebraska

Kind of a quick one. I woke up at 2:30 this morning thinking about the trip I had today and the weather. Sure enough, pulled my phone up, and there is this ugly line of storms for hundreds of miles in between where I am and where I’m going, and heading my way, not out of the way. I laid there for an hour then gave up and got up and tried to figure it out. Where I could go, how I could get here. It didn’t look good, and I was in the normal Cirrus, too. It was going to require 4.5 hours of flying and a fuel stop, IF that would even work, which it probably wouldn’t because the storms were moving both north and south and spreading widely and growing. I was actually not sure what I was going to do with it, the answer wasn’t coming to me. Then around 4:30 I started working on maybe using the 340, but even that was going to require a fuel stop unless I got lucky, but at least it would be a little faster of a flight. Finally at 5:30 I decide. I call Exec and tell them to cancel the Cirrus because of weather. Then I drive out to Kokomo, where I have to pull out the 340, put oil in, take it to the self serve pump, and fill up the aux tanks, because Delphi wouldn’t do it last time, wouldn’t reach, wouldn’t allow that many gallons. But then I had to fly over to Delphi, using fuel out of the mains. I was so tight on fuel I topped back off self serve at Delphi, and then we left. If I hadn’t, I’d have had to stop for fuel, but as it was, I was able to deviate around the weather, be up at 20,000’ where I could see better, and land at reserve fuel. 

It was supposed to be marginal VFR here, but instead it was low IFR, and I broke out 75’ above minimums on the ILS. Rainy, cloudy, foggy, drippy, misty, cold in the 40s, yucky day. I got a mini van from Hertz here and a hotel room in town. Grand Island, NE starts out pretty rough by the airport. It’s all run down, old, broken down, dirty, the signs are mostly Spanish and the restaurants within the area are all Mexican restaurants or Taco trucks and such. Then you get to the main roads in the middle of town and it starts looking a little more like…Nebraska. 

I went to see “Devil Wears Prada 2” while waiting for my hotel room to be ready, went to brunch, went to a Hobby Lobby to see if I could find the flowers Morgan’s Mom wants for her brother’s wedding, went to a coffee shop, then got into my hotel room and tried unsuccessfully to nap. Long day, short night. My ring said my sleep score was “49”, which is the worst score I’ve ever gotten, for not sleeping enough last night. I believe it! I hope I sleep hard tonight in the hotel room. 

I spent yesterday with an ice pack on my left knee, and resting both of them. Today it actually is feeling a little better. Normally I’d go walk in a park or in a mall if I had a whole day off to myself, but I’m not supposed to stress out and exercise my leg joints until they heal up better, and they feel pretty warm tonight, so I’ve been pretty sedate. Reading a book, relaxing, and now getting ready to go to sleep.

Tomorrow I have to check out of my room by 11 am, and then we aren’t leaving until “evening” some time, so not sure how I’m going to spend the day without a ‘base’ of operations. We also have terrible weather tomorrow, too. The stuff that came through here today is headed for home tomorrow afternoon/evening. So…we’ll have to see I guess.

TBM Avenger Gathering

It's Sunday afternoon. I slept in until 9:30 (and boy did I need that). My joints are on fire, especially my knees. My poor knees. I've got an ice pack on my worst knee right now, the left one, hoping it reduces some of this inflammation. Over the weekend I had to hold on to the bathroom door handle to be able to sit down on the stool even. Today I googled it and basically it said give your knees a rest, take anti-inflammatories, lift above your heart where you can, and some compression may help. I've got three T-6 checkouts starting June 1st, so I sure hope they're better by then. I'll just take being able to walk normally again. ;)

I came home early from Peru, IL, yesterday evening. I was just done. Could hardly walk, didn't have any more rides to give, the main airshow stuff was over, and I was hot, wind blown, had woken up with headaches every day, gotten to see and hang out with people, and it was a good time to come home, so that I could have today here at home. In my own bed and shower, with an ice pack for my knee, doing laundry, and resting alone before I have a two day overnight trip to Grand Island, Nebraska. I enjoyed the weekend and I am really enjoying spending the day to myself here and recuperating too. I feel clean and comfortable and rested. *Ahhhhh*

It was a really good weekend though. Morgan and I got a slow start Thursday morning, mostly me. I had said the night before that I was feeling unprepared and disorganized. Steve said "what's there to feel unprepared for, you do this every year", which is true, but this year it was just me and Morgan, no support crew, and I didn't know WHY I felt unprepared I just knew I was. I woke up at 4 am thinking about a list of things I needed. The paperwork in the folder in the T-6 for waivered airspace was all a year old. So sure enough, I had to race around and make copies of the annual and anything else we may need, contact the insurance company and get a copy of a current insurance policy emailed to me last minute. Get the cover ready and cram pack everything we could fit into the baggage compartment, and finally it was time to go. Big ole aft CG and overweight, but made it. lol

When I got there, I was really happy to see most people there. It's good to run into the photographers and line guys and pilots and just everyone that you only see at these kinds of events, ya know? I got hugs and everything. I topped off with gas, where I learned that all our gas for the whole event was free this year. This means that even though I gave rides for profit, I got money per ride and I didn't even have to pay for the gas for them. Which is amazing. We donate 10% of our income back to the city for the event, but it feels wrong not to do more when our gas was covered too. All my formation practice, currency, fun flying, flying in the show, rides, all of it was gas paid for. I mean...can you beat that? No, you cannot.

Jane D, woman in charge, got us a packet of info, hotel rooms for both me and Morgan, and a car. Then she came running in and said she swapped cars with us, and is giving us a two door black Mercedes with a sun roof because we'd look good in it. HA. I like her. Funniest of all is someone who has a thing about getting nice cars everywhere ended up with a "wastewater" truck while we ended up with the black Mercedes. She was not as pleased as we were, but I laughed every time I saw their vehicle.

Thursday I had two formation flights. The first one in daylight, and I was rusty, and it was fine but not great. The second one I was dialed in. It was a beautiful sunset flight, and we went low and tight over the field and looked pretty good. That one was with Tim G, JP and me, all with back seaters. 

Friday morning we had the airshow briefing at 9 am at the police station, actually, in a conference room there. I learned that for T-6s, it would be me and Job as a two-ship, and a stinger in Greg V. I did Job's tailwheel endorsement in 2020, and he's gone on to fly P-51s and Spitfires and Corsairs and everything in between since then. He seems to be a good kid so I'm happy for him while also can't help feeling wistful at his financial ability to go do all those checkouts that everyone else can only dream of. But I didn't mind him being "Lead", because I don't want to be, and he did a nice job with it. First I did a couple of "comp" rides from the airport. A 92 year old man who bled a little in the back seat getting scraped getting in and out but had a ball, and a lady volunteer who worked for the post office who also had fun. Then we had the 1 pm airshow flight. Job and I went, and I got so many compliments from it. Brad D who doesn't offer light praise said to Morgan that we looked really good. Then he told me that. Tim G said I was "shit hot" and the flight looked amazing, I was always right there. Lots of people came up and said something. So it was good we practiced, you know? That felt really nice, actually. Then I gave more rides, and then it was time for the afternoon show. We just did single ship low passes and that wasn't nearly as interesting, but there were a TON of people out for that show. It was golden hour, the grass was packed, and coming down final, while what I did was boring, it was a beautiful sight to look down and see down there. After we were done, Titan/Aeroshell did their thing along with everyone else for the night show, and then the running of the TBM Avengers, and the fireworks. Morgan and I left before the fireworks were over. I'd flown all day, I couldn't hardly walk, I was exhausted but in a good way, you know?

Saturday morning, briefing was at 8:30 am at the police station. We stopped at the coffee place and got a cup of Joe prior to the briefing. I learned today that it was going to be three of us in formation for the show, with a stinger. JP, Job and Me with Greg V. Greg V was the guy who got mad at me at the TBM event a few years ago when he was up on the wing of a TBM and I asked him for gas for my T-6 thinking he was a fueler and not the pilot. I laughed, apologized, told him it was raining and I was in a hurry and didn't look, but he unfriended me on facebook and was just mad. Now he's over it, apparently. 

I did two rides, young girls, both of whom were really quiet in the plane but later asked for my autograph, which was sweet. Then came the airshow. The four of us T-6s were sitting down at the end of the runway when the Albatross came in at show corner and said "I'm aiming right at you" and sure enough that thing came down right at us, right over our heads, full power in, screaming loud, and I threw my hand out of my open cockpit and gave 'em horns. That was the coolest thing. Sometimes I get to do the coolest things. 

My next flight wasn't so great. I was out of position a fair amount on my three-ship, kept getting too acute. It was tight banks, aggressive, my squelch was roaring, I was having trouble concentrating and I just wasn't in the groove. It was okay, just not great.  No compliments after that one. lol But it was a great view. We split up and did single ship passes after that, and during the golden hour, with the whole place below, and Tital/Aeroshell holding short of the runway as we go by.

Actually that was something else funny. Here we are doing a three ship formation team, and AEROSHELL had done it first. With smoke, aerobatics, and nobody out of position. I told Morgan we were like the Special Olympics version of Aeroshell. Except the special Olympians are actually very hard working, talented athletes too, so that's not accurate. Maybe the Dollar General Version of Aeroshell. Or Wal-Mart. Something like that. ;) But what a great experience.

After the Saturday show, we weren't selling any more rides, my knees were shot, I couldn't hardly walk or get up and down in the airplane, so I made the call to just go ahead and leave early. We got the car and went back to our hotel and checked out, then did the hard part and packed up the airplane. It was so danged full, we had to put stuff behind Morgan's head, and the baggage compartment was so stuffed we had to shove it shut to keep it shut and latched. 

I took off and the tail was so heavy. lol Morgan flew us home, and then I did a fly-by of Glenndale, where Michelle was videoing and sent a "thank you!", then I circled over our house, where Steve was hanging out with AE and Kenny, then back to Kokomo where we had to unload the whole airplane, move all the tables and chairs out of the way from our Poker Run, which took a hot minute when you're already hot, sweaty, exhausted, and in pain. :p I then tugged the T-6 into the back, and took all my stuff out to my car.  Morgan and I then went to DQ to get some ice cream to cool us off, and a chicken strip or two for a late dinner. Finally made it home in time to debrief Steve and the guys about how the weekend went, unpack, scrub my face, and fall in bed by like 10 pm.

Last night I was in bed for almost 10 hours. My Oura ring liked that and it wiped out my "sleep debt" if that's even a real thing. I was Out. Still woke up at 5:30 am with a headache, third day in a row. I took something right away, fell back asleep, and didn't wake up for like 4 hours. I needed that one.

I was doing my logbook today and tracking it, and realized that I broke 16,000 hours flying the T-6 at the airshow in Peru. I mean...that's cool. You have to like that, you know?

Kaylee was in Nashville with a group of friends for a birthday. She texted me at 7 am and asked if I was up, but I was not, so she called her dad who was up. Apparently one of her friends drank too much and become unresponsive, so they ran her to the hospital this morning. Kaylee was afraid that if we stalked her and saw that she was in a hospital we would freak right out. She wasn't really wrong. I don't stalk her much but if I'd have seen that, I'd have been scared. She disappeared on me once and her last location WAS a hospital, and it was not a good timeframe until I found out she was okay. Today when I did get up, she told me that her friend is okay, but the doctor thinks she was roofied. Well, that's not scary at all, is it. I said thank God the friends were a pack and all hung out together and kept an eye on each other, and thankfully they paid attention and got the girl medical help when she needed it instead of just hoping for the best, and thank goodness that Kaylee's not a big drinker. We've had the conversation more than once about how times have changed and you have to be alert when drinking in public. And how sad is that? Anyway.

Steve it out at the airport doing a Young Eagles event with AE and the other pilots today. While I took it off to catch up on a few things like this and photos and getting ready for a Grand Island trip tomorrow. Weather looks iffy, and I'll be sitting in a Cirrus for a long time, but...we'll see how it goes.

Goodness, how do I do these photos. Well, I guess I just do them. These are somewhat out of order because some are mine, some are Morgan's, some are other people's...

Taxiing in from the evening formation flight

Evening formation flight

Daytime Thursday Formation Flight with JP (yellow) and Tim (Grey/Green)

Close Trail

Me landing with the jet taxiing out

The beautiful evening sunset flight with JP and Tim

On the ramp

Flying by during the show

The three ship in good formation

The three ship with me badly out of position--right over the top of Aeroshell. ;)

Steve's temporary orange (I mean ORANGE) car

Morgan getting us gas again

Missing man formation with TBMs

Start of the day, mostly fresh

Evening crowds gathering

End of day, less fresh

Beer tent

Most difficult cover 

Beer tent with laser show ;)

Morgan is too bendy.

Woke up at 5:30 am to THIS aiming right at us. Wasn't prepared, wasn't forecast. Our cover blew partly off and Tim Savage's T-6 spun around on ramp moving out of its one chock. Thankfully no damage. Our radio got wet which I pulled out of the plane and never put back in.

Ha. Hahahaha

Inside the briefing room

The veterans and flag walk

T-6s

The Titan's smoke fog after their routine

I liked both the untouched version and the version where you can see the tail

The Albatross coming in to land after their passes

Back home. Exhausted, puffy, sunburnt in places, hair disasters

On the way back home in the T-6

One of the photographers, Kyle R., laid in a water puddle on the ramp to take a photo of me taxiing by. He obviously stylized it some, but he's printing it in a newspaper he says, and sent me this copy.