As fast as I can is bed at 9 am to airport door by 9:50 am, which included figuring this out, a shower, and a 20 minute drive. lol
Morgan beat me there and started getting the plane ready, which was good. I pull it out, get gas, and Steve calls and asks where we are, I said about to take off, and he said he'd missed the part about 2 hours in my text, and already had a rider for me. I said I was coming as fast as I could. :)
It was only a 20 minute flight down there. I did a fly-by overhead approach to make some noise, but kept it up legal-ish height, breaking over where the people were so they could see the underside of the plane and hear the radial rumble. It helps sell rides. ;)
Sure enough, I landed, was parked, and a family came walking up with my first rider. I wasn't sure who it was as it was a mom with like three small children who was walking up. Ends up being one of the kids. And that was one of the more fun rides I've done. This kid was like 9 or 10 years old, and had a vocabulary better than most adults. Not me of course, but most. ;) He was super pumped up. See, we have a "rule" that they have to be over 12 to go, but that's for our own defense against typical young kids who would sit back there by themselves with access to my controls, brakes, fuel, mags, all sorts of things I don't need them touching, pulling, whatever. So if anyone, kid or adult, seems to be a problem, they don't go. So when this kid walks up, I knew Steve had vetted him and deemed him good to go, and of course he was correct. Steve said he asked the kid if he wanted to be a pilot, and the kid responded that "actually, I'm more interested in the historical aspects of it!" Hahahaha, you go kid. We took off, I let him fly, and he was Super Pumped about that. He actually kept his altitude better than the actual glider pilot who went 3rd, too. I asked if he wanted to do anything "roller coaster" and he said yes, so I started gentle and he was laughing out loud, belly laugh, loved it. We were coming in when I heard Jordan B coming in in the P-51. We could see it from the air, so I pointed it out to the kid. He was super excited about that too, said he had a special fondness for P-51s. I told him that this one would probably join up on us in formation except I probably shouldn't do that with him on board. lol Jordan and the Baron did a low pass over the field while I was on downwind, then I came on in and landed, and as we were taxiing in, the Mustang landed off to our right, and the kid was just enthralled by all of it. He kept thanking me, over and over, saying this was the best experience of his life, that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Such adult words and pure joy and thankfulness, and in good part, that is why I enjoy doing these rides. Sometimes you meet people that give you a little hope for humanity after all, you know?
We were taxiing in and he said he wondered what his mom would be thinking as we came in. I said the first thing she was going to be looking at was his face, to see if he was happy. I know that much as a mom, whether you're a typical mom or not, that's universal. I heard later he was pumping his arms up and down as we came in, and I wonder if he was doing that to tell her from afar that he was happy. Either way, what a neat kid. He, the mom, they kept thanking me, and his face was just Lit Up.
Rider #2 was an ultralight pilot from Denmark here in the states for several years. He said that you couldn't do things like this in Denmark, that it didn't exist, the ability to take warbirds up on rides. Rider #3 was an 85 year old glider pilot. I thought he was going to be more difficult because he wouldn't listen to Morgan's instructions when she was loading him, kept saying "Uh huh uh huh" while she was talking, but clearly not doing what she was saying. But once we got in the air, he started telling stories. He was an Army man who was stationed on a boat for awhile, served in Vietnam and Korea, had done an Honor Flight recently, and he talked about some of his friends who didn't come home, some of his stories of being shot at but never shot/hit, et. He talked so much I couldn't make radio calls, but I enjoyed listening to him. Those two guys represented another two reasons I enjoy doing the rides. Because there are places where you don't have the freedom to do that, and there are people who served their country for whom this represents something important and special. And you get to be a part of representing that.
I did an interview for a local newspaper on the event, and they said they were going to make it a cover story, so we'll see how that goes. Channel 13 also came out and did a segment, which I posted on Facebook, or I guess I can link it HERE too. They sure used a lot of Checkertail in there which is funny because that's the only plane that's not actually a CAF airplane. ;) Morgan's back appears at the very end. Channel 8 supposedly did one too but I haven't seen that yet. So they did 7 rides each in the PT and the BT, and 8 rides in the Stearman, which was a very successful rides day for them. I only did the 3 rides, because I was just a back up for the CAF aircraft. I wouldn't have minded doing a couple more though instead of just sitting under a tent for the next 4 hours. But us doing three rides meant we made money, since we only burned about 40 minutes of fuel to get there and back. And I don't mind making money, and I like doing rides. I wish I could do more of that again and less instruction, but instruction is where the bigger money is.
The rest of the day was uneventful. The CAF gave 22 total rides in their 3 airplanes, and I gave 3 in mine. I sat under a tent in the shade and watched the other planes fly after my 3 were done, and hung out, and talked to a few people, including a young lady who is an individual instructor out of Lafayette and Delphi trying to get in with us to instruct too. Around 4 pm everyone decided we were hanging it up for the day, so I topped off the T-6 with their cheaper fuel than Kokomo's fuel, and we helped tear down tents, tables, chairs, etc. The CAF planes all took off and got home before I did, but that was okay. lol
I put Morgan in the front seat for the flight home, her second time up there. She did just fine. She was so nervous landing that she said her leg was shaking and she barely remembers making the landing. But it was a perfectly fine wheel landing. ;) The only down side was I didn't have a ladder to get in or out of the back seat, so I had to do it myself, and as I was hauling up and jumping down, landing mostly on my right leg to protect the left, I was thinking...I'm not quite out of the woods yet and I need to not do that yet.
We landed at Kokomo, put the T-6 away, and Steve showed up and we all decided to eat at Marble. We are sweaty, sticky, and tired, get home around 8 pm or so, and then Steve asks me if I'd gotten 26F ready for a checkride tomorrow, which he'd asked me to do before I left Indy. Nope, I did not. So I drove back out to the airport, hauled a case of oil over to 26F's hangar, checked the fuel and oil in it, got the logbooks into the airplane for the morning, and headed back home. Meanwhile Steve had yelled at Brennan for not taking care of 26F's hangar (they're all supposed to have oil in them) so Brennan drove out there to take care of it not knowing I'd already done it. Oops.
Meanwhile, yesterday Chuck had given me six fresh peaches off the peach truck. So tonight when I got home I placed an order for the ingredients I need for...guess what I'm making...I know you can't guess... Peach Crepes! I promised him I'd deliver a couple to him if he gave me the peaches. Yum. Does not help with my current health kick, but a person has to live, too, and I will not turn down fresh peach peach crepes.
Me with the 85 year old rider
Steep turns
Made it home
Steve Tummers took this photo
Kaylee and the bride, Emily
Kaylee at the wedding
No comments:
Post a Comment