Two Pilots & an LSW: Kentucky and Stuff

I didn't have to get up until 5:20 am, but per usual when I have to get up early, my brain wakes me up EARLY and says "is it time yet??" And once it's up, I'm up. So my ring told me my readiness score for today was 44. That's really bad. lol It's out of 100, and basically takes your current biometrics and tells me my heart rate was high, my bp didn't drop like normal, my HRV was low, my sleep was low, all the things were low. I didn't actually feel that bad so I ignored it. ;)

I was driving to Frankfort to get the Cirrus when I saw that I was driving through patches of fog. The further I got, the more patches of fog. I can't get into Delphi if it's foggy. But there were a lot of clear areas too. So I had a plan. I had left early because I got up early, so I beat it to the airport, preflighted and pulled out the plane, and took off and headed to Delphi way early, hoping to get in before it fogged over. There was a layer of fog at level-off altitude, right at the end of Runway 36. The rest of it was clear. I shot the approach just to keep on the needles, poofed into sort of fog for a split second, leveled off and landed. I beat it. It was cool seeing it from the air. Everything was perfectly clear, but the ground was hugged by what looked like a swirling water or mist, flowing around trees and antennas and buildings, like something from a Stephen King book. I couldn't get a very good picture of it, but I tried.

I took two guys over to southern Indiana, let Tell do the takeoff and climbout and some flying. He didn't do too bad! I landed, we picked up a guy, and flew on down to Kentucky, by Paducah. They had a job down there, and took the crew car, so I stayed in the FBO where there was not another soul. I self serve fueled up the plane, then went in the small building, turned off the lights, put on my sunglasses, and took a nap on the couch that lasted about 45 minutes. When I woke up, my ring said I did good and gave my readiness score a boost up to 53. :D They were back in a couple of hours, and we went back to southern Indiana where they had another job to look at. This time I had a crew car, and it was 1 pm, so I went into town for lunch. I was disappointed because I got a good tasty BLT and some thick potato things salted with taco seasoning with a taco ranch dipping sauce that was delicious. That wasn't the disappointing part. The disappointing part was that this place also had axe throwing. That's why I ate there. I decided I'd go throw me some axes. Surely that's good stress management, right?! That's also not the disappointing part. I'm getting there. But alas, they don't allow walk-ins! Reservation only. Lame. So if we ever go back to that airport, I am SO going to reserve a lane for $20 and throw me some axes. I think that would be fun. I think Steve would be horrified and somewhat assume I will cut my own foot off. You stab yourself ONE TIME... (and maybe cut your finger off a couple times)

They got done, I let the 2nd guy do the takeoff, climbout and flying for the way home while the other sat in the back and worked on the Starlink. Meanwhile, BOB was being test flown back home again, and then taken down to Lexington to do tour rides. Glenn got one full load in yesterday, one ride to kick start us off on what's left of this tour.

We landed in Delphi, I got self-serve gas again, dropped off those two, flew back to Frankfort, put it away, cleaned off the windshield, hopped in the car and headed for home, where I've been scanning in receipts, airplane log, my logbook, billing email, all the things. Did our sheets and small blankets that were in the hot trailer in plastic bags back home from Oshkosh. Nothing smells good like that. I've got them all done except our big thick comforters that don't fit in the washer, so I lay them out and febreeze them and let them just air out out front.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to do my first PT for my knee in the morning. Nathan's viewing starts at 3, and several of us will go at once. I would like to one more time reiterate my distaste for viewings. I like looking at all the pictures of the adventures we had and the flying we did. I don't want to see him small and dead while everyone walks past and looks at him. I hope it's closed casket because he told me he felt the same way. But his family doesn't always really know him that well in some things, and that's mostly his own fault, because he didn't talk to them. I'm not very happy with him right now in several regards. But...he was still my friend, and I miss him. Anyway. I will also be doing a fly-over at his services. Glenn will be flying BOB, I will fly Checkertail, and we'll be in formation. Then Morgan will be behind us in the Aerostar. Those are his three favorite planes. Behind her will be two Bonanzas in formation as a thank you from the bonanza clinic guys who joined us for 25 years every year in his hangar. We'll do one pass like that, then Glenn and I will swing back around tightly and I'll pull off as a Missing Man. I wish I had smoke on board. Intentional smoke with a trigger, not "my engine is smoking and that's bad", of course. Steve says he'll stay on the ground, he wants to go to the services. I wanted to go to the services, not the viewing, and my plan was to show up in the last 15 minutes of the viewing just for the services. But instead I'll be flying over. And we have no practice, no real plan yet, no great details, not much of anything, so I hope it doesn't look bad, or Nathan would be pissed. ;) No, Glenn is a good Lead, and I should be able to hang in there with him off his wing, so...I think it'll be good.

Long day. I'm going to finish up and get some good sleep. I hope.