Louisville

Morgan's trip to Teterboro went off well today. She did all the talking and said it went fine, but she's sad because she's spending 3 days there and has to socialize with someone she doesn't want to socialize with instead of being able to go with a friend or relax by herself. Life, right? ;)

I was up at 6 am for my trip to Louisville. He thought it would be one hour on the ground. We got there at 9:30 am. By 11:30 am I hadn't had breakfast and didn't want to leave for lunch because he was already an hour past when he said he'd be. By 1:30 I was starved and getting angry, but still didn't feel like I could leave, so I Uber Eats'd food in.  It got there at 1:48. He texted me at 1:52 that he was 5 minutes out. Naturally! ;) I sat there and ate until I was full and he waited on me a bit. lol Flew him home, and then ran the Cirrus to Exec for it to go down for 100 hour for the week. Brennan came and got me in the RG at Exec and flew me back to Frankfort where my car is, and the day is done.

I'm just catching up on entering checks, doing more laundry, billing, logbook stuff, scheduling, all the day to day things. Still haven't heard any word on what I'm waiting to hear. First it was "We'll discuss it Fri night" then it was "Didn't have time, will talk over the weekend", to now even Monday has passed with no word. Our lives and future in many regards have just been hanging in a balance of the unknown for the last month and 21 days. It has been hard and stressful and I am trying not to get an ulcer while looking forward to resolution. Hopefully good resolution, but any resolution can be dealt with better than just...hanging. Coming up on 2 months is a long time to hang.

These photos came from the Terre Haute Airshow last weekend. At least there's one photo of me and Tim in formation that doesn't look embarrassing. ;)

Here's one where I have no idea what the three of us are doing. ;)

One today from the Cirrus on the way to Louisville

If you see me wearing a pretty shiny new silver bracelet, just don't ask me to take it off to show you. ;)

Sadly, it doesn't go very well with the mustard seed bracelet I already wear. One is faith, and it's a good thing it doesn't have to be very big some times, and one would be humor, but not very nice humor, so I should probably just continue to be secretly amused at the idea and not actually buy it. ;)

Weekend Update

The weekend went as planned. Steve and I flew the T-6 down to Westfield, and spent the day down there. Ashley and her boyfriend Emmet came down too, and Morgan and Cameron and AE. We let people climb up in the airplane and check it out, and spent the day until about 2:30-3 down there. When it was time to leave, I didn't end up doing my usual low pass. The neighborhoods have grown up so much around there that it didn't feel wise. We all felt a little sad about it. ;)

Landed back at Kokomo and put the T-6 away, and then Steve, me, Morgan, Cameron and AE sat in chairs under the open hangar door and enjoyed the breeze for a little while while they had a beer and I had a water. We all went to Pastarrific for a group sweaty dinner, the 8 of us, and it was mostly a fun evening out after a good day in pretty weather at a fun event. 

Today I was able to sleep in a bit, watch a little morning news TV, and then around 11 am left to go to Frankfort to fly down to Nashville and pick up Ethan. I was getting there early but he got there early too, so I landed, paid the $25 fee, he hopped in, and we flew right home. I dropped him off at Delphi, topped off with gas, and flew it back to Frankfort, put it away, and got it ready for tomorrow's trip to Louisville.

Came home for an hour or so, rested my eyes, and then went back out to Kokomo and met Morgan out there to fly the Cub. Put her in the back seat where you're supposed to fly a Cub from. We went over to Glenndale, where Michelle watched us and said the landings looked great, went up to 3500' and I did a couple of spins just for the fun of it, went back to the airport and shot a bunch of takeoffs and landings until the sun was almost down and the runway lights were high. It was a nice end to the day, actually.

Tomorrow Morgan has a three-day trip to NY with her buddy John in the King Air, and they're going into Teterboro, then staying in Manhattan. We both wish we were the two going to NYC for three days, we'd have fun. :)  Instead, I am going to Louisville, KY in the Cirrus and then drop it off at Exec for maintenance after I get back. Fascinating...

No other news on anything.

There were a lot more people than it looks like in these photos. lol I do like the grass strip here. It's a nice quiet peaceful strip

Dinner. Ashely next to Emmett there

Cubbing today

Why ponytails don't help a lot. ;)

Interspersed with Nashville

This is beginning to look very Fall Like

You spin me right round baby

Quiet

It was a good, quiet Friday, just as needed. I slept in, I worked from home, I did laundry, I lifted weights in the living room and did some other exercises, I ran my car through the car wash, I stopped at Walgreens, I picked up groceries, I met Steve's cousin Phil and his wife Marlene at Grindestones for lunch. Problem was, I was in a quiet mode, and the words at the table were bullet fast and furious for 1.5 hours. So many words! When I drove home, I didn't even put the radio on. ;)

Let's see. The T-6 discussion got put on hold until "this weekend", so I don't know when I'll know more, but it won't likely be before Monday, would be my guess. I'm nervous. Kaylee hasn't heard back on whether she got into the choir or not yet. She went and picked out new carpeting for her room now that the other was destroyed, and her room will be done soon so she can move back into it and stop sleeping in the foyer. Yay!

I started watching "Life Is Beautiful" but it's in Italian so I have to read the whole thing, and I didn't realize I'd have to read the whole movie. I don't like having to read a movie. I'm not that cultured. ;) 

Tomorrow is a fly-in at Westfield, and the Grissom Air show. We're not going to Grissom, just Westfield. Then at some point this weekend I'm going to take Morgan up in the Cub. She just got back from her King Air training tonight. She's never been in a Cub and I wanted her to check one out. I'm just grateful Tim (owner of the sales business) lets me fly his stuff sometimes!

That's about it. Quiet day, not much news.

Wow

 I slept in well, got up to an excellent sleep score for the night actually. I had a haircut appointment at 10:45, first one I've made in a couple of months, and then ran out to Frankfort and picked up the Cirrus, ran it to Delphi and topped it off. Ethan got there around 11 and we took off for John Tune/Nashville, TN. On the way down, Ethan said he and his family would like to go back to Grand Cayman this or next year, and that they'd like us to go with them again. That would be nice. It's beautiful out there. I expected it to be a once in a lifetime opportunity and it still may be, but it's possible, so hey, who knows.

On the way home, I was alone in the plane which is always my favorite. Except I had a coffee drink with whole milk in it and ate something, and then climbed up to 11,000' in an unpressurized airplane, and suddenly my stomach was not happy. I thought I was going to have to divert for the first time in my flying life to have an emergency bathroom experience! HAhaha. I made it all the way home, parked the plane, ran into the bathroom, then came back and put everything away. Whew, that was close. ;)

I got home around 6:30 or so, and Steve called from the airport, decided he'd come home and pick me up and we'd run out to dinner. I had a celebratory Long Island Iced Tea with my little steak dinner. A good day.

I also learned we may have another, better option on possibly being able to have the T-6 here. Someone is supposed to be asking tonight and I don't know when we'll know, but once we know, I'll tell you about it. My fingers are crossed and I feel a scary amount of hope. I almost hate to be hoping, but I can't help it.

Kaylee's audition was tonight for the barbershop choir. She calls it the old lady choir and she loves it, and they like her. Her audition was a 4-person barbershop quartet piece acapella. They recorded it, discussed it, told her they'd send out info to the group about her, put it all to a vote, and get back to her on if they'd accept her int he choir. They were complimentary to her and seemed happy to have her there, so we're guessing she's "in", but will hopefully find out soon. She's excited, and I'm happy for her. She has missed music and performing, and she is *really* looking forward to participating in this, and I think that's awesome.

Her bedroom ceiling is fixed, but we're going to have to replace the carpeting in there. Then the guys will start fixing the guest bedroom ceiling next, hopefully before that one collapses down too. I think those are the only two rooms with the plaster of paris ceiling issues, so that's good.

Guess that's it for tonight. Will update whether I have anything interesting to say or not, as always. ;)

South Dakota

I was up at 5:20 am on Tuesday, and out at the airport by 6:30, to hop in a Turbo Centurion (C-210T) with a guy I didn't know named Albert, to fly 3.7 hours out to Brookings, South Dakota. He did a nice job flying and doing flight following on the radio. I learned he wanted to be a Southwest pilot, has over 2500 hours, but nobody in the regional airline industry is hiring him. He even went and got his ATP done, got a type rating, and still can't get picked up. I'm sort of surprised because in the time frame where he still had plenty of hours, they were hiring like crazy. I don't know what's blocking him, but it makes me wonder if it's like DUIs or a bunch of checkride failures or something, because people got hired if they could fog a mirror for awhile there, and with his times he should be competitive. Anyway. He's a nice guy. Has a 757 tattooed on his arm because his dream was to be a Southwest pilot. Buys and sells airplanes with Tim out at Kokomo and is starting his own business while he waits for the airline industry to snag him. We had a lot of time to get to know each other on the way to S. Dakota at sunrise. ;)

We left at 7 am and got there by 11:30 am our time. Met up with three guys, all 85 years old, had their own man cave there. Former military, one was former airline too, all feisty grumpy old guys that you can sort of appreciate, you know? Except the one in charge of the sale doing all the talking was a little fresh for his own good. It was sort of funny, when we walked up, the guys were looking at Albert who is very tall and built and looks like a big farm boy, and me. We all introduced ourselves. I walked up to the J-3 Cub and started inspecting it. They looked after me and asked Albert if he was flying it home and he said no, she is. They said "you don't have your tailwheel?" and he said he does, but it's brand new and he has never flown a Cub but she has. They watch me walk around, they make a few comments, I sit down and he says "Sooooo, how many hours do you have, like total hours?" I said "16,300" and a couple mouths dropped open and the vibe changed fairly quickly. Lol I was also able to have a discussion with them about the old charts and nav systems and such and 'prove' it. He then decided to talk about how sexy it was that someone would kick my butt (while flying a J3) with them flying in the back seat. I blew it off and moved on. Then he calls me over to his "me" room, where he has models of the planes he's flown and the manuals from everything, and he says "Do you know why the 757 is the sexiest airplane in existence?" No, I say, why is that? "Because it has long leg and big tits" Well okay, stranger in a semi-professional setting, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Why someone would think that was the way to interact these days with people they don't know, I dunno. I'm not "offended", I don't have delicate ears, not after all these years, but I'm not impressed by him, either, even though he also mentioned 3 times that he was married to a much younger woman who was a flight attendant for him. Well good for you, sir, congrats, I'm glad you're still feeling feisty even if I don't need to hear it. ;) They're selling the Cub because none of them can get in and out of it any more; it's not an easy ingress or egress for sure, because this one was modified with a C-85 and 36 gallon wing tanks, so you fly it from the front seat. Getting into the front seat is the trick. I hopped right in there and he said "you make that look easy" and I thought "that's because I want to make it look easy but it wasn't easy".  ;)

And thus began the adventure.  I asked them how the fuel system worked as it's different. He said it burns 6 gph and holds 36 gallons. I figured I'd only have to stop once. They said turn off the aux before landing, and that the aux would flow into the main even with it off so you could just leave it off. None of that ended up being true. I only get about an hour down the road and I'm like... I am burning through gas like crazy. The aux wasn't full, just the left main, but I kept waiting for the aux to flow over. Nothing. So I turned it on. Nothing. Now the left is getting low so I pick an airport to land at, Mason City, where friends are. Except the gas is still going down fast, so I pick the NEXT airport to land at instead. I taxi in, and put 17.4 gallons in the tank that holds 18. I was still showing 1/4 tank when I was in the pattern. So. Mental note to self on THAT, right?! I top off both tanks fully and take right back off. Now I have a shelf of clouds. I go on top of it but then it solidified underneath me and started rising, so I had to climb up to 7500' in a Cub. lol I knew it was clear in another 150 miles, so that was okay. I'm still trying to figure out the fuel, can't figure out why the aux fuel won't drain out. Finally I wonder if I have to shut off the fuel to the left main in order for the right aux to work. I wait until I'm over an airport, turn on the aux fuel, then turn off the main fuel, and hold my breath. It keeps running. So that's the secret, and from then on I was all right. It still burns 7-8 gph and not 6, but at least I have it figured out. I could have maybe made it the rest of the way non-stop, but it would be too close, so I stopped one more time in Illinois and topped off again. I made it back to Kokomo shortly before sunset in clear smooth air.

As I was cruising along, within 20 minutes the airspeed indicator went to zero, so I had no airspeed indicator, nor attitude indicator or needle, just a ball and a mag compass. None of which is an emergency in a Cub, at least. ;) I left the door and window open and enjoyed the view, the air, the cooler temps, all of it. Later in the afternoon it got a little chilly but I left the window/door open. Then finally I got cold enough I turned around and got my sweatshirt out of my "go" bag in the back seat. It was hard to get out, took me awhile, but I managed it, and enjoyed the rest of the flight in comfort. I listened to music the whole time, spoke to nobody on the radio, did no work, just relaxed and looked out the door and flew home. It took me 7.3 hours flight time, two fuel stops, and about 13 hours door to door, and I landed and pushed the plane into their hangar, mission accomplished.

I get home, and go to take my contacts out, and my glasses are gone. They were in my go back in the back seat of the Cub. The only time I opened that bag was to pull out my sweatshirt. I'm guessing I tossed my glasses out when I did it, which is a real problem, because I only have one pair of glasses and I can't see ANYTHING without them when my contacts are out, which is in the evenings, in the middle of the night looking at my watch or alarms or whatever. So I texted the guy I was working with, and asked him to check in the plane today while I was gone and hope they got tossed to the floor, not out the open door/window. I got lucky. They were on the floor. They're scratched up on both sides now, but I can still see out of them, and I'm going to have to go get them fixed soon. 

The owner of the business came over with a check for me. Reimbursement for the two fuel stops I paid for, plus a full day rate for my time, way more than I expected him to pay me. Usually he pays trip people like $250. He gave me $1000. I texted him that he didn't need to pay me that much and I'd reimburse him some. He said I'd done a lot to help him and he was more than happy for me to keep it. So not only did I get a fun Cub flight that was relaxing and good, I got paid $1000 to do it. Can't beat that. ;)  My legs and butt were tired by the last 1.5-2 hours of the flight, but not bad at all. I was comfortable all the way, just a little restless by the end, so all in all a win!

I went to bed and didn't have to get up until 8:30, but I woke up like at 6:30 or 7, so I just went ahead and got up. It's good because Ethan texted me and he wanted me to come early and swap around the Cirrus from Delphi to Frankfort and back to Delphi. I got that done early and sat at Delphi until 11 am when Nick arrived and we headed to Evansville together.

I didn't wake up with a headache but I was a little fuzzy/thick, but it was nice weather today and no problem. I dropped Nick off and then took the crew car to a coffee shop where I got some eggs and a cup of coffee. When I got back to the airport I closed my eyes for awhile to try to nap, but didn't quite get that accomplished. Weather was moving in to central Indiana, so as soon as he got back, we ran for the plane and booked it at full power back to home base. Beat the storms in, dropped off Nick, ran to Frankfort, put the plane away, and drove home in a storm. Also success.

Steve brought my glasses and my check to me from the airport, I brought home a roast beef sandwich for dinner, caught up on all the stuff I'm supposed to catch up on, and now get ready to head to bed and get ready for tomorrow. 

Tomorrow is the first haircut appointment I will have been able to keep in the last 2 months, and then taking Ethan in the Cirrus down to John Tune Airport and dropping him off for the weekend. If the weather is decent (haven't looked yet) it should be an easy day. And I don't have to get up early, so I can sleep in too. Win/Win. :)

Here's a photo dump from where I've not kept up.

First up and going backwards, Cub Flight:

Cool fuel gauge

Next up, Minnesota

And Terre Haute:

Loren taking pics of some of the Thunderbirds crew at their request

The party at the bar that night with the performers & T-birds

Morgan showing the T-6 to kids

We're lined up for the (disastrous) evening airshow as a 3-ship goes over

Looking back at the crowd

Night airshow stuff. Moon over T-6

Flying home

At the bar

Me, Morgan, Steve, Loren and Trevor