This weekend was the Terre Haute airshow. Steve and I flew the T-6 down while Morgan flew the 172RG down. We went down in formation. We put the plane on the ramp and let kids climb up in it and get their photos taken. The show was huge. Aeroshell (Titan) was there, Jack Aces P-51 formation team, the Thunderbirds were there, every big name act was there. Greg Shetterly with his T-6 act was there. That act just impresses me, what he can do with the T-6. The Browns had a whole set up as usual to take care of the pilots; food, drinks, all the things. It should have been a really great weekend and I think most people did enjoy it, but it wasn’t the greatest for us, I guess.
The Indiana Wing didn’t sell any rides, so they’re just out money for going, and I was sort of in charge of the rides, but I didn’t do much of anything with it. I was super fatigued and just felt bleh the whole time.
Greg Morehead, a photographer, asked if I’d be his photo ship early Saturday morning with a Piper 400 and a DC-3. I said sure, woke up at 3:30 am, didn’t have to get up until 5:30 but didn’t go back to sleep. Was out at the airport by 6:30 am, and the photo shoot lasted a really long time, early in the morning, with a lot of work, and then nothing happened for the airshow until it started at 5 pm. So it was a Long Day. And then the airshow went until dark, and then they had fireworks and drones at 10 pm. Again, really long day, not enough sleep.
It also felt like people were acting a little oddly towards me. Airshow people who are usually friendly and talkative would say hello, but I just picked up a weird vibe, there were some funny looks on faces, and some didn’t even really say hi, or try to hang out, or answer texts, etc. Then I felt like I was being weird and paranoid, but it happened with several of them and it made me wonder. Do I need to lay off the caffeine or is something actually off? Why?
On the other hand, I also really didn’t feel great, so maybe I didn’t look like I felt great and maybe that’s why people were looking and treating me a little funny.
So Saturday after the formation photo shoot, Loren wanted to do his Formation Proficiency Report (FPR) in T-6s to keep his card active, so me, him and Tim went up and did that, and he was “Lead”. It didn’t go super smoothly, some things he confused us on and a couple things I just confused myself on and was rusty at. But it was a decent refresher. And that evening, the 3 of us were to fly in the airshow. Tim was Lead this time, and I was #2. I did the element takeoff both times, where the two of us took off at the same time with #3 catching up afterwards. My takeoffs actually went pretty well for not having done that in ages or a whole lot of times for that matter.
The airshow timeline got accelerated and they were ready for us 15 minutes early, so we hopped in, fired up, and we were off. There was a huge crowd. Thousands of people. Sun was going down, it was a beautiful day, a bit of a crosswind, the lines of people out there were amazing to see. We took off, and then it all went downhill. Air boss was trying to tell us what to do, Tim wasn’t answering him, AB asked if Tim could hear him, Tim said yes, but then wasn’t doing what he said. At one point AB said “Turn right, right turn, turn RIGHT” and Tim kept us turning left, and finally Boss was like “Fine, just go left”, and then he told us to separate into single ships and do a pass each and then come in and land. Basically “get out of my airspace you people suck”. We land and you’re supposed to taxi in together but Tim just taxies in at the speed of stink, I can’t catch up to him. Loren is behind me with his flaps hanging down. We looked like a clown show. It was the worst thing I’ve ever participated in. My only saving grace is that I was #2, my only job was to follow Lead and do what he does, and I did that well and in position. But I was still part of a clown show and it was So Bad.
When we got out of the plane, Tim said he lost the runway and was lined up on the wrong thing. And then he left, and he took his airplane early the next morning and beat it out of town, wanted nothing to do with the rest of the show. He was rightfully quite embarrassed.
Sunday was another show. Steve, Morgan and I left after lunch, before the airspace closed, because she and I both had a trip on Monday and needed to be back Sunday evening, and the airshow had the airspace shut down all night till very late. I found out later that Loren tried to fly single ships stuff in the show with the BT-13 and airboss said that segment was just canceled. It was so bad they weren’t even going to let our group have a chance to try it again, they were just done.
Meanwhile, last night I texted both Jordan and Niki together, thanked them for everything, commented on the T6 show, and neither of them have ever answered me. Neither of them answered me 80% of the time I texted over the last few weeks, but they’re also the main folks who I realize are quite busy, though it would have been lovely to hear back something friendly.
We left Sunday after lunch, me and Steve in the T-6, Morgan in the RG. I just felt icky, no feisty happening here. So I just flew home, didn’t try to formate with her. Flew over the top of Glenndale and looked down and thought “nah” and then I thought, how many more times can I do it? So I came down and buzzed ‘em. Michelle and Ron were down there and enjoyed it, and it did make me smile for a second. Landed at Kokomo on a landing nice enough that Steve complimented it with a “great touchdown!” Put it away in the hangar.
Steve, Morgan and I pulled out chairs, opened the big hangar door, Steve had a beer and we had waters, and we just sat there in the breeze and watched the world go by for awhile before heading home to do laundry and get ready for Monday. \
We still don’t know anything on the T-6. I feel like if someone measured my cortisol right now it would not be good. I feel weary in a way even a good nap won’t fix. I am trying to get good sleep, get decent movement and mostly eat decent food, do my PT and take care of my joints, and I’m trying to take care of my health while everything else is…messy.
So this morning I had the PT, and he was impressed. He said my gait is looking about normal again, the swelling is down, the range of motion is almost 100%, and the strength is gaining ground. I did leg presses and squats holding on to stuff and all in all I am on the upswing there, I just have to be careful. I am glad. I have also lost enough weight that the load on my joints is better too.
My “non-scale” victories are there even if I still don’t look enough different for anyone to notice. I can buckle the seatbelt in the 340 without having to buckle it sitting all the way back where it barely reaches and then scooting forward so that it’s super tight cutting into me, because I can’t buckle it if I scoot all the way up first. It is a small belt, and now it fits me again properly, which is nice. So that’s one. I have less fat around my middle, and I can feel that it makes breathing better when sitting down, or walking. I should do bloodwork too, mostly out of curiosity, because my bloodwork was never bad, but I’m curious what it is now. Steve has lost a lot of weight too, and he went in for his biannual physical/bloodwork today. He’s off of statins because of how they make his brain feel, and he’s really hoping his cholesterol is under control because of the weight loss and such. I’m a little worried because his mom always had super high cholesterol and she ate like a rabbit. Genetics, man. But the statins are not good for him. They turn him into what feels like an early dementia patient. Forgetting words, foggy, unable to concentrate. And we both need him to be able to concentrate. When he’s off them, within a few weeks he’s back to normal. It’s them. We’ve tried the experiment twice and it’s consistent. So now all we can do is hope the numbers are okay, because even if they’re not, we don’t want him to go back on them, which means you have to hope worrying about the increased risk of heart attack or stroke. If it were me, I would choose to not take the Statins. His heart is otherwise in good shape. But i can’t make that decision for him. We’re both really just hoping the weight loss has helped. Other non-scale victories. My flightsuit fits again and zips. I had one big flight suit and I couldn’t even zip it and sit down in it. Now that one is way too big, and the next one down that I zip up and sit down in is also almost a little big. The size below that one fits, but is a little tight. So that’s good progress that pleases me. I want to test my V02 Max again but I’d have to be able to walk full out for 3 minutes straight and I’m not sure my leg will let me. All the airshow walking around and BOB tour stop walking around was I think good for building up stamina again. I do have the flabby deflated underneath-the-arms thing going on, where I lost weight there. I still use weights and do arm exercises, but not enough to stop that from happening. I’ll need to look into that some more and see if there’s anything I can do. It feels weird and I don’t like it. Another ‘victory’ is that my breathing feels better. When you have a lot of abdominal fat, it feels like it’s pushing up against your insides, your lungs, like there isn’t room to breathe, and sitting down is even worse because now you’re bent in half reducing your space even more. I feel like I have room in there to breathe now, I’m much more comfortable. And I can bend down and tie my shoes without having to hold my breath or do it really fast before I run out of air. I’m in the same jeans, which is really funny. My body is so weird in how I can gain or lose a really fairly significant amount of weight and still be in the same damn pants. They do get baggy now after one wearing though, so I may pull out the size down and see how they feel. lol
Kaylee’s car died again. The service center turned down our report because the guy put it under an old service number that had already been resolved. So now we had no choice but to wait for it to do it again and open a new ticket on it. So Steve’s been driving it, and today it finally happened while he was at the doctor’s office getting bloodwork done. So he immediately called, had it towed, started talks with the dealership again, and with the ‘owners’ to start a new ticket and get this resolved once and for all. A new car just like it without the problems for Kaylee. She’s been driving a rental this whole time. Months. All for an accident like 8 months ago that wasn’t her fault in the first place, then getting a new car that keeps stranding her. Then they can’t recreate it so they say it’s in our heads. And here it is again, you assholes. Take care of it.
Morgan had her first week of new work, and hates it because it’s not us. She came up to Kokomo on Friday, a day she had off, and it made her sadder because she misses it. She has two new flight students in a Cardinal and a C-210, the owner of the King Air and a bunch of other planes, and he wants to get his Sport, has been passed from CFI to CFI and isn’t getting anywhere, so she’s supposed to take him on and finish him off even though she was hired to be a corporate pilot. But Tom, the boss, gives this guy everything he wants because he owns so many of the planes, and the CFIs are all saying he’s really hard to work with and instruct. He just wants to skip stuff, be done, not take it seriously, etc. So he’s loading up her schedule with flights. She also heads to training in the King Air tomorrow for 3-4 days. When she gets back she has to get 10 more hours with John, along with all the instructing stuff, so her schedule is looking a little fuller than she was hoping for. We sat around a lot at the airshow and hung out at what should have been fun and didn’t feel fun, mostly just felt heavy and tired and rather sad about life. However, she did get to go in a P-51 Formation flight with Tom, which was a great, fun experience for her. It made ME a little sadder in some regards, because we’d talked at one time about her first P-51 ride being with me, but I’m happy that she got to go and check it out and enjoy. :) Not a lot of people can say they’ve done that.
So now we’re up to Monday. I had PT this morning and he was impressed with how I was doing, and then I ran out to the airport to grab the 340 to fly to Delphi to pick up Tell + 1 guy, and fly to Mankato, MN. It’s warm in here, but sunny and smooth until the last 30 minutes here. We’ll be here all day; this was originally going to be an overnight and now it’s just a “home late”. My fuel pump circuit breaker popped which means I have trouble transferring fuel, but I have enough anyway, so it’s fine, except it just came out of annual and that was supposed to have been fixed. The autopilot wasn’t working in the 340 when I brought it back from annual. I had three trips in a row. Two of the three were in VFR conditions and I didn’t even file. The 3rd was IFR where we were, but VFR where we were going. Steve gets a text or email from Ethan saying he knows I’m good and everything but he’s not comfortable with his guys flying around IFR in a plane that doesn’t have a working autopilot. I’m actually a little offended. Did we lose faith in my judgement and ability to get everyone including myself home safely? I texted him that everywhere we’d gone in the last 3 days had been good VFR, and that the autopilot had started working on the last flight too. But I know the 340 better than about any airplane, and I can fly it just fine without an autopilot, IFR or VFR. However, the flights I’d made were in decent weather conditions anyway. I was making appropriate decisions. I know the plane better than the 421 and was comfortable and the interaction bothers me a bit. But what can I say...
I now made it home, back home by 9:30 pm so not as late as they initially thought. I had the best crispy chicken and lo mein noodles at a place in Mankato, and flew home listening to music at 19,000' and enjoyed the silence since Tell wasn't talking and I was just relaxing on a nice weather trip. It was the first relaxing thing I've felt in awhile.
I knew I'd have to fix this entry, it looked like a mess trying to copy and paste from my email. So hopefully this is better.
Morgan texted me in a panic because she was on her first trip in the 210 up to Palwaukee, the Chicago area, and she couldn't get the 210 started at all. She tried everything including calling John, the guy who checked her out in it. I feel like an old person because even though I'm not sure I've actually ever flown a 210 more than about 3 times, I was able to help her start it. I liked that part. She's almost home, she's out later than me tonight. But at least I was helpful.
Tomorrow morning I have to be up super early to go to South Dakota to fly a J-3 Cub home. It'll take probably 7.5 hours plus however many fuel stops. A long day. But the airplane has lights and a starter and an 85 hp engine, so I think I'll have all day to cruise along in decent weather low and slow and I think maybe I need that too.
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