Goodness. It's 5:30 pm on Sunday the 13th and I feel like I've been getting pictures, posting on things, catching up from days' worth of stuff, all bloody day! I'm just sitting on my couch on one hand, so it's not stressful, but geez I had a lot of stuff I got behind on in a short period of time!
Okay, backwards again--Thursday. Thursday I took the 340 with Tell and Stephen and flew them down to Washington County, IN. It's only like a 45 minute flight. Stephen brought his sister along. She's from California, and was a student pilot who is now grounded because of taking anti-depressants and has been fighting the FAA for months now to try to get her medical back. So she sat up front with me. Only problem was, I'd gotten to bed at 2:45 am the night before, so my social skills were really low. It was low IFR up there, and rain, and I shot the approach in successfully. When we got to Washington County, I disappeared into the pilot's lounge while she sat out in the lobby and the guys went to their job. They were there for like 2.5 hours, and I tried to nap (unsuccessfully) back there, but at least had peace and quiet. I had to self-serve fuel the 340 down there as the aux fuel pump was still out, which means I could only burn out of the mains. So I self-served there, then when we got back to Delphi I self serve fueled it again there, dropped those three off, and then I flew over to Ohio where Steve F could fix the fuel pump. I went up to the FBO/pilot lounge which has been deserted any time I've ever been there. Not today. Today the FBO was manned with three people in business shirts, music playing over the speakers, and another guest sitting in there talking. I sat in there and tried to nap, unsuccessfully because of all the other noise. Steve told me the 340 was done, so I went back to his hangar and flew it home, topped it off to get it ready for Monday's trip to Nebraska. Next I got the 421 out of John's hangar. Preflight, pulled out, went to start it and noticed the right brake went to the floor. Not great, but wouldn't be the first time I flew a Twin Cessna with no brake. Fired up, started taxiing out, and could not get out of the hangar area. It required a sharp right turn, and even with power and full rudder and so forth, I couldn't get it around the corner. It would go off into the ditch ahead of me. So I killed the engines right there, got out, got the tug, and towed the thing slowly back into John's hangar. Texted Steve that I couldn't get it over to him today. Meanwhile, John came out to add hydraulic fluid--brake still went to the floor. He tried to bleed the brakes--still no good. So so far, getting the 421 over to OH has been a bust.
I was so tired, because the night before I went with Morgan and her new sort of boss up to Chicago Midway. See, she's been hired at Tom Woods Aviation as a corporate pilot. Her main client is a guy named Jack. He owns a Cardinal, a C-210, a C-414 and a King Air 90. And he's currently looking at a jet. He's not a pilot but he wants to be and he's gotten all in on aviation. He is taking lessons now with Morgan in his cardinal to get a sport pilot certificate, and so is his wife, who is only doing it because she doesn't trust him. Haha. He told Morgan she could bring a buddy along to Chicago, and she was already nervous about going into Midway by herself for the first time, plus she's in a plane she's flown on one other trip, ever, and it doesn't have any on board weather, it's not in great shape, it has a tiny odd GPS, and it doesn't have an autopilot either. So I said I'd go. Why not. Even though it would be a late night.
We get down to Metro, and he texts her and says he'd like to fly tonight into Chicago. Keep in mind he can't fly the 210, he's not soloed or anything, has just started lessons, and it's night, not great weather, into seriously busy airspace, hand flying. I said that it's his plane and if he wants to fly, that's one thing, and he usually should probably get what he wants, but that I'm not interested in riding in the back seat with his buddy while she and he were up front flying, and I'd rather skip it. She said no way she wanted him flying, so she just told him this wasn't the day, and that I was coming along and she'd like me up front. He seemed pretty laid back about that, so that's what we did.
Going into Midway wasn't bad, just like I told her. We had an arrival, she had to hand fly it all, which she does a great job with because she listens and always makes sure she's comfortable hand flying an airplane not just autopiloting it. Then an ILS on in. Easy peasy. The guys had a soccer game to go to. We all got in a cab they hired, and dropped them off at the soccer stadium, then took me and Morgan up to the "Magnificent Mile" full of shops and restaurants and stuff. We walked along, got a donut and some coffee to start with, sat and came up with a plan. Went through some shops (she needs more fancy pants for work), walked up and down the main drag, and then started wandering our way down to the Navy Pier. We got the last tickets on the giant ferris wheel thing, before they closed at 8 pm. Took our ride on the wheel, enjoyed the great views of the skyline, and when the ride was over they shut the whole pier down, and we walked over to Giordano's and had Chicago style pizza and hung out until THEY were closing just after 9 pm.
Got a cab back to the airport, and got ready for the guys, who got back around 10:30 or so. But the airport kept not fueling us, even though she kept asking for it. So finally they got that done, and we got out of there after 11 pm and headed back to Indy. I got along pretty well with Jack and his friend. We joked about 80s and 90s tv shows of which Morgan knew NOTHING, and he's a pretty laid-back fellow. He invited me to go along on their next trip on Monday too, but I shan't. For one thing I have a trip of my own, but for another I want to be judicious. And he wants to fly and I don't want to ride in the back. And I don't want to push my presence. I do want him to consider using me too if need be down the road, if I need it and he needs it. A nice thought, a potential.
We landed back at Metro sometime after 1 am our time, and then I had an hour drive to get home. I got in bed around 2:45 am, and then had to be up at 6:45 am for the next days' flight. So I was pretty tired, but we actually had a lot of fun on that trip. It was her first time being the one in charge, this was her party and I was just a guest instead of the other way around. So that was kind of neat. They grow up so fast. ;)
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