Catch Up

When things are most chaotic, they are also most interesting, and I am also most tired and unable to keep up with them. So if I go quiet, it’s either because nothing is happening and I bore myself, or I’m bummed out because winter is here/coming and I don’t feel like ‘talking’, or because I’m so damn busy I can hardly keep up with myself in real life. :D The last few days were that version.

I’m writing this from Decatur, Illinois. They have a restaurant on field, but I ate a big breakfast because I didn’t eat yesterday except one burger at 8 pm and I was hungry, but now I don’t want to plow through two big meals in one day when I’m still trying to lose a little belly action. ;) 

On belly action, I’m still doing well. I’m annoyed that I have a spare tire still that I’m pretty sure I didn’t have last time I was at this weight, but mostly I’m glad that I still have more energy and stamina, and my legs and shoulders are stronger again. Either you’re getting better or you’re getting worse, there’s not really a “hold here” button for long, so I’m glad to finally be getting better. Now I’m thinking about Kaylee who spends a lot of her time off on her comfy chair under a comfy blanket with a cat on top of her playing video games on her giant tv. Her POTS isn’t better, she’s not doing Pilates or the PT she was doing, or hiking on weekends any more, or preparing to climb any more mountains, she’s just not doing much physical activity at all. Either you’re getting better or you’re getting worse…and she’s too young to let it get too far. I’m too old and she’s too young to do the same thing—sit and degrade. I’ll try to drag her out on a nice gentle walk now that my knee is somewhat cooperating again. No mountains for me, just straight and level for now. ;)

Oh man, where to start on this week. Good grief. I can’t even remember what I did. 

Okay. Monday, I had a trip to Memphis with Nick in the 340. We get down there, nothing fancy, we’re there a couple hours, no big deal. I get the crew car and go into town and look around and eat something, wear a sweatshirt inside the FBO (like I am right now) because they keep this things set to Frigid, especially the further south you get, get gas, just normal stuff. Go to leave Memphis and the right engine hesitates before it starts, but then it goes, and you don’t think about it again.

Get to Delphi to drop Nick off, and I had the thought about not shutting down and just letting him out, but then I thought, well, I need gas anyway, it’s cheaper here, so why not. I pull up to the fuel pump (they have no truck) shut down, and take forever filling up because 1) their pump is slow, 2) I have four tanks to fill, and 3) their system won’t let me put in more than 90 gallons at a time so I have to swipe the card and do the things twice to actually fill up. I get that done, Nick is gone, everyone is gone, fire up the left engine, hit the starter on the right engine, and I got nothing. A click. Not a hint of movement. I tried a few things including getting out and moving the prop through by hand to see how it felt, but it’s obviously a starter. So now I’m stranded at Delphi in front of the one fuel pump. *sigh*.

I call Steve, and he loads up Cameron and Brad P in the Bonanza and they’re going to head over to help me push it out of the way. And then I thought…well…my left engine runs, and it’s a tight ramp, but maybe if I can make a series of right turns, one big right circle, I can get myself out of the way. I did that, but I still needed to go backwards, so I got out and hand pushed the 340 back into a corner. Without a tow bar. By myself. I’d like you to know that’s sort of impressive. The plane was full of fuel, all four tanks, and weighed about 5600 lbs. My muscles aren’t doing too bad, and no it’s not downhill. ;) It’s not UP hill either, but still. I get it pushed into a corner, go get chocks, and when they arrive, Cameron who was there for muscle said “Did you push that in by yourself or something”, laughing, thinking I had help, and I said “actually yes, yes I did”. Ha. So the Bonanza got its first rescue mission in. For me. We used to use the Aerostar for rescue missions. Sniff. But there are more people who can fly a Bonanza than can fly the Aerostar, so that actually helps.

Steve and I went to dinner where I realized that I’d left my credit card on the front seat of the 340 after I topped it off, and had stolen a headset out of there too. Whatever, I’ll go back.

And then came yesterday.

I was supposed to meet with Scott (T-6 guy from WI) at 10:30 am, so I got up and was out at the airport by 10 just in case. I’d told him I needed to be done by high noon so I could take a 172 to Huntington to fly with Bill for an hour, then bring it back. Then Morgan and I would go get Chuck’s Citabria and fly it and bring it back to Kokomo where it’s getting the annual done. I’d run over to Delphi and put a headset back in the 340, put 4 quarts of oil back in Ethan’s Piper’s hangar which I’d stolen, and pick up my credit card that I’d left there after fueling. Then Scott called me at 10:06 and said he was still warming up and it was an hour 40 minute flight down and would that leave us enough time. No, it does not if I have to be done at noon. So he puts the plane away and I say “come back at 3 pm and we can fly then” and he thinks that works for him. The 172 stumbles on takeoff with a student and instructor, twice, so they put it down for maintenance to look it over, so now I can’t take it to Huntington. But Bill was also a tailwheel pilot, so I’ll take the Citabria, I say. The Citabria has a low tailwheel tire, so they try to top it off, except by the time it’s time for me to leave, they can’t get the cover off and get in there. So I say screw it, I’ll fly it as is. Meanwhile I’d tried to call Bill and warn him about not having a 172, but he doesn’t text, his voicemail is full, he doesn’t use it, and he doesn’t return calls, and doesn’t have an email. So I just have to call him until he eventually picks up, and he hadn’t picked up. So I just take the Citabria and fly it up to Huntington. We talk for awhile, and then he tries to get in the plane, and he can’t. I think he could, but he felt uncomfortable with it, and gave up and didn’t want to try any more. So now I flew up there for no reason, but we sat and talked for awhile anyway. Meanwhile Brennan was going to go get Chuck’s Citabria and bring it to Kokomo, and I was going to give him a ride home in “my” (Jerry’s) Citabria. So I took mine and went to Delphi, where the one thing that went right for the day, went right. I dropped off the oil and headset and grabbed my card, and all was well. Flew back to Kokomo close to 3 pm. Brennan texts me he doesn’t need a ride back to his car after all, so after topping off the Citabria for the 2nd time that day, I put it away. I’m sitting in the hangar waiting for Scott in the T-6 to arrive. I hear him before I see him. The engine sounds terrible, loping, cutting out. I joke that I’m supposed to fly in that thing and I don’t think I want to. He taxies off, and the plane died in the middle of all the taxiways for both runways. He calls me and says “Can you come get me?” I’m already on the way. He was over Grissom when his engine stopped running properly, and he wasn’t producing enough power to be able to hold altitude, so it was a good thing he was able to make Kokomo at all. Lost a cylinder, most likely. He still doesn’t get his checkride done, although I feel like I should be able to sign it off if he did a 1.5 hr cross country and ended in an emergency landing, safely.  Now we’re in project mode. Trying to figure out where to arrange planes to see if we can get his in our hangar for awhile, as it’s obviously not going anywhere. Plus he needs to get home. I have the Bonanza, so even though I don’t know how to hot start it properly, I’m willing to give it a go. First I have to self-serve fuel up all 4 tanks, and then fly him to Waukesha, WI, flying across the skyline Lake Michigan area. I drop him off, turn around and take back off and fly back to Kokomo, put it away, and at this point I’ve had no food and minimal water all day.

I didn’t eat breakfast because I don’t; I didn’t eat lunch because I had to leave at 11:30 to fly the Citabria up to the guy I didn’t fly with anyway. I got home in time to not fly with Scott in the T-6, so I didn’t eat dinner because I was flying to WI and back. I ran through Wendy’s on my way home and got a hamburger, and that is all the food I ate for that entire day. This is not the way to lose weight, for the record, although it probably works too. 

I got home at 9:10 pm. Watched Chicago Fire and caught up on paperwork, and then went to bed at 10:30, didn’t get to sleep until 11:30, because I’m a night owl, and then had to be up at 5 am for today’s trip to Nebraska. 

I did not wake up with a headache. I still think the ring helps on a lot of scenarios, even if not all of ‘em. Because that should have been a headache.

This morning, 5 am. Morgan texts me because she had to get up at 4 am for her own trip with Ethan’s guys to TN, AR and MS. She was using an Indy Exec Cirrus, I was using Ethans. They didn’t have hers out and ready and made her late. I got my own just fine ;)

It was 2.5 hours out to Nebraska City, Nebraska. They say “the city so nice they named a state after it” which made me laugh. I went to eat breakfast at Gram’s Place, an old train station turned into a homey restaurant. I ate a weird combination of eggs, bacon, a piece of toast, and…cottage cheese. I felt like I needed some extra protein and I only ate one piece of the toast. Cottage cheese just sounded better than potatoes so I went with it. Whatever. lol 

He was there a couple hours, then I ran him to Decatur, IL, which is where I started this post. He was there a couple hours too, and I flew him back to Delphi. A line of storms blew up from somewhere and I had to dodge several of them to get into Delphi. Dropped him, turned around and headed right for Indy Exec, because…

Tomorrow is just as messed up as yesterday was. Originally I was supposed to fly Ethan’s Cirrus to Exec for maintenance, to change the N# on it to 31EB, 7:30-7:45 tomorrow (Fri) morning. Then I’d take one of their Cirri to go back to Delphi to pick up Clay to go to Decatur. Then Clay canceled Friday, so I canceled the Exec plane. Then he said “keep the plane” because Nick might be going to Alabama. So I scheduled the plane. Then today Nick said he’s not going to Alabama, so I canceled the plane. But now I need a ride. So Morgan was going to do it, she lives not far from here. I need a ride from Exec back to my car at Frankfort. Then Laurence C was going to come up and fly BOB with me, so he said HE’D pick me up at Exec and take me to my car then we’d meet at Kokomo and fly the C-45. I told Morgan to sleep in since she had to get up at 4 am today. Then two hours ago Laurence said a trip came up and he can’t come up here. GAH. Now I’m back to having no flying and needing a ride from Exec. Morgan came up with the idea that since we’re both out in Cirri today, we do it this afternoon. I thought that was brilliant. Then we can both sleep in tomorrow morning instead of another 5 am wake-up for a non paying maintenance run. So I dropped Logan off at Delphi dodging storms, and then flew right to Exec and dropped off the plane for maintenance, texted the mechanic, and told him where the plane was. Now I sit here and wait until Morgan gets her guys dropped off at Delphi (she’s there now), and then comes here to Exec to grab me and fly me to Frankfort to get my car, then come back here to return their Cirrus, and her car is here, and we all go home.

And now I’m back to having nothing to do tomorrow. But somehow I’m betting that won’t last. Maybe get John’s 421 over to Ohio for its annual. Will need to arrange a ride for that.

This is how many of my days go. A little chaotic, you have to keep them organized, you have to stay flexible because it WILL change, and I’m not even telling you all the texts and changes I’m getting on each of Ethan’s guys and the trips they want to take in the next two weeks.

And this is why sometimes I’m rather tired, even if I spent a lot of the day sitting on my butt. ;)

On my way to Nebraska today

An old train station turned into a cozy little restaurant

Cedarville

Sunday I had a flight in the Cirrus with Nick and his wife Val, taking them from Delphi to Springfield/Barkley, OH, so they could attend a wedding outside of Cedarville. They took one black and white cop car courtesy car, and I took the other black and white cop car courtesy SUV. They went to their wedding, and I went driving around to check things out.

The first thing I did was decide to go to Young's Dairy Farm, where a group of us ladies would go to get ice cream on a Saturday night before curfew. It was a small shop. I get close and there are cars backed up on the main road. Cars parked in a huge lot on the right side of the street. On the left side is another huge lot. And an event center. And a family center with rides. I have no idea where the actual ice cream shop was, but there were hundreds of cars, hundreds of them, and people everywhere. You couldn't find a parking spot in any of the 3 lots, there were people walking all over the place. This place was a full on amusement park type place. I just kept on driving. I couldn't find a parking spot to get ice cream, so forget it, man!

Next I drove to Cedarville University. Where most of the buildings were new and shiny and tall and glass. I couldn't recognize anything. A whole center for sports, new dorms, new everything. I had to plug in "Maddox" to find the old dorm I'd lived in, and it took me there and I barely recognized that, either. It's another walk down history lane where I don't actually remember what I'm looking at. I didn't recognize Lincoln, NE, the high school I attended for a year, the neighborhood I lived in, almost none of it. I went to Vincennes and didn't recognize half of that. Went to the place where I had my first instructing job that didn't end well at all, and that building had been torn down and a new one built, and the surrounding airport environment didn't look familiar. I can't seem to retain memories, just snapshots. From childhood on even through a timeline when I lived in Carmel--none of that looks familiar except the building I worked in. I couldn't find the house I lived in if my life depended on it and I don't remember the address either. I think some things from Camel-Lot and Glenndale and early Kokomo days, I just don't...retain. It's weird and I don't like it.

Anyway. From there I went to get ice cream at a different place, which was also packed out with people. The whole area was packed out with people. People walking on trails, ice cream line outside the building. I drove around and looked at stuff, nearby towns, and side roads for awhile, then I went out and grabbed some seafood delight chinese, and took it back to the airport. Sat outside on a picnic table in the warm beautiful sunset, ate, read a book. 

There was a large tower with a beacon, and a ladder, and a hole in the middle where you could actually get up on the platform. So I was going to climb it at sunset and get a picture up there to shoot to Morgan as kind of a joke. But there was a dude right at the base of the tower, working on his airplane right there on the ramp, cowls off and all. He was there until after we left as the sun was already down. The bum ruined my fun. Maybe he saved me from a broken neck or broken leg, who knows. Maybe my leg would give out. But I'll never know now...Bum.

Today I met with Eric F to do his first flight in the new to us Bonanza. We flew a little over an hour, but it took us about 2.5 hours to do whole thing. Hopefully next time will be quicker. He's intimidated by the airplane, and he's not a great stick and rudder guy, super mechanical, but the Bo is fairly easy to fly once you figure it out, and I think he'll do all right.

I pulled out and topped off the 340 and got it ready for tomorrow's trip with Nick, hit lunch with Steve, Chuck, and Cameron, and then Steve and I went out to vote early. Vote Early and Vote Often, right? ;) There wasn't a line, so we were in and out of there pretty quickly, duty done.

I was going to fly in the WI Wing T-6 with Scott T to do his CAF 602 checkride this afternoon, but his wife decided he should wait until Wednesday, so we're doing that instead, and I had the rest of the day off. 

I came back home, worked on my stuff here, fired off a bunch of questions and emails to Steve about upcoming stuff, got insurance for a fly-over on Sunday that I was hoping would be under the new owner but is still under Nathan so I hope like HELL nothing goes wrong on that one flight. I'd already committed to it, there were six of us now we're down to 4, and if I drop out it wouldn't be great for them. It's also a paid event. So I haven't flown the Six until the sale was done until now, but now I'm going to do this one flight and it better go smoothly. No reason it shouldn't, but it better. His two weeks is longer than two weeks, but I keep hoping it'll be done any day here. The longest it could be via contract is 45 days. We were just all hoping for much less. He said 2 weeks originally, so maybe 3 will do.

This afternoon, while I was doing laundry and working on stuff, I also watched the Amazon Prime series "Carrie" (from Stephen King).  I'd started it last week, got several more episodes down. It's a little wild, because it's not just a 2 hour long horror movie, it's an 8 episode tv series that develops the characters pretty well. You see the humanity in the individuals, from the misguided mom to the principal who wants to help but doesn't have proof to the bully whose own life is a train wreck, to Carrie who was a sweet, gentle, caring person who just wanted to be friends even with people who started off not very nice to her, with a gift she just started figuring out. It deviates from the book in some ways, but it's actually a pretty good show. I have one episode to go, the big one, but Steve walked in from work then and he wouldn't enjoy it and I wouldn't enjoy it unless I was watching and enjoying on my own too. ;)

The tower I wanted to climb

My cop car SUV

The dorm I used to live in

A tiny portion of Young's Dairy Farm

Lines and lines of cars there

The tower and the yellow airplane getting worked on on the ramp

Sunset on the way home

Moonrise over the Cirrus. The last photo of it with this N#. It goes in to get a new N# Friday

Fall Foliage in the park

The Day

Friday was quiet. I can't even tell you what we did, exactly, actually. I was out at the airport for awhile, I don't think I had any flights though. At 4:45 I met at Harvey Hinklemeyers with Steve and AE and Chuck and Morgan, then the guys came back here and I sat in my comfy chair and chilled out and caught up on the TV shows I'd missed that Steve doesn't like anyway. We decided that Saturday we'd do lunch at Muncie, and asked folks if they wanted to go. Sounded like a plan.

This morning Steve gets up and calls over to make sure we could get in, and it sounded like we could. So we were going to go in the Bonanza with AE, and then Chuck needed someone with him in the Citabria, and the yellow Citabria could go too. But trying to arrange all that ended up a bit of a cluster. Steve was trying to get Cameron some flight time because he's been super helpful out there. He's out there cleaning stuff, fixing the hangar doors so the cold air won't leak in so easily this winter, flying with students, arranging tools, anything that needs done, and not getting paid for it (except for students), so Steve wanted to thank him with a flight. He was going to invite Josh along because he broke his back and he's been rehabbing and working on getting back into flying, and he can do that. I wanted to not have Morgan get stuck just as a backseater, wanted her to get some flying in too, since she's not around as much to fly other things. I asked if she'd ride over with Chuck, Cameron could take the yellow one, then on the way home Cameron could fly with Chuck and she could take the yellow one. But she is coming from Peru so asked if she could take the yellow one and Cameron fly with Chuck. Then Cameron said he's out at Kokomo with a student and can't get there on time, and then she didn't want to, she just wanted to ride in the Bo with us, but that meant Cameron would ride with Chuck, or me or Steve, and now 5 of us would be in the Bo and nobody in the yellow one. Fine. So I asked Cameron to go over to Glenndale at 11:30 to fly with Chuck but he had a student and couldn't get there till noon, and by now we've been going back and forth and back and forth trying to figure things out and it was just enough of a cluster we talked about just scrapping the whole idea. Morgan said she could just go out and ride with Chuck, but would be 11:45 before she got there, but that works again because now she and Chuck can go, Cameron and Josh, and 3 of us in the Bo. It was the most complicated fun trip to Muncie for lunch we've ever tried to do. In the end, Chuck didn't fly, he had her do it, probably because we're going into a tower controlled field, and she tried not to fly but he made her, so she flew both ways. I still don't know what was up with the whole situation there and why she wanted to ride in the back of the Bo with Josh and AE rather than fly a Citabria herself, but I haven't asked.

Next time we do a fly-out, and we will do more of them, we will probably just tell people if they want to go, here's how it's going to work, and if they don't want to go, that's okay too.

From Muncie, Morgan left to go to Indy and meet her airline pilot friend for dinner, and Steve, Cameron, Josh, AE and I pulled out chairs and opened the big hangar door and sat out and watched airplanes fly, talked, the guys had a beer and I had a Diet Mt. Dew., and then Hayden (instructor) sat with us for awhile, and Ashley (instructor) was there for awhile, and then they all had flights including Cameron, and eventually we packed it up around 5:30 pm.

Left the airport, went home and picked up Kaylee, and went to the Jungle Mexican place that used to be in "Little Daddy's" strip joint. lol Had some good Mexican food and came home to accomplish a few things. I have a trip tomorrow, yes Sunday, so working on that, and catching up on a few other things too. 

We have a bunch of cameras up, I think I told you. Front door, driveway, garage, back of the houses. We also have cameras up at the hangars now. That's right. You are anywhere outside our house or inside our hangars and we could be watching you.  

I took no photos. I gotta get better at that again.

Little Rock

I took the 340 to Delphi and picked up Nick, and we went on down to Little Rock. I actually don't have anything to say much about the day, because I woke up with a headache and couldn't seem to kick it until like 2 pm, so I spent the day in the pilot's lounge resting and trying to get rid of it. It wasn't terrible, just annoying enough I didn't want to go do anything else but sit there on a pretty day. It was about a 5 hour flight in total. When I got back, I didn't want to go out to eat either, so I just snacked and went home where we watched the Chicago shows until bed time. Interesting day, eh? 

The Day

This whole week is so gorgeous. It feels criminal if you're not out doing something in it.

I met with a woman named Liz Ann, who is building her own T-6. Restoring her own T-6. She's doing it one piece at a time, and I appreciate the work she's putting into it. She wants to get checked out in a T-6 too, so that's why she's coming to me. I explained what I do and don't do, and how, and she's on board with all that. She also has some trauma from a few things, including a student her husband was instructing and she was doing ground school for who crashed and died in a CAP airplane. She's nervous about people, about pilots, about instructing, about maintenance. She wants to look over our airplane, panels off during annual, before she flies in it. We don't have anything to hide, she's welcome to look, if she finds things we probably will be happy to fix it unless it's cosmetic. She commented on reasons she fired her unsafe first instructor and it included things like him talking to her on the runway or not caring that a pitot tube was still in the plane somewhere and not back on the pitot. Those were from her military training. I warned her that things are a little different in the GA world and that I would probably talk to her on the runway, etc., but did tell her that if something bothered her to let me know. She's former Air Force, was medical'd out, and now has a grass strip, married, two daughters, and Nella the T-6 has stalked her for many years in many ways, so putting together her own T-6 and getting checked out in T-6s is her next goal, and to hopefully start flying next season, with an end goal of piloting Nella too. We'll see--there's a lot of potential for things to not run smoothly here. If she doesn't like that I don't fix a missing rivet or she thinks something is bad or wrong that we're not concerned about that she is, or she doesn't like how I instruct, she may not want to stick it out. But I'll do what I can to help her and hopefully we don't end up in a bad place over it.

Next up I had a guy doing some Wings credit in the Citabria. He wanted to do an IPC but we don't have an instrument airplane right now while the RG is down for maintenance.  Then he wanted to fly the Champ, but it's down for maintenance for a month too. So I put him in the Citabria for an hour and a half. 

Steve and I went out to eat with Kaylee for dinner, came home and I've got a bunch of prep work to do, emails, phone calls, scheduling stuff, and then I'll get up at 6:15 am tomorrow to go to Little Rock. That also changed a bunch of times.  First it was me and Nick in the Cirrus to LIT. Then it was me and Nick in the 340 to LIT because Ethan wants the Cirrus. Then it was me and Nick and a guy going to LOU and then LIT in the 340. And then at 8:30 pm it was just me and Nick going back to LIT again. This is ONE of the many trips and things coming up in the next few days. They often all do that, switch around last minute locations, people, planes. It can be hard to juggle it all sometimes.

But in case I didn't mention it, I'm still glad to be busy again. :)

Tuesday

Slow day. Accomplished a few other insignificant things. Heard back from Job on the T-28, and he said he wasn't going to be able to get me in until the end of November. It'll be cold then, but the T-28 has a good heater, he says. And that I'll need to go to Texas to use his DPE, which is fine with me. I'm looking forward to doing this. Maybe, finally one of these 'new' warbird checkouts will actually happen. I'm not holding my breath yet, but MAYBE. ;) Set up a WI Wing guy who wanted me to do his 602 (annual checkride) but I'd said I can't because I'm not current...told him I was current now and he was excited to hear that, and we're set up for next week. He didn't want to go with Loren, I guess. Fine by me. I taught him initially and I know he's good, so I won't be worried about doing that one. ;)

I was randomly selected for drug testing for the CAF, so I went down to Sheridan where Nick got me the paperwork, and then I drove on down to Noblesville where the testing facility is. I was there an hour and a half before they got me in, did the usual pee in a cup, went back to Sheridan to give Nick back his paperwork, drove home to do some work for an hour before Steve drove by and picked me up to run us both back down to Sheridan for the CAF meeting. That was a long one. We were there like 2.5 hours, extra long and lots of talking. 

Got home after 9 pm, trying to get ready for tomorrow. A meeting at the airport, a flight in the Citabria with a guy, etc.

Onward.

Home Stuff

This whole week is beautiful weather, and I had zero flights on the books for the whole week until today. Craziness!

Steve and I went to lunch mostly to meet up with Chuck to catch up, and so I could mail in some documents to the FAA for the RV. He went out to the airport, and I have spent the day studying the 323 pages of the T-28 manual. Fortunately there is a chunk that was related to the T-28C which I am not flying vs the T-28B which I will (supposedly) be flying, so I could ignore that, but it was still over 300 pages, and I wasn't done until like 6 pm. I printed out a few of them that I will need to reference more, and I skipped over the performance charts for now, but the rest I read in full detail and tried to retain as best my 54 year old brain will. It ain't as easy as when you were in your 20s or 30s. ;)

Our instructor and friend Jerry K, who turned 90 in August, found a lump on his breast and has swelling under his armpit too. So he's going in for a mammogram. I'm trying to imagine how they do a man's breast which is already flat and I can only imagine it hurts more than those of us who have something to squish, and that hurts enough. I'm up on my tiptoes holding my breath because expanding your lungs any and stretching it out any more is not working. That cannot be good for your breast tissue by the way. Neither can the dose of radiation you get from the test. What if we give ourselves breast cancer by irradiating ourselves every year and smashing and damaging the tissue while we're at it?  Anyway. Back to Jerry. He's had several health issues just in the last few months. He'd been doing really well and then it's like shit started attacking him with a vengeance. Here's hoping for the best for him.

The only things on my schedule are a Thursday trip to Little Rock, Arkansas now, which is good, and a 172 flight with 90 year old Bill up at Huntington to keep getting him back in the saddle. We need to fly more often than we do but getting a 172 available for 4-5 hours plus me is a trick. This whole week is STUNNING weather. Cool but not cold, clear blue skies, bright sunny, light winds. I feel like this is one of the last nice weather weeks we're going to get before Indiana grey and wind and clouds rolls in for the Fall, as it always does for weeks straight, right before taking us dead into winter. I'm feeling mild panic of sorts over it in fact. But I shouldn't/can't fly the T-6, the Champ is down for a good month or more, even Bob's other T-6 is in pieces while it's getting worked on, and I just have to sit here and mostly watch this weather go by. It's...well, "tragic" seems a little overdone for that scenario considering nobody has died, but it sure doesn't feel good. ;)

So today other than reading over a full 323 pages of T-28 manual, I also did bedding, laundry (and folded and put it away, gasp), dishes, exercise, scheduling, some supply shopping, a few bills paid, that kind of stuff. But now I don't have anything to do tomorrow. Well, I do, but we'll see what happens. I might go fly Jerry's Citabria just to put some time on it too. I have a feeling he may be selling it not too long from now. It's not my favorite airplane, it handles funny and hard on the ground, and can't handle wind, and doesn't land very well, so when it does sell it won't be as sad as other planes that have gone away, but it was still nice to have as an option. Speaking of others, the Conquest was parked on the ramp at Metro today and Morgan took a photo of it to send to me along with "awww". I do miss flying it, that was a great airplane. I really miss the Cheyenne too. *sniff*

I put away my next size up weights and got out some heavier ones. I didn't want to buy another set so I just went up to our existing heavier ones, which are more than double what I'd been doing. So instead of doing 15 reps I am starting with 5 each of 5 different exercises. I think it'll be good, we'll see how it goes.

I think that's about it, other than my hatred that we won't see a post-7 pm sunset again until March, and that in 2 weeks it'll be 5:45 pm sunsets. Hate it. Hate it a lot.

On that note...

T-6ing

I finally did catch up on sleep again, and slept until 8 am this morning, and it was lovely, even though I was unsure of how today was going to go. Am I going to need to fly from the back seat, which I haven't done the actual flying from in years? Is he going to have me do aerobatics or all the hard core aggressive stall stuff like he did Loren? SO I did wake up a couple times thinking about it, but went right back to sleep knowing I'd have to just deal with whatever.

It ended up being so much more chill than I was thinking. I flew from the front, it was easy going and relaxed, we just did the normal run-through stuff and some takeoffs and landings, I went and then he went and we were up like 1.3. Went back to his hangar and did the paperwork, and as soon as HQ reviews and approves it, I'll be back and "Green" in RallyPoint and able to do CAF T-6 checkouts, sign-offs, and Nella flights again. Which will be nice.

It was a beautiful day for it, too. Severe clear, cool but not cold, light winds, bright Fall sunshine.

When I got back, I topped off the 340 at Kokomo's self serve pump (which is really messed up by the way, all "on" spraying all over, and Morgan pulled up. She's been gone on a trip to FL with John in the King Air 200 the last two days, and she was finally free of him and saw me headed for OKK so stopped in on her way to her parents house to celebrate the end of her enslavement to him in the King Airs. We chatted for a few minutes while I put the 340 away, and then she headed to her house and I to mine.

Steve and I got Outback for dinner, watched the last half of a movie called "The Fix" that we had to go to bed before finishing last night, and the latest episode of "Slow Horses" while doing laundry, cleaning up the kitchen and taking out the trash, adding my 19th T-6 that I've flown to my little Notes List of them, updating CAF and my logbook, and doing other such things, before tonight's shows of "Marshalls" and "Tracker" come on. A good Sunday, had by all.

The Spanish Lady T-6

Home

I didn't have any trips today, so it was good to be home. I went and got my hair cut. It had gotten so long that she took 3" off the back. It feels much lighter now.

Steve worked outside and next door while I caught up on TV shows and responded to two guys who want to get T-6 checkouts done for the CAF. In order for me to do that, I have to be current for the CAF again, which means I have to take a T-6 checkride. I'm doing that tomorrow afternoon. Not sure how that's going to go in all and I'm not actually looking forward to it, but I am looking forward to finally being current again. Then I can fly Nella again, or do more CAF checkouts. They all require 10 hours, and we charge $900/hr for the block rates, so you can do the math. It's hard work, and not very relaxing, but it pays enough to help cover the costs of the plane and a bit for my own pain and suffering.

Some photos from Cathy with Morgan and her family, and Tanner and his family.

Hailey, Sullivan, Tanner, me & Steve

Ricky, Morgan, me, Steve, Izzy, Zeke, Zaria

Tennessee

I'm writing this from my couch, enjoying a nice relaxing Friday evening after getting back from Tennessee.

Yesterday we were up at 5:15 am, got to Frankfort by 7 am, and landed in Gallatin, TN at "Music City Executive Airport" by 7:45 am their time. I had a rental car, I'd asked for a small SUV and I got a mini-van. A Mom Van. Ha. But whatever, it got us there. It's an hour and a half drive to Franklin to go visit the Cherrys. Cathy wasn't ready for us yet that early in the morning, so we stopped at "First Watch", a restaurant/diner and got some brunch and coffee before heading over to their house. We spent a nice day with Cathy and occasionally Lon, who was working at the house. That afternoon, Morgan and Ricky came over with their two boys (Izzy and Zeke) and daughter (Zaria). I noticed Morgan had a large sweatshirt and a noticeable bump underneath. After they left, Cathy told me that Morgan was pregnant again, was 3 months along but hadn't told even them until last week. We didn't know that she'd had another pregnancy that wasn't viable, hadn't ever fertilized or something, but she'd ended up in the hospital bleeding out and in very bad shape, many blood transfusions and everything. So this time she didn't tell anyone including her other kids in case something went wrong again. Personally, I knew within 10 minutes of seeing her that she was pregnant so I'm not sure how anyone else around her also didn't have it figured out, or maybe I'm just extra observant. But at 3 months along, hoping that all is well. She has her first doctor appointment coming up this week, so praying for a healthy baby for them. We also got to see Tanner, his wife Hailey and their son Sullivan or SJ. Sullivan is like 6 months old, a fun age. We all ate dinner, and played a chronology game (you get cards and you have to put the cards in order by date, and I am not good at this but I won the game anyway somehow, so hey). We didn't get to see Alonna or Rania as they live in Virginia now, but it was a nice little break and ability to see family. Cathy took a few photos but I don't have copies yet.

This morning we slept in, had coffee, took our time, then drove the Mom Van back to Gallatin and waited about an hour for the Cirrus to be finished up from its oil change and look-over. Flew home in the Cirrus back to Frankfort with Steve, IFR a lot, and windy and bumpy, but fine. Instead of topping off then, we shoved the plane away and ran back home, where Steve's friends were waiting for him on the deck for Friday Night Deck Night.

And I did paperwork, emails, laundry, watched TV, and relaxed and liked it.

Mmm hmm

Series of sunrise photos on the way to Tennessee

Sure is purty up there

Someone's happy place

An oddly specific speed limit

The large expensive jet Ethan chartered for everyone going to FL with him this weekend

A little different than when I'd take 9 of them down in the Conquest

Illinois

I’m starting this from Jacksonville, Illinois. There’s a big wad of weather nearby but I don’t think it’ll actually get to us before it’s time to leave. I told the fellow I brought here that I need him to be done as close to 11 am as possible as that’s noon our time and that gets me back to Delphi by 1 which gets me to Kokomo by 1:30 which lets me drop this off and get the 172 to Huntington by 2, as planned. So I hope that works out relatively close at least. The guy at Huntington I’m flying is the dad of Bob, the man who is helping us keep the T-6. 

I was sitting here in IL, had just finished preparing for upcoming trips, and had wandered around on Facebook some, when I saw a post about a woman who had been morbidly obese and was now quite trim. She talked about how when she was big, she was invisible, like furniture. That when she’s small, people smile at her, talk to her, wait to hold doors open for her, don’t side eye her when she eats anything, offer her opportunities. And it’s true. I remember when I lost a lot of weight before, and I was walking through a convenience store, and I caught this guy looking at me, and we made eye contact, and I was a little confused because he wasn’t saying anything so I didn’t know why he was looking. And then I realized, I wasn’t invisible in public any more. I was seen. It was the first time I’d realized that situation existed, but looking back it was obvious. When I was cute and thin, I was treated quite differently than when I was fat by strangers in particular, and acquaintances also. Never by my friends or family though. People really would let the door close right on you in public when you’re large, and will stand there for long enough you have to jog to get there when you’re not large. It’s weird. Look around and do some people watching and see for yourself.  I am guessing that “old” also falls into the “invisible” trap. Once you reach a certain age, I’m guessing people don’t see you any more either, whether you’re thin or not. I wouldn’t know that part yet, thankyouverymuch, but I’m not too far off from finding out I guess. ;)

Well, my guy put me about an hour late, so I call Bill and say it'll be 3 pm not 2 pm, and he's okay with that. Then I'm getting close to home, and it's like low ceilings and I have to shoot an approach into Delphi. Kokomo says it's VFR so I scud run over there and it's legally VFR but not much more than that. Meanwhile, Huntington has gone to 800' overcast. I can't get the 172 there legally anyway. So I try to call 90 year old Bill back and he's not answering his phone and has probably already left in his car to go to the airport which is over an hour away. *sigh* I text Bob and tell him to let Bill know and I apologized. The forecast was still calling for VFR while it was--and stayed--IFR. They have been So Bad And Wrong on the weather, so frequently. It's ridiculous.

Steve and I drove over to the Amish store when I got back with the 340, picked up a sammich, ate it at the airport and caught up/chatted a bit. He had a couple more flights/meetings, so I came home, where Michelle was still cleaning the house. Took a really long time this time I guess. Gotta pack a bag for tomorrow. We're getting up at 5:30 am to fly the Cirrus to Gallatin, TN where I'll pick up a rental car and drive to Nashville to visit Steve's sister's family for the day. When they're done sometime Friday, we'll fly the Cirrus back home. And before then, I have stuff to do that I guess I'll go do. :)

Fall Flight Review

I slept in and it was lovely. :)

I spent the whole day working at home. Going back and forth and back and forth with a T-6 student from Texas and everything he'd need, going back and forth with about six people on a bunch of scheduling stuff. Most irritating was that I confirmed and arranged tomorrow's two people, Liz coming from Ohio and Bob's Dad Bill out of Huntington, only to then have one of the guys from SFI ask me what airport we were going into tomorrow. I said there's nothing on the books for tomorrow and he laughed and said oh I guess someone forgot to schedule it. Except this is the second flight that nobody scheduled that they thought they scheduled and this time it disrupted other people. They've all got access to the calendar, they don't ever even look. So we need them to pay more attention.

At 4 pm I flew with Brad in his Bonanza, and we worked on some crosswind takeoffs and landings and an instrument approach with autopilot inputs. After him, Morgan and I went up in the Citabria to do our Flight Reviews. Landed back at Glenndale and put it away, wiped it down, and then she drove us through the car wash, past a house she's looking at buying, then over to Dairy Queen where I got dinner of chicken strips and a mini Mexican hot chocolate blizzard, then back to Kokomo to get my car so she could drive back to Noblesville to go home and I could drive home. End of day.

So tomorrow I get up early and go to Illinois, then hope I get back by 1:30 so I can fly up to Huntington and still fly with Bill. 

King Air-ing

Whew buddy Sunday was a full one, and mostly unexpected. I was supposed to go to Nebraska today (Monday) early, so Sunday I was just going to go with Morgan in the King Air up to Traverse City, MI to pick up a guy named Mark and his wife and drop them off back home. I had to get up at 5:45 am to do that, and drive to Indy, but we did it an it worked out well.

After that, I was going to go home, get gas, and take the rest of the day off, be ready for Monday. But right around 11 am, Logan said "We may not go tomorrow, I'll let you know". If Logan didn't go, I could go to Florida that night too, but we needed to know by noon. So Morgan called her "buddy" John, and asked if he didn't want to go, that I could go instead, and he'd get the day off and the client wouldn't have to pay for me but they'd still get two pilots. He said okay, but was a little miffed that he didn't know I went that morning. Except he didn't need to know I went that morning, she communicated directly with the client and it wasn't his job or problem. So there was some conflict there and he said he was going to email her about it to have "expectations in writing". I said good, you can respond and cc your actual boss, because she didn't do anything wrong. And yet we are on day two here and he hasn't sent the email, so either he's taking a long time to compose it, or he thought about it and realized he was wrong and is letting it go.

So we left Indy Metro in the King Air at 7:30 am, in the fog and mist, and landed back there done by 11 am. We took a car and ran to Culvers, stuffed down a burger, and then back out to the airport. Logan texts me that we are for sure "off" for Monday. So Morgan texts John that I am "on" for Florida. The client saw we got back early so asked us to leave early. We topped off the airplane and then loaded up a family of six, plus the two of us, and headed for Kissimmee, Florida. There was a tornado not too far away but it blew through before we got there, so bonus. ;)

Morgan's having someone else go along because the autopilot in the King Air doesn't work the first 30-60 min of a flight and may not work at all, the GPS glitches, the G600 blanks out the top half so you can't see weather, and the radios go in and out so you can't hear well. She's flown it herself for like 3 flights now. So low time, busy airspace, not great weather, and equipment not working, she wanted someone along. It was going to be John, now it's me. She didn't end up needing me anyway, but you never know. 

We get about an hour away, and smell smoke. Second time in a week or so where I smell something burning in an airplane. Then the smoke started happening. We shut down the environmental system where we thought it was coming from, and that slowly made the smoke dissipate. The backseaters asked if we saw that. Yes. We then got close and they were all very hot back there and asked for AC, but it as that system that caused the smoke/burning smell. So we tried the vent fan alone just to see if that would work, but it did not, that was worse. The smoke was bad enough our eyes were watering. We did get it to stop again, but it was hot and acrid and smokey in there until we got on the ground and got out.

When we leave the airplane, we notice the family has left behind lots of presents. Trash, food, crumbs on the carpet and seats, water bottles with stuff in them, paper, and my personal favorite, somebody's chewed gum was spit on the floor. MY clients don't act like that. Good thing, too. I'd hate to get fired for telling them to drag their gross little entitled asses back up here and clean up their shit. I don't care if I was a billionaire, I'd never let my kid act like that. He claimed Caitlyn Clark had invited him to play golf so he had to get back to TN soon. Sure she did. I bet she's having a fundraiser event or something. But either way, *cough* (douche) *cough*. 

The plane was staying in Florida anyway and we were airlining home, because the next trip home would be Thursday, and they don't like the cost of flying the plane back and forth. But they had to buy our two airline tickets, which were over $2000, too. One way, for two people. Isn't that insane?? So we got a crew car and went into town and had an alcoholic drink and a Florida dinner, before returning the car and getting an Uber to take us to Orlando for our airline flight home. It was supposed to leave at 9 pm which would get us back to Indy around midnight, and home around 1:30 am. Instead, our flight was delayed by an hour. So we got back to Indy around 1 am, back to Metro Airport by 1:30 am, and I got home around 2:30 am. Crawled in bed and fell fast asleep until early this morning, after which I went back to bed and didn't get up until 9:30 am, which was lovely.

So I was up at 5:45 am yesterday morning for Michigan, then got home from the whole day at 2:30 am the next morning. On my day off. ;) I instead made Monday my day off.

Except I get up this morning and Steve wants me to get ready and go to lunch with him and stop by our insurance guy's place and get our updated wills signed with witnesses. I did it, seemed like a good idea. We met Chuck at lunch, then stopped by and did the paperwork, and THEN I came home and put comfy pants on and contacts out again. I still did two loads of laundry, had groceries delivered, prepared for an upcoming trip, did some calendar organization, answered my emails, dealt with some questions on my newly ordered helmet, organized one of my cabinets, took off my old nail polish and put on some new, and in general stayed busy doing stuff anyway, but it was stuff at home alone watching bad TV shows I was catching up on (like "Best Medicine" or "Brothers"). Steve made it back home by 5 pm, and as far as I know, there is nothing interesting on tap for the rest of the day. I'm going to relax, and sleep in tomorrow too, as I don't have anything but a Bonanza flight in the afternoon so far. 

Me not in the flight suit giving a BOB Talk to a group for these next two photos

I'm in the middle at the front. Why does my face always look mad when I talk?

King Air shots in the morning sunrise

Me and Morgan in FL

Wings of Valor

When I talked to the Apple store guy, he said I needed to bring it in to a "Genius bar". There aren't any real close, so I had to drive down to Indy, and the only appointment was for 6:50 pm. So I worked on everything at home most of the day, ran errands, did all the things. Had my last PT appointment. DeWayne (my therapist) tested my legs and said that my left leg was still only at about 85% of my right leg, but I wasn't gaining enough week to week to keep coming to PT. I'm going to have a permanent bend of about 3-4 degrees, unless I had surgery which I'm not, and I need to keep working on my leg strength and stretches. So I shall. I'm glad to be done, got the t-shirt to prove it even. ;)

At 3:45 pm I met Morgan and her mom and a realtor at a house in Kokomo that she's looking at moving to. It was old, she likes old, as they have character, but unfortunately the house next door is a "turd", broken down, garage without a roof, just a mess, so even if she fixes this place up, the house next to it will make the resell value low. Even though the other houses on the block are pretty nice. She liked parts of it and didn't like parts of it. So there's another place she's going to look at Monday.

After we got done there, we went over to Harvey Hinklemeyers and met Steve, Chuck and AE there. Had a quick bite and then Morgan and I drove down to the Apple store together. They were quick, efficient, and it started off well, getting me right in at my appointment time. And then they went on break for 20 minutes. Finally when they got to me, he looked at my iPad for 5 seconds before saying "yep, the battery has expanded from the heat, bent the frame/metal. That bend pushes on the battery, and would likely cause it to overheat in one location again." He was trying to not tell me what to do, but said if I continued to use it I needed to be very careful. I told him it spent time sitting in a small airplane and he flinched and said "oh man, don't do THAT". Haha. He asked if I wanted to trade it in and get money back towards a new one, and I said yes if possible, because I obviously couldn't use this one any more safely. He scanned it and it originally gave him $0.00 for me. But he got someone else to help and they came up with $500. Well, $500 off a new iPad is a lot better than just having to buy a new one and keep the odl one that I can't safely use anyway. So I gave it to them, bought a new cheaper model, transferred all my info/data, wiped out the old one, and walked out with a new sky blue iPad. And the warranty this time. I've never had an iPad or iPhone for very long without having to replace a screen. So now I'm buying the stupid warranty.  The only problem was that all this took about 2 hours, longer than I expected. After I finished there, I ran Morgan to her apartment to pack a bag, and we drove back to pick up her car at Harvey's, and then she went home to her parents and I went home to my own house. And that's the end of the iPad saga.

This morning we were up at 6 am. Steve and I got ready and headed out to the airport where I got BOB ready to go with oil and such, and pulled out, and we loaded up Steve, Morgan, new girl Sarah, and me, and I flew us to Sheridan as soon as the sun was legally up at 7:50 am. Landed at Sheridan on the grass and we had "Wings of Valor" event. Ground school to start with, and then all the planes were out and people divided into groups and had groundschool or talks about the airplanes one at a time. I did the C-45, of course. We were going to bring the T-6, but backed out and won't fly the plane until the deal is done, so I just did the C-45. I then had one ride to give. Wayne was in the front right seat, and he was super excited, I think he was a little speechless actually. In the back I had a father/son. The young man was like 9 years old and had an army outfit on including a green Army helmet. It was cute. They all had a great time, a fun flight, and I enjoyed it too. Even had a nice crosswind gusting up around 16 kts or so, but landed on the grass and it was fine.

When the event was over, I loaded everyone up, put Sarah in the front, and flew home to Kokomo. Landed, put it away, Kaylee came and picked me up, and we drove down to Tipton and signed all the paperwork to finally get her car. Her new Cherokee Hybrid that she loved before and was wrecked by a truck and has had trouble ever since? Well, she has a new one, and she's super excited and pleased to finally have this journey that was not her fault in the first place, over with.

She and I drove her new car back home and left the loaner car down there, and met everyone at Pastarrific for a celebration dinner. Our waitress tonight was someone we've known for awhile, and she came up and asked me if I'd lost some weight. I said yes, and she was complimentary. First comment I've gotten spontaneously, actually, was nice. :)

Ate, came home, and worked on stuff so that I can go to bed early and get back up too early to go in the King Air with Morgan to Michigan. Why? To check out the King Air on my day off I guess!

Twas a good day. Maybe more photos will come in from today, but for now this is what I have.

The groundschool photos

*sigh* Layers of clothes under flightsuits are still not attractive. But that's my little Army man and his dad. :)

Me, Sarah, Steve and Morgan back there

THE Ohio State University

Look at me, I'm all caught up!

I could have slept in until 8:30 am, but I woke up at like 5 am and fortunately got back to sleep, then woke up at 7-ish am, and decided to just go ahead and get up around 7:30, and that was fine. I was awake, I'd slept over 7 hours, and I didn't need to rush right out the door, either. I'll take it. ;)

The day went as planned. I flew the 340 over to Delphi, picked up Clay and Nick, flew Clay to Connorsville, IN and dropped him off with the engines still running, took off and picked up an IFR and flew into OSU. Nick went off to a lunch meeting, and I took a crew car in to get some sushi. I ended up at a genuine Japanese store and sushi place. It was really good. I was only on the ground there until about 1:30. I went to pay for the fuel, and they'd added a $160 ramp fee. I said I thought it should be waived since I got gas, and he said I was right, so he had to have the invoice backed out and do it again. $160 is a big fee, so I was glad to get that out of there for Ethan, even though it doesn't so much actually matter much to me personally, does it. But I always try to save them money where I can. Should I? Probably, though I don't think they always know or care, really. It makes me feel better.

After Nick got back, we ran back over to Connorsville, picked up Clay, and I took them both back to Delphi, dropped them, and was back at Kokomo by 4 pm. Topped off the plane for Monday's trip to Nebraska, and the day was done.

Steve and I met Chuck at Grindestone's for dinner, first dinner out since the weekend, and came home to watch NCIS Origins from the other night and catch up on paperwork, life, etc.

I decided to turn my iPad on today while I was out at the hangar, where I could throw it on the concrete if it was going to flame off. It did not. In fact, it fired up, and it is working just fine. But how can I trust it?? I'm still supposed to have an Apple Supervisor Call tonight at 8:30. When I left the house tonight I powered it back off. Don't need my damn house burning down if it decides to melt down again. I will not leave it in the back of planes I fly any more either. It will be in arm's reach of me from now on, even if I get a new one. I looked into buying one of those bags that you throw your laptop/iPad/phone into if the battery fires off, but they're $1000. Sheeeeeesh. Expensive little buggers. Less expensive than an airplane on fire, but still. Maybe the people who own the airplanes will buy one for the airplane... Anyway, it's currently sitting here charged up, powered up, and running at a perfectly normal temperature and not doing anything weird. What are they going to tell me to do about that?! Maybe send it in to them for inspection, and/or trade it for a new model or something? I can still see the discoloration on the back of the unit from where it almost burst into flame. I'm weirded out by this.

I'm excited to have my helmet on order, nervous that it'll fit right and be lightweight and decent and work well and sound clear. They're considering doing my checkertail black and gold vertical like my 'old' helmet, but I don't mind either way, and it'll be months and months before I even get it. So plain jane matte black helmet it is for now. I liked the olive green one actually, but I don't think it would go as good with the black and yellow checkers, and I want that more. So this is what it'll eventually look like:

Tomorrow I've got PT, we'll see what they have to say, and then I'm going to need to get ready for Saturday's CAF event down at Sheridan where I'm supposed to present. Sunday I'm going with Morgan in the King Air because the weather is bad and it doesn't have an autopilot, her boss is letting her take me instead of John, even though I don't know that airplane, but I do know weather and radios and airplanes. We'll be dealing with the remnants of the hurricane on that day, so hopefully it's not too terrible.

Morgan is looking at a house in Kokomo tomorrow, I might go see it with her, see how it looks. It's in an old neighborhood, we'll see if it's in a safe one and how it looks. The house itself looks cute on the inside, the outside neighborhood, ehhhh.

That's about it for today...