Two Pilots & an LSW: Good Gravy

Ha. I just looked it up and I've flown 41.2 hours in the last 7 days. That's a lot in case you're wondering. ;)

With my iPad down, I can't keep up away from home, and I've been away from home All. Week. Long.

Why is my iPad down? That's a story from 2 days ago, Monday.

There I was, flying in the Cirrus at 8000', taking Logan to Iowa. I pulled out my iPad and updated the Zoho sheet with the hobbs times from the last flight legs. Closed the iPad cover and sat it on the seat next to me. At some point later, maybe 15-20 minutes, I smelled something hot. I couldn't figure out what it was, kept sniffing and wondering, and then it got strong. It was real and getting stronger, and I am actively hunting for whatever is smalling like hot burning electric. That's not good in an airplane. Finally I pick up my iPad, and that's the smell. I take it off the cover, and the back right corner of it is so hot I can't touch it, even with my freakishly insensitive fingers. I immediately power the iPad down, and it's still burning hot and smelling. I shove it in front of the air vent, and I'm like...this is bad. I don't know if I can get the door open far enough to shove it out to the ground if it flames out on me. A lithium ion battery fire is BAD. No idea why it happened, it wasn't doing anything, just sitting there. I'm warning the guy I'm with that if this bursts into flames, we will be diving for a field if I can't get it out the door. He says "what if you throw it out the door and it catches someone's field on fire?" I said that would be bad, but not nearly as bad as US being on fire. It did not flame off, fortunately. It finally started cooling off. I have not turned it back on since. I don't know what to do with it. I'm tempted to try to turn it on and see if it just works and whatever happened is over, but I'd better do it somewhere that if it fires off it can burn in peace without hurting anything else. If I had an Apple Genius Bar around here I'd just walk it over, but the nearest one is more than an hour away. Steve said we might just have to buy a new one but I don't know about that either. I dunno. We'll see. But that was very unpleasant!

I just did an online thing with Apple and requested a phone call at 8:30 am. They said they'd call me at 8:30 pm and closed the chat. So hopefully tomorrow evening I'll have a better idea. In the meantime, do I try turning it on just for the hell of it? Hmm.

I don't even know where to start. I've flown about 42 hours in the last 7 days. Covered a bunch of states, 20 landings, non-stop flying. One day was 18 hours, another was 16.5 hours door to door. Up at 5 am every day, not home until bedtime at night. Today was the first day I was home by 5 pm. I took the 340 to Delphi, picked up two guys, dropped one off in Decatur, flew the other to Memphis, back to Decatur, back to Delphi, back home, and that was the fastest, shortest day.

Monday was a Monday. Buttcrack of dawn. Drove to Frankfort, flew Cirrus to Delphi, picked up Logan, flew him to Ames, Iowa. Came back to Dephi, picked up Clay, flew him to Burke Lake, Cleveland, OH. They didn't have gas so I argued with them about landing fees and had to fire back up and fly to Lost Nation and get gas. Got back to Burke Lake. Argued with a whole new crew about landing fees again. Took Clay back to Kokomo because Ethan found out the Cirrus was over hours on oil change. Picked up the 340 and took Clay back to Delphi, except the 340 doesn't have a right brake so that's fun. Fly it back out to Ames, Iowa and picked up Logan, flew him back to Delphi, did the shortest landing I could with no brake. Dropped him off and flew the 340 back to Kokomo, put it away, left the Cirrus in the hangar there. Got up at 5 am, got home to bed around 1 am. Back up at 5:30 am the next day.

Tuesday I am up early to fly the Cirrus to Delphi to pick up Ethan and bring him to Kokomo where we took the 340 to Ohio so he could pick up the Piper and I could have Steve F fix the right brake again. Flew the 340 back to Kokomo, put it away, flew the Cirrus to Frankfort and put it away, drove back to the Kokomo Airport, where I met up with Laurence C. who flew the BT-13 up from Terre Haute. I flew that for an hour and did my currency checkout in it, which went well. Steve was up flying and sat and watched my first landing. lol When we got done, we came back and did paperwork, and then I took him up for his first flight in BOB the Beech. We had a good time, flew a little over an hour. Put it away, and then he had to get home before dark. I enjoyed the flying, but I was exhausted...

Up early today for the Memphis/Decatur trip. I flew right over my Mom's house. I waved. :)

Sunday I was up at dawn, leaving Steve in the hotel room in Louisville, and taking the Cirrus to Myrtle Beach to pick up Nick and Val and fly them back home. It was another very long day, not back until late.

Saturday we were up at dawn to fly the Beech down to Louisville. We had tried to go Friday and got weathered out, it rained down there all day and was IFR. So we had to do it first thing in the morning. Fly down there, with Cameron right seat, Steve S and Steve T in the back, and we get down there and they closed the airport for 30 minutes while we circled. Morgan brought the Cirrus down and she had to circle too. We get in, set up, and then sell C-45 rides all day. I gave 5 rides that day, all full of people, busy airspace, towered field, lots of people and outdoorsing and flying and selling and talking. It was a good day, ended late, we all went to dinner at a steakhouse, got to bed late and I was up at dawn Sunday to continue flying.

And now you're caught up to Friday and before, where I'd gone to New Orleans and gotten back late, etc., and why I haven't had a day home or off in a long time!

Not busy enough, not busy enough, tooooo busy!

I ordered my helmet today. Several thousands of dollars. *sigh* I hope it's right, and I hope it lasts. It's almost double what it cost 17 years ago when I got the other one. Of course this one has Bluetooth and sound canceling and normal plugs too, so that's all helpful. I had to order two visors, one plain black one and one checkerboard one, because the checkerboard one is so far behind on being able to be delivered that one guy has been waiting 6 months and counting. Meanwhile the other helmet will take 3 months to get here. I will have it in the winter before Spring's flying at least.

Tomorrow is Clay to Richmond then Nick to OSU then back to Richmond than home, but it's not early in the morning and shouldn't be very late at night either...

The RG/RV deal has had money transferred and is basically done. The T-6 deal initial agreement is signed, and from 2-6 weeks from now the money will go through and that deal will be done. We have decided not to fly the T-6 again until the deal is done. After the RG incident in the middle of the deal, and after our Champ had an issue and is down for a good while for maintenance, we thought all we needed next was something to happen to the T-6 before the deal was done. So it's gonna sit until it's under new insurance and ownership.

More busy days to come. Here are a few photos.