July 2rd Starts like this: "Honey, Mark wants to come down for the long holiday weekend. He wants to pay for the gas."
Me: "Duh, well if I have to fly up and get him, I guess I can"?.
July 3rd?. A 9 hour drive to Augusta, Ga is turned into a less than 2 hr flight with a good tail wind. I RON at my father-in-law's.
And yes, that's my GripGo holding my iPad mini with no problems.
July 4th? For the trip back to Florida, Mark shows up with shorts and a cut off T-shirt. Seems I forgot to mention my "jeans only" rule or forget to tell him about the temps at 12,000 ft. He learns that lesson as we climb over and around the cloud build ups to 12,500 ft South bound with Flight Following. Yeah, I relented and pulled a little cabin heat.
We arrive Venice in 2:45 (due to strong, 40mph at times) headwinds. Just in time for a little "July 4th Downtown Venice Daquiri Deck" libation.
A great time was had by all and Mark elected to take a few more days off work.
While at home, I get a call from SkyKing Bob who says he is in town and wants to meet. We do. We fly. We friends.
Post by SkyKing Bob here:
http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...d.php?t=101675
July 9-10 ?. Mark and I launched for the return trip to Augusta. I engaged my Voice Activated, Human, 3 Axis Auto-Pilot. Mark likes my -6 so much he does the take off, cruise flight and everything landing except the final touchdown. On the way back, we "played" with him getting some flying lessons/turns etc so our travel time was about 2 1/2 hrs. Sure was nice just to be the navigator and ATC communicator (Mark has to work up to those duties
)
You know the old saying "I'd rather be down here wishing I was up there than up there wishing I was down here?" It doesn't always apply. Heres a photo of what I am talking about. Guys with guns, free fire zones and lots of razor wire make me want to be up here no matter what.
On the next day return flight home, weather was great and I cruised along at the lower altitudes for the view. As I was cruising along, something hit my shoulder, startling me briefly until I saw I had a passenger. The little fellow must have made it into the airplane by hiding under the canopy cover and entered when I was doing a pre-flight. He hopped down and I got a pic. (he was later released, unharmed but definitely relocated from his home)
All in all, a great holiday week. Got to fly a lot. Made new friends. My wife was extremely happy.
Mark is a new, aspiring pilot. I sent him a text telling him it was a 2:10 hr flight home but that I had to fly the d@#% thing myself.
He writes back " LOL. I love it. I can understand your passion for it. Built in your garage but I have no fear"
Maybe some are getting tired of hearing it but to provide motivation to others?.
Keep pounding those rivets?.
Honey, Can you fly to Augusta to get my brother?
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