8 seconds, thats nothing!

I used to think that bull riders had it tough, staying on a raging bull for about 8 seconds seems pretty amazing. Well my flight to St. Louis tonight was bumpy to say the least. I got to the Little Rock airport and as I was sitting in the airplane there was so much wind blowing that I thought that it was going to achieve flight without the engines on. The wind as most of you who read this already know, was pretty strong and gusty tonight!!! The max wind gusts at Little Rock were in upwards of 50 knots (60+ mph). Well after climbing through 3000 ft or so it smoothed out and was a pretty nice flight (only took 1 hour 5 min). Well the winds at St. Louis were not anymore forgiving as they were gusting up to 42 knots, but they were right down the runway. Well the landing and flight was a success, or else I wouldn't be posting this blog. And I just got off the phone with the flight service station (they give me the weather for the flight) and it looks as if I will have a tailwind on the way back since the front has passed through the area, woo hoo. Only thing I would have done differently is maybe bring along some long underwear as it is about -5 degrees Celsius outside!

Weird Things You Didn't Know About Me...

Here are some unusual things about me that you may not know...

1. I have Adult A.D.D. the reason I know this, I was watching T.V. one time and they had a commercial come on and it said, "Do you forget things, Does your wife tell you something to do and you don't do it?" See I do that, I have it. Les said it is just A.L.A.S. syndrome... (Adult Lazy A%* Syndrome) she is probably right.
2. I play video games, which annoys my wife immensely, to my defense they are mostly sports games, football and baseball which are my two favorites. I try to tell Les I play them to keep my eye-hand coordination in top condition for flying.
3. I don't have much of a temper... I can't remember the last time I was trully upset. But when that does happen, watch out cause I could just snap, Les said when I really get angry it is pretty scary.
4. I sometime talk in my sleep, to which Les starts asking me questions... thanks Les. Recently when I was studying every day for my checkride she tried to get me to wake up after about only 4 hours of sleep and I started reciting Federal Aviation Regulations to her as to why I couldn't wake up for 6 more hours due to need 10 hours of consecutive rest after completing a flight.
5. When I was in high school, I got picked up for shoplifting... Well that taught me quite a few lessons, if you don't have the money to buy it, you don't need it.
6. I am paranoid when I go flying.... not in a hearing a voice way, or a someone is out to get me way. But a did I check everything way, I always check and recheck myself to make sure that I remembered to flip every switch and set every dial correctly.
7. I have an obsession with hats, I wear one pretty much all the time... which probably means by the time I hit my mid-thirties or fourties I will be bald like me dad.
8. I was an eagle scout, which means I like to go camping. Les on the other hand does not, unless we can buy a pop-up camper trailer... so that the snakes can't get her.
9. I don't mind washing/drying clothes... I hate to fold them, but I am getting better I think.

Well that wraps up the things that you may not know about me... hope you enjoy. I won't be tagging anyone due to the fact I am probably the last person to do this survey.

Sit down this is gonna be a long one...

I know that some of you get tired of me going so long between posts... sorry about that, I just don't want to bore most of you by talking about flying. Well this has been a pretty fun-filled and exciting past couple of weeks in regards to flying. Well lets start out on Thursday of last week, I got all comfortable in my airplane, heater on, auto-pilot on, all was good... till I came in to land in St. Louis... I reached over and put the landing gear selector in the down position and low and behold that action was not accompanied by the standard whirring sound and subsequent thuds known as the gear coming down!!! Well for all of you reading this post, this includes Les... don't panic, there are other ways to put the landing gear down. Well after flying around for about 8 minutes east of St. Louis I got the gear to come down (you turn a little hand crank about 55 times counterclockwise, in case any one wondered). This was followed by an uneventful landing, well when I got on the ground I was then able to reset the circuit breaker and the flight home to the Rock went off without a hitch. Ok that brings us to Friday, if anyone needs a reminder that was the day that the weather was pretty bad and icy... Well when you are flying an airplane ice is a very different animal then it is on the ground, for every 1000 ft in altitude you gain the temp. decreases about 3 degrees. This means that it could be 50 degrees on the surface and below freezing at about 6000ft. Well Friday came and I was supposed to go out to Little Rock and fly the airplane that I had been flying back and forth nightly to St. Louis to Hot Springs in exchange for an airplane that safely fly through known icing conditions. Well when I arrived safely at the airport, that plane had about a half inch of ice all over it. Well I started to do my best to remove the ice from the plane, when it started to sleet again. So as fast as I was taking ice off the plane it was getting right back on the places I had already polished smooth. Well there were a couple of jet pilots sitting inside Central Flying's building that got a pretty good kick out of my attempts at ice removal. I asked the lady that works behind the front desk to have my plane put into a heated hanger at this point to help let the old girl thaw out. Well that night on the flight to St. Louis we picked up some ice... but thankfully our plane had a heated windshield and props and all was fine. This weeks weather doens't look any better as, there will be rain and snow in the forecast for the St. Louis area... so heres to hoping that the weather starts to warm up as I like flying alot in warmer weather without the worries of encountering icing conditions.

This has to be one of the longest weeks on record...

Well this has been a pretty trying and extremely long work week. It all started out on Monday morning, I couldn't sleep, kept waking up that evening from the same messed up dream you know the one that ends when you roll over then as soon as you drift back to sleep you pick up right where you left off... whats up with that? Well Les took my temp that morning and it was 102, well after some ibuprofen and some shut eye I went to work flying to St. Louis. Not a good idea, should have stayed home and rested, but I felt the incessant need to head to work and do my job. Well the next day I felt a little bit better and went flying again, well I probably should have stayed home this night as well... but all was well and didn't feel anymore negative affects during the evening. Well Wed. rolled around and I was all better, went flying and the flight went well... only problem was that the long week was taking its toll on my brains ability to remember important information, such as, me leaving my wallet in the plane early Thur. morning and me driving back to Sheridan without it! Well after my return trip to Little Rock to get it, I got home at about 5:30 am, just in time to hear Les's alarm clock going off. Well I actually get Thursday night off, but I have to head out to South Carolina at 6:00 am by airline flight on Friday morning to pick up an airplane and fly it back to Hot Springs that afternoon. Then on Saturday, Les has her cheer competition, that I am actually looking forward to, it is alot more fun to watch when I actually know what to look for when they are cheering, you know the running man, cartwheels, etc... Then after that competition is over Les and I are heading out and going to Texas (6 hour drive) to visit my parents and have our X-mas with them. I think this week would have started out alot better had I had more cowbell...

Les finally went flying with me... and now my back hurts!

Well Les honored her promise to me that she would go flying to St. Louis and back after I passed my recent checkride. Well the entire flight I was sitting the same position attempting to be still so as not to frighten her and now I am stove up from the flight on Friday night! Les did quite well only a couple of times did she freak out... I should have told her that it was me that turned down the lights in the cockpit. She was pretty glad to be back on the ground in Little Rock when we landed, so much that she kissed the ground at the airport after we landed. I sure hope that I didn't scare her that much and that she goes flying with me again, it was alot of fun.

I Passed my Checkride... and all gods people said amen...

Today at 7:00 am I took my part 135 checkride in Little Rock... and passed, thank you Jesus! At the present time I am sitting in St. Louis after just finishing a flight and I cannot describe to you the amount of relief that I feel after completing my test and flight this morning. One of the main reasons I haven't been able to blog in quite some time, was due to being waist deep in textbooks and charts! Les and I are able to move forward on the purchasing of our 1st home something that she and I are both fired up about. Now I can finally say that I will be the bread winner out of the two of us, something I didn't think would be a reality about 1 year ago. Les and I both agree that maybe failing this checkride was the best thing that could have happened to me... I am frequently refered to as a coaster, doing enough just to get by and had I passed the 1st time there would be alot of information that I would not have learned that could have affected my flying career in the upcoming future. The previously mentioned failure helped me to realize I had to get myself in gear and not let my family down... so after alot of hard work and continious prayer it all paid off! I promise to all of you who may still read this blog that there will be more blogging in the near future as I will have alot free time to get on here and post random things about aviation that will all bore you to tears, so stay tuned, I am back...

And a good time was had by all...

This New Years Eve was a blast... Les and I invited Lele and Mabe, and Michelle and Eric over for a little party to ring in the new year. The evening was filled with laughs and story telling and I don't think that I have laughed that hard in a long time. If you want to know what all the rucus was about you just need to ask Eric about his theory on Kansas women. This is definately something that we should do again, but probably at a bigger venue as our apartment is the size of a postage stamp. I sure hope that everyone had a great beginning to the new year like Les I did.