10:45 p.m. - 2013-08-19
the flight that left and the one that didn't
Actually had a decent day yesturday... met my 4-H kids at the airport for their helicopter discovery flights. It was over 100℉ on the ramp so we headed into the air conditioned lounge. This guy and his girlfriend kept coming up to us and talking about CAP stuff. Turned out he was an atc at Lemore Navel Air Station who flew his date to the coast. We said goodbye and not long after they left he came in giving me a long face. Said "you need help", yup. He said his plane was making weird noises when he'd go to start, so I jumped in and tried to fire it up to a loud "Wrrrrrr", sure enough I told him it was the starter, lets try pulling the prop through a few times see if that works. Still wasn't engaging.... Long story short we ended up taping on the starter housing, then I pulled the prop through resting at top-dead-center while I showed my husband how to hand prop. Before he had a chance to do that he turned the switch and it fired right up! We were all so happy, the people in the restaurant clapped for us. Poor guy was so worried and embarrassed to have this happen on a date. So we left feeling we did a good deed.
Woke up at 7:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. Kept feeling nervous about something, very giddy too. Then I get a message on my phone from Lonny asking about instruction and to see if I could fly his doctor to Palo Alto tomorrow morning. Rhonda had been warning me he'd be looking for me to fly with. (He lost an engine in one plane years back, then about a year ago identified the wrong engine and shut down the live one on his twin, crashing into a parking lot with barely his life). Talked to my co-workers before calling him back and they said he just needs a new medical and go for a SODA ride to prove he can fly with whatever new disability he has. She also warned about his ADD, so everyone is scared to instruct him now or something. I flew with him over 10 years ago, but I don't really remember much.
Anyway, I phoned him back and told him I couldn't do the early morning flight, but knew of a private looking to build time that would. I've been wrestling with this all day. Actually I wanted to do the flight, but was uneasy with the idea of flying a plane I don't know with a stranger. I just told him I'm behind on my IPC. The money would have been good, as well as the challange of flying to a new to me airport last minute. But really the whole thing sort of weirded me out. This is the stuff, the types of flights I'd do when I was trying to build time. So my one pal who gave the flight too was really happy, and he's planning on doing more complex work with me and flying our plane to Utah soon.
I'm just really surprised at all the flights and phone calls for work I've been getting out of the blue. Last week I wanted to wrap up this IPC crap but the plane was down. I'd like to try and do it this week somehow. Sal is being weird saying he doesn't want anyone to sign me off but him. I want to get this down before I get depressed again and just want to give-up. So far I'm still staying ahead of that, but all it takes is one simple injury, broken finger, toe, food poison, to slow me down and depression to catch up with me.
I gave Sal a little note to give to Jennifer, mostly random chit-chat with an invitation to fly the Cheetah and love to hang out with her. The moon sign book said that Tuesday the planets line in a way that it is an excellent day to make new friends, so she should get the note Tuesday morning and we'll see. If I don't do anything I'll regret at least trying. If she does nothing then move on and find someone who is also looking. It just takes so long and is so hard to meet people and make friends. Everyone is so busy with work and their lives I just don't know what to do. Secretly I do wish she'd send me back a note or something silly and that we do get to swap stories more while doing fun things in the near future. Just try not think about it so much, try to keep busy and not think so much...
