What a busy day!

Woke up at 9:30 A.M.  Pulled open my blinds, and out my window I see our Cherokee in the foreground with a beautiful Falcon jet in the background.  That just makes for a good picture!  I love livin' at the airport.

Jyri and I went out for lunch today at The Grain Bin here in Chanute.  It's one of the restaurants I haven't hit up yet (we have quite a few surprisingly!), but I can now check that off my list.  I had breakfast for lunch and even went for some coconut cream pie (only because the waitress was cute and looked at me for a long time).  Stinkin' girls.  And to think Jyri and I had just got done talking about how girls are crazy and how we should just fly the rest of our lives without worryin' 'bout 'em just 15 seconds earlier.  grr.

Came back and talked with the pilot of the Falcon jet for quite awhile.  I guess he owns a charter company down in Oklahoma.  He kinda used me as a sounding board to complain about the FAA and all of their regulations.  As a charter company, he has to fill out so many papers and comply with so many petty reports or actions that it has taken the fun out of flying for him.  He can't even change the oil or a light bulb on the jet...he has to have a certified mechanic do it.  The FAA lives by the law.  We pilots like to live by the reasons behind the law...namely safe flying and fun and practicality.  Sometimes these don't always seem to mesh too awful well.

After that conversation, I flew with Van and Jyri up to Kansas City International Airport.  Jyri was flyin' out to Newark at 4:47 P.M., so we were headin' up there to drop him off.  With all three of us and Jyri's luggage and full fuel, we were about 200 pounds overweight for the Cherokee.  So we took the Cessna 172 instead.  That meant that we wouldn't be doin' any practice approaches, but that's all right.  Van and I are goin' to hit those hard tomorrow.

The flight itself was rather interesting.  I had the hardest of times stayin' at one altitude.  There were all sorts of thermals today, so we would be bumped up 100 feet, then hit a downdraft and go back down.  Some lasted awhile, some were short-lived.  But I had to constantly adjust the throttle (the wind and air messes with the RPM's of the engine), and although not entirely difficult, you had to focus on maintaining altitude more than usual.  From the side, my flight path probably looked more like a wave than a line!

And, of course, as with any international airport, we are just about the slowest guys in the bunch!  On approach, we had a 737 landing over to our right on a parallel runway, and we had two jets take off before us as we were descending.  (Oh, and as a side note, we had to take a nice bank to the left on approach because of a 150-foot swath of birds.  Lots of 'em.  Right in our path...it really is somethin' to look out for...had to call the tower and let 'em know we were bankin' hard left!).  Said our good-byes to Jyri, then hopped back in the Cessna.  I think they charged us some $27 or so to land there.  Crazy.

Taxied back to Runway 1L and had to wait for a couple of  Southwest Airlines jets to take off before we did.  We were technically first in line, but it's just proper and nice to let these guys go first.  We are slow, and they have schedules to keep and passengers to keep happy.  So we sat there holding short of the runway while those two big guys left...then had to wait longer while their wake turbulence moved away.  Then we were cleared for the runway.

The ride back was more of the same.  Up and down, up and down.  But manageable.  All in all, I flew 2.8 hours today.  It felt good!  It's good to be back in the saddle.  I didn't practice any instrument approaches today, but I learned a lot about managing everything in a Class B airspace.  Keep your talk short, know what you're doin', where you're goin'.  That should keep ya good to go.

Van and I had our friendly competition today back at Chanute (stop on the second runway dash mark), and he totally blew me away.  He was stopped on number one, and I, well, uh, I had a soft landing, did I say that?!  I way overshot it.

Went for a run late this afternoon.  Per my dad's advice, I kept a girl in front of me, and that kept me goin' for quite awhile.  Ok, truth be told, it's the reason I went for a run anyway!  I saw her runnin' next to the airport, and all of a sudden, runnin' sounded good today!  By the time I threw on some shorts and a shirt, she was about 1/2 mile ahead of me.  I thought I would catch her easily, but that didn't so much happen.  I finally went to make a pass, and she sped up, and this was on mile 2 or so already, so I just ran next to her for a bit.  She was runnin' faster as I went to pass!  She finally cut to the left, and so as not to be a creep or anything, I kept goin' straight (until she was out of sight, of course, then I stopped to catch my breath!).  ha...stinkin' girls.

But I was next to the community college then, and the baseball field was lookin' mighty tempting.  So in good "I'm ten years old" fashion, I went on the field and ran the bases.  I stroked the bat for a single, then I jumped the pitcher, and I rounded second hard.  Stopped at third.  Probably kind of weird if you were watching from the outside, but it was quite fun.  Boys bein' boys.

I found a glove, ball, and bat in the dug-out, so I had even more fun.  Started hittin' the ball out to the outfield, then ran out to pick it up, and then hit it back in to the infield.  I love baseball.  Well, after about 15 minutes or so of doin' this, a truck pulls up, and a guy gets out next to left field.  A bald man with the school colors emblazened on his jacket.  He looks at me from across the fence.  I look at him, then throw the ball up, and crank one back in the infield, then start walkin' to pick it up.  He didn't bother me.

Well, by time I make it to the backstop where my ball was, I turn around and he's now on the field close to second base.  Now I would have to wait to hit it back out.  C'mon now!  hmm...what's he up to?

"What are you doin'"?

Boy, that just doesn't do it justice.  You probably didn't read it how he said it.  Because it was the most disappointed, condescending sentence a guy could get.  It wasn't a "Hey, I'm interested in what's goin' on, what are you doin', type question.  It was a very hard and rigid "who are you and what in the crap are you doin' out here, boy, type question."  He was obviously appalled that I would even consider steppin' on his field, and he was very eager to show it.  Well, so as to show him I wasn't really intimidated or whatnot, I simply replied in the easiest way possible...

"I'm hittin' baseballs."

haha...oh, it makes me laugh even now.  And I was ready to crank another one out in the outfield if he wasn't in my way.  I could only imagine what he was thinkin' now!  Probably not the answer he was expectin'.  But he quickly piped back...

"You can't be here."

"No kidding"?  I let him know I was lookin' for more...

I was goin' to let him do the explanation that we both knew wouldn't be good enough for me.  Tryin' to find some proper way of tellin' a man he can't play baseball.  bah.   He said no more, but just stayed on the infield, actin' like he was doin' somethin', which we both knew that he wasn't, so as to make sure I would leave.

Why don't ya go watch Field of Dreams or somethin', bro?  You know, maybe find out what the spirit of baseball is all about.  Stinkin' people and their rules.  It's downright frustrating sometimes.  A guy can't even play baseball to enjoy the weather.

So I ran back to the airport (insert walk half of it here, as I was crazy tired from chasin' that girl and sprintin' the bases).  Once back at the airport, I saw that the Chanute Aviation Association was meeting there, and Alan invited me in for some food.  Done and done.

More or less, it's a group of local aviation enthusiasts who get together and talk about how to get people involved with aviation.  Chanute used to have an annual air show and fly-ins, but I guess some people got burned out on doin' those because the same ones were doin' all the work...so there isn't much planned for this year.  As in nothing.  And now it's a small group of active people tryin' to revive the carcass of the larger non-actives.  And frankly, I hope they are successful.  There is no reason why pilots shouldn't fly with each other on weekends.  Go to fun places, eat the $100 hamburger, enjoy the memories.  There is no reason why the city of Chanute shouldn't know that we have an airport here...that we have jets that fly in...that we have students from around the world...that learning to fly is just a phone call away.

But as it stands now, the airport and the city are living in two different worlds.  And from an outsider's perspective, I think it's goin' to take a lot of baby steps before the ball gets rollin' again.  But a place like this (we're in Chanute, Kansas, for cryin' out loud!) should be excited to have such a facility out here.  And yet no one knows about it.  These kids in elementary school should be itching to come out here!  The college students should be eager to follow a dream.  But as it stands now, it's us...and them.  It frustrates me!

What to do, what to do.

Stayed in for the night.  Not necessarily by my doing, but that's all right.  Jarryd is out of town, Jyri is gone, Venkat goes to bed early, and Megan is MIA.  Oh, well...it's a nice time of rest before a busy and very important weekend.

Went to bed at 12:15 A.M.  (oh, I forgot to mention that I hit up a couple of garage sales today!  haha...not much goin' there, although I did score a sweet bearskin rug...that's for you, Ruble...).