Fun in Frederick, MD

Jann and I left for the airport at 10:30AM this morning. The airport was having an "Airport Appreciation Day" from 10:00AM - 2:00PM, so there were a lot planes, helicopters, gliders, booths, and displays. Jann and I both took our intro flights in the Robinson 22 and had a lot of fun. I was just fine with straight and level flight, turning, climbing and descending, but kind of stunk at hovering. Didn't crash, and the instructor wasn't traumatized after we were finished, so life was good!

Jann and I poked around the displays while waiting for her friend, and looked at all of the different airplanes. I told Jann that she needs a little Pitts Special to stick under the wing of her C182 in the hangar, after she gets the floats for the C182 of course.

We grabbed some ice cream for lunch and headed into the Landmark Aviation FBO to check weather and to grab a snooze in the sleep room. The weather looks good for a morning departure tomorrow, but we'll have some winds and clouds to deal with when we get into Columbus. Nothing too crazy, since we'll be filing IFR.

Jann's friend found us, and we walked her and her family out to the plane to show them around. The kids really got a kick out of "Aunt Perky's Plane." We then all packed into the family minivan and headed out to dinner and back to the hotel.

After arriving at the hotel, we had to track down the airplane keys. We have an extra set, but we had to submit one set for airplane impounding. That turned out to be an ordeal. Thankfully, we got that all squared away and we'll be picking the keys up tomorrow (and submitting our suggestions for future races!) for a 9:00AM departure.

I forgot to mention in a previous post that at the Meltdown Party, I sat with a gentleman who looked very familiar to me. I'm sitting next to him and thinking, "Where have I seen this guy? I'm not THAT tired from flying . . . maybe everyone is starting to look familiar to me? Maybe I'm losing it?" I finally asked him where he works. He told me that he works for AOPA in the magazine division. AHA! It was Tom Horne who writes the "Waypoints" article for the AOPA Pilot magazine each month. I had a fun conversation with him and his family. Very nice people.

I found the link to the news clip. The whole thing won't load on my computer, but a friend assures me that there is nothing incriminating in it, and that I don't look like too much of a ding-dong. You can find it here.