26th of the month

Record flights for L & P Aviation.

Well, today Randy flew 7 missions, and Lloyd flew 6. Or it was 8 and 7. Only because Lloyd's Pawnee had a flat tire on the tailwheel, then the replacement went flat on the next flight. So Randy got ahead in the Ag Husky. Ben was there at that time, and he was in seventh heaven toting air tanks, crawling under, etc. If he didn't have to make a living, he'd be lineboy instead of me.

Oh, pictures. I took pictures of the sunset, while waiting for the wandering lost boys.

They started at 6 am, left the ground at 7 am, left tire tracks on the roof one after the other to wake me up, and we ended the day at 9:30 p.m., and caught the last half of the Alaska Experiment on tv. (Randy wasn't very impressed.)

As the airport B----, Lineboy fueler b----, weather reporter b-----, records-keeper b-----, telephone answering-machine b-----, Ben-entertainer b-----, lunch provider b-----, mail deliveryman - fertilizer deliveryman receptionist b-----, 5-gallon-can fueler-upper
collectthemoney- b-----, (keep it to buy pizza with b-----), and to think I actually got to sleep in until 8. Of course, now they're both asleep and I'm still the answering-email-b----.
Not that I'm complaining, but my feet hurt, I've had one of Randy's lite (why did they invent that stuff?) beers, a homemade wine glass, the top layers of two pieces of (oh, yummy) Pizza Hut Pizza (haven't they ever heard of tomato sauce?), and two Aleve (generic, of course). (Randy had a headache from the morning without food, so I rummaged the cabinets at the house and found aspirin, vintage April... 1999 (Seemed to work, after a belch from the Coke). (Believe it or not, I have not consumed a drop of wine or beer or other since January... don't know why... burp... just haven't)

But who's complaining. Oh, I forgot N7071F, from Mansfield, who bought gas, (essentially paying for the Pizza). Yes, the very same one in which I, and you, and Ben, and everyone else since 1988 trained. (Didn't you?) Grant trained in the one before, it was red, white & black, I think. But he did finish in 71F.
This has been the busiest day since 200x when... .

I forgot to mention that Ben was really wanting to fly the luscombe, but couldn't bring himself to tear away from the ag operation going on. I kept teasing him that he didn't really want to fly, do ya, huh, do ya, ... so he finally did, then when he landed, and the Pawnee was in the ramp and Randy's Husky was in the loading area, and Ben's wing wouldn't clear the Pawnee, so we pushed him into the grass near where the Chief used to park. Then John Smith taxied out his RV4
and had to maneuver between them all, then...

I forgot to mention that after Pizza, TV program moaning on about how extreme the Alaska hike was becoming, and cabin fever, Randy about to nod off but making a valiant effort to be alert, Lloyd about to snore... 122.9 erupts with "Air Evac 1 on 1 mile final for Mtn Grove for fuel... and the monitor ablaze with light obviously almost at the jet pump...

Anyway, so Lloyd puts the overalls on over his t-shirt and jumps in the van and high-tails it for the airport and fills up the heli and (without complaining) slithers back into bed and all is quiet again except for the eternal tv on Fox News. And the ants. Still have ants.

So, You should see us putting Randy's plane in the hangar. There's at LEAST a foot of clearance on each side. So tonight, after dark almost, they are groaning and grunting and pushing and working the tailwheel, and I'm running from right wingtip to lift wingtip around the tail watching the wingtip clearance, and it JUST fits, if it's done right. "How are we doing? Which way? ??? " (Well, if you don't have to move the tailwheel, you're just perfect. Well, never mind. STOP) And if you stop, the plane won't go over the hump and you have to back out and get momentum and try again. Sh...). Well, the only thing I did wrong today (that I know of) is break the belt on the
lawnmower/airplanetug while going to retrieve the mail, and mow a little grass on the way up and back.

I guess I will go to bed, too. All's quiet, I've read all the emails and haven't figured out how to blog yet, but I WILL, soon. So here's today's pics. You deal with it. Tomorrow it rains, and I will try.

In the middle of the afternoon, Ben put his arm around me and said "Do you think Lloyd will put his arm, like this, around Randy and say "You're doing a great job, and I'm SO proud of you"". And I punched Ben in the arm and said "You A..., what do you think?" But you know Lloyd, if you're doing it right, he says nothing. If you screw up, you hear about it. There was another last load that Lloyd needed to be putting out, and he was just sauntering down the ramp from the
hangar, and not in any hurry, and I said "Look, Ben, he'd be running down here". I found myself mentally pushing him, because normally he would have been trotting to the plane to get the job going. But his load had been lifted already. They accomplished in one good weather day what Lloyd would have taken a week to do by himself. I don't know how satisfying it is for Randy, but Daddy sees efficiency and profit (well, maybe not this year). Investment justified. When one's down, the other's working. Gears meshed, machine running. Happy, happy.

Ever have a day like that?

Love you,
Ma