Sharin' the Passion--March 12, 2010

Woke up at 7:20 A.M.  The clouds were low again...which meant no revenue flying.

We did end up heading to the airport at 11:00, though, and today I had a tag-along.  The guy in charge of food at the hotel has been asking us for days to take him up!  We had told him that first day that he could go with us sometime, and he made sure we were men of our word!!!  He had taken lessons way back in 1992 an continued up through 2002 (I looked in his logbook), but life had happened, and he just never finished his rating.

Well, I was more than happy to share the experience.  He was going to tag along with me on our scouting flight.  Because the clouds were so low, the flight was pretty short, but I flew with him up to St. Charles again.  I let him have the controls most of the time.  He did a fine job, but he was obviously frustrated at how he wasn't "ahead of the airplane" anymore.  But eight years is a LONG time!!!  We landed up there, had lunch together, and then flew back.

We had to stay clear of the clouds, and on the way back, they were hovering right around 2000 feet.  I made sure he at least enjoyed this second flight (he was admittedly frustrated during lunch), so we swung wide over the river on our way back in.  He was commenting on all of the scenery and all, so I think that helped.

We landed back again at Spirit of St. Louis.  I had logged just 1.2 hours.

The afternoon was pretty slow.  I ended up walking to a bar/grill down the road for supper by myself.  It was raining, but I needed to get out of the hotel.  But the crowd was pretty much 40-60 year-olds...and everyone had someone hanging on their arms.  The waitress was kind enough to talk to me, though, and ask me what I was doing in town.

I walked back in the rain.

Trisha ended up coming over to the hotel to say hi.  I told her that I didn't think we would be able to fly tomorrow.  So we pretty much said our good-byes to each other.  That sucked.  She opened up a bit to me, though, and took me by a special place in her life the past three years.  I just love her honesty.  It's so attractive.

I ended up going to bed around midnight.

Kind of a simple but worthless day.