A Day at the Airport

After New Years Melanie and her kids came by for a few days to visit. It was the first friends visit I've had since moving here and we had a pretty good time. I'm not counting the fact that Everett woke up the morning they were suppose to drive here with larengitis, or the fact that the morning after they got here Radha started the day retching, and continued all day, David seemed to be healthy and Everett was okay during the visit. Which was a good thing, as my main plan was to give them each a flight in the plane, something I'd been promising for absolutely ages.

The day was totally gorgeous. Warm and clear, calm winds and oh, did I say warm and sunny?? Perfect. Of course, with Radha feeling retched, we didn't all go to the airport at first. I drove over with Everett and while I preflighted the plane he flew a small air powered twin toy plane that he'd gotten for christmas. He managed to get it to fly really far, almost out of the airport and onto a passing road. Fortunately it stayed inside the fence and just missed landing in a huge puddle. The next flight it hovered over on of the hangers and I had visions of it landing on the roof but at the last minute it turned and glided down onto the taxiway. Whew!

We flew out to just over my house and as I had set up the handheld radio in the kitchen with a descreet frequency I was able to radio Melanie and David and Radha to come outside and watch us circle overhead. That was so cool, them running around waving and Ev and I circling overhead. We took off and climbed a little and then I let Ev take the yoke and fly us for a bit. I think he liked it. The we headed back to the airport, I landed and parked the plane on the ramp near the hanger and we drove back to the house. The plan was for me to swap Ev for David, but Radha wanted to come to the airport, so we all went back, Radha carrying a big bowl in case she had anything left in her poor stomach.

When I took up David, Ev sat in the back seat and we flew back around the house, but it wasn't the same without the welcoming committee! He flew for a while, then we went back to the airport. Radha said she felt good enough to give it a try, so we went up for a short flight around the house and back. She didn't puke at all, which made me feel pretty good about my flying. The landing was the smoothest of the day, though she thought it was pretty thumpy.

My regret is that Melanie couldn't take a turn, no one to stay with the kids. She did think it was the best part of their whole trip, a day at the airport. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day (other than better health all around), and I am hoping the kids will remember it fondly.