This weekend had a good adventure training a new Tbone owner and delivering the plane to Ohio as part of his 10 hours of training that insurance required.
Day0 - Josh arrived in California and met and went to my hangar and grabbed some supplies, including some single use O2 I thought would come in handy. I have a big o2 bottle and cannulas but I didn't want to deal with dragging that back on southwest. We did some preflight stuff including stocking the plane with water and then headed to a brewpub for some ground training on the Bone and preflight planning over tacos and beer.
Day1 - I had some work in the morning so we didn't get going until the afternoon. That was okay because we had the whole weekend and wanted to do some training along the way. Ben met us at the airport and he and Josh exchanged the obligatory handshake.
It's always a little nerve wracking training someone with zero experience in model on their very first flight when the plane does not have dual controls. I took the radio so he could focus on the flying. Josh was a champ though, and after some zig zagging down the runway he got used to steering the beast when you pour on the full 590 HP. He settled in and I could tell he was a good stick as I talked him through the power settings.
First order of business was teach Josh how to tame the beast and since we were in no particular rush, we started with an air tour of California, with some stops to knock out some of the insurance mandated 15 landings. First order of business was to split the uprights on the Golden Gate Bridge and fly the VFR corridor to KHAF. We gotta do our part to convert the California haters, after all.
I talked Josh through the landing and he managed it very well. Some pattern work and dodging a complete dolt who decided to fly a wrong direction pattern at TPA with 3 already in the pattern! Then we proceeded to Hollister for a few more, then down the coast for a very late lunch at the Waypoint Cafe in Camarillo, which in my opinion is the best airport cafe on the planet so why not.
After that we set off east bound towards Columbus, first stop would be Santa Fe NM about 4 hours east. The time flew by and Josh and I became quick friends.
We eventually landed at Santa Fe after an hour or two of night and Josh made a solid night landing. However we arrived 1 minute after the FBO closed. We tucked the plane in for the night and luckily one lone straggling line guy was kind enough to see us park and got out of his car to let us inside because it was freaking freezing and it ended up taking 30 mins for the Uber to arrive.
The Uber driver was a combination of Jonathan from Queer Eye and Andre the Giant. His car was painted with flowers and the rear pax door didn't work. He told us he was an Opera singer and sang loud Christian music to us as he sped and swerved and turned around to look us in the eye as he explained that he is a recent arrival and didn't know his way around. I'm very far from a pious man but I found Jesus on that ride and the good lord made sure we arrived in tact and located one of the last hotel rooms we could find in the whole city. Turns out it is spring break and the Texas crowd had descended on the town and took over.
Santa Fe is a trippy place. We felt like everyone we talked to was micro-dosing LSD. I was having good fun with it but I'm not sure Josh will be back really soon. haha.
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