Creature from the Life of a Charter Pilot

After safely not being called today, I start my one and only week off this month tomorrow. My plan is to go the the range tomorrow and shoot every gun I own. Not a large task considering I have a Springfield Mil-Spec 1911 in .45 and a GI M-14 built up on an Armscor Receiver. Unfortunately it wont be a lot of ammo since the cost of said ammo is... pricey. I know my firearm collection is limited to say the least, but I subscribe to the "Beware the man who only owns one gun..." theory. And I dry fire, snap aim and any other drill that doesn't involve actually live ammo as often as I can.

Next, its a chili day. I figure 4 to 6 hours to do the beans right, I've got the steak slowly defrosting in the fridge and I'm just missing a couple of spices that I'll pick up tomorrow. That should take a day to do and then it'll be frozen chili for the next month or so whenever I want.

I'm also gonna be flying a friends Ercoupe to check it out after it's annual. I flew it last year after it's restoration. It's a fun little puddle jumper to tool around in. Just keep your eye on the cork. The Ercoupe is a interesting little airplane. Originally designed with no rudder peddles. The airplane has a rudder, rudders actually. It's a twin tail fin design. But the rudders were tied into the ailerons through a unique control cabling system. It's literally impossible to fly that airplane out of coordination. Conversely, when you want to fly out of coordination, like on a cross wind landing, you don't have the option. You see, no rudder pedals. Just a yoke for control. Crabbing an airplane all the way to the ground when you've trained your entire flying career to do a slip to keep the gear aligned with the runway is a little disconcerting the first time you do it. That and taxiing the airplane around steering it like a car feels odd.

And I'm not making any more plans. A little extra sleep will be a good thing. A couple of days at the park or lake maybe. Who know. But I will be drinking a beer or two. I'm down to my last Moose Drool, I've been nursing those along as long as I could, but I just haven't been up Northwest long enough to get any more.