Kerry McCauley – Page 42 – Dead Reckoning

Plug Re-inserted

Two days ago the runway at my skydiving school, Skydive Twin Cities, had six inches of snow on the runway and the restrooms were frozen solid. It looked like the drop zone would be still be in winter’s death grip this weekend so I pushed our opening day back to next week. Everyone was disappointed but we couldn’t risk damaging my beautiful grass runway, it’s my baby you know. Well of course once we’d re-scheduled everything the weather got incredibly warm and is forecast to be even warmer for the next three days. soooooo, change three, called Texas and told them to send the plane up and told all my staff to put their jumping shoes on because we’re skydiving this weekend! Oh by the way this last minute change is driving my office manager nuts.

Ferry Flight Pic Of The Day

Stu took this picture of me and cameraman John Driftmier taking a day off in Thailand on the Cirrus trip from Singapore to the US last year. It was a little intimidating driving the elephant with the guide to help but I managed to get it to move in more or less the direction I wanted it to go. Although when an elephant wants to stop and eat the elephant gets to stop and eat.

Ferry Flight Pic Of The Day

End of the road for the Bonanza. Here’s a shot of the Bonanza Cory and I delivered to Brazil last year. The owner wanted us to bring his new plane directly to his ranch so I could teach him to operate off of the short grass runway he had. It was a great day of flying,topped off with horse back riding and a Brazilian barbecue.

Plug Pulled

Six inches of fresh wet snow, cold temperatures for the next three days plus frozen restrooms and a muddy parking lot were enough to convince me that maybe we shouldn’t skydive this weekend. It was a difficult decision but in the end I told the pilot to stay in Texas for another week and We would try again next Friday. I sure the local skydivers will howl, bitch and moan but it just didn’t make sense to trash our beautiful grass runway by trying to get on it too early. So I get another week off of trying to avoid doing the work around the house I’ve been putting off all winter…..great.

Ferry Flight Pic Of The Day

Being a reality TV star has it’s downside. Like having to do interviews at the end of the day in Singapore instead of relaxing with a cold beer. I almost felt sorry for Stu, almost.

Another Setback

This is getting ridiculous. I’ve got twenty employees who only make money when we’re skydiving and so far this season they’ve made nothing. Jump masters can’t jump, pilots can’t fly, packers have nothing to pack and video editors have nothing to edit. Getting snow this late in the season would be funny if so many families didn’t depend on the income to feed their families. I’ve gone ahead and scheduled the plane we’re leasing for the season to show up this Friday in the hopes my runway is dried enough to use this weekend. If not there is another airport close by that we can use. Keep your fingers crossed.

Cheap Laugh

Pick Your Nose Art

Ferry Flight Pic Of the Day

The Cirrus with the French Alps in the Background. Marcio and I got to spend two days there while we had the radios fixed before leaving for England. Sometimes being a ferry pilot is OK.

It’s Not Funny Anymore

It’s April 19 for crying out loud, will someone tell me why I’m waking up to more snow instead of warm sunny skies? This winter just won’t let go and as of now we are a full month late in opening my skydiving school. I don’t know if I can take it any more, especially since while I’m freezing my butt off two of my fellow CB Aviation pilots are flying a BE-1900 from South Africa to Vancouver. I hate them.