Shoup Airlines

One of those Best. Nights. Ever!

Yet another hectic day in my schedule of nothing, Connelly calls me up to let me know he’s in L.A. for another night. Surprised because it’s only 12:30 pm, I jump upon the opportunity. So I pick him up at LAX and we head over to Santa Monica.

First, we require sustenance. Connelly suggests some hamburger joint that he heard about on Oprah. I try to keep the car from steering into oncoming traffic while laughing hysterically at the comment he just made as well as seriously questioning my friend’s sexual orientation. Come on, I’m a guy, don’t ask why. Anyway we end up at Tommy’s for lunch. This place slathers everything in chili so you can understand why it’s so good yet created so much controversy amongst friends and family for over ten years now. Another guy thing, definitely do not question that one!

From there we do the touristy bit for about an hour and then call this guy up since he lives out that way and knows the area better than I. However, it’s been a few years since I’ve had to rely on the Judd Time Zone* so I forgot about that. No matter, Connelly and I head over to this place, which I like because they have great beer on tap and all the waitresses have English accents (my kryptonite). A few hours pass and we realize we haven’t heard from Judd. Hmm, interesting, but typical. So we have a few more beers.

It gets to be dinner time and we realize we need to eat. So we order and come to find out Judd’s already at dinner. No worries, mate. We also notice at this time that people are setting up some speakers and a mike in the corner. Oh please God, don’t let karaoke night ruin the evening! The guy never fails and it turns into the best thing of the night (so far)…Trivia Night!! Oh, Judd better get his butt here now or he’s going to miss out.

The questions ensue and The Mikes as we’re now known hold our own, but still trail by ten points to A Tale of Two Titties! Seriously, why couldn’t I come up with something witty like that? I love that book and still would have never come up with a name like that. No, the best we can come up with is The Mikes which I’ll state right here and now “I had nothing to do with the creation of that name!” Judd shows up and we become a mighty contender but still can’t pull it off in the end. Who knew Mars had two moons?! I didn’t!

But wait, there’s more! If you call now, we’ll tell the rest of the story for only four easy installments of just $19.95. Operators are standing by…

Uh huh. Anyway. The trivia guys decide to hold two bonus rounds with a free round of drinks for the champions. We’re not going anywhere, sure we’ll throw our hat in the ring. We go an unbelievable six for six and then ten for ten only to have to beat the other team in a tiebreaker over just how long (to the closest foot) the longest ribbon worm on record is. After mass confusion of whether the guy had said “riven worm” (okay, just Shoup thought he said this) and realizing he was talking about the parasite, Judd and I debated this and somehow came up with the size of a Blue Whale for some odd reason. So we went from 36 feet to 86 and then decided in Price is Right fashion to go with 101. Connelly, looking at us with the blankest look on his face, decided to increase it to 111 feet and then proceeded to write “One hundred and eleven feet” on the answer sheet. I nearly fell off my bench I was laughing so hard. Long story longer, we won. Yeah, like we needed another round.

But wait, it doesn’t end there either. If you sign over your first bor…ah, screw it, that joke was getting lame anyway. So what would a night be without getting shunned by a couple women? Oh right, we’re with Shoup, that requires the cajones to hit on them in the first place. Ah, but we have Connelly to act the patsy and bring them over. Not one, but three! I may just have to rethink this Oprah watching stuff?! Sadly, they don’t have British accents. Nay, they do one better and have Australian accents! Trying to keep my drooling to a minimum, we converse and actually have a pretty decent conversation. Alas, it gets late and everyone has to call it a night. End of story.

What? You thought we’d all end up pen pals that fall madly in love and travel the high seas to reunite?! Pfff, yeah right, Shoup’s involved. The only thing he’s (what’s with all the third person?!) I’m picking up is the tab.

In review: Cold beer, good beer, on tap no less! Great food, I highly recommend the fish and chips. Some of my best friends. A defiant triumph in the world of bar trivia (I will proudly wear that badge for years to come)! And a couple hours with three Sheilas that went nowhere. All in all, I’d say a good night.

Now it’s time to say good night, er good morning…whatever.

*Judd Time Zone: There really is no easy way to explain this. For over 15 years now this amazing phenomenon of ‘lost time’ occurs any time you try to schedule anything with Mr. Kuehling or he states that he’ll be there at a specific time. It won’t happen, you should just accept it and move on. I don’t care how anal you are, he will be late, just let it go. It has baffled all! This man will DEFINITELY be late for his own funeral.

**In case you were wondering, according to the Trivia Guys, the longest Ribbon Worm on record was 186 feet! That’s 186 feet of worm living out there some where. Loverly!

My New Friends

About a month or two before I left for Basic, a friend of mine asked me if I was interested in towing gliders. Always wanting to try something new in aviation, I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately, timing and other constraints didn’t allow me to do anything before departing for Basic.

Fast forward to last month and I was calling to see if the offer was still open. It was and we set about going through all the motions to allow me to tow gliders. Last weekend was the culmination of those efforts.

Meet Blue Max, he’s a Callair A9 originally used for crop dusting. Now he tows all sorts of people around in gliders. Don’t let his looks fool you, he’s definitely got some pep left in his step and is extremely nimble. I got introduced on Saturday and we immediately carried on like old friends.

This is Max’s partner in crime, Jaws. Usually when you fly a specific type of plane for the first time you have another pilot along with you to demonstrate the little nuances or tricks that plane might have up it’s sleeve for you, ESPECIALLY tailwheels. Max is a one seater and a tailwheel, so you don’t get a lot of “practice” time before you have to land him yourself. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous but more than ready for the song and dance. Throw in a 25 foot wide, dirt runway and the fun knob is on 11!

I don’t think I’ve ever met an easier tailwheel to land and tailwheels are not known for being intuitive landers. Ten landings later and I was thrown in a glider to see how tow operations worked from that end. After three of those, I had to tow a glider flown by an instructor three times and then I was ready to tow. Uh huh, sure I was…

But wait, there’s more! Did I mention that there are two dirt runways with somewhere around 500 feet between them? And on this other runway they run a skydiving operation where the skydivers often land between the two runways. So now picture a 200 foot tow rope dangling behind you, another aircraft departing the left runway TOWARDS YOU, and all these skydivers (that look like little flies) landing between the two runways, all while you’re trying to land on the runway to the right for another tow. And that’s only if one of the P-51s from Chino hasn’t decided to jump in front of you and buzz the strip. The fun factor is now on 19 and shows no sign of coming down soon. Nate, your TCAS would be going ballistic!

At the end of the day you’re exhausted, covered in dirt, sweaty and grinning from ear to ear. Before I can even put the thought together one of the glider pilots is handing me an ice cold beer. This is what flying was meant to be!

Hello?

You ever have one of those days where you’re convinced none of your phone calls or emails are being received by anyone?  That they just vanish into thin air?

Yeah, me neither.