Jiggedy Jig

It dawns clear and crisp in Greenville. A wonderful spring day with the promise of temps rising into the 60's. We have found that there is a lot to see and do in the area and pick up a local guide with the idea of coming back on our own time. The Intrepid Five, Lewis, John, Bill, Gene and I meet for breakfast and in comparing notes find that we have four more passengers from the call backs last night. Now we are at 23 which is two more than we can accommodate so that means two flights. Bill likes that as he will be able to go along to observe.
When we arrive at the airport John and I go inside to meet and register our passengers, while the others go attend to the plane. They are a real excited and enthusiastic group. There is a boy of about 12 who was taken out of school for this experience and this will be his first airplane ride of any type. There is only one woman, the wife of a city employee who is also on the flight. A man of about 45 is taking his father. Three other 40ish friends are going together and are in high spirits. One man is a dealer in aviation memorabilia and shows us a trading card he found in his collection last night showing our Flagship with the tail number on the wing. We are excited about that! There are several family members who came to watch the take off and some other folks too who just knew when we were going. When the dust settles, I have entered one person on my manifest twice and one does not show, so we end up with exactly 21. Yay! One flight of full capacity means more profit on the flight.
Bill and I will be the ground crew. Pretty soon they start wth right engine which billows a lot of white smoke to the oohs and aahhs of the onlookers. It sputters and spits and acts like it is not going to keep going but finally it roars fully to life, followed shortly by the second. The crowd likes the sound of the engines. Lewis is in he left seat, Gene in the right and John is cabin attendant. Shortly they taxi and take off. A great sight on this pristine day.
Before we know it, they are back and we go out to meet and greet. The passengers are grinning from ear to ear. The woman runs up and hugs me and says, "Thank you, thank you for bringing this plane here. This was a wonderful experience!!" Later Gene told me that almost all the passengers got to visit the cockpit and each one had grins so wide it seemed their faces would split. Chase Hunter, a corporate pilot friend of Charlie's is taken out early for pre flight, given a few minutes on the stick and follows the guys around after the flight learning what they do at the end of the flight. Gene said when he got to fly, he didn't smile, he laughed out loud!! Gosh, it is so gratifying to be part of something that makes people so happy. One young man with a professional looking camera and tripod had photographed the plane for about an hour the day before and he also stays about an hour after the flight doing it again.
All good things come to an end. Gene and I rent a car and head for home. It is an easy 3 hour drive and we are home before we know it. More things are blooming and it looks great. Gene has been gone a week. We are doing laundry and in the morning, he will pack up and drive back to Greenville. On Wednesday they will do some on the ground training of people who are flying in today and on Thursday it is back to Myrtle Beach to fetch the golfers and back to Shelbyville. On Saturday there is a fly in in Shelbyville. So for now.....That's All Folks!!!