back in town

Ive been back in the area about a week now, and am settling back into the routine of being a flight instructor. One part of the routine I really am not enjoying is the fact that when weather moves in, I get screwed.

As I am typing this, the entire east coast is sitting under a stationary front, that is being fed from the south with tropical moisture laden air. Humidity is near 100%. Ranfall totals yesterday were 6 inches at Dulles. The beltway was shut down due to a mudslide that yielded nearly 5 feet of debri and shut down the nation's capital's biggest road all night long. A local airport that was built on the Patuxent flood plain is covered in water. Most of the aircraft based there have water up to the door.

I suppose the fact that I cant fly(and make money) is minor compared to what alot of other people are being subjected to. However, I really am beginning to get frustrated. Larry is ready for his presolo stage check. Jim is as well. Randy is just learning to land and needs all the positive reinforcement he can get. anyways, I guess I will wait it out and see what happens the rest of the week.

Last week I learned a couple valuable lessons. 1) always do a thourough preflight, and 2) always have a sick sack in reaching distance. I picked up 2 aircraft from maintenance last week. One had a spider nest in the pitot tube that took 45 mins to clean out. The other(the pa28 arrow) has take over the pitot vane. I didnt preflight as thorough as I should have and ended up with glue residue partially blocking the pitothole. My airspeed indications were erratic, and before I knew it the airplane was airborne. So, I flew the pattern sans airspeed indications. I fell back on my experience and knowledge to successfully and safely make a normal landing. It wasnt really an event of any sort, but sent me into survival mode nonetheless. Glad that I am armed with those skills when I needed them.
That morning I was flying with a student and he decided it was going to be a rough landing. As I was flaring he decided to show me what he had to eat.....all over his chest and out the window and down the side of the aircraft. It took about an hour to clean.
And the icing on the cake was when Randy and I had a bird strike on the downwind while working the pattern the other morning. The airplane was fine, but the poor bird took a real beating.