St. Thomas (again)

When I parked the plane, they wouldn't let me park where I could tie it down. The guy at St. Thomas Jet Center said he'd put another pair of chocks on it. He didn't.

So this morning I drove to Home Depot, bought some tools, a 2x6 and a 4x4 and proceded to build some serious, hurricane-rated wheel chocks out in the parking lot. (The 8-foot boards wouldn't fit in my Hyundai.)

Since I was only going to use it once, I bought a hand saw. It is very time consuming to cut a 4x4 lengthwise on the diagonal with a hand saw. I got a lot of looks, comments, and questions ("Building a house?" "You must really like exercise!")

Eventually I finished, drove to the airport, and chocked the plane. They worked better upside down. Oh well...

Then I started sorting things out for the plane ride tomorrow -- commercial. I took 4 CO2 cartridges out of the man overboard module so I wouldn't be a terrorist. I'm going to try to get them to let me take the CO2 cartridges in the jacket/harnesses.

I was sitting down next to the plane with three giant suitcases, my brand new hand saw, 4 CO2 cartridges, tools, and other various and sundry stuff and equipment spread around on the ground while I packed and repacked, when a guy from Customs / Border Patrol came up with flashing lights and a big pistol. He was really nice, but I think he was surprised. Sometimes it's just hard for me to explain what I'm doing.