I am extraordinarilty fortunate to a friend like James Bush. He is one in a million. When I need someone to talk to, he is always there. When I need someone to fly me to Reno, he’s game. When I need someone to help me program my new instrument, he is eager.

Yesterday, as I was leaving Seattle to head back to 243CM, I pinged James and asked if he could help me program my new AV-30. They have had a recent software update, and since the instrument is not yet installed, I thought it would be easy to update it while I was in town. Nothing is ever easy……..

I first stopped by a retail store to find “jumper wires”……no luck. I then had to swing by my neighbor’s (Glen’s) house to pick up my mail (one of the plugs I needed for the programming update were in my mail). While there, I asked if he had some jumper wires I could borrow – voila! Yes, he had some! Glen needs his own post. More on that later, but here’s a great photo of Glen!

James met me at the airport with his windows laptop and we set upon the project. Stan (SW tiedowns’ resident mechanic) stopped by with some very helpful plugs and knowledge. Soon-ish, we had power on the AV-30 and it sprang to life. On the first screen we learned that the device already had the most current software and all of this was unnecessary. James just laughed.

James is one amazing person. We met flying to Burningman in 2013. He parked his plane near us at the aiport in Seattle, but we didn’t meet until we were both in Kelso, WA, weathered out on our way south. Scott was a bit snarky to James at first, but warmed up as soon as he learned James was also going to the Playa. We have been great friends since.

I am so, so grateful to know James and to have him in my life. Everyone needs a friend like him. He’s a gem whom I treasure.