A Flying Adventure

This past weekend we flew up to hubby’s grandparents house to celebrate our son’s 1st birthday. We had a big party planned previously, but had to change it a few days before it happened. My husband is a pilot, so we decided to rent a plane and fly, rather than drive. It was pretty hazy out, but still beautiful. Bug-a-Boo has flown several times on commercial planes, but had only flown once before on a small, four-seater plane with hubby, and that was just around the local area to see how he would do. This was his first big flight. My mother-in-law had bought him his own mini-headset so that he could have the hearing protection and be plugged into the intercom. He didn’t want to keep the headset on at first, but after taking it off several times only to discover that I would immediately put it back on him, he decided to leave it on and even fell asleep wearing it.

Let me digress for a moment to say that I LOVE flying with my husband in the tiny planes. I was a bit afraid when he first got his license, so I took a graduate course in aerospace designed to teach teachers how to teach their students about aerospace. During this course, I learned all about Bernolli’s principle, airfoils, and basically what keeps a plane in the air. I realized that even if the engines on a small plane totally die out, it will pretty much turn into a glider and slowly coast to the ground, rather than falling out of the sky as I had feared.

Once on a previous long flight, we ran into some unpredicted bad weather (a definite white knuckle experience if I’ve ever had one!) which instilled huge amounts of faith in me in my husband’s ability as a pilot. While in the midst of clouds, I looked out and saw large amounts of ice beginning to form on our wings. I knew from my studies and helping my husband prepare for various flight exams that icing was the one thing that would most quickly kill lift and cause the plane to drop. Large planes have de-icing equipment to keep ice from forming on the wings, but the small planes like the one we were in don’t. I wanted my husband to climb or descend out of the clouds and didn’t give one rip whether Air Traffic Control gave us permission to or not. My husband calmly talked on the radio requesting permission to climb to get out of the cold, icing conditions. When ATC finally cleared us, we began climbing, very, very slowly, because we had already lost so much lift. When we finally popped out of the clouds on top and the ice began to quickly melt, warmed by the sun it was again exposed to, I saw something flash by us. There, very close, an F-15 rose out of the very same cloud we were in. It was by us in an instant, but reminded me in a hurry why it was so crucial that we talk to ATC and not just get out like I had first wanted to. My husband kept his cool while I was rather scared, and we arrived safely at our destination. I decided that day to never again question my husband’s decisions when it comes to flying. He has been well trained and knows what he is doing. Even the people he talked to at the FAA agreed that the weather he had come up against seemed to come out of nowhere and that he had taken all the necessary precautions in planning the trip, talking to ATC when the unexpected weather hit, and in using his emergency procedures to get us safely to our destination. That day, while scary, made me realize that my husband truly is a great pilot.

With all that said, I now love flying with my husband, but have a very healthy respect for the clouds and the weather they can hold. On this particular trip, hubby had decided to avoid all clouds and fly strictly under visual flight rules (VFR), as he hadn’t done a lot of instrument flight practice lately. So as we were flying along, I was enjoying looking out the window at the splendid views. Flying in a small plane provides such better vantage points than a commercial plane. Instead of one or two tiny windows, you have windows all around you and can so much better appreciate the scenery. After enjoying the scenery for a while and making sure my son was okay (he had fallen asleep), I picked up my book, looking forward to maybe finishing it on this flight. It was then that I realized that the clouds seemed to be getting larger and lower. At the same time, the mountains we were flying over seemed to be getting taller and closer. My heart started to beat a little faster, remembering that scary flight previously described. I also, however, remembered my vow to trust my husband’s decisions when it comes to flying. I do admit though, as the clouds continued to build, and hubby began a turn to avoid them, I did speak up to say, “You know, honey, we can put down for a while if we need to.” “That’s just what I was planning to do,” was his reply. We found a nearby airport where we landed to re-evaluate our situation. Hubby called the FAA to cancel his original flight plan and get a current weather brief. It looked like the clouds were rising, so we decided to grab a snack, then try again. In the meantime, another pilot who had just landed let us borrow his car to use the facilities at a nearby campground. (Since it was the weekend, the FBO where we normally would use the facilities was closed.) That’s another thing I love about flying – can you imagine any other community where you would let a total stranger borrow your car? It’s actually quite common among pilots flying into small airports.

After a little while on the ground and planning an alternate route in case the clouds were still low, we took off again. This time the clouds had lifted and we were able to make it over the mountains with a comfortable amount of air between them and the clouds. We arrived at hubby’s grandparents and had a wonderful first birthday party for our son, then returned to the airport for a rather uneventful flight home. I even got to finish my book.

So my son’s first birthday party was first postponed due to a last minute trip to Puerto Rico, then almost postponed again due to weather as hubby flew to it. I have to smile as I think of this, realizing that his first birthday was a bit unusual. We still have plans to celebrate his birthday with my family. I wonder what adventures that will hold. God is so good, and our family has been so blessed. We give Him all the glory for the many blessings we experience. I think no matter how “normal” our life becomes in the future, we’ll still have unusual things going on, just because it seems to be our nature. I can’t help but enjoy this crazy adventure that is my life and am so glad God gave me a wonderful husband who enjoys crazy adventure just as much as I do.