Flying

So Husband had a pilot friend at his last job. He had taken several of the guys at work on flights but there was always something that came up so Husband never had the chance to go. As part of his birthday extravaganza, I used back channels to contact the friend and gave Husband a lunch flight as one of the surprises.

Well I let him pick the day so it wasn't that cool a surprise, but still cool.

So we met Kurt at Falcon Field and hopped in this little fella for a flight to Marana, a suburb of Tucson.

 Oh and this was taking off next to us.

It was a bit cramped inside because it has four seats. I managed to wrangle my pregnant body fairly comfortably though.



Then I started getting artsy while the menfolk were going through the pre-flight plane check list.

Of course I didn't have a good lens for taking pictures inside the plane so I just used my trusty point and shoot, my phone. Look at those fluffy white clouds and blue sky. It made for bumpier air, but great pictures.

Here is a little view of the valley

This one is right before Tucson.

Here is the only picture I have of Kurt because I felt dumb asking him to pose for one. I'm not embarrassed asking my husband to humor me and pose for pictures, but I get a little shy with folks I've only communicated with via email.

I have no qualms taking pictures of the back of their head though.

 And since I was doing nothing in the backseat, why not take a self portrait while you look like part of the Top Gun cast? (The aviators are my only sunglasses, not just for theatrics)

So the biggest surprise was finding out Kurt is a flight instructor. That means he was totally chill and had us both fly for part of the way. Without sounding like a mother and newly permitted driver.

It. was. awesome.

After I let go of my death grip of course. I sat up front on the way back and he had me do some of the taxi on the run way. The pedals are right and left, not go and stop. He didn't even have me put my hands on the wheel at all to resist the habit of turning with it. And when you are up in the air, you just give the slightest pressure on the wheel to make adjustments. I thought it was more of a steering wheel kind of pressure, but it is more thumbprint amount. I only had a total of three fingers on the wheel but they looked a little like talons because I couldn't quite give up my need for control.

While flying the plane in around Picacho Peak was a highlight of my life thus far, I have adapted my bucket list from "Get pilot's license" to "Fly a plane." I'm not sure it is a hobby I like enough to invest in, but man, it was cool to try once.