Dan's T-6 Solo Flight at ENJJPT

Just a couple weeks ago, I shared about Dan's T-6 Dollar Ride, where he flew with an IP (instructor pilot) for the first time at ENJJPT (Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training). Well, he's been flying nearly daily since then, and last week, they trusted him to take this $4+ million dollar plane up in the air all by himself!

Annabelle and I were so fortunate to be able to head to the airfield to watch the big event - major thanks to a friend who is a few classes ahead of Dan who escorted us out there and explained everything to me all morning.

I hope we are also able to watch his first solo flight in the T-38 when he transitions to that jet in January or February.

We arrived and headed inside to his flight room, and we had to wait to make sure winds were low enough for them to let Dan solo. He was already out with his IP flying, so I couldn't talk to him and was so nervous we wouldn't get to see him solo. (We had a really rough night the night before Annabelle couldn't sleep from her teething pain and late nap, so I was up with her for quite a bit of the night and ended up with significantly less sleep than normal... I would normally cancel all plans for the day and just chill around the house with her after a night like that, but we just couldn't miss this!)

When Dan's friend was sure he would be able to solo, he took us outside, and we took  the shuttle out to the flight line and found the plane Dan was flying in the hangar. He looked thrilled to get to go out on his own, and it was amazing seeing him in his element. It was neat seeing him taxi out all on his own, and Annabelle was the most adorable waving at his plane as he left the hangar. Heart. Melted.

Annabelle's shirt says, "Dad is my wingman" - she knows she's the real boss around here. And that's sweat on her, not pee. She was in the Ergo for a long time in the Texas heat and humidity, so homegirl was pretty hot. She did great overall, though, and she looked adorable as always in her Baby Banz ear protection. (Not an affiliate link - I just really love these, and they're perfect for stadiums, air shows, Space A flights, etc.) 

After he landed, we were able to take some pictures with him, and the one with us up on the wing and Dan still in the cockpit is probably my new favorite family photo. 

I was able to get a few more pictures of him with the plane and then with his IP (who recently finished IP training, so Dan was his very first solo student - how cool is that?!) 

And after all of that, Dan was tossed into the dunk tank by some of his classmates. The tradition is that you get chased down and tossed into the water after your initial solo in an aircraft, but if you're able to make it all the way back to the flight room undetected, everyone owes you beer. This moment was kind of anti-climactic because Dan WAS able to make it back to his flight room because SO MANY STUDENTS were soloing that morning, so no one was able to catch him... but I was disappointed, so I told everyone in the flight room that they needed to toss him in anyway because that's what kind of mean wife I am... and because I carried an extra pair of his heavy boots to him to change into when he forgot his that morning, and I'll be darned if that was for nothing while also juggling an almost one-year-old and all of her stuff as well. 

I'm SO glad he was thrown in the dunk tank because I got some pretty great action shots that he will love looking back on.

His class is called Shark-NATO... they all have different names, and they will have a patch for their flight suits that match the theme. It's cheesy, but it's sort of clever, and it's fun. That's why there are sharks in the dunk tank. There are students from Italy and Germany (as well as several others from the USA) in Dan's class, and it is SO cool to me.

Have you ever watched your spouse do something super cool?

A PCS is Upon Us

When Lieutenant Lovemuffin graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2014, he was all set to head to pilot training. He's been flying for YEARS and can't wait to train in Air Force planes.

... but then he was offered a slot at AFIT, the Air Force Institute of Technology. A free master's degree? Heck yeah! Dan will be graduating in March as a Master of Physics, and his ladies (Annabelle and I) are pretty proud of his hard work while writing his incredibly long thesis.

He is chomping at the bit to be in the air again, though. His old flying team teammates are finishing pilot training in waves, and he is just stuck in Ohio going to school... still. But it'll all be worth it!

In fact, it'll SOON be here... because we are moving to TEXAS! Sheppard Air Force Base, here we come!

We've actually known since before heading to AFIT. These were his original orders... but we didn't know if the Air Force would mess anything up. Dan received his official orders about a month ago, and he'll be flying down soon to look at houses. We'll leave Ohio at the end of March, and Dan is SO excited to start flying again!

He'll be at ENJJPT (Euro-Nato Joint Jet Pilot Training), where he will start out flying the T-6 and move on to the T-38 before finding out what aircraft he'll be flying for his career. We are so ready to be there!


    

The Hundred Dollar Hamburger

I've mentioned several times on this blog that flying is not my favorite activity in the world. It's terrifying to me. I'm just not a fan of it. My husband, on the other hand, is an aviation enthusiast. He loves the sky. He's been flying for ten years now - longer than he's been able to drive!

When we started dating, he told me that he couldn't date a girl who didn't like flying. I sucked it up and pretended, and he flew me to dinner from Missouri to Kansas for our second date. It was scary, but it was also amazing.

Now, he's heading to pilot training with the Air Force as soon as he gets his Master's degree. While he's still in school, though, he doesn't have much time or money to fly. While at the Air Force Academy, he competed on the flying team, which meant he was flying about five days a week. He misses it here in Ohio, so he got all checked out to fly out of a local airport.

One day in September, he took me up for the ever-famous "hundred dollar hamburger" - which really just means that he flew us to another city for lunch. It's supposed to mean that the hamburger at lunch costs a hundred dollars because of how much you pay to get there... but we actually had Mexican food in West Virginia, and I'm sure it was more than a hundred dollars in flight time and fuel. Either way, it's fun to say that we went for a hundred dollar hamburger.

The flight was bumpy when we got into West Virginia near the mountains. I was scared, but the views were stunning. I took many pictures that day to capture my fear AND the great views we had... enjoy!

• Do you like flying?
• Have you ever flown in a small plane?