Spouse's Flight

As some of you may know, if you follow me on Instagram, this past Wednesday I got a chance to do a spouse's flight through Brian's squadron at the Academy. As neat as an opportunity that this was, I was TERRIFIED. And I mean TERRIFIED!  See, I don't really even like flying on big jets all that much. I've gotten much better since having kids but I still get pretty nervous flying. If you've seen my pictures before, though, this isn't a big jet. These are gliders, and they are tiny. And they have no engines so basically you get towed up by a tow plane, they let go of you, and you glide around and then glide in to land.  Brian's birthday was the day before and he repeatedly told me all he wanted for his birthday was for me to fly and get to experience what he does everyday. I was not a fan of this idea but I love my husband and was willing to try it. After some tears (I really am a child) and some disappoint that the weather was, in fact, going to cooperate, I bundled up and went to the airfield.

Gliders lined up for spouse's day

Ok I can do this!

Holy crap this seat is SMALL! Am I really going to do this?

Getting strapped up

Those smiles are fake, I'm scared out of my mind

Time for take off! Holy crap, no going back now!

And we're airborne!

This was the picture from in the glider when we were behind the tow plane

We went up to 8,500 ft and the views were amazing. And we were super blessed with VERY calm winds that day so there were seriously no bumps. Just a nice smooth ride above the mountains and the Academy.

Flying near the Air Force Academy

Glider selfie! 

That's the turf that we're going to land back on.

Lining up to land

Landing

Brian took pictures on the ground of us landing

That's the smile of pure joy because we are back on the ground, safe and sound!

I was so lucky to fly with a good friend of ours since you're not allowed to fly with your spouse. He did great and explained exactly what was going on at all times.

Some of the other spouses on the cooold spouse's morning!  I had about 5 layers on and was looking extra bulky, haha!

The kids loved being out on the flight line and seeing all of the planes land right by them! Even though they look less than thrilled right now.

And they even got to help push a glider in to the hangar.

Overall it was a wonderful experience.  Once I got strapped in and knew that I could handle the canopy being closed I was a ton calmer.  Our flight time was a total of 16 minutes but it went by much fast than that.  The ride was beautiful, I conquered one of my fears, Brian was happy, and we got to spend a day together at Daddy's work. I'm so glad I did it! :)