MY HUSBAND IS A PILOT!

For Christmas 2018, one of the wishes that I had on my list was “flying with Dennis”.

I knew that I would have a chance anyway, since we had been talking about it since before day 1 Dennis took his flying trial. However, I was just so so excited that finally he got his license and was able to take someone fly with him. We made the wish happen finally on that day, 29 December 2018!

Dennis took me to fly in a Cessna 152, a 2 seater plane. Hm, a date in the sky? YES, PLEASE! I acted as a co-pilot, which meant I was responsible for taking pictures and documenting the journey (a.k.a taking videos). I had a more important role too btw, taking notes of crucial take off and landing time.

So, let the flight begin!

It all started in the plane hangar, from which we had to take the plane out from the hangar before we used it. The plane was so light actually that one person actually will manage to pull the plane out. The hangar was amazing, it was filled with many kinds of small planes and private jets. No kidding!

Before we could fly, we had to fill the gas of the plane. So we drove (in the plane) to another side of the airport, and refilled the tank. Then we were ready to go!

Seatbelt was fastened, headphones were on. I could hear the tower talk to us through the radio. I was not answering of course, only Dennis did.
Going onto the runway, it felt unreal. I kept thinking, “is this happening?”, “are we gonna fly?”. It was a weird concept for my brain to accept that flying is not in a big commercial plane, and having people that actually you know are the pilot.

Before the feeling sunk in, less than one minute on the straight runway and we accelerated, the plane lifted off the ground! WOOHOO WE REALLY FLY! JUST TWO OF US, IN THE SKY!

Once you are in the air, it was very calming. Dennis said the crucial moments that took his concentration were actually the take off and landing, because once you are in cruise, the wind does the work for you.

Unfortunately for us, the weather was not that good. It was cloudy, although, we saw some cloud opening and we were flying towards there. Since the clouds were so low, it was a bit hard to fly not too close to the cloud (we are not allowed to go inside the cloud since we are flying with Visual Flight Rules). After 5 minutes cruise or so, we decided to go back to the airport and continue the flying again after lunch, if the weather permits.

The landing was smooth, Dennis made it look so easy — flying a plane. Haha! Take me again next time, will ya?

Hope you enjoy the photos! Co-pilot did the work well, right?

Top question I got asked after this flight was, “how are you feeling?”, “were you scared?”; and I would tell you yes, the first time is always the hardest! haha! I was nervous, since I was not used to this, and to think about it that there is only you two in the big endless sky was a scary concept for me (I think I have the same thing for swimming in the ocean for the same reason). However, I can tell you that it was so so so so beautiful, and it is worth getting out of the comfort zone for this, flying with Dennis! And I would always agree to do it again. By the time I wrote this, I flew 4 flights already (that means 4 take-offs and landings).

Originally published on our blog at http://www.dennislydia.com/my-husband-is-a-pilot/