fly boy.

so it turns out, when it comes to this blog & our life, i'm a terrible secret keeper.  often, i'm too excited to wait for the big post and blurt out the dirty details in passing.  so if you ready yesterday's post, you know after many hours in the sky & studying on land, a. received his private pilot's licence!  yahoo!

by trade, a. is a black hawk pilot with the army.  he loves to fly & has had a passion to do so since he was a kid.  with his military service ending next month, flying was not about to end with it.  so a. scouted out a local flight school and took to the sky.  for the past six months, he committed a few hours a month learning to fly an airplane.

funny thing is, in the eight year's a. has been a pilot, never once had i joined him in the cockpit.  i had never seen him live his passion, work his magic among the flight controls and finesse the radio calls with the ease and directness of a true professional.  never once had i experienced first hand, the one thing he loves doing. until now.

on saturday, a. took me, his first passenger, flying.  our route began in oswego, ny and continued north to the thousand islands.  for those of you unfamiliar with upstate new york, the st. lawrence is a beautiful river that nestles small, scattered islands along it's path.  it also divides us from our northern neighbor, canada & is the location where the ever-famous, thousand island dressing was created.  it's absolutely gorgeous & from a bird's perspective: breath taking.

after about an hour flight we landed in a very small runway in ogdensburg, ny.  so small in fact, there were no buildings around the runway & no flight operations telling us to land or directing traffic.  we were on our own.  a. was spectacular of course.  we landed, maneuvered up the runway and in no more than five minutes, were back in the sky heading home.

while the day was a bit hazier than a. had hoped, we had great weather.  we flew at about 3,500 ft, just below the clouds.  they were so close, i swear i could touch them.  a. practiced a few maneuvers- one in particular, the sharp turn- got my stomach rolling like we were on a roller coaster.  looking back, it was rad.  in the middle of the turn however, i was doing everything in my power not to toss my cookies.

obviously, we landed safe & sound after our two hour adventure.  i'm still riding high (pun intended?) from the flight and can't wait to go once again.  flying with a. was definitely the highlight of our weekend.