On The Wings of Love

It all started in October. I was sitting in the GTA office with Scott, an Air Force Major who is finishing up his Masters in the same program as me. He was telling me how he was dreading imputing all of the data from his thesis into SPSS (a statistical software program similar to Excel on steroids).

Around this time, I was also trying to think of a creative idea for Richard's Christmas present (yes, I was thinking of Richard's Christmas present in October! I believe I deserve the Wife of the Year Award for that). Due to our eternal starving-student status, I knew that it had to be cheap. I've also been increasingly minimalist (I think living in a big city/small apartment does that to you), so I was going for a consumable gift.

Inspired by Sue Lowden's barter system plan, I asked Scott if we could barter our services. And barter, we did. I did the majority of his SPSS data entry for a weekend straight until I was seeing numbers in my sleep. And today, Scott kept his end of the deal -- and then some -- by taking us on an amazing plane ride!

We picked him up around 10:30 and drove to Stafford's very nice private airport. There we met beautiful Robin:




Isn't she beautiful? Although Robins are very popular in Europe, there are only 9 Robins in all of the US! And Scott owns one of them!

Because Richard is a skinny guy, we had to burn off some gas before they could do all of the fun aerobatics. Which meant that I got to go on a quick sightseeing trip first!






It was so much fun!! Scott is an amazing pilot from all of his Air Force training, and I didn't feel nauseous at all. Until... he gave me a quick lesson, gave me the gear sticks and told me to drive. It was really weird flying the plane. It felt almost like a simulator or something. Very surreal. After about 5 minutes of trying to turn and move the plane up and down, we were both feeling a little queasy (sorry Scott), so we decided to bring her back down and let Richard take his much more adventurous trip.





Here's Richard's account of his ride:

I hopped in and strapped myself in snugly. Scott started up the plane and we started down the runway. I admit to being a bit nervous. I had in mind all of those old war films with dogfights in rickety and bullet-ridden planes. Anyway, we headed down the the runway, picked up speed, and took off. The take off was very smooth and so I forgot about any possibility of a shoot out with the Red Baron. Then it was time for the aerobatics. We did all sorts of different maneuvers. I can't remember their names, but each is intended to lift your stomach and turn your face green. It was a lot of fun. It is a pretty crazy experience to be in a plane doing a nosedive or stalling the engine while going straight up. We returned safely. In fact, the landing was much smoother than any commercial flight. My thanks to Emily and Scott for a great day! Also, in case you're wondering, even though my stomach was lifted and my face turned green, I did not barf, ralph, or vomit.

After the rides, Scott treated us to lunch at 5 Guys, a perfect end to the day. It was a great day, and a fun way to break up our finals studying marathon!

Note: The title is a nod to the best season of Bachelor ever!