If Ever Asked I Can Now Answer, "Why yes, I have flown in formation."

Saturday, October 24th, 2009 started out like many other Saturdays before it. Adam and I were planning a list of work to do around the house which began with a trip to the local Wal-mart to get Lupa a fresh supply of dog food. Adam sat in the driver seat, engine running and anxious to get on his way, as I bombarded him with a small list of items I had forgotten during my last supermarket excursion. Just as he caved and began writing down the items his phone rang.

I knew by the excitement in his eyes and the use of words like: "fly-in," "T-6," "Stearman," "What time?," "Right now?!" our day was not going to continue as planned.

I went back inside quickly and freshened up (since I was still in my jammies) while Adam followed me, excitedly devising the plan. I brushed my teeth and wiped at the mascara debris from beneath my eyes before grabbing my purse. I dropped Adam off at the airport so he could fly up with Levi (one of the jet pilots in training) in his Yak.

After I was ready I drove up to Robstown to meet him.

Just being there was quite an experience. There were a couple old World War II era planes, a few Cessna's, an RV4 (which belonged to Ryan, also a student going through jet training), Levi's Yak and a lot of other planes that I don't have names for. The people were awesome to talk to. Some were retired military, others flew as a hobby. All were really cool.

Adam introduced me to Ryan who offered to take me up in his RV4.

Levi took off in his Yak along with us and flew formation. It was the most incredible thing to look over and see another plane so close to by!

The last time I had been flying in a small airplane was on our honeymoon over two years ago. There was a guy on the island right before Key West that took us up in his Waco, an open cockpit bi-plane. He had done some mild aerobatics and left me terrified of small planes-and, more importantly, their pilots.

So I was pretty nervous going up. I begged Ryan to go easy on me and he did a great job of keeping me comfortable. We flew a few lapse over the small airfield before we broke formation. One wing dropped towards the ground and I got to experience about 3 positive G's as we descended. Okay, so most of the guys down here would laugh at that, but there has to be a first step!

We hung out there the rest of the day. Adam went up a number of times as "camera man" and Caleb had a blast watching the airplanes come in and out.

The other military wife, Carrie, that came up with me got to fly in one of the T-6's which I was very proud of her for doing so. I had only met her once before but already was aware of her claustrophobic fears while flying. I don't know if she'll go back up any time soon though. As they were flying a four plane formation over Corpus Christi, they ran out of gas which killed the motor causing them to start descending. The pilot (a retired military guy) worked fast to switch tanks and start the engine again. They made an emergency landing in Corpus and refuelled before heading back.

As the sun began to set, Adam left with Caleb leaving me to fly back to the airfield with Levi. The Yak was a few times bigger than the RV4 so it felt like a whole new experience. We each had our own parachute which Levi briefed me on. Though it was a necessary conversation, it was a little nerve-wracking hearing instructions on how to bail out.

We took off at the same time as Ryan and flew in formation back to the airfield where Adam was waiting. Here's a picture of the Levi's Yak. That is not me in the back.

After Ryan broke off we did some mild (in Levi's opinion) aerobatics. I honestly was so preoccupied with surviving that I really don't know what all we did. I know we went inverted a couple times and I definitely experienced both negative and positive G's, though he did try to stay away from the negative ones at my pleading. It was terrifying! But so much fun! He was definitely more aggressive but still kept it within reason. As he put it, "there's no one that doesn't want you to get sick more than the one who has to clean it up."

It was comforting.