AX-O
Well Known Member
How do you say thank you to someone that has supported your childhood dream to build an aircraft? To someone so special that gave up so much for 10 years just so I could go pound rivets, grow fiberglass parts, complain when things would not go my way, not once ask how much that box that UPS delivered cost and so on??? To someone that said "stay out of my kitchen, that is my garage". I don't touch your tools, you don't touch mine. I will keep you feed and hydrated, just go build".
Those were a few of the questions I asked myself once Dilemma started to go from a "maybe" to "this thing will fly". Me being one of those hopeless-romantic types about my wife and aviation started to think maybe I will take her flying for the first time on a day that means something to her. Well Phase I just kept going on and on. And I missed a few planned days (in my head, she never knew). I kept concentrating on Phase I, blew by 40 hrs, blew by 45 hrs and then finally Dilemma was out of Phase I.
Wait a minute......... My wedding anniversary is in 3 days. I already had purchased tickets to see Adele (BTW, it was easier to build an airplane than to find these tickets). What if I take her up for her first ride on that day? Well that was now the plan. I told her we were going out on a date and questions were not allowed.
Now.... how do I make this fun for her? Think, think. I got it. It will be like one of those rides at the fair (although safer). I will make her an ADMIT ONE ticket. The number on the ticket will be our anniversary date, it will have a picture of her seat and one of the plane. She will hand me the ticket and I will rip the corner and hand the rest back to her (that corner now lives in my wallet). 10 minutes on the computer and bammmm!
I handed her 2 envelopes the morning of our anniversary. She was happy. I could tell she was happy about Adele tickets and somewhat scared of her ride. She has not flown with me in almost a year.
That afternoon I got the plane ready and called her once everything was set. That morning I checked Wheathermeister to get the sunset time. I planed the flight based on that.
Then it was time. "Hand me the ticket lady".
"Please take you seat".
"ok, but I am not stepping on these seats".
We took our time staring up. I told her that it would take a while to figure things out again. Gave her the brief I always give my passengers. "This is an Experimental aircraft. It was build by me and not a factory. Regulations state that I must let you know that and that you reply with you understand and you still want to go flying if that is the case. In am emergency......."
Taxied out, run up, etc. Started the takeoff roll, climbed out, she was quiet. Then I asked what do you think? "OMG, the take off was so fast. It sounds different than the other one, it is so smooth". She gave it a thumbs up (I was hopping for 2).
I kept an eye on the time, flew her around the area, over her friend's house then back to the airport at sunset. Total time was 0.6 hrs.
Pretty "epic" as the kids say these days.
So that was my first attempt at saying thank you to my wife. As I move from the building/testing phase to the operational phase, I will have to pay up with many new adventures. She was already planning on how she was going to configure her spaces back there. And came up with some great ideas. So a BIG THANK YOU to my wife. I would have not been able to this without your support, patience and understanding. On to the next phase of our life journey together.
Those were a few of the questions I asked myself once Dilemma started to go from a "maybe" to "this thing will fly". Me being one of those hopeless-romantic types about my wife and aviation started to think maybe I will take her flying for the first time on a day that means something to her. Well Phase I just kept going on and on. And I missed a few planned days (in my head, she never knew). I kept concentrating on Phase I, blew by 40 hrs, blew by 45 hrs and then finally Dilemma was out of Phase I.
Wait a minute......... My wedding anniversary is in 3 days. I already had purchased tickets to see Adele (BTW, it was easier to build an airplane than to find these tickets). What if I take her up for her first ride on that day? Well that was now the plan. I told her we were going out on a date and questions were not allowed.
Now.... how do I make this fun for her? Think, think. I got it. It will be like one of those rides at the fair (although safer). I will make her an ADMIT ONE ticket. The number on the ticket will be our anniversary date, it will have a picture of her seat and one of the plane. She will hand me the ticket and I will rip the corner and hand the rest back to her (that corner now lives in my wallet). 10 minutes on the computer and bammmm!
I handed her 2 envelopes the morning of our anniversary. She was happy. I could tell she was happy about Adele tickets and somewhat scared of her ride. She has not flown with me in almost a year.
That afternoon I got the plane ready and called her once everything was set. That morning I checked Wheathermeister to get the sunset time. I planed the flight based on that.
Then it was time. "Hand me the ticket lady".
"Please take you seat".
"ok, but I am not stepping on these seats".
We took our time staring up. I told her that it would take a while to figure things out again. Gave her the brief I always give my passengers. "This is an Experimental aircraft. It was build by me and not a factory. Regulations state that I must let you know that and that you reply with you understand and you still want to go flying if that is the case. In am emergency......."
Taxied out, run up, etc. Started the takeoff roll, climbed out, she was quiet. Then I asked what do you think? "OMG, the take off was so fast. It sounds different than the other one, it is so smooth". She gave it a thumbs up (I was hopping for 2).
I kept an eye on the time, flew her around the area, over her friend's house then back to the airport at sunset. Total time was 0.6 hrs.
Pretty "epic" as the kids say these days.
So that was my first attempt at saying thank you to my wife. As I move from the building/testing phase to the operational phase, I will have to pay up with many new adventures. She was already planning on how she was going to configure her spaces back there. And came up with some great ideas. So a BIG THANK YOU to my wife. I would have not been able to this without your support, patience and understanding. On to the next phase of our life journey together.
. He put in little air vents on each side of me they have levers to open and close easily. I have magazine holders also on each side of me. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting in all of the excitement last night!
