Up-Up and Away !



I Will Fly Away !

A few weeks ago my wife says to me >>>> “I believe I can fly! I believe I can touch the sky.”

She was not singing Karaoke. So I figured she must be delusional, or high. I said OK and I sent her for a Reasonable Cause Drug Test. Unfortunately or fortunately she passed …. Or not really.

Vicky began to talk about learning to fly, and obtaining her pilots license. She said “I would love to fly a plane.” Vicky had been up in a bi-plane a few months previous with Lumpy’s buddy Chuck (that may be the first time those three words were ever written in that order). We were at the Bealeton Flying Circus for the launch of some hot air balloons and the timing was right. She loved that and wanted to go again.

I then found an article in the paper about an organization called Women Can Fly. This organization sponsors free flights in small planes for women to raise the awareness regarding women pilots. Only 6% of all pilots are women. Vicky registered and Friday night we drove south to Hampton Roads Virginia. We stayed in a beautiful Hilton on the banks of the Nansemond River in Suffolk Va. The airport was the Hampton Roads Executive Airport. The terminal was in a beautiful modern steel building constructed with enough glass to take in the sites on the runways. We were among the first few there and Vicky was registered for her flight. As the morning progressed dozens of women and girls arrived. There were many mothers and daughters. One woman was 71 and it was her birthday. Present also were members of the Armed Forces, the Civil Air Patrol, volunteer pilots and representatives for Women Can Fly. There were publications about how to go about getting a sport pilots license, they had a few raffles going and a drawing for some door prizes. At about 0930 the organizers took the first group into a room for a presentation and about a half hour later Vicky was climbing into Piper Archer and took off into the wild blue yonder. The terminal was filling up with more people and the pipeline of women and girls being briefed and getting on line to fly seemed to be flowing pretty well.

Vicky’s flight was short and uneventful. She was back on the ground in about 15 minutes. She did however love it, and we started to look around at some displays and vendors that were set up outside near the terminal exit. There were a few planes on display and they had a trailer from the Virginia Department of Aviation. I figured we were done here and maybe we would drive to Virginia Beach. I asked one of the organizers when they would be holding the drawings for the raffles and the door prizes. She had the container with the blue tickets in her hand and was making her way out onto the tarmac where the guys with the PA system were and she said “ Right Now ! “. She calls the number 7294329. It was Vicky’s ticket and it had won. The first drawing of the day!

The lady was very nice and we asked what did she win? The lady said come on in I will let you choose. Among the prizes was a free lunch from the onsite café, some IPod accessories, a helicopter ride for three people and other assorted stuff. There was a gift certificate from Chesapeake Aviation for an introductory flight lesson. That was the deal!
We went over to the hangar where Chesapeake Aviation was housed and met Bob and Dot the owners, and Tom a flight instructor. They were all very nice people. Bob said “Let Tom finish his Smack and he would take Vicky up.” I said was it wise to let Tom shoot up heroin and then go into a plane? “Snack” said Bob “Snack!” Oh snack!.... Ok that’s fine then.

Tom was a gentleman and quite thorough with his pre-trip and safety lesson for the plane. The plane was a Cessna. A C-152 to be exact. Vicky was back up in the air in about 20 minutes. The flight lasted about 40 minutes. Vicky took the stick and took off and landed twice. We purchased a flight log from Chesapeake and Bob logged her hours. She logged .6 hours and is now officially on the way to getting her pilots license. She was on cloud 9 (sorry I had to).

Tom explains the safety check

It’s all over Facebook and people cannot believe Vicky did it! I can however …. This is the same woman who brought home dozens of duck and chicken eggs in an incubator to hatch, raised Monarch butterflies in my dining room and cooled them off in an envelope in the refrigerator to slow them down so she could put one on Clare’s nose and take a picture. She stood in the swamp in Maryland to take part in “Bridging the Watershed” (Ask her and she will tell you about it). She brings her kids into DC to meet with park rangers and test the water in the reflection pool on the national mall. She had the “bat lady” come to her school to talk to the kids about the different flavors of guano. Vicky was recently the recipient of a Prince William County Award for excellence in Science. It all some pretty cool stuff!

Today we woke up at the Hilton and I said “Hey I don’t know if you remember or not … but yesterday you flew a plane in the sky!”

Vicky says “Yeah I did…. I told you I could fly…. I told you I could touch the sky!”

I should have went for the Drug Test !

Vicky and Tom

There is a whole other story about our trip revolving around food of course. That’s for another session.

I am back and have some great news to share… stay posted and keep following.

Respectfully yours in flight TFN

"The air is the only place free from prejudices."

— Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman to become an airplane pilot, 1921.