First flight

Yesterday, I got to go fly in our plane for the first time.

Yes, we bought a plane - an old Cessna four-seater that could probably use a new paint job*, but a plane nonetheless!

MB had already flown in it since he was the one who brought it back to Canada from Michigan (where we bought it).

The plane had been in the 'shop' for the past month for a propeller overhaul and annual inspection. This weekend, MB had planned to take it for a test flight with the shop owner - and I got to come along. It turned out to be a beautiful first flight for me.

It felt absolutely surreal to be standing beside the plane on the tarmac, waiting for MB come out and do the pre-flight inspection. This is ours?!

I saw another woman hanging out beside what I suppose was her plane, watching her husband do his pre-flight inspection. Except that unlike me, she looked bored out of her mind, like this is the kind of thing she does all the time. (Oh, and their plane was a shiny new 2009 Cirrus - I can't quite say we're in the same league!) Anyway, she certainly wasn't following her husband around asking a million questions like I was doing with MB, trying to memorize part names and remember the checklist. Their two sons were playing in the hangar. It was funny to think that one day, that's what our family weekends will look like!

It didn't occur to me to be nervous about the flight until the shop owner came out and said, "so, we'll take the longer runway, giving us a bit more leeway if anything happens... this is a plane that has had a LOT of maintenance done on it recently."

But despite that comment, I was incredibly calm. I loved every part of the flight. We could not have asked for a more beautiful, sunny day. The view I had of the island of Montreal as we ascended was amazing. I think the whole time (one hour flight!), I was grinning from ear to ear.

The only part that may have given me pause is the major (and I mean major) turbulence we hit around the collines montérégiennes (Mount Yamaska in particular). But even if my heart raced a bit, it slowed down as soon as we climbed up and out of the turbulence, and I was fine the rest of the flight. At one point, as we were making pretty aggressive turns to try out the auto-pilot, the shop owner turned around and said, you're not feeling airsick, are you? I was completely taken aback, as the thought hadn't even occurred to me that I might feel queasy. I wasn't bothered in the least, in fact, I was enjoying the maneuvers! I guess it's not so surprising, considering how much time I spent in small planes last summer! Although none of those flights lasted more than fifteen minutes each... and there are actually a lot of skydivers who feel sick on the way up to altitude! I've met lots of people who look really green in the plane but tell me their stomach settles as soon as they jump out the door.

What made the shop owner laugh is knowing that while I had been up in small planes plenty of times, I had never actually landed in one! Luckily, the landing went fine. Perfectly smooth.

Listening and watching MB and the shop owner fiddle with all the electronic gadgets in the plane, all while also keeping an ear out for the radio communications, gave me a new respect for pilots. It made me realize that maybe the pilot's course won't be quite the piece of cake I've been (cockily) envisioning. Just the fact that on top of flying the plane, you have to constantly be listening to the radio, ready to respond if someone mentions your 'name' (well, plane name), or mentions your current location and altitude, seems pretty intense. There was a lot of traffic in the air yesterday, since we were so close to Montreal, and it was such a beautiful day. And the first day of the long weekend.

Even if I anticipate it being slightly harder than I originally expected, I'm sure I'll enjoy learning to fly. I'm looking forward to sitting in the front seat and holding the controls. Being in the air, inside or outside the plane, is just so zen to me.

But if you had told me a few years ago that I would own a plane before I owned a house, I would have laughed...

*I say that, but when I saw it in real life for the first time, I thought it was beautiful just the way it is.

Planning Ahead

It’s so hard for people to understand that we can’t plan anything in advance. Especially my friends who work in the same industry I do, where schedules are the same year-round and vacation time can be planned months and months in advance. I don’t think people will ever be able to fathom what “my boyfriend has an irregular schedule” really means. You'd think that after a few years of knowing us and having it be like this, they'd get the idea, but...

It’s like this pretty much every time MB is away:

My friend, this morning: Quand est-ce que MB revient?
Me: MB revient peut-être en fin de semaine.
My friend: C’est cool si MB arrive cette fin de semaine. Quand est-ce que tu sais pour certain?
Me: Je sais « pour certain » seulement quand il arrive chez nous. Même lorsqu’il a son billet d’avion, ce n’est pas 100 % certain… et il n’a pas encore son billet.

The Pilot's Wife

Did some cleaning this weekend at my parents'. Found a bunch of old stuff (hey, I still fit into this dress!), and culled a bunch of books from my shelves. I'm going to donate a few boxes to my old high school. I've complained about their lack of good reading material before.

Looking through the stacks and stacks of used books in my old bedroom, I found a novel called The Pilot's Wife. Now, I don't remember reading it, so I don't know what it's about, but it was strange to read the title and suddenly come to the realization that I am going to BE one (a pilot's wife) one day. (When I told MB this he said, well, I realized I was going to be a terminologist's husband! Very funny.)

So I did a bit of googling ("pilot's wife") and found some interesting blogs. It's so wonderful to be able to find people who are going through the same thing I am! (Oh, Internet, what would I do without you?)

Ok, there were some depressing tales of cheating husbands (here and here). But there were also encouraging stories throughout. (Like this and this.) I actually found a network called The Pilot's Wives Club - awesome! Looks like a great support group. Even if my friends are supportive, they still ask when he's going to be home and for how long and if we can plan such and such for three months from now... no, I don't know! And it's not going to change (at least, I'm not holding my breath for a job with a regular schedule - if it happens, so much the better). I'm fine with it this way for now. A lot of people "don't understand how I do it" and it's encouraging to know I'm not the only one "doing it".

From the Marriage with Altitude blog:
[I'm sure it applies to helicopter pilots as well as airline pilots...]

So to elaborate - don't marry an airline pilot - unless:

• You have an incredible amount of patience Check!
• You have a solid job that earns decent money Check! More 'solid' than his right now...
  
• You don't mind doing a lot of stuff by yourself Check!
• You don't mind moving all over the world Check!
• You are a dab hand with ebay/ freecycle/ putting up shelves one-handed/checking tyre pressures Check!
• You have a great sense of humour I think so!
• You're a very trusting sort of person... Yup
• You love him more than anyone else in the world. Definitely! (Well, obviously I love my family just as much too. But not the same kind of love.)
  

And to be honest, if that's the case... You should be fine. Really. There are times when it will all drive you crazy, but I promise, it WILL be worth it. Honest.

And remember - marry the MAN, not the pilot. If you marry him just because he's a pilot, you'll be very disappointed!

Pilotage

À lire : The Sky's the Limit: Canadian Women Bush Pilots by Joyce Spring.

Description
The women pilots profiled in this book have flown from British Columbia to Newfoundland and in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Right from the beginning of her interviews and research, the author found herself constantly amazed by the achievements of the women involved. Within the book are the stories of early Canadian women bush pilots from the late 1940s onwards. Their stories are exciting, occasionally funny, and always absorbing. Ranging from aerial surveys, water bombing of fires, flying fish, canoes and northern dogs, to the operation of a float-plane flying school, these women have left little undone. One pilot, Judy Cameron, was the first Canadian woman to be hired by an airline. Flying north of Superior, Elizabeth Wieben recalls the time that she flew naked. In pilot Suzanne Pettigrew‘s own words, “We sure have come a long way and the ride was an awful lot of fun.”
Author
Joyce Spring lives in Cambridge, Ontario, and has herself logged many hours of flying. A huge fan of the women pilots who came before her, Joyce has contributed regularly to Canadian Aviation News. Her first book was Daring Lady Flyers, published in 1994.