Solo Day!!

Today was a big, big, BIG DAY! 

Jordan did his first Solo in the T-6 today!!!

For those unfamiliar with what that means, he was cleared by his instructor pilot (IP) to take control of the plane all by himself. For some million dollar aircraft, its kinda a big deal! Its the first big milestone in his flying career with the Air Force. 

Switching of the Badges 

The solo is a two-part flight. The first part he goes up with his IP (the same one who he did his first ride with) who basically checks him off and gives him the clear that he is trustworthy in the aircraft and ready to fly on his own. They land and come back to the parking areas. The IP hops out of the back of the airplane and Jordan gets himself all ready for the second portion of the flight - all by himself! 

As a flyer in the Air Force, you have to have wings. Since Jordan is in training, his IP carries the wings and he cannot fly a plane without wings (on their name badges).  His IP  has to trust Jordan enough to lets him borrow his wings for the flight. That must be a nerve wracking time for the IP's, but I'm sure Jordan gave them plenty of reason to trust him! 

Nap time! 

I was able to be out on the flight line and take pictures of the exchange of name badges & see Jordan just before he took off for the second portion of his flight, escorted by our neighbor & Jordan's classmate. We went back to their flight room and listened to him on the radio, while he flew around for about 40 minutes by himself. Evelyn decided she was a bit tired and wanted to lay down on the flight room floor! She was a trooper, this was all happening during her morning nap! 

As he landed, we headed back out to the flight line to see him taxi back to his parking spot. 

Evie & I were able to hop up to him in the plane and take pictures
(thanks to our escort Matt & our friend Kelly!). 

He was so excited and it was so great to see that big smile on his face.

Since getting back to Oklahoma after Christmas our family has dealt with Evelyn battling influenza, me a terrible sinus infection & Jordan an ear infection. He was unable to fly for 10 days because his ears were plugged and he was at risk to rupture his ear drums if he tried to fly. It was a very frustrating time for all of us, but mostly Jordan who saw most of his buddies solo before him while he had to sit and wait to get better. 

Today was refreshing in that things are on course and things can only go up from here! The weather is warm - mid 60's in January, and for the next 4 days or so. Jordan is back on track with his flying & we are getting closer and closer to meeting our new baby girl! 

We are so proud of you Jordan!!

(This post was written on Friday, January 16th, the day of the solo!) 

Dollar Ride!

Earlier this week Jordan flew his first flight in the Air Force! 

Yes it was at training, and yes his instructor pilot (IP) did most of the work, by design - BUT - he finally got strapped in to the T-6! 

Yup, there he is, doing his checklists with his helmet above his controls, 

he was ready to go! 

SO exciting!! 

I have to thank his classmates for taking these pictures because families aren't allowed to go out and see the first ride. 

The first ride. They call it the dollar ride. It still doesn't make a whole ton of sense to me, but there is a story & tradition behind it. Just like there is behind every facet of their training here. So because the first time flying is so unknown for many of the trainees, they give the IP a dollar to 'compensate' them for the extra work they have to put into the flight. I thought that came with the job description of being a flight instructor, I mean I think I would want a dollar after every flight! 

Getting prepared!

So Jordan did his flight and he said it went pretty well. This is MUCH different flying than he does in his civilian job, and he's had to adjust quite a bit to the military style of flying & radio calls. They also do more acrobatic stuff and pull G's with their turns and rolls & anything else they do. This adds an extra challenge to flying - battling airsickness. A bunch of guys barf on their first flight. And by a bunch, I mean most of them barf. Its normal and they expect it (maybe that's where the dollar part comes in?!). Jordan didn't get sick, but he said he was definitely queasy and didn't feel all that great after the flight. He compared it to going up and down the 'power tower' at Cedar Point over and over, and over and over again. That makes me want to barf just thinking about it. 

The T-6! 

We have hit the official flight line portion of pilot training which means long, 12 hour days for Jordan every day. He has flights, simulator flights, tests & lots of paperwork to do everyday at work. He comes home and studies for another 2-3 hours each night. On the weekends he does get some time off, but his whole world revolves around studying and preparing for his next flight or his next test. 

This is the fun part, right? 

Its a good thing we have good friends to keep Evelyn and I busy as we both will start to miss Jordan as the weeks go on. The end is not near, but time is passing quickly and we have so many fun events to look forward to while we're down here. Solos, track select, drop nights & celebrating with our friends as they get their assignments, are all things that we have to look forward to. And with Thanksgiving and Christmas just around the corner, that will help break up the daily grind of training. 

With all the hard work & studying Jordan is putting in, we are so proud of everything he is doing and we feel so lucky to be here as he lives out his dream of being an Air Force Pilot! 

More updates to come!!! 

Baby, Come Fly with Me

It was bound to happen. Evelyn flying that is. 

Infant in arms.....

It was the perfect set up. My parents were going down to Tennessee to visit my little sister Katie. I had the weekend off, while Jordan had to work at the base. I decided it would be really fun for Evelyn and I to go visit too! Jordan would be able to stay at home with the animals, my parents could take the majority of our luggage and Ev and I would go fly. 

I hoped to fly out of our local, smaller airport but the flights weren't working in our favor. So off to Detroit we went. At 4 am. Ugh. 

Getting through security was fun! 

But we made it. I parked in the ramp adjacent to the terminal. Super expensive, but lets be real. 6 am, with a baby, first time doing this flying thing with her. I wasn't messing around. We fly for free so why not park close and make things easier on myself? 

Getting through security was easier than I thought. Everybody was really gracious about being behind a lady with a baby. By herself. I don't think I was too slow, but getting 2 of us through security with a stroller and car seat isn't the fastest way to get through security. And for my first time with a baby, I pretty much thought I was a rockstar! Whether others thought I was quick is a different story, buy I won't let them burst my bubble! 

After getting through security and putting ourselves back together I found the first bathroom that  I came across. Momma got an empty bladder and baby got a new diaper and we were ready to get to our gate! It was almost time to board, my blood pressure was slowly increasing hoping and praying that Evelyn wouldn't be THAT baby that cries the whole time and makes everybody have a miserable flight. 

I was nervous about packing everything up and getting onto the plane by myself with a baby. Thankfully there were some very nice ladies who offered to help me out. They made is SO much easier for me. I seriously wouldn't be able to do it without them. I wish I knew their names because they really made our experience so much better. 

Evelyn and I got to our seat and settled in. The plane wasn't super full so we had a row to ourselves! We were waiting for everybody else to board and every person that went by gave us a look. You know that look that says, "Ugh, seriously a baby on the plane?!" I felt super judged, but whatever, they were going to deal. Evelyn became fussy and was hungry, so she went under the "cloak of secrecy" as I like to call it, aka the nursing cover. 

We had a long taxi to the runway and Evelyn went into a deep sleep just before we were about to take off. My worst nightmare. Did I mention she had a cold? All I could think about was her waking up SCREAMING as we climbed. I had read having the baby sucking while the plane was climbing would help them not cry. And she was passed out. She wasn't going to suck on anything no matter how hard I tried! 

So the plane took off. I waited. Nervously waited. Waited for her to wake up, look me in the eyes and scream, like "Mom, seriously this sucks, how could you?!" But I kept waiting. And NOTHING!  She was staying asleep. She kept sleeping! She was perfect! I was beyond relieved. My baby was actually cooperating. 

Our only hiccup was when I had to pee. Like bad. Like there was no way I could make it the whole flight. But she was sleeping. She was passed out. But I had no choice. We, as plane passengers, were going to have to deal with whatever came our way after I emptied my bladder! We got back to our seat and she again, was better than I expected. She fussed for just a few minutes, went back under the cloak and passed back out. Seriously. Was this real life? 

The rest of our ride was quick, only about 1 hour total, and uneventful. We landed in Nashville and were super excited to see my sister! We got off the plane and I had to laugh at the audible announcements throughout the airport. "Hi, this is George Strait, welcome to Nashville International Airport, we hope you enjoy your stay in Music City USA" in his thick, thick southern accent. What a nice welcome. 

Our way back to Michigan went just as smooth. Evelyn may or may not be a super flier. That makes me very happy and hopeful that we can take fun family vacations all over the country. I can't wait for our next outing, hopefully with Jordan and hopefully to somewhere fun! 

Spontaneity

So as you know, my husband is an airline pilot. One of the benefits to him being gone 4 days a week is that we fly free - well sort of. We fly free if we go standby, which can be quite an adventure in itself. We are able to check out passenger loads and that sort of thing before we book our flight, but it never really seems all that accurate and its kind of a crap shoot when we get to the airport. For those in the business, we are called "non-revs" which is short for non-revenue, because the company does not make anything off us flying. I happen to be quite lucky with my non-rev flying. I have gotten on flights that seemed impossible when the boarding process started, but I tend to stick it out by the gate agents and when other non-revers or standby-ers give up, I'm right there to hop on and fill the flight up!

So, onto why I called this post spontaneity. Jordan had a long layover in NYC this weekend. When he usually has long layovers I'm usually working, or his in some random city that would be pointless for me to come visit. Saturday morning I wasn't even sure I was going to NYC, the flights were all scary and almost full! But all cards were falling into place, and I decided to go for it!t My parents just needed to be available to watch my dog and cats and then I could go! I was so excited. And then a big storm front. My flight to Laguardia was cancelled. So sad. We were all re-booked on another later flight, but since I don't buy a ticket I'm not guaranteed getting a seat on the next flight. I have to say, flying standby and getting on a flight for free is lucky enough -every time I am so grateful, and then when the flight is cancelled its like the stars have unaligned and backfired on you. This was the first time that has happened, so I am very lucky for that. After a 4 hour delay and a tornado in Queens (NYC), our flight was on its way.


I was seriously like a kid in a candy store flying into the city. I had my face plastered on the window looking out to see what I could see. It was dark, so its not like I could pick out every building or anything, but I mean with all the lights, it was almost like mid-afternoon. I didn't get back to Jordan's hotel until about 9 and then we headed out to Times square! Eeekk! I was so excited. What a crazy place to be in. Its just like what you see on TV, but so surreal at the same time. I can't believe I was actually there! We did some other looking around and I am confident that I could go back to NYC and conquer the subway again, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, but definitely way different than I thought too. What a great little 36 hour trip to NYC I had!

Before I even headed out I hesitated on going, seems crazy right, why pass up on an almost free trip to NYC? Being this spontaneous can only happen for a short time in my life, and I imagine once kids come along, this will rarely (if ever!) happen this spontaneously. I guess this is a great benefit to Jordan's career choice. Its just too bad it comes at the expense of him being gone at least 3 days a week on average. It is wonderful to be able to have days of spontaneity.

While we were walking through NYC taking in the sights and sounds I made Jordan promise me we'll never stop being spontaneous. Whether that be taking trips halfway across the country on a moments notice, or trying new things in our hometown, I hope we always stay this spontaneous and carefree about how we spend our time together.