My Dreamer

When he was a very young boy my husband packed a lunch and rode his bike to the local airport where he sat by the fence for hours at a time watching flights leaving and landing. He did this as often as weather permitted (and his mother). Even though he later earned a private pilot's licence, he lamented because his eyesight prevented him from joining the air force; from boyhood he wanted to fly a fighter jet.

While in Florida one year he paid big bucks at a Top Gun school to fly a training plane, loops and rolls, and video included. That was special, but not the dream.

A few months ago I found an article in the newspaper about limited opportunities to take a ride in a 'retired' fighter plane. I cut it out, Bob pursued it and today, after yearning for 55 years, his dream was fulfilled.

He climbed in the second seat of this small fighter jet. To his delight, the pilot gave him control of the plane much of the time, an amazing bonus! They did loops and rolls, several military maneuvers, and flew a serpentine course low along a river. At times, the accelerations meant a max of 3 G's or more. He said he had to "really suck it up" to keep from blacking out a couple of times.

Never mind the stress of G-forces --- this is one happy man!