Dodged a Bullet

My DH is an adventurer at heart. He is a low-level adrenaline junkie. His hobbies have included ice climbing, rocking climbing, hiking and most recently- flying. DH became a pilot about 2 years ago. He pours countless dollars and hours into this new diversion. I can't really blame him. As I pursued our dream of having a child, he pursued his dream of flying. I'm glad at least one of realized our dream.

I'm proud of DH. He has his instrument rating which means he can fly in bad weather with no visibility, just using his instruments. He is also very close to getting his commercial pilot rating which means he could fly freight or banners over a ballgame. I hope he does the latter, but those jobs are apparently hard to come by.

As I've established, DH is a safe, qualified pilot, yet I've never flown with him. Many of our friends have gone up, but I'm chicken. He has been pestering me lately to fly. I've always been able to avoid it with excuses about doctor appointments and added stress. I'm out of excuses. I'm not cycling, not pregnant, I think I have to do it. I have to fly with him. It's his passion, if we don't share the experience, we will grow apart instead of together. I know this and I hate it.

As a wife, it is difficult to believe my husband can fly an airplane better than he can drive a car. He admits, he's a bad driver but swears he is a good pilot. Hmmm, I'm hoping that since there are no pedestrians in the clouds I'll be less inclined to be a backseat driver (pilot.) Do birds count? We are sharing the sky with them. Who has the right of way? I must look into that before take-off.

Today was the day, we planned on going flying in the morning and having a picnic lunch on an airstrip not too far from home. But, as the title of this post states, I dodged a bullet. The plane is in the shop, no flying for us. One of these days though, I'm going to be up there, white-knuckled and barely breathing. Oh, the things you do for love.