CFI, KPSC, KCLM, N-Number. Please, I don't speak Greek.

Today is the 12th of August in the year 2012. I am currently sitting in a new internet location that I found. It is a small cafe with delicious muffins and a delicious aged earl grey tea. It's the kind of place I wish I could share with my friend Bethany. It's nestled between a book store and a nail salon in downtown Port Angeles. I think I'm enjoying this atmosphere more than the bagel shop- this has an air that seems more condusive to writing. While I munch on this oatmeal and sweet potato muffin, let me jot down my memories of becoming Jim's "copilot." All words in blue will be defined at the end of this post.

I have grown up around small aircraft. When I was a kid my aunt and uncle owned a plane or two, and they took my sister and me up flying often. I was never really afraid of flying that I can remember, but then again I was young enough not to remember more than one tail number. I remember that the headset I wore was uncomfortable, and the plane was louder than I thought it would be. I remember going up, and flying over my house in Kennewick and then going over the Columbia River. It was a warm day, and the sun made it even warmer inside the little plane. It was fun to go flying with them.

When I was nineteen, I applied for a job at a small airport in PSC. I got the job and worked there for about a year. I scheduled flights, ordered catering, rented hotels and vehicles for clients and crewed an airshow. It was fun being around airplanes again. It was even more fun because that is where I met my husband.

It was March 2011 and I had just come into the office. I put my purse down and went right to work on a project of some sort. I always had a lot of projects, particularly posters and handouts. I was deep in my project and out of nowhere a clipboard landed on my chicken-scratch notes and flies. I looked up to see who had come in for a flight and it was a handsome guy I'd seen around before. He was training to take his CFI test, and he wore the coolest shoes I'd seen a guy wear. I mean if guys had cool shoes, which they do, he would be the coolest one. I blurted out "I like your shoes!" and that definitely took him by surprise. He fumbled for words while I got him checked in. I printed an invoice for him, he said thanks and left to go talk to his instructor about the flight and whatever else.

That was the beginning of a relationship that would grow and grow. Our first date was a sunset flight over the Tri-Cities, we took a flight for his birthday on a clear night where I thought I could reach out the window and touch the stars. I married that handsome pilot on July 22, 2012 and my life has been even sweeter since. This blog is dedicated to my life with him, as I sit right seat for the rest of my life.

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I am not a pilot. I don't have my pilot's license, nor do I want to. Airplanes are more complicated than anything I've ever known anything about. To be honest, airplanes in their simplest for frustrate me. It's not that I don't understand them- it's that I really care more about what I'm seeing when we fly than what the plane is doing. It frustrates Jim, since he wants to share every minute detail about how the airplane works with me. Sorry honey, I'm just not cut out for technical jargon.

But technical jargon is what we speak. Airplanes and flight have so many terms and acronyms, it's almost impossible to know them all. I find myself writing with them sometimes, forgetting that readers might not know what I'm talking about. You honestly learn these things as you go, but I'll do my best to define what I type. Here are your first four terms, defined as I know and understand them.

Tail Number- This refers to the number painted near the tail of an aircraft. US planes start with N and then it's a series of numbers and letters that follow. On the radio, the pilot identifies themselves by the aircraft type and tail number. For instance, if Jim is flying a Cessna 172, tail number N734QQ, he would call on the radio... Skyhawk 7-3-4 keh-beck keh-beck...and so on. For the letters, you use the phonetic alphabet. I'll make a post about this later.

Headset- The item used to communicate in a small aircraft. I'm sure you know what I mean. Each person has to wear one and plug it in to the com system or you won't hear what's going on, or be able to talk to anyone.

PSC- This is an airport identifier. Each airport has one. This specific identifier refers to Pasco, WA.

CFI- Acronym that stands for Certified Flight Instructor.

I hope this was helpful in some way. If you're not sure of terms that I write with, please feel free to comment and I'll do my best to be clear.

Blue skies,
Robin