High Flying

Our gift to Austin for his 14^th birthday was to spread his wings and fly high amongst the clouds on a vintage Red Baron plane with Brian Aukes from Half Fast Flying Adventures.  Well…today was the day he got to do just that and fly high amongst the clouds.  

 He almost looks like he could be a fly boy!  

Brian's wife Rachel, who is both a pilot and author, got him all strapped up in his parachute...which made this mama's heart skip a beat or two as she was calmly giving instructions on how to get out of the plane and pull the strap in case of an emergency!  Who's idea was this?!?  

Ahhh...he looks WAY too old right here with his flight helmet on and ready for take off!  It was so cool as he was able to talk to Brian, who was in the seat behind him the entire time, and hear all the radio traffic happening.  

 There goes my boy... This is really going to happen!  

I would have given anything at this point in time to have had a window into his thoughts during this time.  

Here they are coming in for their landing. He got to fly over Huxley and see his hometown of Ames from a bird's eye view.  He loved flying over Jack Trice Stadium, the middle school and our house.  

 Little did I know until he landed that some airplane acrobatics were involved on this flight!  Oh mamacita!  It's a good thing my mama heart didn't know that before take off!  

He got to experience three different acrobatics: a hammerhead, a barrel roll and a loop.  Holy Moly!!!  A hammerhead is where Brian flies the plane straight up as high as it can go and then flies straight down towards the ground. Oh my!  Who does that?  

The barrel roll is a sideways roll in which the plane rolls all the way around and the loop is where you fly down and then head into a backwards, upside down loopie spin thingy! This mamacita would've died of fright!!!  I have a hard enough time looking at the ground from up high the right way, let alone doing it upside down strapped into an open air cockpit!  

Check out that smile!  

We can't thank Brian enough for this experience of a lifetime for Austin. 

...and somehow my lucky "Maverick" got a quick spin around in the air before we headed out!  I have no doubts he said, "Talk to me Goose!" to Brian while they were in the air.

What sweet memories for both of them.  Of course, Carter mentioned that he'll be 14 in 2 1/2 years.  I think that was a big hint that I'm supposed to remember!